Welcome to the ICASIT web site. We have been operating for over 20 years and our primary focus for 2010 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. 

If you have time, check out the 2010 version of our popular IT research site.  Many researchers worldwide find it useful since it gives hundreds of current links to dozens of hot topics like cloud computing, social networking, IT legislation, M banking, telematics, etc. Thanks to grad students Rahul Gatunde, Jeff Henderson and Chris Zeek, SPP grad students who have updated the site.

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 Ruth/Chaudhry article in IEEE Internet Computing described the differences between public and private sector success in deployment of telework projects.  At ICASIT we think telecommuting is a serious policy  issue affecting transportation, homeland security and other high priority challenges for the new administration. Also we are investigating some of the challenges worldwide of Green IT. Click the link to read my article that aims to sort out this topic.

ICASIT continues its outreach to our many business partners in the region. in Knowledge Management, Electronic Commerce, Distance Learning, and other areas. By more effectively using corporate knowledge and wisdom, many companies have been able to improve collaboration, operations, and mission performance.

Thanks to a generous foundation grant a while back, 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.  I’m grateful to GMU for the award of a Faculty Study Leave. I’ll use the sabbatical time to  to more research on these topics.

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