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Technoscience Barcamp @ IIIT Hyderabad, July 28 -29, 2010.

JULY 2010 Hyderabad Working Group in Technoscience

This is the latest in a series of informal conversations on science, technology, and society. The series was initiated in 2007 by Janastu (http://www.janastu.org), and friends, affiliated Scholars, Programmers, and Non-Profit Organizers.

ALL ARE WELCOME. YOU CAN JOIN US TO CONTRIBUTE, DISCUSS, OR LISTEN. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SIGN UP HERE, AND ADD YOURSELF TO A THEME OR TOPIC, OR ADD A NEW THEME.

Description

This meeting is formatted as an extended conversation. It is intended to be a self-organized /user-generated non-conference. All attendees are encouraged to present or facilitate a session, and to restrict their talks to 10 minute informal presentations, with lots of time for discussion and debate.

Purpose of the Meeting: There is a growing interest in the history, philosophy, sociology, and strategic futures of science and technology. In Europe, US, Latin America, and Japan, there are scholarly associations and regular meetings of societies for disciplines such as the History and Philosophy of Science; Science and Technology Studies, etc. In India, there are numerous specialized interest groups, NGOs and think tanks conducting research and advocacy in various fields relating to the social aspects of science and technology. These conversational spaces for informal discussion are intended not to consolidate but to broaden this existing landscape, and to connect "technoscience" scholars based in India with those based elsewhere.

Desired Outcomes: Enhancement of networks among scholars based in various parts of India and elsewhere. [This meeting is not a policy-oriented or institutionally-bound event; thus there is no intention of producing policy-oriented documents. However, breakout sessions and specialized interest groups may form, out of which a variety of reseach projects may grow. ]

Acknowledgements: Even informal conversations need space, food, shelter. For local arrangements, many thanks to Professor Venkatesh Choppella of IIIT-H, and his colleagues, for hosting this visiting group of scholars.

Schedule

July 28

10:30 - 11:00 : Introductions (Please come prepared to share your name, affiliation, and a brief description of your interests)

11: 00 - 12:30 :

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE : Zainab, Itty, Kavita

CRITICAL GEOGRAPHIES : Solly, Zainab, Bhuvana, Ward

ECOPOLITICS, HEALTH, LIVELIHOODS : Usha, Priti, Kavita, Shailaja

July 29

Themes, Topics, Working Groups and Location TO BE DETERMINED by participants

CONTACT INFORMATION

KAVITA : 99620 33013 DINESH: 98440 36961 VENKATESH: 93969 94506

Venue: Enhance Edu, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - HYDERABAD (IIIT-H)

From the airport: Take a cab from the ground floor of the airport and ask him to take you to IIIT in Gachi Bowli. You may need to tell the driver that IIIT is just before the "Gachi Bowli Stadium".

When you get off the highway (ring road) make a left heading west. Keep going for about 1.5 km till you come to a traffic light. Go past the light. IIIT's gate is the on the left immediately after the light.

As you enter the main gate of IIIT, make a right. Venkatesh's office is in the second building (C3-210, Vindhya C-4. Enter this building and look for the Enhance Edu entry. We will be meeting in the conference room half way down the corridor)

From the railway station:

• By local train (MMTS): Take a train to to Lingampally

either from Secunderabad, Nampally or Kachiguda railway stations, and then take an auto to IIIT-H (about 6 kilometers away).

• By bus/auto: IIIT-H is in Gachi Bowli. Bus route 10-H

will take you to Kothaguda from Secunderabad station, from where you will can get an auto for about Rs. 50-60 to IIIT-H. An auto directly from the station is likely to cost around Rs. 150-200.

Confirmed Participants

• T B Dinesh dinesh@servelots.com, Janastu Bangalore

Dinesh is a PhD in Computer Science, and founder of the NGO Janastu, designing computer-related services for non-profit and educational contexts

• Itty Abraham ittya@austin.utexas.edu, UT Austin / Hyderabad

Itty was Director of the South Asian Studies center at the University of Texas Austin until last month, when he left for his sabbatical (which he is now spending in Hyderabad)

• Bhuvana b.raman1@lse.ac.uk,

Bhuvana is doing a PhD from LSE and has published widely on e-governance in Karnataka

• Ward Smith wsmith@leveller.org,

Ward is a database designer and librarian, who did his Masters in Informatics and Library Science from UCLA, before which he worked in homeless advocacy and civil rights in Atlanta.

• Usha Zacharias usha.zacharias@gmail.com,

Usha is a professor of Communications in Massachusetts, currently on sabbatical in Trivandrum. Her PhD is in Media and Communications.

• Venkatesh Choppella venkatesh.choppella@iiit.ac.in,

Venkatesh has a PhD in computer science and is a professor of CS in IIT_H, before which he worked in Xerox Parc, Palo Alto

• Priti Ramamurthy priti@u.washington.edu,

Priti is a Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, and has published widely on the political economy of Bt Cotton in Andhra Pradesh.

• Megha Vishwanath megha@servelots.com,

Megha is a software developer and currently works with Janastu, Bangalore

• Kavita Philip kphilip@uci.edu

Kavita is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and works on the history and philosophy of science and technology

To Be Confirmed:

• Karen Coelho karen.coelho@gmail.com,

• Anja Kovacs anjakovacs@gmail.com

• Shailaja Tetali shailaja_c@yahoo.com