Florencio CeballosIDRC: Learnings, limitations and challenges from the telecentre.org experience
Crisis of performance, effectiveness, results, etc. in development cooperation, despite the increasing amount of resources devoted to it.
Reasons
Industrial way of thinking, not post-industrial. The actual development paradigm is old and not valid. We need a new, up-to-date paradigm.
Focus on pilot projects that are not maintained after the pilot phase, so they die in the medium- or long-run.
Short-sightedness of asymmetric internationalism: there’s more and more knowledge in the South about south issues than in the north, so don’t (you northern developed country) look at your local environment, because it does not mirror the southern reality.
Money is an issue, but not the......
Live notes at Cooperación al Desarrollo 2.0: I Encuentro Internacional de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación para la Cooperación al Desarrollo [Cooperation for Development 2.0: I International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Cooperation for Development], in Gijón, Spain, 30 and 31 January 2008.
Keynote speech: Manuel Acevedo
The challenges of the integration of ICTs in a networked cooperation
How do we integrate ICTs in Development Cooperation? What does “networked cooperation” exactly means?
Human Development and Network Society
Human Development according to Amartya Sen: not only “physical” development, possibilities, but also capabilities, entitlements.
Network Society according to Manuel Castells: everything...
Manuel Castells is a scientific I admire. There are things I share — most of them — and things I don’t. Right now I’m working hard with two works of him:
Castells, M. (2000). “Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society”. In British Journal of Sociology, Jan-Mar 2000, 51(1), 5-24. London: Routledge.
Castells, M. (2004). “Informationalism, Networks, And The Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint”. In Castells, M. (Ed.), The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
which I find really interesting and a recommended reading for everyone.
This is why I find so disappointing when an author of his stature can so absurdly sleep out of the road by writing:
the Internet is quickly becoming a medium of interactive...
In
ICT Infrastructures,
facebook,
web 2.0,
beer,
burrows,
instant messaging,
lessig,
manuel castells,
MSN,
SNS,
social networking sites,
Participation
Next January 30th and 31st takes place the Cooperación al Desarrollo 2.0: I Encuentro Internacional de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación para la Cooperación al Desarrollo [Cooperation for Development 2.0: I International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Cooperation for Development], in Gijón, Spain.
I have been invited to chair one of the four workgroups of the event, actually the one that is more focused on Cooperation for Development 2.0, the one called Networking Cooperation - towards the networked Cooperation.
I have also been asked to write an article, a position paper to start up the debate. It will be coming in the next days, but in the meanwhile, I’m working on the following concepts/keywords:
Network: Everything will be...
Last Friday 23rd I had the luck to attend the third day (out of three) of the IV Encuentro de e-Inclusión: e-inclusión para la construcción de la ciudadanía, a national meeting of telecentre instructors about e-Inclusion that focused on participation and the Web 2.0, and was organized by the Fundación Esplai.
I had committed to impart the opening speech about the general concepts that the Web 2.0 metaphor usually talks about. You can see my simple presentation here:
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And also download it both in Spanish (the original) and translated to English:
¿Qué dicen que es la Web Social? (688 Kb)
What do they say the Social Web is? (686 Kb)
But, as it is usual in this kind of events, the best was yet to come. The audience — around one hundred telecentre...
Notes on the seminar at UOC’s Law and Political Science School Reconsidering the analysis of the uses of ICTs by political parties: an application to the Catalan case, presented by Albert Batlle, Rosa Borge, Ana Sofía Cardenal and Albert Padró-Solanet, after their homonimous communication at the 4th ECPR General Conference in Pisa.
Is there a crisis on political participation?
From 1950 to our days, participation in elections has notably decreased in most developed countries.
Same applies when we look both at the membership/voters ratio and the absolute membership volume.
Electoral volatility — voters changing the party they vote — also increases.
Why those changes?
Positive approach: changes in cleavages that explained vote intention and no longer can so clearly explain vote...
