Submitted by Tony on 12 February, 2016 - 05:33
Wayan Vota wrote a great blogpost this week on whether the goals of sustainability and using open source ICT4D are compatible within the context of international development. It is a stimulating and thoughtful piece. I think that Wayan and I have the same overall aims. However I dispute a couple of the assertions that he makes and therefore come to a different conclusion.
Read more about Open Source ICT4D can be Sustainable and Free
Submitted by Tony on 28 January, 2016 - 03:22
This is my latest attempt at sketching out a calendar of ICT4D conferences scheduled for 2016. Thanks especially to Laurent Straskraba, Edgar Nsheega and to Richard Heeks and Larry Stillman for suggesting additions. Read more about 25 ICT4D Conferences in 2016
Submitted by Tony on 3 August, 2015 - 22:38
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you will know that as soon as I finish the final (?) revisions on my PhD this September I am moving to Macau. I am joining a new ICT4D research start-up called the Institute on Computer and Society at the United Nations University (UNU-CS). It's a big change and it's a lot to get my head around. Read more about Join the Founding Team at UNU-CS
Submitted by Tony on 26 May, 2015 - 15:15
Rui Roberto Ramos provided a fascinating case study at IFIP9.4 of ICT use by Recife City Council to impose control over informal street traders. The council's 'CSURB' program collects data from street traders in order to formalise and licence them to trade from new authorised sites. The process was driven by a top-down desire to impose a 'formalising regime' via technical control over informal entrepreneurs. Read more about Another Technology is Always Possible
Submitted by Tony on 18 May, 2015 - 09:54
Comment about ICT4D tends to be either celebratory hype or entirely negative criticism. Both extremes tend to be based on assumptions that are uncritical about exactly what we mean by development, as well as about the relationship between ICTs on the one hand and development on the other. Read more about Is a Transformist ICT4D Possible?
Submitted by Tony on 16 May, 2015 - 09:35
As you know participatory video (also known as PV) is the process of enabling non-experts to make films about (development) issues that they prioritise. Participatory video can be a way for disadvantaged communities to appropriate technology in order to take control of the way in which they are represented and to amplify local voices on key issues of concern to them. Read more about Participatory Video new publication
Submitted by Tony on 21 December, 2014 - 12:36
As usual I have had a go at putting together a calendar of ICT4D conferences scheduled for the year ahead.
With many conferences still to announce details it already looks like a bumper harvest with May, as ever, looking to be the busiest month.
I plan to go to the Openness in ICT4D conference in Sri Lanka. There is a particularly interesting stream on critical approaches to ICT4D. I'm hoping to meet other geeks with critiques there. Read more about Top ICT4D Conferences of 2015
2008 article by Firoze Manji cuts through the hype to claim that what is important (and what needs critique) is not the technology itself, but who controls the technology and what use they put it to i.e. power interests and intent Read more about Mobile Activism or Mobile Hype?
Writen by Hannah Beardon for Plan Finland in 2009
Good overview, political analysis and database of M4D projects.
See section 'the social and political void' Read more about Mobiles for Development
Submitted by Tony on 8 October, 2014 - 19:17
There's an interesting discussion going on within the civic-tech community about the lack of a common language for discussing the hugely diverse ways in which citizens are using technology to foster social change. In the ICT4D sector a similar problem exists; given the great proliferation of ICT4D initiatives, we lack a shared language to discuss why we value some ICT4D more than others.
Read more about Talking about ICT4D: a typology
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