Reflecting on ICT4D

To start, ICT4D has the potential to have great outcomes. It can help reduce poverty, empower women and other marginalized groups, create more transparency in business and governance, improve health care systems, create a more sustainable future relating to the environment, and improve the risk in disasters and emergencies. There is no doubt that technology can help in these areas when applied correctly. Therefore, I think the first greatest lesson is to better monitor and evaluate existing ICT4D programs. There are several different frameworks that exist and ideas that different organizations use when creating their plans or programs, and tons of different ICT4D projects and initiatives. The problem is that there has been little monitoring and evaluation after those programs have been implemented. Without looking at the true successes and failures of these existing projects, we can’t know what’s the best way to use technology in a sustainable way in the developing world.

I was particularly intrigued by “Oscar Night Syndrome” – the idea that in the development field, there is always a need to look good and highlight the successful parts of the given project. No organization wants to publish bad results, so there is much less emphasis on the negative aspects of a given project. Therefore, it’s extremely important to analyze ICT4D failures. As discussed in class, the website FAILFARE reports on the failures of ICT4D projects, and looks at why certain things don’t work in development. The hope is to then have a better understanding and more information to create better and more sustainable development projects in the future. I think it’s crucial for sites or organizations like FAILFARE to expand and continue to publish information on ICT4D failures.

I also think the idea of “local knowledge” is essential in ICT4D. There is no “one-size fits all” approach. As we’ve seen in class, every city, region, country, and continent has a different set  of rules and frameworks that must be abided by. Some areas may have low literacy rates rates, others may have a government unwilling to adapt to new technologies, and others may have next to no electricity. These are all very different problems that inhibit the use of ICTs. Therefore, while many projects are able to abide by a theoretical framework, no two projects can be exactly the same. This is where local knowledge comes in. All of the theoretical frameworks and successful projects we have looked at have touched upon the importance of local knowledge in their projects – local knowledge of the government and laws, of the viability of various technologies, an understanding of culture etc. Without expanding upon knowledge, development projects will not be able to use their full potential in achieving their best results. I think the Human Centered Design framework we learned about in class most closely adheres to this idea, and is the most useful framework moving forward with development projects. It allows for local knowledge, a true understanding of the population and what technologies they need, want, and can use, and allows for a unique project according to those ideas.

Naturally, taking this course has really opened my eyes to the importance of technology, both in the developed and the developing world. The topics we discussed at the end of the course – like the use of social media – were of particular interest to me. I’ve always been a pretty avid Twitter user / Instagram-er etc. but it was especially interesting to see what I saw as “social” or “fun” technologies being used for more important purposes. As we read and discussed, Twitter was vital to the Arab Spring, and helped spread ideas about democracy and human rights across the globe. Monitoring social media after the Boston Massacre and various school shootings  was also of great interest to me – and I learned a lot about the benefits and pitfalls of social media. Similarly, Ralph Russo’s guest lecture on cyber-security was of particular interest to me, and is obviously a very important topic to study given the current threat of cyber-security. As a political science major (in addition to international development), I think it’s really important to understand the importance of technology and social media in the world, and the role of governance in these phenomenons. Technological innovation is clearly of growing prominence and is changing our daily and social lives, as well as our political lives, so I’m grateful to have had the exposure to the topics discussed in our class for that reason. I am now much more comfortable with Twitter and WordPress, and understand more so the full potential of Twitter, other social media sites, and more generally to blogs. I think moving forward this comfort and knowledge of technology will greatly benefit my skill-set and make me more marketable to future employers.

How One Tweet Can Cause the Stock Market to Crash

One false tweet from the Associated Press’s Twitter account caused the stock market to crash within minutes. The tweet reported that there had been explosions at the White House that had injured President Obama. The message read “Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured”. Immediately, the stock market dropped, yet bounced back right after it became clear that the Associated Press’s Twitter account had been hacked.