When preparing my speech about The Web 2.0 and the role of the University for the UOC UNESCO Chair in Elearning Fourth International Seminar: Web 2.0 and Education, I gathered a good bunch of references to prepare what I wanted to say. You can find all the references I used — and some more, added after — after this words. But as this is an evolving selection, the up-to-date version of this list can always be consulted here: A Reader on Web 2.0 and Education. Feel free to write back to me with proposals for inclusion in the list and/or corrections for found errors.
The collection is far more than just “Education” or “University” or “Web 2.0″ but pretends to give a framework comprehensive enough to approach the Education 2.0 phenomenon. I personally...
Two questions launched to the audience. Gathered on the fly, some might be redundant:
The most inspiring thing that you will take home from the conference
So much going on
All about people
Discovered progress achieved in Africa
Interdisciplinarity, so many people engaged/interested in these issues
RSS feeds to unlock the information on websites
The Web 2.0 allows the dissemination of content
Some people have already implemented some Web 2.0 applications
But there’s still a lot of work to be done, and you have to work hard
Even if there are strong barriers to Web 2.0 implementation, most people in developing countries believe that once you have infrastructures (computers, connectivity) the remaining barriers (literacy, change of mind…) will be easily overcome
These...
Michael Saunby
Climate Change Mashups
Climate change: not a change in the climate but (also) a change in the variability of the climate.
By looking at the map applications, it is easier to see where e.g. there’ll be water stress in the (nearest) future, or human health crisis due to high ozone levels.
Mashups are about e.g. enough people collecting, reusing and distributing public sector information on already existing (commercial) online applications — e.g. Google Earth — so anyone can contribute again and close the loop — and make the scope of diffusion way wider.
It’s possible to mashup news RSS feeds with Google Earth so you can geolocate where the news took place.
To my (provoking) “concern” that you might be putting all your eggs in one basket, and...
Giacomo Rambaldi
The Story of Web2ForDev
Used DGroups, Website, Google Analytics, Blog, Wiki, Social Bookmarking, Google Coop, Facebook… and many more.
We were technologically not ready when the whole thing began, not even had proper microphones for skype conferences, but they’ve caught up at tremendous speed. Keeping up-to-date with fast changing technologies.
Different work style and attitudes required by innovative appraoch and “new” technologies.
Rules and regulations within institutions, such as security concerns.
Getting to the minimum level of equipment (low investment)
Main outputs of the online effort:
Trust and respect
A virtual community based on DGroups
ITrainonline
Blog, Wiki, Social bookmarks, RSS
Participatory Learning Action and EJISDC articles
A...
Ethan Zuckerman
Web 2.0: Simple Tools & Smart People
It’s not about technology — which, by the way, is quite old —, it’s about people. People have always found ways to communicate through the Internet by using features of applications that were not designed to do so, e.g. chating by using an online chess game.
The mobile phone is the biggest revolution in telecommunications — not laptops, not handhelds… — because it changes all the rules of the game. e.g. in Kenya you can pay a taxi with your mobile phone… but you can’t in the United States.
Interactive Radio for Justice: radio + mobile phone project.
Mobilemonitors.org, to make elections more transparent thanks to mobile enhanced monitoring.
Manal and Alaa’s bit bucket, using blogs as a...
Tobias Eigen
Wikis, Blogs and Online Profiles for African NGOs at Kabissa – Space for Change in Africa
Empower civil society so they can better act as change agents.
African organizations are using web 2.0 but not actively in support of their mission, mostly because of lack of understanding of the tools due to poor access, and, sometimes, because they get misled by technical (unnecessary? geeky? cool? trendy?) terminology (buzz? hype?).
So, keep it simple, keep it useful, keep it understandable.
Caleb Wall
Cairo Concept: Village to Village Knowledge Sharing
It’s going to be successful it the user finds it useful. Accessible, easy… is just not enough.
Set up a Virtual Development Neighborhood, to design together, with the future/potential user, how the network, the...
