I’m proud — really proud — to present this year’s edition of the UOC UNESCO Chair in e-Learning International Seminar, Fighting the digital divide through education, in which I am part of the academic committee (i.e. I’ll be attending the Seminar).
UOC UNESCO Chair in e-Learning Fifth International Seminar is going to held in Barcelona between the 12th and 14th of November, 2008, and is aimed to debate the different possible solutions to the digital divide problem, cataloguing and analyzing success stories where ICT have played an important role in the development of education, in spite of technological and social barriers.
The Seminar is primarily addressed to:
* Top management at universities: presidents, vice presidents, general managers and executive......
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Digital Divide,
ICT4D,
meetings,
Digital Literacy,
Education & e-Learning,
begoña gros,
tim unwin,
Ivan Krstić,
Linda G. Roberts,
Sugata Mitra,
Teemu Leinonen,
uoc unesco chair
These are the materials I used on a seminar belonging to the Executive Master in e-Governance organized by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and partnered by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
ICTs, development and government: from e-Readiness to e-Awareness
Presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/ictlogist/icts-development-and-government-from-ereadiness-to-eawareness-presentation/
Recommended Readings
Association for Progressive Communications & Instituto del Tercer Mundo (2007). Global Information Society Watch 2007. [online]: APC & ITeM. (See, especially, pages 77-95)
Assignment
Take your home country as the basis.
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of this country in the following five fields:
Infrastructures
ICT Sector
Digital Literacy
Content and......
These are the materials I used on a seminar belonging to the Executive Master in e-Governance organized by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and partnered by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
ICTs, development and e-government 2.0: empowering the citizenry
Presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/ictlogist/icts-development-and-egovernment-20-empowering-the-citizenry-presentation/
Recommended Readings
Escher, T. & Margetts, H. (2007). Understanding Governments and Citizens On-line: Learning from E-commerce. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Chicago (30. August - 2. September 2007).. Oxford: OII.
Fages, R. & Sangüesa, R. (2008). “Good practice exchange from a Web 2.0 point of view”. In
European...
Notes from the course Network Society: Social Changes, Organizations and Citizens, Barcelona, 15-17 October, 2008.
How do social change organizations innovate?Ethan Zuckerman, Harvard Berkman Center
Social organizations do not innovate, do it badly, or just do it slowly. Quite usually, the assumption is to be unrealistic about the power of technology to enable social change.
Facing a blank canvas gives you the idea that everything is possible. But good art is about constraint. And if you don’t know your constraints, figure them out.
Innovation comes from constraint
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail saying does not apply to innovation: innovation is about hacking the hammer and making it better.
Von Hipple (see “more info” below): Lead user...
In
Information Society,
Ethan Zuckerman,
sociedadred,
sociedadred2008,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism,
Digital Divide,
ICT4D,
meetings
Francesc Balagué (interesting reading if you’re into Education 2.0, in Spanish) asks me for some references around new science publishing and diffusion systems (e.g. blogs).
Best I can do is provide the references of my own readings, gathered into a collection I named Research Blogs and Blogging for Science Diffusion ( ). Here comes a snapshot of this evolving collection:
Canessa, E. & Zennaro, M. (Eds.) (2008). Science Dissemination using Open Access. A compendium of selected literature on Open Access. Trieste: ICTP.
Chan, L., Kirsop, B. & Arunachalam, S. (2005). “Open Access Archiving: the fast track to building research capacity in developing countries”. In SciDev.Net, November 2005. London: SciDev.
Davis, P. M. (2006). “Do Open-Access articles really...
Ricard Ruiz de Querol — always worth reading him — has an interesting reflection around the alternatives for an ICT sector (in Spanish). Based on the Financial Times article , the issue is whether and how it is possible to foster a national ICT sector so that it becomes a driver, and a locomotive, of development, in substitution of other traditional (obsolete) industries like oil, mining or raw materials.