The speed of the reaction highlights how fast and suceptible our financial markets are to technological glitches, and how significant Twitter’s impact can be. In the investing world, high-speed computer trades control the entire market, which explains why chaos ensued after the Tweet was posted. The tweet was posted at 1p.m., and between 1:08 and 1:10pm the Dow Jones Industrial average fell more than 100 points. Joseph Saluzzi of the equity-trading firm Themis Trading wrote “It wasn’t just the stock market. It was the bond market and the commodity market and everything. The event was done before humans could even process it”. He continues and says that tracking social media has “become the norm in trading”. Twitter and the Web are important for analyzing news feeds, yet this clearly backfires when a false or hacked tweet is posted.

This case isn’t the only example of a fake tweet causing a huge public reaction. In February, Burger King and Jeep’s Twitter accounts were hacked and spread rumors that said that each company had been sold to their rival. In the past year, National Public Radio, CBS 60 Minutes, and Reuters News and several other major Twitter accounts were hacked. However, the most recent AP hack had the most disastrous results: the tweet wiped out $136.5 billion of the S&P 500 index value.

This AP tweet, combined with all of the misinformation surrounding the Boston bombing shows how 140 characters can have instant and disastrous results for our public and our stock market. These hacks have been occurring all too often, and highlight that Twitter is often not a reliable or quality news source. We should all start to be more aware of the environment of social media: fake tweets happen, and we should all double check information before re-tweeting or reposting. We have to ask ourselves what’s more important: getting fast information or correct information.

News Sites Less Trusted Now than Social Media Users

This is unusual for me – I wouldn’t really do an extra blogpost if I didn’t have to, but given what has been happening in the past few hours, I thought that I should comment, especially after our discussion on Tuesday after the bombing.

I heard from a friend last night that there was another shooting that happened last night, this time at MIT. I went onto CNN’s website to figure out what was happening and was greeted by very confusing information. It seemed that they were still talking about the Boston Marathon Bombing, but what I was looking for was information on the MIT shooting.

I decided to go to bed and learn more in the morning. I went on CNN’s website again and didn’t find anything helpful, so I turned instead to Facebook.

This is what a friend had posted:

“Okay folks, going to bed. I’ll try to summarize what I have so far for those who will wake up tomorrow.

MIT officer was shot and killed. Suspects were believed linked to the Marathon bombings and later confirmed. One suspect has been apprehended and killed, other is still at large. There was/is a police chase. Two bombs have been found and defused, reports of other bombs are popping up. There was huge firefight, which can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSlRHJv1nnA. At least on officer is down. Swat and snipers are on the scene along with FBI.

This reddit thread is much more accurate than what you will see on CNN or other sites: http://bit.ly/14AKI9V

Hopefully more accurate information will be available in the morning. I hate to say it, but CNN has been really slow and botched up a lot of the reporting. Check reddit, twitter, and local boston news/ police broadcast for more accurate info.“

And then this from another friend:

“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. Random people on the Internet are better at reporting news than the people who get paid to do it.“

With his friends commenting:

“this reddit thread has been more reliable then CNN” and “but in all seriousness, it takes news a million confirmations before they can report anything. The guys on the internet are going off of police radios, which are primary sources but can still lead to false reports (especially if the cops get a false lead). CNN has NO excuse though“

Powerful stuff. Our once god-like media is being turned on for not providing enough accurate information fast enough. In an age when people want information immediately,  it’s tough to remember that getting accurate information still takes time.

Just wanted to add one more FB post that came up right now at 8:08 AM.

“New updates. CNN is doing a god awful job of reporting. Manhunt going on in Boston. Suspects believed to be brothers and from Chechnya, Russia. One is dead, other is still very much a threat. EOD departments are crawling due to number of bomb threats being called. Pertinent resources:”

The Boston Myth-athon

In the wake of the Boston tragedy, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other major social media sites were putting out information faster than many accredited news sources. People were sad, angry, confused, and worried. Both individuals and organizations were sending out information from Boston and all over the world to try to give people accurate information and connect people with friends and families. While these social media sites are often useful in providing valuable information in the midst of chaos and poor cell service, much of the information is often unreliable. The pressure to provide information immediately allows for sloppy journalism and false information on social media sites.

