Nithya Sambasivan's paper titled "Ubicomp4D: Interaction and Infrastructure for International Development—the Case of Urban Indian Slums," was accepted at the 11th International Conference of Ubiquitous Computing 2009 (Ubicomp). Ubicomp is the premier outlet for novel research contributions that advance the state of the art in the design, development, deployment, evaluation and understanding of ubiquitous computing systems. Nithya's paper discussed how low-income communities are increasingly adopting and appropriating information technologies. They attempted to re-imagine Ubicomp to include use and adoption of technology in these environments. They argued for collaborative exchange between the established strengths of Ubicomp and ICT4D for shaping technologies in these unique socio-economic contexts, towards alleviation of poverty. Issues examined included: (1) Technologies supporting social networks, (2) notions of trust and privacy in building information networks, and (3) protocols and practices around shared access.
The conference will take place in Orlando, Florida, from Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2009. The paper was co-authored along with Nimmi Rangaswamy, Ed Cutrell, and Bonnie Nardi.