Call for papers: Design, Integration, and Maintenance of Services for Developing Nations and Economies

Call for papers: Design, Integration, and Maintenance of Services for Developing Nations and Economies

A special issue of International Journal of Services, Economics and Management

The need for access to information and communication is almost as important as food, shelter and health care needs in any population group. More importantly, developing countries need access to information and experiences from developed countries to not only improve living standards there, but also to promote collaboration through global connectivity and information sharing.

In developing countries, it is difficult for most people to access information because the tools and the technologies for access such as computers and the internet are prohibitively expensive and require training prior to use. This prohibits those who are either poor, illiterate, or without any computer skills from gaining access to information. Unfortunately, this group of people represents the majority of the people living in the underdeveloped areas of the world, especially on the continent of Africa . The inability to access information and participate in the global information economy brings about new forms of social injustices through social exclusion and marginalisation.

Within the economies of developing countries, there is a growing push for technology and innovative uses of technologies and the services that support them. In particular, Western culture has remained at the forefront in its understanding and application of technology design and in the development practices of technology. As such, it seems only natural that products, services, technologies, and approaches to the design and development of these aforementioned innovations that are commonplace in Western cultures could be applied to solve the problems of developing countries and economies as well. However, the reality is veyr different. What happens in practice is that products and services designed and developed for developing countries using Western-influenced practices and biases fail to provide a culturally authentic framework for understanding non-Western cultures and how we can best design technology to fit their needs.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

Service Design, Engineering, and Innovations for Developing Countries & Emerging Markets

• Service offerings and technologies that remove barriers of access to information
• Leveraging existing technology to create innovative service offerings for underserved populations
• Developing an infrastructure that establishes a pipeline between government policies and delivery of goods and services
• Engineering service technologies to create educational or training opportunities
• Developing service technologies to address the healthcare needs of indigenous populations

Information and communication technologies and systems (ICTS) for social and economic development

• Design methodologies and practices that facilitate sociability and/or economic growth
• User studies of indigenous populations and their use of technology in unexpected ways
• Lessons learned: when targeted populations in developing countries fail to adopt technology designed specifically for them
• Alignment of service science research with industry practices for design, development and delivery of ICTS

Sustainability

• Development of “green” technologies to support ecosystems and ecological processes in developing countries
• Development of sustainable IT technologies and business models to promote renewable resources and reduce environmental impact
• Business cases and industry best practices of sustainable products, services and systems that are co-developed with constituents

Important Dates
Submission Deadline: 29 May, 2009
Notification of Acceptance: 17 July, 2009
Final camera-ready submission deadline: 18 December, 2009