Category: digital technologies

My involvement in the WSIS Annual Forum (and AI for …?), 6-10 July 2026

I have long believed in the value of the WSIS Annual Forum, and have been actively involved in most of the events since the original summit in June 2023. It is always a great opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones. It’s also a good chance to catch a glimpse of new things and ideas, and watch the theatre of how people present themselves at such gatherings. I have even been known to be a little bit provocative (see picture at foot of this post), as in 2019 when I changed the polystyrene letters of WSIS around to make MISS on the main stage in front of the then SG! I will one again be taking an active role in various sessions along with colleagues from the ICT4D Collective, and would love to see you at some of the sessions listed below (even if only online!). I am particularly seeking to promote my new book Digital Inclusion in a Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto at every opportunity I can in the event! If you are in Geneva then, do please join the sessions in which we will be involved, visit our stand in the Exhibition, or meet us for a drink in one of our favourite hostelries!

WSIS 2026 Exhibition, 8th-9th July

The ICT4D Collective has a stand in the small exhibition area on 8th and 9th July (although sadly our specially prepared banners have been banned!). This is only the second time that we have participated in the exhibition, and along with Prof G. ‘Hari’ Harindrath I will be present at the stand for much of the time when we are not involved in sessions. Find out more about our research and practice at the stand, take away some of our resources (especially those prepared on safe wise and secure use of digital tech jointly developed with our colleagues in the LBT community in Rio de Janeiro), read some of our working papers (and take them away on the evening of 9th), buy a copy of Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto at a 30% discount (first come first served) or get a 20% discount voucher.

Celebrating the publication of Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto

Following successful pre-launch and launch events for mt’s latest book at the ITCILO in Turin (Italy), at UNU-GOV’s headquarters in Guimarães (Portugal), and during eLearning Africa in Accra (Ghana) several of the authors are going to be present during WSIS including Benita Rowe, G. ‘Hari’ Harindranath, Mei Lin Fung, and Revi Sterling, and will be talking about during and after our session on 6th July. A small number of signed copies of the book will also be available at the >30% discounted price (of £25, CHF 28, €30, US$35) during the session and at our Exhibition stand. We may well also celebrate together at a local hostelry (probably Les Brasseurs) on the evening of 6th July.

Session: Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World, 6th July

Please join our session on Monday 6th July from 16.00-16.45 in Room L1 Montbrillant for a lively discussion about what we all need to do if the poorest and most marginalised are indeed to benefit from, rather than being enslaved through, the use of digital tech. See the great speakers lined up below!

Session: The future of education and research in the AI era: equipping young people for tomorrow, 7th July

I’m going to be a panellist in Session 541 being convened by the ITU from 10.00-10.45 on Tuesday 7th July in Room G3, ITU Varembé, and have been asked to address the question “Given your background in digital inclusion, how should universities in the developing world prepare students for the age of AI?  How can AI be used to expand educational opportunities and drive economic and social development?” – in only three minutes. Guess I will be saying something along the lines of most universities across the world should be closed down, and we should focus much more on technical and vocational training instead. The key thing will be to retain our humanity and avoid digital dementia!

Session: AI Empowerment for Older People from a Gender Mainstreaming Perspective, 7th July

I’m also a panellist in Session 188 being convened by the Aging & Technology Policy Lab, KAIST Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy (South Korea), from 13.00-13.45 on Tuesday 7th July in Room A, ITU Tower Building. We will be speaking about how elderly women can benefit from the use of AI (if at all!). Clearly personalised care plans will be important, but again retaining our dignity and humanity are for me even more important.

Session: Connecting the Unconnected in the field of Education Excellence, Cyber Security & Rural Solutions and Women Empowerment in ICT, 7th July

Prof. N.K. Goyal from the CMAI Association of India, along with CSAI and TEMA has once again invited me to moderate this showcase of Indian ingenuty in Room A on Tuesday 7th July from 15.00-15.45. As in previous years, I will have the enjoyable but challenging task of moderating a very full session of Indian speakers! My red and yellow cards will definitely be necessary!

Session: Foresight for FAIR Cities – Exploring AI Risks and Mitigation Strategies, 9th July

This important session in Room B Palexpo from 16.00-16.45 on Thursday 9th July is being convened by UNU-EGOV to address some of the risks of AI and strategies that can be put in place to mitigate them in the context of their project on “FAIR Cities: Foster AI for Inclusive and Responsible Cities“. I’m excited to have been invited as a speaker, and guess I may focus on the implications for rural areas and oceans! All too often urban societies exploit the non-urban and I fear that these processes will be accelerated by the design and use of AI!