Alioune Thioune, Fatou Dieng Sarr
Dispositif de Collaboration et Partage de Données pour la Communauté Scientifique: Cas du Système d’Information Scientifique et Technique (SIST) du Sénégal [Collaboration and Data Sharing Device por the Scientific Community: Senegal’s Scientific and Technical Information System case]
Twofold goal: make available information about Senegal for everyone and make accessible information from developed countries for Senegal researchers.
Find information: syndicated search
Exchange: discussion fora, wikis
Know and let know: e-mail subscriptions, RSS feeds
More info:
Thierry Helmer - L’accès à l’Information Scientifique et Technique: Dispositif SIST [Access to Scientific and Technical Information: SIST Device on a previous session on the...
Armelle Arrou
Open Training Platform
Open Training Platform to share training materials. Open solutions allowing localization of the resources.
Content provided by UN agencies, development agencies, NGOs, foundations, associations… and in contact with Knowledge Centers, City Learning Centers, Civic Media Centers, IT kiosks, etc.
Avoid duplications, maximize existing resources circulation.
Prince Deh
Promoting Information and Knowledge Sharing through Vlogging
Vlogging requires low expertise or digital literacy, and there are plenty of (free) (online) tools to create, edit and upload your videos.
Major challenges
On the other hand, the major challenges are connectivity and/or access
the difficulty to get people share information and knowledge
Cost of equipment: camcorder,...
Thierry Helmer
L’accès à l’Information Scientifique et Technique: Dispositif SIST [Access to Scientific and Technical Information: SIST Dispositive
Strong bet for open archiving.
Meta search engines for syndicated search:
A single question to ask several databases, open access archives, websites, RSS feeds, etc.
A single RSS format for results representation.
Systematic access to the original source of data.
SIST also serves not only as a search engine, but also as a way of monitoring news and everything that’s happening on the Internet.
More info
Piece of news about CIRAD’s SIST
Mark Davies
Agric Market Information Systems 2.0: Making it Private, Profitable and Peer2Peer
Tradenet is open source software product to manage information: realtime SMS uploads from...
Luz Marina Alvaré, Nancy Walczak
Web 2.0 and IFPRI: Looking out and Looking in
Reach Internet users potentially interested in IFPRI’s work and engage them in a dialog.
Goal: extend web presence beyond institutional website
Goalk: establish dialogue on food policy issues: Blog World Hunger
Goal: help dispersed teams work more effectively: CGVlibrary
Goal: Quickly and collaboratively crate a list of best resources, e.g. by using del.icio.us
But also looking inside
Goal: increase participation, open communication, and create community: Let’s blog IFPRI, a blog on IFPRI’s intranet
Goal: to simplify the entry of content into IFPRI’s Intranet: using wikis as a content management system, avoiding bottlenecks, fostering initiative on the content creator/responsible...
Juha Hautakangas
Global Partnerships for Sharing Forest Related Information through the GFIS-Gateway at www.gfis.net
GFIS: information service that stores metadata on forestry “under the same roof”, providing accurate search results and reliable information.
The system interacts with other databases all over the world using RSS format, and using the Open Search specification as a standard interface for search engines.
Multilingual search aggregator, where content comes from RSS feeds generated through searches.
Ismael Peña-López
The personal research portal: web 2.0 driven individual commitment with open access for development
There is unchallenged evidence that both researchers and research interests in developing countries are underrepresented in mainstream academic...
Amit Dasgupta
Leveraging Web 2.0 to Develop Better Applications for Rural Communities
Despite the progress in technology in India, the benefits have not reached the agricultural community — 60% of India’s population. Mostly because of lack of access to information and knowledge.
But:
Without a large user base, difficult to justify cost
Large user base only if regional variations and localization needs are addressed
Web 2.0 can help:
Improve quality of information by linking information from multiple data sources
Reducte cost of content creating and deployment
Better access through multiple devicesw
Richer content using collective intelligence
Effective information exchange and knowledge management across geography through collaborative platforms
Besides the well known blogs...
The Web2forDev - Participatory Web for Development Conference is taking place at FAO Headquarters in Rome, organized by FAO, CTA, IICD, GTZ, UBC, IFAD, CGIAR, euforic, UCAD, APC, ACP and the European Commission. Here come my notes.