One of the first myths I saw was on Instagram. A screenshot of the post is below, and it shows a little girl running the marathon. The post claimed that she was running in honor of Sandy Hook elementary school, and died as a result of the explosions.

The claim is 100% false. After seeing a few of these posts, both on Instagram and Facebook, I checked more credible news sources, and saw nothing indicating any young girl had died. Since then, CNN tweeted and posted an article on their homepage about the various myths that were spread.

The article disproves the 5 major myths that were spread, and also has a photo from the Twitter account @Hope4Boston (photo below). 

CNN writes “Sometimes accidentally and sometimes maliciously, false information gets loose. And in the rapid-fire digital echo chamber, it doesn’t take long to spread”. CNN goes on to dispel the 5 major false rumors that were spread. The myths are listed below.

1. Man planned to propose, girlfriend killed
   
2. Young girl died at finish line (same story as photo above)
3. Race organizers will donate for retweets
4. Authorities shut down cell phone service
5. Conspiracy theories

I was glad to see CNN posted this article, since the above 5 stories had been circulating on social media and had been mentioned in my own friend group. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just Twitter and other social media sites publishing false information.

Most significantly, the New York Post originally published that 12 people died in the explosions, which is also simply not true. Vanity Fair posted a satirical article outlining the few things that the New York Post actually got right — that the marathon was in Boston, and that they spelled Boston right. The inaccurate and misleading article was online for hours, and is now receiving much criticism for its false reporting. A screenshot of my close friend’s Tweet is below.

Of course, there were benefits to the use of social media yesterday. Cell service was spotty – so many relied on Wifi and websites to get information. There were several lists and documents to help people find their families and in helping people communicate. For example, various individuals tweeted about where people could gain access to Wifi. However, the examples and photos above demonstrate the many pitfalls and shortcomings of social media during and after the Boston Marathon, and highlight a major flaw in journalism and the deterioration of availability of accurate and reliable information.

Social Media as a Tool to Eliminate Corruption

During last Thursday’s presentation we discussed the potential that online social media can have as an international development tool. Finding alterative uses for social networks that address problems within communities can be of great use to solve problems that are specific to the development world. One such instance is the case of corruption, a problem that’s common in the developing world. Through the use of the social network ipaidabribe  users can anonymously mention instances where they paid a bribe creating a registry of corrupt officials and officers in the country. Although the site was previously mentioned in this blog I would like to expand on the way it works and its potential for the developing world.

 

Currently, the main site is focused on corruption instances in India with alternate webpages for Greece, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. Additionally, it is currently developing web pages to report corruption in Azerbaijan, South Africa, Ukraine and Tunisia. To address corruption, the webpage is divided into 3 main sites: I paid a bribe, I am a bribe fighter, and I met an honest officer.  Through these sections of the webpage individuals can provide reports of instances where they were forced to pay a bribe, where they asked for one but refused to pay it and where they received help from an especially helpful government-employed person without him asking for a bribe. In these reports the individuals can detail as much as they want the situation pinpoint exactly information that may lead to the identification of those that asked for bribes or refused them.

 

Through this method awareness is brought to the problem of corruption and by identifying individuals that demand bribes their supervisors or law enforcement agencies can investigate the issue and give the appropriate sanctions. With almost 2,000,000 reports in India alone the system seems to be working and helping reduce corruption in the country.

Social Media in Thailand

In an earlier blog post, I talked about Thailand’s ICT usage and found that Thailand has a higher usage than many developing countries.  Unsurprisingly, Thailand is also very active in social media.

Thailand has a population of approximately 69 million people.  About 30% are online, according to Internet World Stats.

 

comScore reported that social networking is used by 96% of internet users and accounts for 30% of all time spent online in Thailand, with the third top website visited being Facebook.  As of February 2013, there are over 18 million Thai facebook users, which ranks Thailand 13 in the world.  Thailand has added over 1,000,000 new Facebook users in just the last six months.  Twitter and Instagram are not as popular, with only 1.5 million Twitter accounts and 800,000 pictures on Instagram with the hashtag “#Thailand.”  Thailand’s Facebook usage is extremely high – 74% compared to 47% in Italy, according to GlobalWebIndex.

