Oceania, and so forth. Even within rich countries such as the United States, ICT4D enters poor communities that are rarely considered by HCI [83].
A second aspect of ICT4D is its multi-sectoral nature. Typical HCI research is an activity that focuses on academia and industry. Occa- sional work might consider the special needs of another sector, and those who are inclined towards policy might have some interaction with a government. ICT4D, however, is inextricably tied not only to academia and industry, but also to governments, multilateral entities (such as the UN or the World Bank), as well as civil society and non- profit organizations.
Third, academic ICT4D is expansively interdisciplinary, perhaps even more so than HCI. The earliest research in ICT4D was done in departments of information systems, communications research, and sci- ence and technology. These groups were observing technology trends in developing countries before the first computer scientists arrived [52]. Engineers, designers, computer scientists, and HCI researchers came relatively late to the game — this is not unexpected, given that few engineering PhD programs involve travel to a third-world country. Like HCI, ICT4D also brings in anthropologists and sociologists; but it also works with economists, geographers, political scientists, and those in development studies. The latter researchers tend to have a foot firmly in their home fields, while also contributing to ICT4D. A ICT4D research community is just beginning to coalesce, with conferences such as the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communi- cation Technologies and Development (ICTD) striving to harmonize a diverse chorus while maintaining the pitch and quality of each voice.
As with any field with a broad constituency, interdisciplinarity can be a curse as much as a blessing. Fierce debates have broken out regard- ing what might and might not be ICT4D, as well as the standards by which good ICT4D research can be judged [13]. HCI as a field can bring a lot to these discussions based on its own history of integrat- ing anthropology, human factors, cognitive psychology, and computer science.
It should be noted that these debates have not been settled, any more in ICT4D than in HCI, nor is it likely that they will ever be