Region: Asia

 

Start Date: November 27, 2007

 

 

Although  ICTs have been seen to play an increasingly substantive role in the lives of people living in developing world, there has been a dearth of platforms to discuss  methodologically sound and scientifically based  research findings in the field of Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D or ICTD).  Building the field of ICTD is seen as a key element of ensuring that resources exist to help answer key questions around the impact ICTs are having in the developing world and help assess whether ICT interventions are achieving their stated objectives. Therefore recognizing that regular academic conferences are a key part of field building, various actors have taken the initiative of organizing “ICTD” conferences.

 

The purpose of the conference, which was held from December 15-16, 2007 in Bangalore, was to contribute to the burgeoning body of sound ICTD research through papers submitted by scholars in myriad academic fields such as computer science, political science, development studies, economics, sociology, anthropology, electrical engineering, and information sciences. Considerable overlap exists between the conference objectives and PAN's capacity building imperative related to strengthening evidence-based research rigour in the field of ICTD research. As a result, PAN has decided to piggyback a research methodologies workshop (December 14 & 17, 2007) to the program's proposed project to strengthen ICTD research methodologies in the Asian region. This workshop was hosted by Microsoft Research India and is a follow-up to the inception workshop that was held in April 2007 in Manila in conjunction with the “Living the Information Society” conference.

 

The general objective of this grant is to provide core support to the second ICTD Conference and to convene a body of accomplished, peer-reviewed ICTD researchers to participate at a research methodologies workshop, to share knowledge, network with one another, and to contribute to the growing body of methodologically sound research in the academic field of ICTD in Asia.

 

The ICTD research methodologies workshop that was held in conjunction with the ICTD2007 workshop involved a competitive call for interest from Asian researchers. These researchers were invited to attend the ICTD2007 conference and to participate in a 2-day workshop that involved working directly with established ICTD scholars in the field to refine their respective research questions and conceptual framework. These discussions laid the foundation for the Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA) competitive grants program, which includes a strong mentorship component.