Welcome to the ICASIT web site. In 2008 we will celebrate our 20th birthday, but our primary focus is still where it has always been:on policy issues that leverage Information Technology. Our projects and applied research aim at evaluating the application and 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. In August 2007 in a Manila ceremony Mahibir Pun, who has received ICASIT support in Nepal, won the coveted Ramon Magsaysay award for his work in community development in Nepal’s Nangi village. There is a new article describing Nangi and Mr Pun in more detail.

Equally important to us are the close ties we have established with nearly one hundred businesses, and other organizations, all of whom participate in various ways with ICASIT's outreach activities in Knowledge Management, Electronic Commerce, Distance Learning, and other areas. Also, we have 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 Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology 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 we have 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 new 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