Ricard highlights to trends to keep in mind:
Developing an ICT industry to foster competitiveness of other established industries
Protecting the local market from foreign competitors, trying to nationally replicate foreign technology and services
Recent history has provided good examples — Ireland, Finland… even Bangalore or Bangladesh — of strategies focused on the...
HIVOS is currently undertaking a survey to get a better understanding on how existing or new technologies (ICT) can support citizens at scale to be an active, involved participant of society. I was invited by Marc Lepage to take part in it, which I appreciate as it is always good to be reminded to think once in a while. Here come the questions and the short answers I gave to the survey, in part because it was a requisite, in part because of lack of time to do it better.
In 5 years time, what do you think will be the technology most used by citizens in developing countries to get information and to interact with others (including government)? Please, elaborate on your answer.
Personally, I find it reasonable to think that mobile phones will still be the most used technology. On one hand,...
I’ve been recently asked to give some advice on what topics and what issues should be included in a literature review introducing an e-Readiness assessment on Ethiopia. Here comes what my thoughts are:
Starting point and References
To begin with, the next categories from my own bibliographic manager are one possible place where to start digging about such works, being the former the more relevant:
e-Readiness
Digital Divide
ICT4D
Yes, this produces hundreds of references that are all of them (or almost) worth having a look at. To make it easier, one can then look for some other literature reviews and/or comprehensive approaches to the topic, so that we are pointed to the main references in the field. In the case of e-Readiness and Ethiopia, I believe the next ones are musts:
All...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Gudrun Wicander, Karlstadt University:
The Use of Mobile Telephones as a Tool for Capture Statistical Data
A need for efficient management of primary education, based on an education management information system (EMIS) in developing countries (Tanzania). But how do we collect data in these communities? Can mobile phones help in this?
First, a mapping of the information flow in primary education administration and the data flow within EMIS was drawn. Second step will be mapping mobile phone ownership and use.
Background: rise in enrolment rates in Tanzania, with retention and drop out problems due to overcrowding, financing and inefficiency problems, etc....
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Andrew Mollel, University of Joensuu: The legal and regulatory framework for ICT in developing countries
ICT Regulation at the international level: no distinct international ICT body of laws, but a gathering of different related issues: WIPO, UNCITRAL, ITU, WTO, UNDP, etc.
But the changes that the Information Society brings in, they affect the national regulation of Tanzania, e.g. Tanzania Evidence Act, 1967; documentary evidence, electronic signature…
So, national rules are affected, but there is not such a thing as an international agreement or framework to have a common legal framework.
More info
Andrew L. Mollel & Zakayo N. Lukumay (2007)...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Raimo Haapakorpi, Tumaini University: Directing the IT department at Tumaini University in Tanzania
SWOT methodology to analyse the work of an ICT director in a Tanzanian university.
Some of the strengths/weaknesses are based on cultural issue. Sometimes highest (personal) commitment is not liked to the sufficient knowledge to achieve some specific goals. And while strong opportunities seem to be coming in the horizon because of the deployment of ITs and IT training, loss of key staff and the cost of management are threats to be seriously taken into account.
How to motivate IT professionals… and retain skilled ones in the country, avoiding them to get...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Keynote speechSeugnet Blignaut: ICT development in South Africa, a comparison between Finland and South Africa using SITES 2006 project data
Sometimes education (specially syllabuses designed in the “North” for the “South”) do not takes into account everyday skills, skills and literacy used during daily tasks: reading, writing, numeracy skills, social skills, information literacy, communication, Internet browsing, etc.
So we have to design — as South Africa is doing right now — an e-Education Policy that aims at the achievement of such ICT or digital skills for everyday life. And a priority of this policy is equity: poverty and equal...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Pieter Joubert, University of Pretoria: Socio-Technical Assumptions and Sustainability in ICT4D
High rate of failure or information systems in developing countries (Heeks, 2002). Due to several reasons: skills, infrastructure management, etc. What makes a project sustainable?