Presentation: Anton Mangstl
It’s the first time that the revolution is not about the development of systems, but empowerment.
Presentation: Hansjörg Neun
Holidays for me is getting no internet and no GSM. It is important not to get drowned by technologies, but to master them.
Jacques Diouf, Director-General Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Keynote Speech: Anriette Esterhuysen
The importance of ICTs in leapfrogging.
Skilled development, that can be enhanced/fostered by ICTs, and has traditionally been forgotten from the...
Keynote Speech: George Ritzer
Theorizing Web 2.0
While there are quite new things in the Web 2.0, they are not taking place in the larger society.
There’s quite a consensus that Web 2.0 is about consumption, buying… And a central issue is the collapse among consumption and production, the concept of the prosumer. Also the blurring distinction between the professional, the expert, the amateur.
Is prosuming that new? Marx already stated that production implied consumption. And in the McDonald’s model you also have the consumer as producer. And this is good for the owner: less costs, higher fitting of needs. From a marxian point of view, the consumer that produces produces nothing but surplus value, among other things because he does it for no pay.
In the Web 2.0 it looks...
Keynote Speech: Ian Forrester
Beyond the broadcast (trends and patterns moving forward)
Web 2.0 is not user generated content, but also the social, interactivity, the collective intelligence.
The BBC worked with projects and trials just as BBC Blogs, Feed Factory, Creative/Open Archive, Podcasts, Data Feeds, Data Apis, etc. The BBC Backstage wanted to stimulate creativity. Backstage is community: lively discussion lists, suggestions, social events, etc.
Backstage is also transparency: how in touch is the BBC with its audience.
Backstage is the Wild West: an opportunity to move prototypes onwards, to try out new technologies, to work with internal BBC staff directly, to shape the future of the BBC… and it’s changing the BBC: co-working, open coffee/lunch, grassroots support,...
Akiko Hemmi, Sian Bayne, Ray Land
Research methods for Web 2.0 practices: investigating e-learning using Web 2.0 in higher education
The importance of social context when writing/contributing to a wiki, e.g. others’ consent to be written about. Same, even more, when concerning changing others’ writings.
Second Life seems more suitable for informal chat than for exchange/creation of information and knowledge. Indeed, it is not a really reliable tool at this stage.
Identity issues in Second Life and Facebook and how you present your self (Goffman) in virtual realities.
Paolo Lattanzio, Mauro Sandrini
e-learning and web 2.0 – learning spaces for people or machines
The Web 2.0 is not, as it changes and evolves along time by using it.
Possibilities of strong personalization of...
Graham Lewis & Darren Reed
Science Blogs: Experimenting with practice and performance
What are science blogs?
Do they perform any science?
Or is it just science communication?
Or just merely personal diaries?
What are methodological and theoretical challenges for social science analysis
Partial immortalization blog, RealClimate.org
Mertonian norms or ideals (Merton (1954) The Normative Structure of Science
communism (communalism)
universalism
disinterestednesses
organised scepticism
Science in the real world
messy and complex
competitive
publish, prestige, tenured positions
funding
intellectual property
Scale of science blogging: 4% of the total (tagged “science” and found in Technorati)
ScienceBlogs.com
Nature Network, SciVee, LabAction, Second Life / Nature Island...
Matthew Row
Meervisage - A community based annotation tool
Semantic = meaning.
Ontology: Formal specification of concepts and relatinos between those concepts
Semantic web: Annotating web resources with semantic metadata using a predefined explicit ontology. Machine understandable information
The social web is not (yet) semantic
Cannot share anotations
Cannot audit and edit annotations socially
Lack of functionalities
Annotation requirements
Shared
Reviewed and edited
Collaborative
Stored centrally
Contain semantic data
Provide a communication layer
Resolved to content within a page
Anotation tools: Annotea, Piggy Bank, KIM
Ontologies preferred to folksonomies
Genenrate metadata when browsing web
Automatic an manual
Data-centric
Web 2.0 applications: Flickr, YouTube, del.icio.us...
