[AISWorld] CfP 10th Intl Development Informatics conference 30-31 Oct 2017, Bucharest, Romania.

[Jean-Paul Van Belle]

What role for ICT in development?
10th IDIA Conference
Bucharest
Romania
30-31 October 2017
Conference website: http://developmentinformatics.org/conferences/2017/

Papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed and accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings with ISBN number. Conference proceedings will be made available online to participants.
Theme overview

There is no consensus among scholars on what development means. Who and what needs to be developed is also fuzzy. There is no agreement what development is for - its purpose. These concepts require unpacking and clarification. Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent ICT contributes to development.

Development projects typically focus on regions of the world classified as economically under-developed. Most of the projects are deployed in some Asian regions, in Latin America, and particularly in Africa. However, poor pockets in highly developed regions such as the USA and Europe seem to be neglected. Development Informatics or ICT4D applies to any region perceived as being on the unwanted side of several divides. - thus equally to similar communities in Europe.

Although the main focus of IDIA is on developing world contexts (with a bias towards the African content), we usually pay additional attention to divides in the country where we have our annual conferences. As IDIA2017 will be held in Romania, we would like to add to our narrative problems of divide in Europe in general, and Romania in particular.

Themes typically covered in ICT4D, such as economic uncertainty, rising levels of poverty and unemployment, social exclusion, inequality and so forth still exist in Europe, and with the influx of migrants and refugees are on the increase. Militant actions in Europe lead to the increase of marginalization faced by groups and communities excluded on virtue of their economic status, ethnic background, race, and particularly religion.

Some older inequalities still remain. Gender and ethnic inequalities remain a global problem. This is the case in many traditional societies in the developing world. The Roma, Europe's largest ethnic minority, still face exclusion, marginalization, poverty, racial discrimination and unequal access to education at such a scale and levels that various research. Policy informing documents refer to these phenomena as "the Roma problem". In similar words, is there then also an African problem? A Latin American problem? Why is this a problem? Can ICT play a role in alleviating such "problems"?

Global development programs such as the MDG have been unsuccessful in reaching their targets. Will the SDG targets be reached by 2030? What role does ICT have to play in attempts to reach the SDG targets? How can ICTs and the data revolution assist in measuring the indicators? Is it possible for ICT to contribute to more equal, transparent, tolerant and inclusive societies across both North and South?

There is a long list of such questions that require intense research, debate and scrutiny. We welcome contributions from a wide range of perspectives to stimulate the debate to reach a better understanding of our goals and purpose.

1 Theory

Preference will be given to papers addressing theoretical paradigms, and novel approaches to ICT4D. Supporting arguments will be important, and proposed models should be rigorously constructed on solid scientific footing. Project-dependent data and arguments should fit into some theoretical framework. This means that the foci of papers that deal with hard data, should express how such data corroborate/justify/validate/strengthen or refute/weaken some or other theoretical position.

2 Case Studies

Reports on case studies are welcome. Reports founded on theoretical frameworks such as Action Research or Design Science, or other approaches will be peer-reviewed. For practitioners, papers reporting on projects that are not based on a theoretical framework will be considered for presentation and inclusion in the Proceedings - but not be peer reviewed.

3 New researchers / student submissions / post-graduate colloquium

Sessions will be available for "young" researchers presenting extracts from the Honours, Masters or PhD theses.

Call details
Call details are available on the website: http://developmentinformatics.org/conferences/2017/
Deadlines

Please meet the strict deadlines for paper inclusion in the Proceedings.
Dates





14 June 2017



Full papers submissions





Panel proposal submissions





Student submissions

14 August 2017



Notification of acceptance

21 August 2017



Early Bird payment deadline

7 September 2017



Payment deadline

15 September 2017



Camera-ready papers deadline







 Submission requirements<http://developmentinformatics.org/conferences/2017/submissionrequirements.html> (link)



We look forward to your submissions. Please do not hesitate to contact the conference chair Prof Jacques Steyn jacques at steyn.pro<mailto:jacques at steyn.pro> ; Co-chair Dr Amalia Sabiescu amalia.sabiescu at gmail.com<mailto:amalia.sabiescu at gmail.com> or myself for further information.

Jean-Paul Van Belle<http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/InformationSystems/StaffProfile/Jean-PaulVanBelle>
Professor, Department of Information Systems<http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/InformationSystems>
Director, Centre for IT and National Development in Africa<http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/Organisations/CITANDA/>
University of Cape Town

3.41 Leslie Commerce; University of Cape Town
Private Bag X3; Rondebosch 7701 South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 21 6504256
E-mail: Jean-Paul.VanBelle at uct.ac.za<mailto:Jean-Paul.VanBelle at uct.ac.za>

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