Partner2Connect session at AI for Good, 9th July

The ITU’s Partner2Connect initiative is convening a session on Building the future we want: scaling inclusive AI solutions through collaboration on 9th July from 14.00-15.00 during the AI for Good Summit and I have been asked to moderate the session on “Children, Youth, and Online Protection”. This should be an exciting and highly interactive “engagement”. I’m honoured to have been given this role, not least because what I have to say can at times be thought of by some as being somewhat unpalatable. It is great to know that my friends in the ITU understand that I am indeed a good friend, and a sign of this is indeed to be challenging and at times critical.

©ITU/I.Wood

Reflections on Imfundo, 2001-2004

I had the enormous privilege of leading Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education based in what was then the UK’s Department for International Development between 2001 and 2004. This initiative created by the UK’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was one of the first multi-sector projects in the then new field of ICT4D specifically designed to use digital tech in support of some of the most marginalised people and communities in Africa. Our partnership network of some 40 organisations worked in eight countries and the images below show members of the Imfundo team between 2001 and 2004, and our partners (taken from my 2004 farewell presentation)

People who worked on the Imfundo team within DFID (2001-2004)
Imfundo’s partners (2001-2004)

I remain immensely pleased that the African entities with which we worked closely during those years appreciated the work of all the members of our team, as reflected in these comments noted in our output to purpose review in 2004.

  • “Imfundo’s emphasis on working with the poorest of the poor communities, and collaborating with black SMMEs is exemplary.  It is making a difference already, and could have much greater impact as the networks grow.”
  • “Best networkers in the donor community.  We like the networking and partnership approach – and they are less geopolitical.”
  • “Imfundo has proved more accessible … and highly knowledgeable regarding the technology and education issues.  It has been a learning experience to work with them”.
  • “Strategic partnership approach and transparent, participative, networking processes are excellent, as is direct involvement of Imfundo with relevant expertise.  Most other donors don’t work like this.”

I’ve never written in detail about Imfundo, not least because my contract had said I could only do so with the Department’s permission, and despite seeking that permission during the remainder of DFID’s life and then following its merger with the FCO in 2020, I never received a confirmatory reply! However, I have included some reflections about my time at Imfundo in my latest book Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto (Routledge, 2026), and along with the other vignettes in the book I have also recorded this as an audio file accessible below and on our podcast:

African launch of Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World

It was great to be able to hold a launch event for my latest book Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto on 2nd June in Accra on the evening before this year’s eLearning Africa conference and exhibition. Godfred Bonnah Nkansah from the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre opened the discussions, and David Hollow and Tom Wambeke also reflected on their contributions to the book. We enjoyed discussing a wide range of issues relating to the use of digital tech by the world’s poorest and most marginalised people and communities, and I am most grateful to the staff at the Beach Bar of the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra for ensuring that the Star (beer) as well as other beverages flowed throughout!

Copies of the book are available from Routledge and Amazon, as well as good bookshops!

eLearning Africa, Accra, 2026

It was a great pleasure to participate in this year’s 19th eLearning Africa gathering held in Accra from 3rd to 5th June. Enormous thanks are due to Rebecca Stromeyer and her team for bringing us together at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, as well as to Ghana’s Ministry of Education who co-hosted this year’s event. This was the eighth time I have been fortunate enough to participate in these conferences, and it has been fascinating witnessing how eLearning Africa has evolved since its inaugural event in Addis Ababa in 2006. Over the last 20 years, the use of digital tech for learning and education has deepened and widened very considerably across the continent, but many of the challenges and opportunities that we discussed together in the mid-2000s still remain evident today.

This year’s plenary addressed the theme of “Africa’s Time, Africa’s Terms: Learning for Sovereignty, Strength and Solidarity”, and this focus underlay many of the subsequent sessions. There was certainly a vibrancy in the presentations and considerable confidence in the rhetoric that Africans can indeed use and innovate technologies, and especially AI, to serve their interests. The reality of US and China’s dominance of the global digital tech sector, particularly now in the design and control of AI systems (see, for example, Netcorp’s recent AI-Generated Code Statistics 2026) nevertheless suggests that such optimism may be challenged in practice on the ground. More importantly, it is no long possible for isolationism to flourish in an increasingly interconnected world, and it is crucial for African countries to look beyond the continent’s boundaries to forge strategic and mutually beneficial partnerships with other states and companies. This, however, also requires those outside the continent to recognise Africa’s richness and potential, something I wrote about at length in the late 2000s, and to treat this with respect.

