Nicola J. Bidwell

Nic Bidwell has researched at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and social informatics with a focus on the Global Souths for nearly 20 years. This encompasses working with Aboriginal people in far north Australia and inhabitants of rural Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Indonesia, Argentina, Mexico and India. She initiated the first panel on Indigenous Led Digital Enterprise at a leading HCI forum in 2008, co-founded the African HCI Conference in 2016 and her ethnographically informed design work with rural collaborators in South Africa received an award for its contribution to social and economic development and set the stage for South Africa’s first community owned ISP. Nic’s analyses of relations between spectrum regulation and involvement in designing and deploying technologies for community networks (CNs) and community radio have also informed policy debate. Her recent studies include experiences of conditional programming in philanthropic donations, interactions with algorithms in ride-sharing platforms, and onto-epistemic translations in designing probabilistic programming languages for marginalised knowledge practices. Before joining the University of Melbourne, Nic researched and taught in universities around the world. She continues to maintain a home is Namibia, where she is an adjunct Professor at the International University of Management, and is also a a University Fellow at Charles Darwin University, Australia.