Many attribute the large growth and use of Facebook in Thailand to gaming – a huge industry in Thailand.  Many young Thai’s also enjoy Facebook for connecting with friends and sharing pictures.

Source: http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/4/comScore_Announces_Availability_of_Online_Audience_Measurement_Services_for_Thailand

 

Source: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/thailand

Marcello Mari, Social Engagement Lead at GlobalWebIndex said, “Thailand is definitely one of the most interesting markets for what concerns the Social Media landscape. At GlobalWebIndex we track 31 countries in the World and we recently rolled out a simple and comparable measure which enables the exploration of how engaged different markets are. Asia (with the exception of Japan) dominates, with China leading the way regardless of the demographics compared. Thailand ranks 9th in this peculiar list behind Brazil, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, the most engaged country in the world according to the SEB [Social Engagement Benchmark] score.”

 

Social media is being used by the Thailand Department of Tourism to promote special events, festivals, and to attract tourists.  Additionally, social media has played a role in natural disasters in Thailand, such as the floods in 2011.  Social media sites helped Thai’s relay important information to their networks, which both helped save lives and keep the public informed, but attracted many more users, says reporter Michelle Fitzpatrick.  Social media also plays an important political role in Thailand, helping connect activists and spread awareness.  This is especially critical and sometimes dangerous under Thailand’s strict lese-majeste laws, for which the punishment is 15 years in prison.  Social media is starting to play a larger role in elections, however due to political tensions, it is often monitored and censored during elections.

Overall, Thailand’s social media use is impressive, especially for a developing country.  The usage is growing and shows a lot of promise and potential.

 

No Facebook?! — Social Media in China

An article on Fobes.com written by Henry Fong, the CEO of Yodo1 (a company that helps developers enter the China mobile gaming market) gave me some insight into the social media situation in China. My favorite quote from the article is Fong’s statement: “Facebook and Twitter will never dominate China (even if they were allowed there)” – so I will dissect this a little bit for you.

Yes, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are all blocked in China. Although China has it’s own set of state-approved versions of these networks, you must wonder, why can’t they just use Facebook like the rest of us? Fong argues that Facebook is not conducive to China (or, rather, China is not conducive to Facebook) because its two main sources of revenue are advertisements and gaming; but both of these activities are highly regulated in China, and would require government licenses at every turn. With such strict monitoring, the system would be slow and inefficient, and therefore, unpopular.

Fortunately, China seems to be doing just fine without Facebook in the way of social media. In fact, according to Fong, there are more social media users in China than there are Facebook users in the entire world. As of October 2012, there were approximately one billion social media users in a population of 1.4 billion.

China’s social media platforms share the spotlight more equally compared to the US—several of their networks exceed 100 million active users, while in the US, Facebook and Twitter largely dominate the social media scene. The following Chinese social media networks have exceeded 100 million users (the parenthesis indicate the US ‘equivalent’ to these Chinese networks– also see picture below):

• QQ/Qzone (Facebook): 700 million +
• Sina Weibo (Twitter): 400 million +
• Tencent Weibo (Twitter): 200-250 million +
• WeiXin (WhatsApp): 100 million +
• Douban (MySpace): 100 million +
• Renren (Facebook): 100 million +

(photo shows social media equivalents in China)

In China, there are many more popular social media networks to choose from, and therefore more competition. This would likely also prevent US networks like Facebook or Twitter from “dominating China,” as aforementioned.

On a slightly different note, given these high penetration rates, a lot of pressure is being put on the government and businesses in China to understand and utilize social media in order to effectively reach their citizens and clients, respectively. As the population of internet and social media users increases, more and more pressure is being put on the government to increase transparency, which could be a good thing for the citizens of China.

To close, a quote by Sam Flemming (Founder and CEO of CIC, the first and foremost provider of social business intelligence in China) : “China has the most complicated, fragmented and developed social media landscape in the world with a unique online culture that requires its own specialized understanding.”

