Event reports

The Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) organised a consultation between 27-28 August 2012 on 'Post 2015 Development' to reflect on, and develop potential successor goals and indicators to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Anita Gurumurthy was invited to review the candidate goals and indicators related to universal connectivity.

IT for Change, in collaboration with the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India, and the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) of the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, organised a two-day national workshop on 'Community Information and Service Centres: A New Village Institution for Governance and Democracy'.

IT for Change was present at the 2010 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) which was held in London on 13-16 December 2010. After taking part in the opening panel about practitioners' perspectives, Anita Gurumurthy was part of the following panels: 'How can ICT research better inform and communicate theories of development and globalization? New challenges and promising directions' and 'Conceptions of Accountability in Policy and Practice'. She also intervened in a panel which discussed issues of openness on the last day of the conference. More information about the programme of ICTD 2010 on www.ictd2010.org.

IT for Change (ITfC), along with the Department of State Research Education and Training (DSERT), and Policy Planning Unit (PPU) and Development Focus (DF) (a local NGO) have designed and implemented a pilot “Teachers Community of Learning” (TCOL) programme in Bangalore district South 3 block during 2010-11.

This three-day event, called ‘The Daughters of Fire’, was organised by Vimochana and the Asian women’s Human Rights Council in July 2009 at Christ University, Bengaluru (India). The presentation focused on the theoretical framework examining media-related constructs and critiques of the 'new' public sphere through the lens of information society and gender.

IT for Change, in partnership with IKM Emergent Research Programme, organised a consultation on 'Digital story telling and local communication processes' (Bengaluru, 5th June 2008). The aim was to open up a process of dialogue among people who are interested in contextualised, development-oriented local communication processes.

IT for Change organised a workshop on 'ICTs for participatory local development – Exploring a systemic approach'  in Bengaluru (India) on 9-10 December 2008. The event offered a forum for researchers from five countries – Brazil, India, the Philippines, South Africa and Uganda – to present their initial findings regarding a multi-country ‘ICTs for participatory development’ research coordinated by IT for Change.

IT for Change conducted an international workshop from 18-20 January 2007 in Bengaluru (India). The workshop proposed to examine the policy options for development in the information society by bringing together policy advocates, leading thinkers and researchers in both fields. The workshop was an effort to construct a social policy framework for optimising the development opportunity in the information society.

This meeting, organised by IT for Change, the Association for Progressive Communications, the International Women’s Tribune Centre, ISIS International, and Gloria Bonder (General Coordinator of the Regional UNESCO Chair Women, Science and Technology in Latin America), was held on 5-7 October 2007 in Bengaluru (India). Its goals were to (1) conduct a gender analysis of the policy ecology of the information society and the approaches of critical institutional players; (2) evolve an action plan for research and advocacy, and (3) develop the structure and processes that facilitate and strengthen the work of the network.