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@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