We are pleased to announce the workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development, which will take place on February 27, 2012 in New Delhi. The workshop aims to understand the challenges associated with using mobile phones and Web technologies to deliver sustainable services for underprivileged populations in developing countries.
This workshop is jointly organized by the World Wide Web Foundation and the Society For Education and Research Development (India) in cooperation with HumanIT (Karlstad University, Sweden)
Web Foundation recently organized a workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development in Dar es Salaam, which was the fourth instance of a series that started in 2006 in Bangalore, India and then continued in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2008, and in Maputo, Mozambique in 2009. The workshop saw a large and diverse group of participants, coming from more than 30 different countries; engage in discussions on topics such as voice-based services for underprivileged communities, mobile-technology entrepreneurship and data collection tools (Report).
The primary aim of this workshop is to expand further from the work done in Tanzania and investigate in more detail specific themes related to voice-based services for the underprivileged communities.
In developing countries pilot projects and initiatives are exploring the development and deployment of voice services in sectors such as agriculture, market information services, health and education. Most of these initiatives use the more traditional call centre approach, while no community-wide effort exists to explore the opportunities of the voice-Web channel in the context of underprivileged communities. This workshop aims to bootstrap efforts in that direction by focusing on understanding the needs, requirements and constraints of this new domain, while providing an opportunity for organizations and individuals to network.
People and organizations with interest in the role of mobile phones and the Web in social and economic development are invited to this parallel workshop under the aegis of 3rd International Conference on M4D – Mobile Communication for Development.
A statement of interest is required in order to participate in this workshop. Each organization or individual wishing to participate must submit a statement of interest to public-m4d-ws@webfoundation.org explaining their interest in the workshop as soon as possible and no later than January 16th, 2012. The intent is to make sure that participants have an active interest in the area, and that the workshop will benefit from their presence. The Program Committee will select attendants based on their statement of interests and the number of available seats.
We encourage and welcome sponsorships for this event. The sponsorship program is essential to offer travel grants to NGOs or individuals that have a unique expertise but that would not be able to attend otherwise. For details please visit our sponsorship page. Looking forward to meeting you all in New Delhi.