Keynote Speech: Andrew Keen
The Cult of the Amateur
The Internet is not new, the Web 2.0 is not activating new forces. It just brings light to ancient trends but in another way.
Web 2.0 = hippies = no kind of authority. Most of the new wave of the Internet had the hippy experience.
The market is always right, even if Google is destroying newspapers, YouTube destroying the television, etc.
There’s the idea that media has been slavering people, cutting down creativity, and the Web 2.0 is here to save us, the ideal technology is going to bring us freedom.
Internet, and especially YouTube, is a perfect place for spin doctors, to trivialize the political debate, to bring worse democracy.
Mass media is good for quality and at great price. The Web 2.0 is undermining the quality of content....
Keynote Speech: Charles Leadbeater
We Think
The Ideas Commons.
Within the next years, lots of people coming from developing countries will be online: what does this mean? The place you come from matters, as it’ll shape the Internet.
Some organizations are built for the distribution of labour, but if creative work is not that easy to manage, what’s the role of organizations? Collaborative, distributed work and ways to perform it will reshape the world.
Recognition: what do people want…
Changes in the way we consume. Lots of ideas will come from the consumers, not the producers. New participative ethics in consumption, participative consumption… quite complicated to manage. The Apple store is not a shop, is a cathedral.
New models of leadership and ownership, with no...
Greg Hale
Pumping up the fun on Web 2.0: Can psychology give a helping hand?
“They” will use user generated content
What is user generated content — and who are “they”
Problem on doing research on films: everyone’s an expert on films.
Work with schemas, structure and cognitive structures.
Schema cluster: structural, behavioral, entities, actions.
Schema as a psychological regularity. Familiar schemas help people share experiences, identify patterns and situations, and thus congregate around user generated......
The Towards a Social Science of Web 2.0 is taking place at the University of York, organized by the Social Informatics Research Unit. Here come my notes.
Keynote Speech: Bernie Hogan
Capturing Online Social Networks: Techniques, Insights and Challenges
Network Analysis
Importance of network analysis. How to tell who’s the most connected, who’s connected to who and how
Degree: number of links
Betweenness: shortest paths
PageRank: links to high degree
Positions: blockmodelling
Networks can be made up of subgroups/subnetworks, even multiple spare networks somehow connected one to each other by a common node that just bridges them.
Personal Networks
Comparative
For sampling large networks
Often regression-based
Visualizations of networks rarely show person
Network Analysis...
Keynote Speech: Scott Lash
New Media and Knowledge Ontologies
We should think of a broader scope of Web 2.0 beyond just media but into knowledge. Globalization is quite a complex thing, being web 2.0 both a consequence and a cause.
Ontologically being digital. What is the new media ontology?
Heidegger, revisiting Aristotle, talks about the cost of technology: formal cost, material, efficient cost, final cost. So, how should we handle new digital media (e.g. Facebook)?
Technology for Heidegger: an instrument, for selfish uses; but also technique can open objects, and people, reveal new layers of meaning.
Kittler: wants to empty out the object, empty out the form.
Lots of new media objects can be explained through the Gestalt paradigm, as open, productive objects.
Francisco Varela: closed...
Akeh Lucas Kunen & Zigo Morfaw Damien
E-Health Africa: Overcoming the Barriers to its Implementation. A case study of Sub Sahara Africa
Intend to identify the barriers to e-Health implementation in sub-saharan Africa and see how can these barriers be overcome.
Political barriers
Economic barriers
Socio-cultural factors
Technical barriers
Solutions to Political barriers
Leadership
Leadership
Leadership
Solutions to Economic barriers
Infrastructure development
Poverty alleviation
Assistance from donor organizations
Solutions to Socio-Cultural barriers
Education
Digital divide
Use of ICTs in public institutions
My Comments
During the debate, issues arise about citizenship awareness (on e-Health) and overriding (corrupt) governments, which reminds me of some good hints Francisco...