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Invitation to create spaces to reflect on IT
Posted by: servelots Member of Group STM
Updated: 2005-06-07 21:55:49
Category: IT and Society > Meetings > Announcements
 
Meeting Announcement
Title Invitation to create a space to reflect on societal impacts of IT, and to initiate "relevant" social and technical projects
Date 10-07-2004
Time 04:00 pm
Place 3354, K.R. Road, Bangalore-70
Description
What is it about?

Being in Bangalore, one cannot but notice IT. Depending on who you talk to, life in Bangalore has changed for the better or for the worse since IT's advent. Beyond Bangalore, IT has clearly become an important sector of the Indian economy. One would be blind to ignore that IT has changed Indian society and will continue to change it.

Yet, beyond the obvious riches it has brought to those directly involved in IT, how has it impacted rest of society? We are not aware of existing spaces that foster a critical understanding of IT's impacts on society ... on multiple levels, in Bangalore, India, and the world at large.

We also feel the need for a space for a critical appraisal of ongoing IT work in terms of their relevance to different communities from the local to the global. It may not be an exaggeration to state that most work undertaken by IT companies are targeted at global scales than local scales. Do we understand why the local scale usually receives the short end of the stick? While there exist some highly visible projects and experiments in this arena like WLL, Bhoomi, Simputer, are they representative of this space and do we understand their impact? Such an understanding might help in arriving at models and processes for addressing the lacuna.

Another angle is to critically examine projects with missions ranging from IT for poverty reduction, IT for development, bridging the digital divide, and the like. Are these projects an outgrowth of the IT hype? How important is it that the digital divide be addressed? What about the food divide or the education divide, for example? However, it also seems foolhardy to be dismissive of IT and its potential. In today's connected globalized world, activists and NGOs ignore IT at the cost of being less effective. IT has a role to play in the "developmental sector" (for lack of a better term) but there is a need to better understand that role sans the hype.

While there possibly exist groups that address one or more of these areas, we are not aware of any existing multi-disciplinary group in Bangalore that brings together all the above threads in the same space. In particular, we would like to create a dialogue between the technically-savvy and the socially-minded. We want to invite you to participate in creating such a space by attending this exploratory meeting. While the outcomes will be dictated by the composition of the group, we hope that they would include the following:
(a) discussions, invited groups, task groups
(b) articles, reports, analyses, studies
(c) ideas for concrete projects

Come and be a part of it!

If you plan to attend this meeting, please let us know by emailing us at "sastry@cs.wisc.edu" and "dinesh@servelots.com". We appreciate it if you can inform us about others who might be interested in this by providing their contact information.

T.B.Dinesh (Dinesh)
Subramanya Sastry (Subbu)
Directions Map : http://www.pantoto.com/servlet/ViewPosting?urlid=webs&di_p=935
Address : 3354, KR Road, Bangalore-560070
Ph : 26762963; Dinesh - 9844036961; Subbu - 51203229
Locality : We are located close to the Basavanagudi and Jayanagar area
in South Bangalore

Approx 1.2 KM south of Basavanagudi Police station.
After passing Basavanagudi Police Station you will cross
. Netkalappa circle on your right
. KR Road, South End Road Junction (continue south on KR Road)
. Garadi apartments on your right
. Ragoo's Restaurant on your left
After crossing the above, and on KR Road, you will find vacant sites on
both the sides of the road. We are the 3rd house on the right going south
 
 
 


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