<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Nagarjuna G</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nagarjun@gnu.org.in">nagarjun@gnu.org.in</a>></span><br>
Date: Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 9:15 AM<br>Subject: [core-group] Fwd: Tech, accountability & democracy in India conf Jan 17-18<br>To: Say NO 2 UID Core Group <<a href="mailto:core-group@lists.nouid.in">core-group@lists.nouid.in</a>><br>
<br><br><div dir="ltr">Interesting conf. some of you may want to go or contribute. <br><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Vivek S.</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:vivekdse@stanford.edu" target="_blank">vivekdse@stanford.edu</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 11:45 PM<br>Subject: Tech, accountability & democracy in India conf Jan 17-18<br>To: <a href="mailto:nagarjun@gnu.org.in" target="_blank">nagarjun@gnu.org.in</a><br><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(102,51,0)">
Dear Nagarjuna,</div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(102,51,0)">
<br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(102,51,0)"><p>Stanford University is organizing a conference in Mumbai that might be of interest to the GNU community in India and other parts of South Asia. I request you to forward the call for papers for the
‘Technology, accountability and democracy’ to any relevant people or mailing
lists. <span lang="EN-US">The four main themes for the conference are:</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">1.
Technology and the electoral process</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">2.
Combatting “last-mile” corruption in public services</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">3. Gender,
technology and accountability</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">4. Building
safeguards around India’s Aadhar project.
</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">We are
interested in academic research and project presentations, and we would
particularly welcome studies, projects or initiatives that focus on vulnerable
groups. You can download call for papers
with further details here: </span><a href="http://liberationtechnology.stanford.edu/news/bombay_conference/" target="_blank">http://liberationtechnology.stanford.edu/news/bombay_conference/</a></p>
<p>S Vivek</p>
<p><span style="font-size:20pt"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:20pt">Technology,
accountability and democracy in South Asia and beyond</span></p>
<div style="border-style:solid none;border-top-color:windowtext;border-top-width:1pt;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:10pt 0in;margin-left:0.8in;margin-right:0.8in">
<p style="margin:12pt 0in">Seasoned activism meets technical imagination</p>
</div>
<p><b>Dates</b>: January
17-18, 2014</p>
<p><b>Location</b>: University
of Mumbai</p>
<p>Over the last few years, there has been unprecedented focus on
corruption and accountability across South Asia. Accountability movements have resulted in a
variety of initiatives including special monitoring bodies, transparency laws,
monitoring mechanisms, judicial reforms and refining government processes. These initiatives bring different understandings
of problems and approaches, with varied strengths and weaknesses. Despite these differences, they are
increasingly converging on the use of technology to augment a growing set of
accountability strategies.</p>
<p>The availability of new devices, the power of the Internet,
the reach of mobile phones, and citizen activism give us reason to believe that
the use of technology has real promise in advancing the accountability agenda. Yet
the claim of technology’s promise is not without its critics. The use of
technology has created new avenues for corruption despite claiming to combat
it. Technologies rolled out in the name of advancing citizenship also create
avenues for greater surveillance and disenfranchisement. Many initiatives are not controversial, but
their effectiveness is yet to be evaluated rigorously. Finally marginalized
people, who need tools for accountability more than anyone else, have
significantly lower levels of engagement with it. The promises and problems of technology’s
relationship with accountability require closer examination.</p>
<p>This conference proposes to bring together people who are
engaged in these questions as activists, officials, academics and innovators to
examine how technology is currently being used for accountability projects and to
build meaningful platforms for the future. We specifically seek to bring
together people with experience in accountability movements (with or without
the use of technology), young innovators and researchers in order to promote
rich multidisciplinary conversation and to build new collaborations.</p>
<h3>Seasoned activism meets technical imagination</h3>
<p>One of the most persistent criticisms of technology for
democracy projects is that they focus heavily on the tools without paying
attention to the complexity of their use and the fact that accountability is a
political project steeped in power relations.
In order to ensure that technical imagination goes hand in hand with a
sophisticated understanding of the problems and strategies necessary to make
technology a tool for progressive change, we propose to invite seasoned civil
society activists and leaders from the government who have had a successful
track record in managing positive change to meet individuals who are just
beginning to consider technology as a response to the same problems. The
conference will thus foster an exchange of ideas between innovators and
experienced activists so that innovators can share their tools and experiences
while also deepening their understanding of technology’s relevance and
challenges for potential uses on the ground.
In turn, experienced political, social and economic leaders will gain ideas
on how elements of technology can be introduced into in their work. With this in mind, the conference format
provides for opportunities to learn about technology projects, meet with
platform creators, and participate in workshops to gain tools suitable for
diverse campaign needs. </p>
<h1>Conference format</h1>
<p>The conference will involve a mix of paper presentations,
talks, posters with speed geeking and workshops. </p>
<h2>Presentations</h2>
<p>The conference will host panel discussions on the four broad
themes mentioned above. We welcome
presentations of both applied projects and academic research on any of these
themes. We hope to provide a balance
between presentations on successful accountability initiatives and technical
innovations in each of these panels.
Each presenter will have about 15 minutes and each session will have space
for Q&A. </p>
<p>Some academic presentations may be solicited by
invitation. Others who are interested in
presenting academic papers will be asked to send a 2-page summary of their
proposed papers before the submission deadline.