Sources:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/10/25/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-chinese-social-media/

http://globalthinkers.com/2011/12/social-media-in-china/

Latinos in Social Media

I was stumbling around trying to find an example of an ICT4D social media project in the Dominican Republic that was successful. What I came across was a project that was started using its social media to find volunteers and other resources through its online community. The project, LATISM in Montecristo, is one that involves the start of a summer camp that will provide educational resources and a cyber-lab which will provide the technological resources like computers and software for the village. The small village of Montecristo is located along the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, lacking any resources for access to the Internet and information that is readily available to the rest of the world. The project also involves a source for ending the gender-gap that is seen in computer access, with Mamá por Mamá  (mother to mother), which will provide mothers in the local area with computer and e-commerce skills.

This project is a pilot program that is being set up by LATISM, which is the largest organization of Latino and Latina professionals engaged in social media. This project could be seen as a difficult first step, conquering a massive task of getting a sustainable development project in a remote area of the Dominican Republic. This will prove to whether a non-profit based on social media has the ability to take roots in a marginalized area of the Dominican Republic.

Katrina:The Exploitation of African Americans and Their Bodies

This week our class discussed social media. Additionally, we had a speaker discuss social medias role in natural disasters, specifically she spoke about how social media helped residents stay informed about details regarding hurricane Sandy. This talk made me think of Hurricane Katrina, and a previous class discussion I had in my African American Politics class with Professor Melissa Harris -Perry. The discussion entailed how social media can be used as a tool to exploit and perpetuate racism among African Americans . The use of social media can be both beneficial as well as harmful to the public sphere. When used in negative ways, it is the most detrimental to marginalized and oppressed communities due to their lack of representation and resources.

The detrimental storm of Hurricane Katrina occurred in August of 2005, killing 1,800 people. While it enacted enormous physical and fiscal damage to most Gulf cities, it also had profound political consequences for New Orleans. Social media played a keen role in the coverage of this storm, where it exploited the New Orleans African American population. In Melissa Harris-Perry’s book Sister Citizen, she discusses how Katrina was also a “catastrophe of misrecognition (136)”, in which the real-time media footage of the disaster unfolding allowed the whole nation to witness and interpret what was happening in New Orleans. She quotes survey data illuminating the “wide perceptual gulf (136)” that existed between how white and black Americans perceived the disaster, with black Americans significantly more likely to view racial inequality as an important lesson of the governmental failure and to hold the belief that response would have been faster if most disaster victims had been white.

The  front cover of the Economist newspaper stirred up controversy and received critical backlash. That weeks issue featured  a nameless, middle aged African American Women wearing a yellow New Orleans tee shirt with emotions of distraught with the headline  ”The Shaming of America” covering the entire front page. The picture and headline further added to the exploitation of Female African Americans and their bodies, portraying them as vulnerable and helpless. -metapsychology review of  Sister Citizen, features Melissa Harris –Perry’s view how the Economist manipulated and exploited the nameless black woman on the cover. The review states: “Her agonized visage is exploited as a bridge to public understanding of the ordeal faced by her and other black women. Through her face the world witnesses both the humiliation of the personal and the political in the delayed response to help her (metapsychology.mentalhelp.net, 2012)”.

Perry, Melissa V.. Sister citizen: shame, stereotypes, and Black women in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. Print.

Social Media for Ending Corruption

After discussing the many positives of social media in development, especially in countries facing a hostile and volatile political environment, it sparked my interest in researching other social media channels.  I came across the website, ipaidabribe.com, and thought it related directly to our class discussions. The  purpose of the site is express of corrupt practices to voice the public opinion when dealing with private governments and/or institutions. Currently, the website is used India, Greece, Pakistan, Kenya, and  Zimbabwe with several other countries in the works. The site also allows for anonymity and essentially provides a record of “snapshot” of  corrupt activity that’s occurring in a country to provide proof to back arguments for improvements in policy and to increase government transparency. This website is a great channel for using social media in the developing world facing harsh political regimes among other corruption. This sort of social media reminds me of the political uprisings we read about that occurred during the Arab Spring, and should be continued to be utilized.

 

 

http://www.ipaidabribe.com