Click here to read the full paper and here to view PPT presentation.

Presentation slides can be downloaded here.

Download presentation slides, here.

The conference intends to become an annual international event of bringing together a technology community to exchange knowledge, vision, and share best practices and success stories. Under the title, “Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing: Blueprint for the Future Enterprise”, this year’s conference will focus on the implications and opportunities unleashed by the convergence of SOA and Cloud computing.

WSO2 exemplifies what Sri Lankans can do when they dream big and follow through. When we were planning eSri Lanka, Sanjiva Weerawarana talked about Sri Lanka becoming a leader in open source software. That was the dream; Lanka Software Foundation was the follow through. We now are a significant force in open source. He then talked about a Sri Lanka based firm that would provide services in the open source middleware space. At close to 100 employees and on a rapid growth path WSO2 is the second dream realised. I am waiting for Sanjiva’s third dream,” said Prof. Rohan Samarajiva.

The Daily Mirror, 6 September 2010

Click here for the full article. Click here for registrations.

Travel scholarships are available on a competitive basis.

Click here for more information.

The conference was mainly about ICT policy research. But this meant that a myriad of subjects were discussed from various angles. There was politics, economics, business and marketing. On a more micro level individual research findings and intricacies of ICT markets and future potential for mobile technology were discussed in detail. There was an overall focus on freeing up the market and making technology more accessible to the masses, the theory being that this will be a boost to development.

Some of the speakers’ idea of a presentation was simply Powerpoint slides packed with data accompanied by a speech in a monotone, sometimes directly read off a screen. But on an overall basis there were some interesting speakers and most of them accounted for my blog posts during the conference which can be found here.

MASALA CANADA is an eclectic mix of stories, conversations and music with a South Asian flavour. Hosted and produced by Wojtek Gwiazda, this weekly radio program deals with everything from art and culture, to economics, politics and everyday life.

MASALA CANADA is heard on shortwave and the Internet throughout India, South Asia and the world. In Canada, it’s heard on the Internet, and on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 95.

We participated in the 1st conference in 2007 and found it to be quite useful. Our work on broadband benchmarking started as a result.

Mobile phones are becoming increasingly important in bringing people into the Information Society.  It is widely accepted that the inhabitants of the future household will carry mobile devices that will be capable of voice and data communication, information retrieval and forms of entertainment consumption. Mobiles are now (and will increasingly become) payment devices that can also send, process and receive voice, text as well as images; in the next few years they will also be capable of information-retrieval and publishing functions normally associated with the Internet. Through such services and applications, industry experts predict that many in emerging markets will experience the Internet, or ‘elements’ of the Internet for the first time through a mobile phone, rather than a PC; mobile payments, mobile social networking, SMS voting are just a few examples of some of these services and applications.

Emerging markets appear to be following a different trajectory from developed markets; while the latter are moving forward via triple- and quadruple-play scenarios, the former are moving on paths that involve mobile phones as the key platform for bringing people affordably into the Information Society; something we describe as “2.0.”

This preconference will draw together research constituting evidence for and against this emerging Mobile2.0 narrative in the context of the larger social-science understanding of mobile-use behavior.  We welcome abstracts which will contribute to understanding emerging mobile use patterns, under the following areas of interest:

• Current trends in mobile connectivity and applications
• The potential of mobiles (and other ICTs) for bridging digital, gender as well as other socio-economic divides
• Mobiles (and other ICTs) making markets more efficient
• Mobile as a platform for Mobile2.0 services (e.g., payment, banking, government, etc)
• Policy and regulatory challenges for the new era of Mobile2.0
• Mobiles and social networking
• Mobile2.0 and shared access Comparisons between emerging and ‘emerged’ markets

The workshop will not be limited to papers dealing with the mobile as the path to the Information Society or to research dealing with the developing world, but we do expect these themes to be represented. We encourage papers that draw comparisons with other ICTs also. Up to five sessions will be accommodated.

In order to examine this question as well as other dimensions in mobile communication we are issuing a call for papers for a pre-conference at the 2009 meeting of the International Communication Association. Abstracts of no more than 500 words are due by October 31, 2008.  Please send them, along with your name and contact information to zainudeen{at}lirne{dot}net. Accepted abstracts will be notified by 21 November 2008. Final papers will be due by April 1, 2009.

The pre-conference is being organized by LIRNEasia. It will be held in Chicago.

Cost:
ICA Members: USD 90
ICA Student Members: USD 60

Please check http://www.icahdq.org for updates)

Organized by
Dr. Rohan Samarajiva, Executive Director, LIRNEasia
Ayesha Zainudeen, Senior Researcher, LIRNEasia

As Jonathon Donner mentions , there is a distinct value to discussing related papers among a group of like-minded researchers for a day and a half. Discussion at ICA conferences proper is choppy and disjointed, and in some cases, there are more people who are presenting than in the audience. At a pre-conference, the conversation flows without distraction among a group of committed researchers.

Harsha and I thought it would not be a bad idea to respond to Rich Ling’s request that someone volunteer to organize the next event because we expect to have a whole lot of research findings related to mobile in hand by mid 2009, both from the Teleuse @ BOP 3 research and from the Mobile 2.0 research. But obviously, we cannot flood the sessions with our own research. What we want to do is to form a panel of reviewers to do double-blind review of extended abstracts, somewhat on the same lines as we do in CPRsouth . Obvious candidates are Rich Ling , Jim Katz (who gave the keynote in Montreal) and Francois Bar, who is leading an interesting research effort on mobile at U of Southern California. In addition I hope to invite some colleagues from DIRSI and RIA . We will ensure that developed-country topics as well as developing-country topics will be featured. The Chicago meeting should be of interest to IDRC as well. Once the advisory committee is formed, we hope to disseminate the call for abstracts through all the above networks

In the case of Singapore, we will try to get some of the regional operators and equipment manufacturers to participate, in addition those working on mobile issues within CPRsouth.

Some participants at the preconference had expressed interest in forming a Special Interest Group and laying claim to time inside the conference program. Having been too immersed in the political economy of scholarly communication in my previous life, I indicated to Rich that we have no interest. Of course we would have absolutely no objection to anyone else taking the lead on forming a Special Interest Group.

Suggestions are welcome.