5th INDICARE Workshop

So yesterday, I was the first speaker at the 5th Indicare workshop. Unlike the other workshops/conferences I have been to - this was a different experience; and was quite refreshing in some ways. This was not an academic conference but was much more of an interaction session between academics, industry, consumer organisations and specialist groups. The format was a bit similar to panel discussions - 2 or 3 presenters gave a 20-30 minute presentation which was then followed by a panel discussion of about 15 minutes.

But the best part was the interaction with the consumer organisations and specialist groups - interaction that is not present at academic conferences. For example, there were two presentations from blind associations (one from Hungary, another from England). In most cases, software developers completely ignore disabled people during their designs - and even though computers can help empower the disabled and let them overcome much of their disabilities, much of the software lets them down. A very positive feedback in this regard, is that one of my key contributions to the field - negotiations - can be an effective solution to much of the problems posed by accessibility.

I also had a chance to talk to Martin Springer from DMP - a sort of rival project to my PhD project. We had some very long chats, and on many different aspects of DRM and computer security in general - I think this was probably the most useful part of the trip.

So a valuable trip overall - and many thanks to INDICARE for inviting me and for funding the trip!