I hope that the images in the slideshow below capture something of the vibrancy and energy of eLearning Africa 2026

I was especially pleased to moderate a session on the final day on “Inclusive Digital Education: African Led Innovations for Learners with Disabilities”, which began with presentations from two main speakers:

  • Daniel Atuah, KNUST E-Learning Centre, Ghana
    Inclusive Digital Education Toolkit: Accessibility in KNUST Virtual Classrooms and Online Exams
  • Bridget Longla, Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services, Cameroon
    Inclusive Digital Learning in Low-Resource Settings: Lessons from Cameroon’s First Accessible Digital Library

Following these, there was a wide-ranging discussion that emphasised in particular the importance of invisible disabilities such as dyslexia in its many different guises. Sessions on and with people with disabilities at large international conferences are often poorly attended, but it was excellent that a large and engaged group of participants chose to contribute to our session.

Changes to the UK’s approach to tax returns: yet another example of the abuse of digital tech by states at the expense of citizens

Image from The Times, well captures the lunacy and danger of the UK government’s Making Tax Digital scheme

The UK Government’s shift to digital tax returns is yet another example of how ridiculous, expensive and time-consuming for the end user the drive to digitalisation is by governments. The Times has recently summarised the changes clearly and succinctly in an excellent article by Alice Wright entitled “Why your tax-return headache is about to become a nightmare”. As of April this year the Making Tax Digital scheme means that:

  • “landlords and the self-employed with a gross income above £50,000 a year will have to pay for commercial software so that they can file their tax returns” (“HMRC said it will cost an average of £320 to switch to government-approved software, then £110 a year after that, but experts said it could be four times that much”);
  • this has to be done every three months, not anually as at present. People “will also have to file quarterly, rather than annual, updates to HMRC on their income and expenses. Anyone missing the deadlines will be fined under a new points-based system, although the penalties will be waived for the first year”
  • the financial cost of this is very significant: “HMRC has estimated that the introduction of Making Tax Digital will cost about £4.3 billion — with £1.4 billion being government spending and £2.9 billion the cost to taxpayers and small businesses of buying software and employing accountants”.

How have we let this happen? It seems totally stupid with the only ones really to benefit being the companies selling the software – which is guaranteed to have glitches and take taxpayers far longer to complete (four times a year) than the previous paper based systems.

Just because it is possible to use digital tech to do something does not mean it is wise to do so!

(See also https://www.thetimes.com/article/5b5f252e-69a8-422e-9f99-c116d16308a4 )

Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: Ghana Book Event – 2nd June

I’m delighted to announce that we will be hosting a relaxed and informal event at 6 pm on 2nd June in the Beach Bar at the Labadi Beach Hotel, Accra, to discuss some of the arguments contained within my new book Digital Inclusion in an Unequl World: An Emancipatory Manifesto, published by Routledge on April 6th. The event is the day before this year’s three-day eLearning Africa conference, and delegates participating in the conference are welcome to join us. The book contains 31 vignettes, and at least two of the authors who contributed to the book (David Hollow from Jigsaw Education and Tom Wambeke from ITCILO) are speaking at the conference, and will also contribute to the discussions about the book.

Graphic illustrations

Many, but by no means all, of the arguments of the book can be captured in these two graphics. We need to shift the balance from

  • economic growth to equity,
  • rights to responsibilities,
  • working for (or worse still on) to working with,
  • rhetoric to reality,
  • enslavement to freedom
  • me to we

We also need to rethink the meaning of inclusion and champion freedom and emancipation over its use to describe capture and enslavement.

Getting your own copy of the book

You can order the book direct from Routledge Store and Amazon, and a small number of copies will also be for sale at a 30% discount ((£25, €25, CHF25, $30) during the event in Accra.

We look forward to seeing you in Accra for the book event and at eLearning Africa.

Please use this contact form to let us know that you will be joining us

Contributors to Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World – thanks for all of your wise words!

It was such a pleasure to work with these thirty-one amazing authors who each contributed a vignette to my latest book, Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World published by Routledge on 7th April 2026.

