Former ICT4D Student Blogs about Cell Phones in Africa

As part of her internship with Food Tank, former IDEV4100:ICT4D (Fall 2011 semester) student Suzannah Schneider authored this blog entitled “Five Ways Cell Phones are Changing Agriculture In Africa.” The post lists some familiar ideas, such as using mobile phones to access market prices and weather information, as well as receive useful information via SMS messages. However, it also mentions some more specific and innovative ideas such as iCow and micro-insurance. Based on your experiences in our class, what are your thoughts on these 5 applications of mobiles for agricultural development?

More information about Food Tank can be found in this video: “The Food Think Tank Trailer“

Spring 2013 Student Contributors & Introductions

Welcome to all students from the Spring 2013 IDEV 4100: ICT4D class!

Please post a comment to this post and introduce yourselves – this entry will serve as a record of this semester’s blog contributors and help us kick off the posts for this semester! Incude the following:

• Your name, year in school, major(s)/minor(s)
• Where you’re from and anything interesting/personal you’d like to share, such as international experience (travel/leisure or professional/academic).
• What you expect from this class and/or your interest in or level of comfort with technology (it’s ok to NOT be a tech-savvy person)!
• OPTIONAL: Link(s) to your Twitter account, LinkedIn page, or other professional/academic site/account/page that you would want to share with fellow students and the ICT4D community. Keep in mind all of this info is PUBLIC, so only share what you’re comfortable with.

Don’t forget to follow our class Twitter account: @TulaneICT4D

National ICT Resource Page Launched

I’m pleased to announce the launch of a new resource for those interested in ICT4D, one that we hope will be useful to anyone looking for country-specific resources regarding National ICT Policies and Strategies for countries around the world. Our IDEV4100 class members from this past semester (Fall 2012), each of whom focused on a particular country over the course of the semester, have compiled their country-specific ICT resources, including data, indices, and policy documents, and together we’ve created a single-point source for everything here on our blog. We will continue to update these resources and add additional countries on a semester-by-semester basis, and we welcome comments, additions, and suggestions as we build this resource. Thanks to all the students from the class who contributed!

Country ICT Resources: 
http://tulaneict4d.wordpress.com/country-ict-resources/

Fall 2012 Student Contributors & Introductions

Welcome to all students from the Fall 2012 IDEV 4100: ICT4D class!

Please post a comment to this post and introduce yourselves – this entry will serve as a record of this semester’s blog contributors and help us kick off the posts for this semester!

Don’t forget to follow our NEW class Twitter account: @TulaneICT4D

KONY 2012: Part II Video Released Today

In an interesting coincidence of timing, after yesterday’s class discussing social media and the KONY 2012 campaign, this morning Invisible Children released their follow up video, despite what was reported yesterday. It seems designed to address some of the concerns that have been raised following their first viral video and to keep their momentum going. I’m interested to see what you all think about this one, after our conversations yesterday with @debelzie and @jssozi.

Richard Heeks on ICT4D

As part of our readings and discussion for the IDEV4100: ICT4D course, one of the thought leaders in the field that we come across a few times is Richard Heeks. This post is a short round-up with some background info on Heeks, his bio, some of his writings, and where you can find more information on him and his ideas.

Readings from Class:

• ICTs and the MDGs: On the Wrong Track? (2005)
• The ICT4D 2.90 Manifesto: What’s Next for ICTs and International Development? (2009)

Short Bio (via University of Manchester)

Richard Heeks is Professor of Development Informatics in the Institute for Development Policy and Management, part of the School of Environment and Development at the University of Manchester, UK. Following a period of work as a programmer for ICL, Richard studied for a BA/MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge, and then taught science in a rural school in Nigeria.  He worked as a researcher at the Universities of Leicester and Loughborough, gaining an MPhil for his study of personal information systems.  Richard then undertook an ESRC/SERC-sponsored PhD at the Open University on the Indian software industry.  Following his doctorate, Richard joined the University of Manchester to teach, research and consult on “development informatics” – the relation between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and international development.

He has acted as an external degree examiner in the ICT4D field at universities in Europe, Africa and Asia; and as a research assessor for bodies such as the US National Science Foundation, ESRC, Nuffield and Leverhulme.  Complementing this have been more than twenty advisory activities on ICT4D for bodies such as the UK Dept. for International Development, GTZ, IDRC and UNIDO.  Richard is also ICT4D advisor for Zunia (Development Gateway) and for the British Council, and convenes the UK Development Studies Association’s specialist group on Information, Technology and Development.

Resources for More Information

Heeks ICT4D Bibliography (via ICTlogy)

Heeks author archive from the ICT4D blog. There is some really great stuff here, particularly on frameworks for conceptualizing ICT4D, the digital divide, and specific posts on eGov and ICTs for education. I highly recommend it!

Spring 2012 Student Contributors & Introductions

Welcome to all students from the Spring 2012 IDEV 4100: ICT4D class!

Please post a comment to this post and introduce yourselves – this entry will serve as a record of this semester’s blog contributors and help us kick off the posts for this semester!

Technology & the Japan Tohoku Quake & Tsunami

Interesting BBC video on the various kinds of technology being used after the massive quake and tsunami (and subsequent nuclear disaster) in March of this year. Includes info on early warning system, Mixi social media site, GPS in Honda vehicles for mapping roadways, mapping applications, and Google person finder.

Source: BBC News Video (18 March 2011)

Election Monitoring & Censorship in Cyberspace

Two articles I saw this week that relate to last week’s topic of e-government and e-governance:

1. Technology in Election Monitoring

Technology in general, and ICTs in particular, have the potential to play a key role in ensuring free and fair elections in countries where there have traditionally been cases of election fraud and rigged voting processes. This blog post gives examples of countries such as Lebanon, Benin, and Nigeria where there are either (or both) election concerns or applications of technology to better collect votes and ensure accuracy. The post also discusses a recent study on photos taken during elections at polling stations in Afghanistan to see if the presence of “monitoring” affected the level of voting fraud, finding that it reduced the incidence of theft or damaging of election materials from 18.9% to 11.8%, and affected voting counts.

2. Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace

Source: Zunia.org blog

This new report put out by MIT includes a series of chapters on a variety of issues surrounding cyberspace/internet in Asia, including Malasian bloggers, Burmese opposition media, and regulations in Thailand. There is also a very interesting chapter on censorship and surveillance in China. Worth reading for anyone studying Asian countries or interested in censorship and internet freedom or cyber-regulation. Original report can be downloaded here.

ICT4E: Lack of Electricity & Cartoons for Literacy

Just after our class session this week on ICTs for education, I saw two very different articles that addressed two different aspects of ICT4E:

1. Using ICTs in Schools with No Electricity

Source: World Bank EduTech Blog

This article talks about a group called CyberSmart Africa, that works exclusively in schools with poor physical infrastructure and little or no access to electricity. It discusses some of the little things that are often overlooked in the design of ICT interventions for development, including the concept that a “one size fits all” solution rarely, if ever, really works. Scroll to the bottom of the article for links to a few videos, including interviews with teachers and student-made videos from CyberSmart Africa.

2. The Bottom of the Pyramid Needs Reading ICT Solutions too. 

Source: EduTechDebate.org

This article is about an interesting literacy program to teach reading skills to women in India, using a computerized literacy program called Tara Akshar, which utilizes a specific kind of memory tool (Lambach hooks) embedded in cartoon videos to teach basic alphabet skills as the first step to reading. The course was voluntary, took about 55 hours to complete, and boasts a 5% dropout rate and an outcome of teaching 60K women of all ages to read and write. Check out the post for a video demo of the tool and more details on how this program was enacted.