[Air-L] CfP for CHI Workshop in San Jose | Development Consortium 2016: HCI Across Borders

Neha Kumar neha.kumar at gmail.com
Sat Dec 12 23:54:46 PST 2015


*Call for Proposals*

Two-Day Workshop in San Jose (CA, USA) at CHI 2016 <http://chi2016.acm.org/>
Development Consortium 2016: HCI Across Borders
<http://hci4dacrossborders.wordpress.com/>
7th-8th May, 2016

*About the Workshop*

The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community at CHI has expanded its
scope in recent years to study technology use in under-served,
under-represented, and under-resourced regions around the world. This area
of work is identified (not without debate) at CHI as HCI4D*, where the ‘D’
is used for highlighting the ‘developing world’ context where much of this
work has taken place. To work around the limitations imposed by this term,
we invite individuals who identify themselves as HCI4D
researchers/practitioners, *and also more broadly* – those who are keen to
(or keenly) pursue research and practice in these under-served,
under-represented, and/or under-resourced contexts.

Nearly a decade ago, at CHI 2007, the first workshop on user-centered
design and international development was held – also in San Jose. Since
then, we have seen an explosion of work in this area. This has been
accompanied by a growth of sophistication in understanding, methods,
approaches, and techniques towards devising solutions to problems seemingly
intractable due to logistical and methodological challenges. As the area
has grown, it has understandably become harder for us to stay connected
with the expanding scope of research and practice and the increasing number
of people involved. While technological and methodological advances are
critical for further development of our field, so too is it important for
us to stay connected. We often work in relatively isolated contexts,
geographically dispersed across the globe, and rarely find the opportunity
to associate with the larger community even though we know this could be
helpful.

Why work across borders? Though every country and context is unique, and
much of our work aims to design for “situatedness”, there are lessons to be
learned across borders as well. Questions we would like to ask include:
What are common themes that tie together different resource-constrained
contexts? For instance, could a maternal health project in India benefit
from lessons learned from a project in Kenya and vice versa? How can we –
as a community – work within countries *and* across them as well?

The primary objective of this event is to bring together HCI voices from
across the globe at one venue as they develop themes of common interests
and work on potential projects/proposals they can pursue together as
collaborators. Our secondary, and larger, objective however is to launch a
series of such workshops that will help advance towards a richer, stronger,
and a fundamentally more cohesive community overall.

** Unpacking the term HCI4D will be one of the undertakings of this
workshop. Though debated, the term helps us refer to the area that applies
what we know about human-centered processes and technology design to work
that aspires towards economic, social, and human development. *

*Participation*

Our workshop will take place over two days – *7th/8th May 2016* – and
solicit participation from HCI researchers and practitioners across the
globe who work with under-served, under-represented, and/or under-resourced
communities.  We invite participants keen to explore collaborations across
borders and geographies. We define “borders” and “geographies” broadly to
include both national boundaries and more localized boundaries such as
those between cities or different groups within a country. Research areas
of focus can be diverse, including but not limited to education,
healthcare, civic engagement, mobile banking, etc. We welcome all
methodological and ideological leanings.

Examples of topics/themes of interest might include, among others:

   - Leveraging participatory design and co-design approaches
   - Factoring cultural sensitivities in the design of new technologies
   - Designing to accommodate power differentials
   - Devising innovative techniques for engaging users
   - Designing for sustainability

Examples of projects might include, among others:

   - Study of Facebook use and gender roles in South Africa vs. in Namibia
   - Design of mobile-based reporting systems for targeted African-American
   and impoverished citizens to report police brutality in Atlanta (GA),
   Minneapolis (MN), and New York (NY)
   - Design of mobile media for maternal and newborn health in India and
   Pakistan
   - Study of IVR use to provide information on agricultural practices in
   Peru and Ethiopia
   - Development of mobile technology-based supports for prenatal care
   among the Ngabe-Bugle and the Embera in Panama


*Submissions*

Please submit a proposal (2-4 pages in the CHI Extended Abstracts
<http://www.sigchi.org/publications/chipubform/sigchi-extended-abstracts-format-2016/view>
format)
by *21st December 2015* for early notification of acceptance (by 31st
December) and *15th January 2016* for notification by *19th February*.

Submissions should discuss a plan or intent to collaborate ‘across
borders’, articulating an area of work and research questions of interest.
If these include potential projects and collaborators, even better!
Submissions can be crafted by *a set* of authors (who may like to meet and
discuss at the workshop), or by a smaller group/individual seeking
additional team members. If additional collaborators are sought,
submissions should describe desired expertise/profiles/locations. These
submissions will seed small group discussions and informal presentations at
the workshop.

All submissions will be reviewed by the organizers and selected according
to their potential to contribute to the workshop’s goals and foster
discussion. Accepted submissions will be available on our workshop website
at least two weeks before the conference to allow participants to prepare.
In addition, organizers may consider the publication of revised versions of
accepted papers as part of a special issue in a related journal.

Please send submissions to hci4d.across.borders at gmail.com. All deadlines
will be observed at 11.59pmAoE <http://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/aoe>.

*Bursaries*

CHI workshop guidelines require that at least one author of each accepted
submission attend and that each (physical) participant be registered for
the workshop and one day of the conference. If these constraints become
limiting, please contact us so that workarounds might be considered. We are
working on obtaining funding to pay travel expenses (or at least a portion
thereof) for attendees in need. So if you do work in this area and are
hesitating because you believe that obtaining travel money will be
difficult to impossible, please go ahead and submit anyway. We will work
with you to try and fund (or partially fund) your travel.


*Virtual Participation*
We understand that not everyone who wishes to participate (with or without
a submission) will be able to attend physically, be it due to financial or
other constraints. We invite you to express an interest to participate (via
email) and we will work with you to accommodate you on our ‘virtual track’
where you will also have the chance to work with a mentor and on a team.

*Organizers*

Neha Kumar, Georgia Tech, co-chair (USA)
Susan Dray, Dray & Associates, co-chair (USA)
Andrew Dearden, Sheffield Hallam University (UK)
Nicola Dell, Cornell Tech (USA)
Melissa Densmore, University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Brian DeRenzi, University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Beki Grinter, Georgia Tech (USA)
Zhengjie Liu, Dalian Maritime University (China)
Mario A. Moreno Rocha, Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca (Mexico)
Eunice Sari, University of Western Australia (Australia)
Bill Thies, Microsoft Research, India (India)
Indrani Medhi Thies, Microsoft Reearch, India (India)
William Tucker, University of the Western Cape (South Africa)
Elba Valderrama Bahamondez, Universidad Technologia de Panama (Panama)
Susan Wyche, Michigan State University (USA)



*Contact*


For more details, please check the workshop website:
https://hci4dacrossborders.wordpress.com/
Email us your questions at:
hci4d.across.borders at gmail.com



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