Welcome to the ICASIT web site. We have been operating for 20 years and our primary focus for 2009 is what it has always been: studying policy issues that leverage Information Technology. Our projects and applied research aim at evaluating the implementation of IT (a strategic issue), not simply ownership (an operational concern). With cumulative grants and contracts in the several million dollar range and  projects in nearly thirty countries, ICASIT has had partnerships with foundations, research centers, and universities around the world. 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 along with hospitals and schools in the region. The project leader, Mahibir Pun, won the coveted Ramon Magsaysay award, the “Asian Nobel Prize”, for his work in community development on the project. There is a 2007 article describing Nangi and Mr Pun in more detail and a more recent article which chronicles the continuing growth of the Nepal project.  The Northern Virginia Technology Council’s journal, The Voice, also featured Pun and ICASIT in the Fall 2008 issue.

Our newest and highest priority project is telework—which has the unrealized potential to save vast amounts of office space, carbon emissions, and fossil fuel—potential annual savings in the hundreds of billions perhaps. A recent article in IEEE Internet Computing by Professor Ruth and colleague Imran Chaudhry described the serious differences between public and private sector success in deployment of telework projects.  We think it is a significant issue in transportation, homeland security and other high priority challenges for the new administration. Equally important to us are the close ties we have established with nearly one hundred businesses, and organizations, all of whom have participated in various ways with ICASIT's outreach activities in Knowledge Management, Electronic Commerce, Distance Learning, and other areas. Also, we partnered with technology centers at three other Virginia universities in a $2 million Internet Technology Innovation Center (ITIC) project funded by Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). In addition, through grants from CIT, ICASIT implemented a broadly-focused effort to help organizations understand and implement Knowledge Management processes. By more effectively using corporate knowledge and wisdom, many companies have been able to improve collaboration, operations, and mission performance. ICASIT sponsors KM round tables, courses, seminars and applied research.

Thanks to a generous foundation grant a few years ago, we added a unique new area of research -- developing methodologies to determine the true cost of distance learning processes in a university setting. A recent article describes this activity. We are conducting practical, results-oriented studies of real-world applications of technology aimed at developing activity-based costing models of distance learning. Please see the Teaching Innovations section for more information.

If you would like to know more about us, please contact the center at (703) 993-3523 by phone, (703) 993-2284 by fax or contact ICASIT's manager, Lindsey Poulin, at lpoulin@gmu.edu.

Stephen Ruth
Director