The International Conference on IT in Asia (CITA) reflects the increasing focus on issues concerned with ICTs in developing countries. The main aim of the conference was to examine the continuing roles of ICTs within the prevailing challenges of development faced by the region.

The Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT, UNIMAS) organised the conference, with the collaboration from ICT Unit Chief Minister’s Department of Sarawak, and Global Information and Communication Institute (GITI), Japan.

CITA’07 was the 5^th conference in the series, and was held from 9^th to 12^th July 2007 at Hilton Hotel, Kuching. Previous conferences were held in December 2005, July 2003, October 2001 and September 1999.

The theme for CITA’07 was “Social Computing: Engaging Communities". The major tracks for CITA’07 are as follows:  

·      Emerging Technologies and Platform

·      Social Computing Infrastructure

·         Community Informatics

·         Computational Models and Systems

·         Human Computer Interaction

·         Knowledge Networks and management

·         Ubiquitous Information Management

·         Agents and Autonomous Systems

·         Image Processing and Visualisation

The opening ceremony for CITA’07 was held on 10^th July 2007 and it was officiated by the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Yang Amat Berhormat Pehin Sri Hj Abdul Taib Mahmud. It was a three-day conference, with 12 parallel sessions and one panel discussion. The conference event also included Conference Dinner and two social activities, Boat Cruise along Sarawak River and a visit to Sarawak Cultural Village.

Three one-day workshops were also conducted a day before the conference (on 9^th July 2007 at FCSIT Unimas, Kota Samarahan). The workshop programs were as follows:

      Building Digital Library Collections with Greenstone by Prof Ian H. Witten (University of Waikato, New Zealand)

2.      IT Governance: Towards the Implementation of ISO/IEC 27001 by Assoc. Prof Dr Elok Robert Tee (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman -UTAR).

3.      Developing Community e-Centers/Telecenters for Rural Communities by Prof Dr Peter Songan and Dr Alvin Yeo Wee (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak – UNIMAS). 

Two keynote speakers for CITA’07 are Prof Ian H. Witten, from University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Datuk Dr Halim Shafie, Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission.

Prof Ian Witten presented a paper titled “Grasping Society’s Treasure Trove of Information”. He also conducted a workshop on “Building Digital Library Collections with Greenstone”.

Datuk Dr Halim presented a paper titled “Technological Roadmap: Towards Improving Quality of Lives and Malaysia’s Global Competitiveness”.

There were also Invited Speakers for the conference. Their names and presentation title are as follows:  

1.      Prof Dr Zaharin Yusoff (University Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia) – State-of-theart of language Technology: The Malaysian Initiatives

2.      Prof Dr Peter Songan (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia) – ICT as an Enabling Tool in the Enhancement of Livelihood in the Tourism Sector: The e-Bario Experience.

3.      Prof Dr Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia) – Preservation of Language Heritage Through Multilingual Knowledge Management Systems.

4.      Prof Dr Jasbir Dhaliwal (University of Memphis, USA) – Fixing the Holes in Software Engineering by Strengthening the Science of Testing.

There were altogether 166 submissions (40 international and 126 local). The number of papers accepted and presented is 68 (46 full papers and 22 short papers), which gives an acceptance rate of 41%.

Five papers were chosen to receive the best paper award. Three of these were from Malaysia, one from Bangladesh and another from India.

 Best Papers from CITA '07