The scientific committee of the 3rd International Workshop about research in ICT for Human Development (http://www.tsc.urjc.es/jornadastic4dh) invites the Scientific community to present communications for this event that will take place in Cuzco (Peru) between the 2nd and the 4th July 2012. The main topic of this yearly Workshop will be: “Sustainability, maintenance and exploitation models of rural telemedicine networks in remote areas”. Contributions analysing the sustainability and maintenance strategies of rural networks that are used for applications other than telemedicine (i.e. education, government, etc.) are also welcome.
Context
In the last years, many experiences have taken place in many rural areas of the world regarding deployments of relative low-cost wireless networks using either WiMAX, or WiLD (WiFi for Long Distances), or satellites, or other wireless broadband technologies, or even the combination of the aforementioned technologies. However, the fact that an infrastructure like this starts to be operational does not determine its success, even when the technical solution is appropriated and it has been correctly conceived and implemented. Apart from these functional problems, there must be considered others related to its maintenance – specially in those areas where the presence of qualified technical staff is practically inexistent- , to the difficulty to amortize the infrastructure and finance the maintenance – no matter how cheap the technology is- , and, in short, to the sustainability of the project. There are few projects that become reality, but there are even less that keep on running and fulfilling their objectives over the years. This is related to their impact: these networks and applications are deployed with a goal that goes further from technology, and success will not be obtained if the impact is not as expected.
All of this is specially applicable to the case of rural telemedicine networks deployed in remote areas. It is easy to understand the need of connecting isolated health care facilities with their reference centers and hospitals, as well as the potential benefit of having telemedicine applications over these networks. But there are very few experiences in this sense, and they are even less the ones considered successful for its sustainability and its impact.
This Workshop aims to gather experts from the academia, operators, institutions and beneficiaries of rural telecommunication networks deployed in remote areas, specially tailored for telemedicine, for discussing about known experiences, their sustainability and impact and successful and unsuccessful methods and strategies. In this context, the research community is invited to present communications about sustainability of rural telecommunication networks in remote areas, maintenance experiences and innovative exploitation models, with special interest (but not exclusive) on telemedicine.
Paper submission
The communications expected must not be longer than 5,000 words (there is not inferior limit) and must contain research results, coming either from empirical or theoretical analysis. It will be particularly valued rigorous results obtained in real experiences. The communications have to be sent through the platform http://www.tsc.urjc.es/conftool. Communications received will be peer reviewed, and those accepted, have to be formated as requested for their inclusion in the proceedings of the workshop, that will be published in CD-ROM format with ISBN.
Papers can be submmitted either in English or in Spanish. In case of acceptance, the presentation will be expected in the same language used for the paper.
Important Dates
- Communications submission Deadline:
March 31, 2012April 30, 2012 - Acceptance Notifications:
April 30, 2012May 21, 2012 - Camera- ready communications:
June 7, 201June 15, 20122 - Dates for Workshop: July 2-4, 2012
Place
- Pisac (Cusco, Perú)