Several projects in South Africa were evaluated to find major trends. Methodology: semi-structured interviews, document analysis, direct observation. Some findings:
Assumed the technology would work
Assumed only technical skills were required
Reported to have patience with digitally illiterate users
Assumed there would be technical support
Level of technical maturity model:
assumed...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
WorkshopErkki Sutinen: Innovation
Two ways/branches to engage in ICT4D:
Departure point: existing technologies. Check the developing context where to put the existing technologies so that something new arises
Identify a developing context. Develop a new technology appropriate for that developing context.
Other infos
Nokia Research Center(NoRA)
Sheila Kinkade (2008) Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Nelson Godfried Agyemang, University of Pretoria: A Sustainability Framework for Advanced ICT Education in a Developing country
Nelson Godfried Agyemang
How to make sustainable Postgraduate in ICT education programmes in developing countries.
Action research methodology.
Kurt Lewin’s iterative process: diagnose, action planning, action taking, evaluating, specifying learning.
Important point: not to take research for consultancy.
Different sustainability stages: outcomes, processes, context, etc.
In the digitizing sustainability, not everything can be digitized.
Tersia Gowases, University of Joensuu: Impacts of Higher Education Institutions of an...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Keynote speechTim Unwin: ICT4D - where next?
Tim Unwin
Thoughts on a framework for reflecting on ICT4D
The importance of the D in ICT4D. Predominance of development as “economic growth” and “poverty elimination”. Development definitions should be put in context.
What’s empowerment? Empowerment cannot be exogenous. Habermas’s critical theory as a guide: theory of knowledge constitutive interests. The role of the researcher as the psychoanalyst of the society, to make people (e.g. leaders) think and reflect.
Three main drivers of (new) research:
From individual focused approaches to communal focused ones
Avoid...
Notes from the IPID ICT4D PG symposium 2008, Mekrijärvi Research Station, Joensuu University, Finland. 8 and 9 September, 2008.
Edephonce N. Nfuka, Stockholm University: A Holistic Approach for IT Governance in the Public sector Organizations in a Developing Country: A Case Study of Tanzania
What is IT Governance? Business support, IT risks, performance, delivery time, service cost, service quality, etc. Basically, business people have to be aligned with IT people.
A holistic approach covering the following areas of improvement:
Leadership
Effective coordination mechanisms
Reasonable IT investment
Research question: how could IT Governance in the public sector in a developing country be streamlined in order to improve public services delivery? A framework for effective governance:...
I’ve been working lately analyzing 47 models that describe — explicitly or implicitly — the Information Society. Some of them speak of access as the existence of infrastructures; other cannot conceive any effective access without capacity (i.e. digital skills); some others do have quite a broad understanding of what access is and include many nondigital/analogue variables to explain their model.
On one hand, all models (or almost) have their reasons: depending on what are your objectives, you are measuring a different thing and/or think of different conceptions of the Information Society — and the digital divide.
On the other hand, the problem is that this is just like speaking in different tongues, a Babel Tower, where quite often people, institutions, projects, indicators...
Economist Jeffrey Sachs signed on August 21 2008 an article at — The digital war on poverty — in which, summing up, he explains that [t]Thanks to market forces, even the world’s poorest people are beginning to benefit from the flow of digital information. Not that I do not agree, in general, with what is explained in his article, but there are some clarifications I’d like to make.
Over all, the tone of the article is optimistic. I am too optimistic about the ends, but not on the actual estate of the situation nowadays. Besides, I’m becoming more sceptic about leapfrogging, which is one of the strong points made by Sachs. Don’t get me wrong: I do believe ICTs are a revolution and will provide renewed energies for those who will be capable of benefiting from...
Three years ago I set up ICT4D Courses, a repository where I would be uploading learning materials related to training courses in the field of ICT4D.
After that time, the repository has not grown at all — it was somehow part of my MPhil’s dissertation.
On the other hand, I had recently created ICTlogy Learning Materials Series, a place where to upload the learning materials that I had created.
Now, it does not make sense to be having two different places for the same thing: open educational resources, so I merged them into one. The URLs have not changed, just the respository, that now holds everything concerning open educational resources:
http://courses.ictlogy.net
You’ll see it missing from the top menu, but you can always access it at the Bibliography,...
