AFRO-NETS> Conference for doctoral students researching the digital divide

[Kate Williams <katewill@umich.edu>]

Conference for doctoral students researching the digital divide
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Call for Response Regarding a Conference for Doctoral Students Doing
Research to Understand or Close the Digital Divide

The Alliance for Community Technology at the University of Michigan 
plans to host a small international conference of doctoral students 
whose research includes the digital divide -- the gap between tech-
nology haves and have-nots -- or its social implications. We would 
like to hear from current doctoral students who would be interested 
in participating. Modest travel grants will be available. We also 
hope to publish a book of the best and most representative student 
papers.

In order to design the conference, we would like to hear from as many 
interested doctoral students as possible from around the world. Our 
collaboration can only advance research and knowledge. Our objectives 
include sense making (are we asking the right questions?), community 
building, and sharing perspectives and references. 

The digital divide, as it is known in the US, has spawned a variety 
of related concepts: digital or social inclusion, community technol-
ogy, community networks, telecenters, public access computing, and 
more. It has stimulated researchers from many disciplines to apply 
quantitative and qualitative methods and to develop experimental mod-
els and tools. 

If you are currently pursuing a doctoral degree and your research 
area includes the digital divide, please reply by January 22:
mailto:katewill@umich.edu 
with answers to the questions below:

1. Your name?
2. Your e-mail address?
3. Your discipline (sociology, computer science, urban planning, pub-
   lic policy, communications, library/information studies, engineering, 
   etc.)?
4. Your university?
5. What year did you begin your doctoral work?
6. One or two sentences on your dissertation topic (either tentative 
   or firm)?
7. Other research you have done that relates to the digital divide 
   (if any; URLs are helpful)?

Please keep this project in mind as term begins and you plan your re-
search and writing for the coming months. We will contact respondents 
with further information by February 15, 2000.

Thank you very much.

Kate Williams
Research Assistant
Alliance for Community Technology Doctoral Student
University of Michigan School of Information, USA
mailto:katewill@umich.edu
http://www.umich.edu/~katewill/ 
http://www.si.umich.edu 
http://www.communitytechnology.org 

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