Technoscience:About

TGC 2007 gave a name for the forum that has been engaging technology and society discussions sometimes called ITsociety. For a while we used the domain bangaloreIT.org

Here is a note from 2004 to Reader-list of Sarai, Delhi [1]

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Please suggest a name for this IT Space/Group/Collective. We have been struggling to come up with an appropriate name for this. The writeup below gives you an idea of what this group is about, and the kind of activities we have taken up.

Many thanks,

Dinesh and Subbu. (dinesh at servelots.com, sastry at cs.wisc.edu)

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In Bangalore, during the last 3 months, several of us have come together
to create a space to reflect on societal impacts of IT, and to initiate 
"relevant" social and technical projects.

As part of this, some of things we hope to do are to:
- critically reflect on social and cultural impacts of IT and the IT industry,
  both in and around Bangalore, and more broadly.
- critically examine projects with missions ranging from IT for poverty
  reduction, IT for development, bridging the digital divide, and the like.
- initiate technical projects that are more "tuned in" to local contexts,
  (while working on developing an understanding as to what that means).
- perhaps impact IT curriculum, IT policy.
- etc ..

The goal, right from the beginning, has been to create a multi-disciplinary
and diverse group, and keep it open to people from diverse backgrounds and
perspectives.  We are striving to not let it turn into a space that becomes
a celebration of IT, nor into one of IT-bashing.  We hope to maintain a
certain creative tension and discomfort with the goal of pushing the envelope
of understanding.

While the specific outcomes will be dictated by the composition of the group,
their energies, ideas, and enthusiasm, we hope that they would include the 
following:
   (a) discussions, invited groups, task groups
   (b) articles, reports, analyses, studies
   (c) ideas for concrete projects

Thus far, in our past 5 meetings, we:
- briefly touched on social and cultural impacts of the IT industry.
- screened a portion of the 6-part PBS documentary "The News Americans"
  that followed the life of an Indian IT professional.
- talked about student projects at universities, and how that space could be
  leveraged for locally relevant projects.
- had a presentation by Dr.Solly Benjamin about land issues vis-a-vis 
  the IT industry
- had a meeting to discuss the possibility of offering a course that
  presents a perspective of technology (and in this case IT) that goes 
  beyond the technical and weaves in the social, cultural, political, 
  economic contexts that interact with technology.

For people who know of Sarai, maybe it is easy to imagine this
as something similar where the people involved are not employed
but form an dynamic set of enthusiats concerned about the issue
and are experts in their task groups.