The PhD on the Information and Knowledge Society Programme recently opened the call for candidates — including 10 full time fellowships —, offering 33 student places in the following fields:
Computer Science and Networking Technologies
Community and Social Action
Law and ICT
eGovernance
eLearning
Information Systems
New Economy
Technology and health
Technology and Education System
Research Programmes
As said, UOC’s research institute, the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, offers 10 grants for full-time PhDs that are carried out physically in its headquarters in Castelldefels’s Mediterranean Technology Park (20 minutes from Barcelona). It carries a stipend and access to travel funds.
Please visit the PhD programme’s website, for detailed information about the...
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Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
uoc,
in3,
phd,
e-Readiness,
e-Government, e-Administration,
ICT4D,
Digital Literacy
Enrique Canessa and Marco Zennaro — both from the Science Dissemination Unit of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics — have collected a a compendium of selected literature on Open Access in their new book Science Dissemination using Open Access.
The book is part of the effort that the ICTP Science Dissemination Unit is doing to promote Open Access as a driver for development (including the Using Open Access Models for Science Dissemination seminar), being a means to enable knowledge diffusion within, towards and from developing countries, by leveraging the potential that open access specially brings to science both at the institutional and individual levels.
The book’s concept is to be a practical tool to steward the open access paradigm with real...
Seminar by professor José Manuel Robles, at UOC headquarters, 3 July 2008, about digital citizenry and political engagement of Internet users.
Digital Citizenry: Political engagement and ideology of Spanish Internet users
See what are the differences between heavy Internet users and offliners in relationship with their political behaviour, interests, etc.
At a first glance:
Left wing Internet users are almost four times more numerous than right wing ones.
The mean of political though at the Internet is slightly biased towards the left in comparison with the whole of the population
Internet users say to be more interested than people offline in culture (2x), labour issues (1.5x) or information and communication (4x)
So, why are Internet users more likely to be left winged than right...
I’m pleased to announce an event of which I’m part of the organizing committee, the course Network Society: Social changes, organizations and citizens, to take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 15 to 17 October de 2008.
Some info about the course:
Website of the course, with more information about the speakers, fees, registration, etc.
Facebook Event
There will be translation to and from Spanish and English
PROGRAMME: NETWORK SOCIETY: SOCIAL CHANGES, ORGANIZATIONS AND CITIZENS
Day 1 - Wednesday 15 October
Introduction
09h00 - 09h30 : Opening
09h30 - 10h30 : Juan Freire - Presentation of the course
10h30 - 11h00 : Café
Citizenship in the Network Society
Chairs: Marc López
11h00 - 12h30 : Carol Darr
12h30 - 14h00 : Tom Steinberg
14h00 - 16h00 : Lunch
Organizations in the...
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development,
antoni gutierrez-rubi,
genis roca,
ismael peña-lópez,
Andrew Rasiej,
Carlos Domingo,
Carol Darr,
David Weinberger,
Enrique Dans,
Gumersindo Lafuente,
Josu Jon Imaz,
Juan Freire,
Marc López Plana,
Miguel Cereceda,
Miquel Iceta,
Tom Steinberg,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
Ethan Zuckerman,
sociedadred,
sociedadred2008,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism,
e-Government, e-Administration,
ICT4D,
meetings
In a seminar I imparted in January — Fostering the Information Society for Development in the Web 2.0 framework: from push to pull strategies — the case of Spain — I suggested that the most developed countries had reached sort of a threshold of installed infrastructures. Of course, this threshold could be pushed up and more infrastructures (or better and cheaper ones) could be installed, but the development of the Information Society would barely rely on that.
According to the data available, I wondered whether the solution might be shifting from push to pull strategies, parallel to the shift that we’ve been living in the web landscape towards the so-called Web 2.0.
This is the chart I then presented:
[click to enlarge]
Now, with data from the World Bank we can draw another...
