International School on Digital Transformation
Porto, Portugal
University of Porto and the University of Texas at Austin
July 19-25, 2009
<https://postoffice.eui.eu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://colab.ic2.utexas.edu/dm/international-school/>http://colab.ic2.utexas.edu/dm/international-school/
Applications are now open for the first
International School on Digital Transformation,
to be held July 19-24, 2009, at the University
of Porto in Porto, Portugal. The School is
accepting applications from advanced students
and recent graduates from around the world with
an interest in how digital technologies are
changing societies and the world as a whole.
The International School on Digital
Transformation will be an intensive six-day
residential program, conducted in English and
bringing together emerging and established
scholars and professionals from around the
world. During the week-long session, innovators
in digital communications will serve as teachers
and mentors, presenting their current projects
and research and participating in discussions
with advanced students and professionals
beginning careers in the field. Presenters and
students will be regarded as peers during the School.
Student housing will consist of nearby hotels,
and the cost of the School will include a shared
hotel room, two meals per day (breakfast and
dinner) and the program itself. The week will
also include a cultural activity offered to all
School participants. The estimated cost of the
International School on Digital Transformation
will be between ?300 and ?400. Travel to Porto,
Portugal,al, is not supported; students must
find and pay for their own travel to Porto.
The School will focus on these themes:
? Demmocratic transformations of society through digital media
? Innovations in ttransparency and political
participation using new online tools
? Grassrootts civic activities using digital technologies
? Building effective communitties with the Internet
? Reaching out to new users with mobile and online ttechnologies
? Prosspects for digital communication in developing regions
? Digital arts and cuulture in a globalized, online world
The goals of the International School include:
? Combining lectures on current research and
innovation with practical experience, using
accessible, low-cost digital technologies
? Providing an informal vvenue for sharing
expertise, perspectives, and best practices and for mentoring advanced students
? Fostering a sustainable neetwork of scholars
and activists in the field of digital
technology, communication and social change
Program
The basic daily schedule will consist of one
90-minute session of lecture and discussion in
the morning: free time for teachers and students
to interact, converse and explore the city in
the afternoon; and two more 90-minute lecture
and discussion sessions in the evening, folowed by a communal meal.
The confirmed speakers for the International
School on Digital Transformation include:
* Sunil Abraham
Director of Policy at the Center for
Internet and Society, Bangalore, India; and
current board member of Mahiti Infotech
* Patricia Aufderheide
Professor, School of Communication, American University; director,
Center for Social Media at American University
* Warigia Bowman
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Policy Leadership,
University of Mississippi
* Fiorella De Cindio
Associate Professor, Computer and Information Science Department,
University of Milan
* Martha Fuentes-Bautista
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of
Massachusetts at Amherst
* Stephanie Hankey/Marek Tuszynski (tentative)
Co-founders and directors, Tactical Technology Collective
* Lisa Nakamura (associate faculty)
Professor, Institute of Communication Research; Director, Asian
American Studies Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
* Tapan Parikh
Assistant Professor, School of Information, University of California
at Berkeley
* Tiago Peixoto
Researcher, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
* Alison Powell
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University
* Andrew Rasiej
Founder of Personal Democracy Forum and techPresident
* Nicholas Reville
Executive director, Participatory Culture Foundation
* Scott Robinson
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
* Jorge Martins Rosa
Assistant Professor, Department of
Communication Sciences; Faculty of Social
Sciences and Humanities, New University of Lisbon
* Christian Sandvig
Associate Professor, Department of Communication; faculty member,
Project on Public Policy and Advanced Communication Technology,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
* Doug Schuler
Program Director, Public Sphere Project, an initiative of Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility
* Leslie Regan Shade
Associate Professor, Department of
Communication Studies, Concordia University
* Maripaz Silva (associate faculty)
* Laura Stein
Assistant Professor, Radio-Television-Film Department, University of
Texas at Austin
* Siva Vaidhyanathan
Associate Professor, University of Virginia, Media Studies and Law;
Fellow, Institute for the Future of the Book
* Katrin Verclas
Co-founder and editor of Mobileactive.org
The International School on Digital
Transformation is a program of the University of
Texas Austin-Portugal Colaboratory, or CoLab.
The co-directors of the School are Drs. Sharon
Strover and Karen Gustafson, and Gary Chapman,
of the University of Texas at Austin.
The School will be held at the Rectory, a
building of the University of Porto in the center of the city.
<https://postoffice.eui.eu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://colab.ic2.utexas.edu/dm/international-school/isdt-student-registration-page/>The
student application, and more specific
information for students, are available at this link.
Porto, Portugal
Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in
1996, Porto is known for its spectacular
architecture and medieval alleyways, and it is
also compact, allowing visitors to easily
explore the central city on foot. Porto is on
the Douro River and also near the Atlantic
Ocean. It is famous for its port wine from the
inland Portuguese wine region along the Douro River valley.
During the free afternoons, students and
teachers may explore the sidewalk café culture
on Santa Catarina Street, a nearby pedestrian
shopping area, or walk across the Dom LuÃs I
Bridge spanning the Douro River to the
promenade, restaurants, and port houses in Vila
Nova de Gaia, directly opposite central Porto.
Short river cruises may be taken in barcos
rabelos, flat-bottomed boats traditionally used
to ferry shipments of port wine.
While Porto is famous for its ancient Roman
ramparts and Gothic churches, it is also home to
the Casa da Música concert hall, a superb
example of modern architecture, finished in
2005, that has become an icon of the city. The
Serralves Museum is a major cultural institution
which hosts rotating exhibitions of contemporary
art and which features a world-class garden.
In the late evenings, Porto hosts a thriving
clubbing culture, and the cityâ??s nightspots
attract DJs from around the world.
Porto has an international airport and is also
served by trains from Lisbon and from Spain. By
train, Porto is approximately three and a half hours north of Lisbon.
Please direct questions regarding the program to
Karen Gustafson, at
<mailto:(kegustafson /at/ mail.utexas.edu)>(kegustafson /at/ mail.utexas.edu).