<i>While we do not expect a paper
from those who are engaged in practical projects, we will also ask them to
submit a summary of the project they propose to discuss, and we encourage these
participants to collaborate with us in creating a “crowd sourced” handbook
based on the experience of individual projects</i>. We hope that the handbook will provide us
with a rich source of information on our collective experience, and will also
create the basis for vibrant interaction during the conference.</p>
<h2>Posters & speed geeking</h2>
<p>Those with a technology project that has relevance to
accountability movements will also be able to apply to participate in <i>Poster and Speed geeking</i> sessions. They can submit a project as long as it is
relevant for accountability campaigns, even if it has not been used previously
in such campaigns. For example, this
could be a new voice messaging platform that could be used for citizen
engagement or a feminist toolkit for technology creators. Participants will be encouraged to produce
one or more posters describing their project, which will be on display
throughout the conference for viewing by all participants. Attendees who are interested in learning
about how these technologies could be useful to their own projects will have an
opportunity to fix 15 minute meetings with the presenters (i.e. speed geeking).
</p>
<h2>Workshops</h2>
<p>The conference will host two workshops on the panel
themes. The workshop would be preceded
with a collective writing exercise where the participants and others working in
the space can discuss their campaign strategies, how they use technology and
other aspects of their work in a Google document. This exercise would begin three months before
the conference starts and is intended to generate a collective understanding of
accountability strategies and of each other’s work. </p>
<p>The process would be led by the theme leader who would start
the discussion by posing a set of questions about the project (e.g. what are
the core accountability strategies, what proportion of users are women? What
kinds of technology are already used in the work? etc.). Starting with the questions, participants
would share their experiences on a Google document, where we would collate
experiences on each topic. The informal
handbook would serve as the basis for the workshop.</p>
<h1>Who can participate</h1>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-size:7pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">
</span></span>Innovators who have been building technical
tools that could be used by citizens, civil society and the media to make
governments, corporations and NGOs more accountable. We also welcome projects that are based on
social media, mobile technologies and data journalism, etc. for promoting
accountability. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-size:7pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">
</span></span>Leaders from the government who have an
experience in the conference themes.
These include people who have an experience in election commissions,
local administration, procurement process, accountability bodies (e.g.
auditors, information commissions, ombudsmen and Lok Pals) and other public
bodies that suit the conference theme.
The conference is particularly looking for leaders who have made a concerted
effort at improving accountability in their sphere of work.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-size:7pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">
</span></span>Civil society organizations that have been
working on issues such as clean elections, anti-corruption, improving public
services and governance of public resources.
We welcome organizations that already use technology as a part of their
campaign strategy or those who are interested in understanding how technology
could be used in their work.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-size:7pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">
</span></span>Investigative journalists who focus on different
aspects corruption and accountability who are interested in using technology for
analysis and reporting.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-size:7pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">
</span></span>Academic researchers who have studied
accountability projects of interest to the conference. We are particularly interested in studies on
the intersection of technology, accountability and democracy. </p>
<h1>Organisation</h1>
<p>The conference is led by the <i>Center for South Asia</i> and the <i>Center
on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law</i> (CDDRL) both at Stanford
University. It will be organized in
partnership with Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai and
the Stanford Alumni Association of India. </p>
<h1>Application, financial support & deadlines</h1>
<p>There are no fees for attending the conference and breakfast
and lunch will be provided in the venue. There are three different deadlines
for application:</p>
<p>Nov 1, 2013: For presenters who would like to be considered
for financial assistance.</p>
<p>Nov 20, 2013: For all those who wish to present papers or
posters, and those who wish to participate in a workshop without financial
assistance</p>
<p>Dec 15, 2013: For those who would like to observe the panels
and participate in the workshops.</p>
<p>We encourage international participants who require a visa
to apply by the Sept deadline so that we have adequate time to complete the
visa formalities.</p>
<p>In case you are interested in applying for the conference or
if you would like to learn more, please send an email to Vivek S. (<a href="mailto:vivekdse@stanford.edu" target="_blank">vivekdse@stanford.edu</a>) or Rachel Brule
(<a href="mailto:rebrule@gmail.com" target="_blank">rebrule@gmail.com</a>; <a href="mailto:reb11@nyu.edu" target="_blank">reb11@nyu.edu</a>).</p>
<p>To register, please go to <a href="http://southasia.stanford.edu/bombay_conference" target="_blank">http://southasia.stanford.edu/bombay_conference</a></p>
<p> </p></div><br clear="all"><div><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">=====</font></div><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">Program on Liberation Technology,</font></div>
<div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">Stanford University</font></div><div><a href="http://liberationtechnology.stanford.edu/" target="_blank"><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">http://liberationtechnology.stanford.edu</font></a></div>
<div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">C 149 Encina Hall</font></div><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">616 Serra St.</font></div>
<font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">Stanford, CA 94305<br></font><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">Phone: 1-801-784-8357, that is 1-801-S Vivek's!</font></div>
<div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#663300" face="verdana, sans-serif">Blog: <a href="http://viveks.info" target="_blank">http://viveks.info</a></font></div></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Nagarjuna G.<br><a href="http://www.gnowledge.org/" target="_blank">http://www.gnowledge.org/</a>
</font></span></div></div>
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