[Air-L] Call for Papers and Participation: PD4D 2008 Participatory Design for Development -- Workshop at Participatory Design Conference 2008 (Deadline Extended)

[Jose Abdelnour-Nocera]

Call for Papers and Participation

Participatory Design for Development 2008 Workshop (PD4D 2008)
http://itcentre.tvu.ac.uk/~jabdelno/pd4d2008.htm 

to be held in conjunction with the Participatory Design Conference in
Bloomington, Indiana
1st of October 2008
http://www.pdc2008.org/   

About the Workshop 
Participatory design within the context of developing countries is an
emerging area of interest in the Participatory Design community. This
workshop will provide a unique forum for participants to exchange their
experiences, consider the different approaches needed in developing
country's context, encourage new partnerships and learn from each others
past difficulties and how these were solved.

Audience
It is hoped this workshop will foster dialogue between practitioners and
academics in different disciplines (e.g. HCI, CSCW, CMC, International
Development, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Software Engineering,
Ergonomics, Education, and Information Systems, among others) interested
in the challenges presented by conducting PD in the developing world.

Topics
There are unique issues that arise within the context of a developing
country that need to be considered when carrying out participatory
design. These include:
* Power distance: this is the perceived status between the host
communities and the designers.
* Cultural/language barriers: there are normally language and cultural
barriers between the host communities and the visiting designers. 
* Incompatibilities of PD techniques with host community values and
communication codes.
* Uncertainty about appropriate methods/techniques when participant
users and developers are from different national and organizational
cultures
* Dispersed geographical distances mean that travelling costs are high
and time zone differences make remote synchronous communications
difficult. 
* Low literacy levels: the host communities may have low literacy level
thus hindering collaborative activities between them and the designers.
* Poor telecommunication infrastructure: this means that activities that
could be followed-up from a distance or meaningful communication between
the two dispersed groups may prove to be a challenge.

Registration
Please register via www.pdc2008.org 

Submissions 
Presenters will be invited to submit a 2 page proposal on their
experience with PD in the developing world, or in similar settings
within the developed world. Proposals should report on presenters'
experience of PD and ideally touch on some of the issues identified in
'Topics'. Emphasis should be placed on the successful and challenging
elements of working in a development context. Presentations will be
followed by an interactive session where key themes will be identified
by presenters and participants, who will work in groups to discuss
lessons learnt and opportunities for successful PD. The workshop will
close with a round-table session bringing together all the main points
identified in the interactive session into a list of learning outcomes
and challenges for PD in the developing world. articipatory design
within the context of developing countries is an emerging area of
interest in the Participatory Design community.
 

FORMATTING GUIDELINES
Submissions should follow the SIGCHI Conference Proceedings Format
(www.sigchi.org/chipubform).

Key Dates
 - 1st of September, 2008: Submission deadline
- 7h of September, 2008: Notification of Acceptance
- 15th of September, 2008: copies of accepted papers due.

Papers should be submitted to cecilia.oyugi at tvu.ac.uk

Co-chairs 
Cecilia Oyugi, Jose Abdelnour Nocera and Lynne Dunckley,
Institute for Information Technology, Thames Valley University,
Wellington Street, Slough, SL1 1YG, United Kingdom
email: {cecilia.oyugi, jose.abdelnour-nocera, lynne.dunckley} at
tvu.ac.uk
http://iit.tvu.ac.uk

Susan Dray
Dray & Associates
2007 Kenwood Parkway
Minneapolis, MN 55405 USA
+1 6123771980
Dray at acm.org
http://www.dray.com/ 
 
 
 
Program Committee 
Andy Dearden, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Heike Winschiers, Polytechnic of Namibia
Ann Light, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Rogerio DePaula, Intel, Brazil
Tim Waema, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Thomas Riisgaard Hansen, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Josh Underwood, London Knowledge Lab, UK
Zhengjie Liu, Dalian Maritime University, China
Philippe Palanque, University Paul Sabatier, France
Souleymane Camara, Thames Valley University, UK
Suzana Sukovic, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Juan M. Fernandez, Unesco, Mexico
Helen Sharp, The Open University, UK