Monday, 11 July 2011, 08:30 – 17:00
There will be a full day open networking session for those interested in learning about and participating in the construction of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure. We have reached a point where access to technology including the Internet/Web is rapidly becoming mandatory for participation in everything from education and employment to entertainment, commerce, health, and safety. Yet we are providing the necessary interfaces or interface adaptations to only perhaps 10-20% of those who need them including close to a billion people with disabilities and another near billion people with literacy barriers. We do not have the resources (personally or through governments) to provide them all with the access technologies they need using today’s model.
To address this need a number of organizations and individuals from across the world are coming together to create a Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII). This infrastructure consists of capabilities and services built into the current and emerging platform/web/cloud infrastructure that would allow users who need special interface adaptations to be able to invoke the access features they need anywhere, any time, on any computer or ICT they encounter.
The GPII effort seeks to maximize the portion of this problem that can be handled through the private sector using ordinary market forces, and minimize that which needs to be done by government or philanthropic action – while providing a means for all people to have the access they need. It will do this by facilitating innovation, reducing costs to develop and bring ideas to market, providing a means for people to be aware of and easily learn about available solutions, and provide a means for anywhere, anytime, any device delivery of access features and services on demand.
This networking session will provide detailed information both on the overall effort and on how individuals and organizations (private and public) can contribute and benefit. This includes both commercial and non-commercial entities interested in providing access to ICT by all customers/patrons/employees/citizens/visitors. It will describe ongoing efforts in different countries to build National Public Inclusive Infrastructures and how they are federating to form a Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure. It will describe how companies, organizations and individuals can contribute – and how entities that are responsible for providing ICT products or ICT services to the public can benefit from a GPII.
The session will start with a tutorial at 8:30 followed by networking and collaboration sessions on the various components of the GPII. For more information see http://GPII.org or watch the video short at http://tinyurl.com/gpiivideo.
Gregg Vanderheiden Ph.D.
Director Trace R&D Center
Professor Industrial & Systems Engineering
and Biomedical Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison
