ICASIT – Good Return on Investment

Finding good return on investments can be a challenge in these economic times, but through its projects the School of Public Policy’s International Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology (ICASIT) demonstrates many opportunities and success stories still exist.

ICASIT, under the direction of Professor Stephen Ruth, has existed for twenty years and it focuses on policy issues that leverage the strategic use of information technology. Over the years, with funding from grants and contracts adding up to millions of dollars, ICASIT has been able to partner with foundations, research centers, and universities around the world in order to assist with projects in more than thirty countries. Ruth notes, “We continue to receive favorable press about our highly successful Nepal wireless project. After starting with only one site, there are now over 20 villages connected.” The project is maximizing the benefits of wireless technology to the rural population through tele-learning, tele-training, telemedicine, VoIP phone and Internet services, local e-commerce, remittance services, credit card transaction services etc,. (A story about the Nepal project appeared in Currents and an update is on the ICASIT website.)

Stephen Ruth

Studying telework in the context of national security policy and productivity improvements in the public and private sectors is the newest item on ICASIT’s research agenda. Ruth and ICASIT associate Imran Choudhry published an article in IEEE Internet Computing in November 2008 "Telework--A Productivity Paradox?" and there are plans in 2009 for examining such research questions as (excerpted from a research proposal prepared by ICASIT in December 2008):

• Can telework eliminate our need for oil from the Middle East?
• Might telework become the equivalent of the old domestic economy in Europe? What are the implications?
• Does telework actually increase productivity in a $14 trillion white collar economy? What's the evidence?
• Is there a difference between public and private sector implementation of telework?
• Is telework an elitist activity-only for the privileged, the educated, the highly skilled?
• What is the proper balance between telecenters and working at home?
• Is there a tipping point where security is so impaired that telework becomes dangerous?
• Will "regional insourcing" solve the outsourcing problem in low wage jobs like call centers?
• How is distance learning linked to telework?
• What public policy measures are needed to assure the proliferation of telework?
• Will concierge services and hoteling become routinely used?

In addition to building on the success of the Nepal project, increasing research of telework and national security policy, ICASIT is also busy refining its popular IT research site. The site, which has been produced and managed by SPP grad students for a decade, has a new group of topics for researchers. According to Ruth, the hallmark of the site is attention to the newest types of IT topics such as cloud computing, HD Radio, the Digital Nomad, and ISP Filtering.  Each of the seventy-seven different topics links to recent articles, reports, videos and audio materials. The latest version was developed by Audrey Olson, and last year's version by Imran Choudhury and Sunder Prasad – all SPP graduate students. George Bennett, IT specialist who assists in ICASIT development projects, managed the implementation of the database.

Ruth has been impressed at the versatility of the site. "I use it extensively in the tech policy courses so that students can more easily have access to some of the newest ideas and strategies, but I notice that many at George Mason University and others at schools around the world have found it useful too."  Ruth plans to also use the site in his the courses he teaches for Mason’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  Ruth and his students realize the importance of strategic investment.