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IR/PS STUDENTS GAIN INSIGHT ON GLOBAL DIGITAL DIVIDE AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN INDIA

Laboni Patnaik and Robert R. Fernandez, students at the University of California San Diego’s (UCSD’s) Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) gained insight on how to reduce the digital divide between developed and developing nations at an international conference held last month. The conference, which took place in a remote village of Baramati, India, hosted a gamut of participants from international technology experts and social venture entrepreneurs, to government officials and philanthropists.

Patnaik and Fernandez were part of a larger seven-student team involved in an independent study course on behalf of Digital Partners, a Seattle-based digital divide social venture philanthropy organization. In a recent Foreign Policy article, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan described Digital Partners as a significant international organization to watch, in the field of social technological development.

L-R: IR/PS Student Robert Fernandez, MIT Media Lab Director Nicholas Negroponte, IR/PS Student Laboni Patnaik, and Managing Director of Digital Partners Aktar Badshah.

The course’s objective was to establish an organizational structure for Digital Partners, as well as propose strategic plans, implementation guidelines and tasks for Digital Partners’ social entrepreneurs. Also established was a fundraising strategy and source database to be utilized by Digital Partners.  The internship experience helped the students gain hands-on skills in transitional organizational development, strategic planning and nonprofit financial development in the context of international technology management, an area of increasing interest worldwide.

The IR/PS students were able to subsidize conference costs through a generous donation from the Robinson Fellowship Grant and the support of the Chancellor of UCSD Bob Dynes, the Office of Graduate Studies and Research Dean Richard Attiyeh, and the IR/PS Interim Dean Andrew MacIntyre.

Established in 1986, UCSD's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) is the University of California's only professional school of international affairs and the only graduate school in the United States to focus exclusively on the Pacific Rim. More information on the graduate program and its faculty can be found on its web site at: http://www-irps.ucsd.edu.