I am an Indian national, having done by Masters in Management Studies and Masters in Engineering in Industrial Development from the Birla Institute of Technology Studies, Pilani, Rajasthan. After having worked in the manufacturing industry (in glass) for 7 years, I left in 1989 for the Florida International University in the United States for my Phd studies. The topic of my thesis was "The Social Construction of Geographical Information Systems" which was empirically based on studying the implementation of a similar technology in two county government settings in South Florida. My thesis was supervised by Professor Daniel Robey, which to me was a very joyful and enrichening experience.
After completing my Phd studies in February 1993, I moved to the University of Cambridge, UK, for post-doctoral studies with Professor Geoff Walsham. The topic of my research was the analysis of GIS implementation and use within the forestry sectors of India and Malaysia. This post-doc period which lasted three years was a very interesting phase of my life allowing me to enjoy the beautiful environment of Cambridge, meet many interesting people, and travel extensively to different unexplored places. Working with Geoff was a very beautiful experience both for the intellectual energy it gave, but also for the wonderful personal interactions we had. The empirical work in India and Malaysia was a very rich experience both to understand the kind of challenges and opportunities that are faced by governments to apply a reasonably complex technology like GIS, but also to understand the broader issues of change that these countries were going through.
In December 1995, I moved as a Lecturer to the University of Salford, Manchester to teach courses in the area of technology of society. Though I stayed there for just about a year, I made some lasting friends and relationships, especially with Brian Nicholson, with whom I continue to work with and travel to various places including Costa Rica and Iran. Towards the end of 1996, I moved to the College of Business at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. I stayed there for about 4 years, always uncomfortable with the extreme cold, but making some nice friends, especially with Leiser Silva who had joined the faculty from Guatemala. I took the opportunity of being in the University to do a masters degree in Philosophy working on the topic of philosophy of educational technologies. Working with Professor Wes Cooper in the philosophy department was a wonderful experience, especially in understanding how loose and casual my own style of argumentation was in writing. I learnt how in Philosophy, the need is for a more "precise" and carefully though of style of argumentation.
Travelling to India from Canada was back-breaking, and I felt I need to be "closer" home, and decided to move to the University of Oslo in Norway. A main inspiration for the move was Jorn Braa whom I had met first in Cuba, and I had followed his project on Health Information Systems Program (HISP) with great interest. Wanting to get involved with this health project, and to learn about the Scandinavian approach to information systems, inspired me to move to Norway in December 1999. I have since been in Oslo, and been actively involved in the HISP project working in South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia, India, and Tanzania. Supervising masters and doctoral students, and working on the field doing "action research" has been and continues to be a very enrichening experience.