Haha I asked you that question knowing full well that the answer is very probably no!
Today is the last day of the conference, and at that, it’s also at the last session. There’s a brief coffee break before everyone reconvenes in the large hall for one final panel discussion, which is supposed to be a culmination of all the different themes touched upon over the past three days.
I’m pretty exhausted, and also a little pressed for time, so this post won’t go into details. I’ll just mention that by attending this conference, as fantastic as I’ve found it, I’ve definitely learned that there’s a difference between community informatics, which this conference focuses on, and social informatics, which is what I’m more used to, and in fact that which I still largely prefer.
In brief, community informatics seems to assume the appropriateness of implementing ICTs (information communication technologies) in developing and underprivileged societies, and tries to posit the most cost-effective and longest-lasting ways of installing and maintaining them. In my experience, social informatics goes about the ICTing process in a much more critical manner, trying not to assume that the implementation of ICT is some kind of saving grace that’s going to solve social justice problems across the board in all cultures and contexts.
I’ve met so many amazing professors here. I was hoping for a substantially higher concentration of Europeans, given that I’m hunting for an internship in Germany next semester, and I’d love to do something in this field or something related to it, but no luck there. The conference is dominated by Australians (we’re at a sister campus of Monash University), Canadians (they’ve been at the forefront of this field since its rather recent inception), then some Latin Americans and Southeast Asians. I am the sole American present, and everyone seems mildly surprised to see someone from America interested in the intersection of culture and technology.
I should end this. There’s another session to attend, and I don’t want to miss saying goodbye to anyone. I have a ton of e-mails to write as follow-ups once I’m back in Munich, and I want all the material I can get to stuff in them, to make me seem more interesting than everybody already knows I am.
Till tomorrow sometime, after I’ve flown and slept and caught up on the ridiculous piles of e-mails I’ve been neglecting.
The only American? Wow. Sounds like a golden opportunity for some American who was interested in community informatics. Must be getting harder to find opportunities to be a pioneer these days.
I can see why you’d think that, but given that there are no prominent prof in the US to work with, it’s a bit tough to get started. Add to that that education, even high level, is cheaper everywhere else in the world and working abroad starts to look pretty interesting.
I mean, you don’t think I want a salary in US dollars, do you?
Not now. Even the Canadian dollar has us beat. And THAT, my friend, has got to be a sign of the Apocalypse. (I’ll get Fenris ready).