Information Technologies and
International Development (ITID) is a leading MIT Press
journal that focuses on the intersection of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) with international development. ITID invites submissions for
a special issue titled �Information Technology, Higher Education, and
Sustainable Development: The Role of Universities in Building Knowledge
Societies in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America.�
This special issue will address how universities in developing countries are
implementing innovative teaching, research and outreach activities that link
ICTs to the development-related needs and activities of different local and
national stakeholders, including scientists, educators, entrepreneurs,
governments, civil society organizations, and rural communities. The issue will reflect how universities
in developing countries are seeking to contribute to �ICT for Development�
(ICT4D) efforts, the impact of their efforts upon society and universities, and
the internal and external challenges they face in realizing a productive and
meaningful place in the ICT4D movement.
The goal of this ITID issue is to
lay a foundation for research and policy making in this area. The issue carries
the same title as a conference recently held in
Manila (www.cis.washington.edu/manila2005).
The Manila conference itself built on previous international meetings at
Makerere University (http://www.makerere.ac.ug/dicts/conference),
Cornell University (http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/conf/2004/ict),
and the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (http://www.wsis-online.net/smsi/classes/ict4d/events/ict4d-events-282979/event-view)
that focused not only on building universities� ICT capacity, but their capacity
to leverage ICT to foster social and economic development. For example, some relevant topics
could be (a) the institutional capacity of universities to create knowledge
tailored to different outside stakeholders; (b) the uses and effects of
university involvement in community projects such as telecenters; (c) the
creation of university programs that prepare students to become professionals in
ICT-enabled development, or (d) efforts by universities to engage in local,
national, or international policy-relevant research on emerging ICT issues.
The topic of this ITID issue is
broad and inherently multidisciplinary. The editors welcome a diverse pool of
submissions from different fields such as political science, information
science, communication research, education, rural sociology, computer science,
telecommunications, economics, public health, and public policy, among others.
The papers selected will present
novel research that is theoretically grounded and methodologically sound, as
well as those that relate to policy development and practical on-the-ground
approaches to realizing the Millennium Development Goals and creating the
building blocks of knowledge societies. Potential contributors should submit a
750-word abstract of the proposed article by May
31st, 2005 to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/itid for
specific instructions for authors.
The guest editors of this ITID issue
(in alphabetical order) are: Royal D. Colle
(Cornell University), Christopher T. Coward
(University of Washington), Colin M. Maclay
(Harvard Law School), and Raul Roman
(University of Washington).