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World Bank,
Ireland,
Spain,
push,
Finland,
demand,
kam,
kei,
ki,
e-Readiness,
e-Government, e-Administration,
ICT4D
(notes from the homonimous session at the bdigital Global Congress)
Moderator: Begoña Gros
Three main reports issued in 2007 in Spain about ICTs at Schools. The conclusions are more or less the same: everyone uses ICTs (teachers and students) but not at school.
Ismael Peña-LópezDigital students, analogue institutions, teachers in extinction
Jordi VivancosKnowledge and Learning Technologies, a transforming vision of ICT in Education
The Educational sector (i.e. teachers) is one of the sectors with highest penetration in the use of ICTs. So, teachers are not analogue anymore.
The design of the traditional syllabus did not make possible the introduction of ICTs in the educational programmes, especially the acquisition of digital competencies. This was solved (in Catalonia) in year 2006,...
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bdigital global congress,
acpdecrp,
antoni zabala,
grao,
jordi vivancos,
manuel de la fuente,
ismael peña-lópez,
uoc,
Digital Divide,
ICT4D,
meetings,
Digital Literacy,
Education & e-Learning,
begoña gros
(notes from the homonimous session at the bdigital Global Congress)
Moderator: Miquel Mateu
Tim KellySuccess factors for national ICT strategies: Case studies from global leaders
How do we recognise and measure success in ICTs?
Universal service:
Avaiability
Accessibility
Affordability
But new concerns or challenges that should be included in ICT measuring:
Participation
Quality and intensity of access
Lifestyle enhancement
Ubiquity of access: At anytime, by anyone, anywhere, to anything
Different perceptions of what quality is: reliability? time of response? depending on user and use.
For instance, in terms of proportion of Internet users, the digital divide is shrinking, but new types of digital divide are appearing, the most important of all, the broadband divide: broadband costs...
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Connectivity,
amadeu jensana,
doi,
jordi bosch,
miquel mateu,
pilar conesa,
red.es,
sebastian muriel,
tim kelly,
u-city,
bdigital global congress,
e-Readiness,
Digital Divide,
ICT4D,
meetings
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session VIII.
Round Table: Eager Citizens. Entrepreneurs.Chairs: Oscar Espiritusanto
Lorena Fernández
In the “web 2.0 gold rush”, are we constantly looking for gold? And what happens when one finds gold in a bed? How many Youtube clones? How profitable those clones?
But… what’s profit? Money? Only an entrepreneur if wins money? What about the benefits of linkonomics (link and being linked)?
The engine of the Net is people, not money.
What’s an entrepreneur? Is an entrepreneur someone that starts up an enterprise… to be sold to Google?
The (typical) Entrepreneur — builds an enterprise for… — vs. the Social Entrepreneur — builds an enterprise...
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session VI.
Round Table: Round Table: Jornalism on the NetChairs: Julio Rodríguez de la Plata
Are we creating/entering the Global Village?
Fernando Jáuregui
(New) Social Networks challenge the traditional way people is informed. Journals (and media in general) have to shape their discourse to this new reality. Hence, digital journalism is not geek stuff, but a “legal revolution”, a habits revolution, etc. to cope with this new civilization. We have to “naturalize” the new information needs and the solutions to meet these needs.
Requisites for the mainstreaming of digital journalism:
End of anonymity: opinion has to be signed by real people.
Interactivity.
End of...
There is a constant buzz on the importance of blogs as both proxies for the freedom of speech in one country and also as the paradigmatic tool for citizen participation, activism, advocacy and so on. But, what’s the reality behind this (strong) statement? Is it just the mad dream of an enlightened digerati, or is there some truth in blogs politically empowering the citizenry?
These are some of the questions behind iCities: Primeras Jornadas sobre Blogs, e-Government y Participación Digital [First Conference on Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation]. Preparing the opening speech, which I impart on Friday 9th May 2008, I found some interesting things.
Even if data have to be taken with maximum care and minimum work was performed on the statistical apparatus, it does seem that...