Call for Paper

The 7th International Conference on Open Access

Accra – Ghana
1st - 3rd November 2009

 

Conference Theme
"Harnessing the rapid growth of fibre infrastructure for Social Economic Development."

Introduction
Open Access in the context of Communication (Open Communication) means that anyone, on equal conditions with a transparent relation between cost and pricing, can get access to and share communication resources on one level to provide value added services on another level in layered communication system architecture.Open Access Conferences have been organized since 2003 with the objectives of sharing knowledge and good practices on how to widen Open communication, Open networks, Universal access, and Sustainable business models for operation and maintenance of such communication. The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) has been on the fore front of these efforts. The conferences have attracted a lot of interest from the general society, academicians and private sectors.There is a high momentum in the deployment of infrastructures such as optic fiber, wireless and the like. Also, there is a lot of advancement in the use of ICT in general such as mobile phones. If used wisely, we believe these developments can facilitate provisioning of relatively inexpensive, easily accessible, diversified and expandable ICT services.

Objective

The Objective of the 7th Open Access Conference: There is currently a high momentum in the deployment of infrastructures such as optic fiber, and wireless networks in all African countries. Therefore it is paramount that:

  1. The Primary objective of this workshop will be to identify and share experiences on affordable and cost effective ICT technologies around the globe, to guide the deployment
  2. Based on Open Access (OA) principles, the workshop intends to address ICT as a tool that will bring developmental change to the society at large.
  3. An important objective of this conference is also to focus on the relevance of Research and education Networks in all these endeavours. Research and Education Networks are initially potentially the largest anchor customers for broadband links and need to nurture their infrastructure provider community. Universities are also the strongest driver of the knowledge society, both directly via projects they engage in and indirectly by producing students that are exposed to broadband services and will demand such services also when they get into their working lives in different sectors of society. This is why a preliminary meeting ushering the OA will focus on Regional Research Education Networks (RRENs) , by bringing together key players in West and Central African Universities and other participants who may share their experience in forming RRENs; it is expected that this meeting will lead to the formation of the West and Central African Research Education Network (WACREN). In East Africa where the conference has been hosted a number of times, it has helped strengthen their RREN, the UbuntuNet Alliance.
  4. The Conference aims to target academicians, professionals, researchers, planners, political leaders, innovators and the private sector. They are the group that need to be aware of what OA is and how if applied to the fast emerging fibre networks, can accelerate Socio-Economic Development.
  5. To draw the attention of Regulators to OA and make them appreciate the importance of open Access to Communication in their regulatory framework.

Host
The conference is being hosted by the University of Ghana.

Target group
The target group includes academicians, professionals, researchers, planners, political readers, private sector, and innovators.

Language
The official conference language is English

Fee and Accommodation
The conference will cover registration and accommodation fees for presenters of selected papers, and to the invited key speakers and participants. In addition, there will be some honoraria to presenters of best papers.

Venue & Date
The conference will be held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra, Ghana from the 1st to 3rd November 2009. 1st November 2009 will be specifically for discussions on the formation of the West and Central African Research and Education Network.

Submission
Authors are invited to submit extended abstracts and original papers (4-6 pages, IEEE transactions two-column style, 10pt). Articles should be tutorial in nature and should be written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article. Articles should be submitted in any popular word processor format here

Important dates
Submissions are due on: 15th September, 2009
Notification on Papers: 30th September, 2009
Final Submission of Papers: 15th October, 2009

One author from a selected paper will be offered full sponsorship to attend the conference.

 
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