Order your copy direct from Routledge here

Read or listen to all their vignettes by clicking on the button below:

Vignettes

Alt text: the problematic sub-text

In recent years I have tried, but often failed, to use “alt text” in my work when posting images online. I have failed dismally to go back and try to annotate all of the many images I have posted in the past, and I know I fail to be consistent in doing so in the present. Both of these failings are undoubtedly because of the time that this would take me, despite many platforms now encouraging its use, and my commitment to supporting people with disabilities (see my very old site at https://disabilityict4d.wordpress.com/).

For those who are unfamiliar with alt text it is the attribute in HTML that specifies alternative text for images, and is especially valuable for people with visual impairments, because it helps screen readers convey the meaning of images for them. The World Wide Web Consortium thus recommends that every image displayed through HTML should have alt text associated with it.

However, reflecting on this in the context of the increasing use of AI, has made me very aware of the ways in which alt text can be used by AI systems to describe images without the use of data labellers. At one level, this might be seen positively, because it can reduce the need for AI companies to use what is often termed “slave labour” to do the annotation (see Ganna Pogrebna, 2024). However, this would take away the very small income that such labour can generate, and is indeed valued in many parts of the world. Moreover, it is also a way that such images (or video) can be annotated for free for teh AI companies by the person doing the posting.

Much more worryingly, though, is the potential for alt text to be used maliciously. If, with their permission, I post an image of a friend/colleague online, and label this using alt text, their name will be forever attached to that image, and be a vehicle through which AI and search engines can identify them and link to further related images of them. This could, for example, readily be used to track and surveil them when travelling. However, it would be equally possible for someone else to write something unpleasant or abusive about a person as alt text on an image, and that too would be recorded so that AI could then be used to build very erroneous profiles of them.

I am inclined to think that the potential harms of this outweigh the benefits, although for innocent law-abiding people with visual impairments it would be an immense loss. Is this primarily a new way that the Digital Barons are deliberately exploiting us? Is that why platforms are incresingly encouraging us to include alt text when we post an image (as illustrated in the image above)?

Latest six podcasts on Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episodes 11-16)

The ICT4D Collective has recently launched a podcast channel on Apple Podcasts which contains audio versions of the vignettes in my upcoming book Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto. The fourth tranche of episodes (11-16) is now available as follows:

Episode 16. Benita Rowe on “The Tech Will Save Her’ – False Promises in Digital Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Solutions”

This is the sixteenth episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, Benita Rowe illustrates how “Digital interventions aimed at preventing or responding to gender-based violence (GBV) have re-emerged in recent years in cyclical form, each positioned as a world-first innovation”. Yet, she argues that “Despite differences in format, these interventions often replicate a flawed set of design assumptions that consistently fail to
account for lived realities”.

The full vignette can be read here.

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Episode 15. Nimmi Rangaswamy on “Social, Shared and Sustainable: Whatever Happened to the Community Internet?”

This is the fifteenth episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, Nimmi Rangaswamy concludes that “What was once imagined as a shared, empowering infrastructure has become a personalised, pay-per-use playground — curated for binge and scroll rather than community or collective good. The Internet in India today is more a screen in the palm than a shared window. It entertains more than it empowers, and connects more to content than to community”.

The full vignette can be read here.

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Episode 14. Nnenna Nwakanma on “Working WITH, not FOR”

This is the fourteenth episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, Nnenna Nwakanma tells the story of her experiences having asked to visit a “school that the media has touted as the ‘model’” of good use of digital tech in education in a West African country. As she notes, “I needed to see things for myself, where the rubber hits the road. I also refused any ‘official’ or ‘media-related’ accompaniment”. The vignette reports on the schocks she encountered when she visited. As she concludes “When are we going to stop working FOR stakeholders and start working WITH them?”

The full vignette can be read here.

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Épisode 13 en français. Yuliya Morenets sur « Au-delà du rôle symbolique: repenser l’inclusion des jeunes dans les forums mondiaux »

Voici le treizième épisode de notre podcast, inspiré des témoignages d’amis et de collègues qui ont contribué au nouveau livre de Tim Unwin, «Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto». Yuliya Morenets y raconte sa rencontre dans le hall d’inscription d’un événement IGF, illustrant comment l’inclusion des jeunes privilégie souvent la familiarité à l’innovation. Elle conclut : « Si nous voulons une véritable participation, nous devons dépasser le symbolisme. Nous devons investir dans les jeunes, non seulement comme des acteurs, mais aussi comme des bâtisseurs : imparfaits, passionnés et toujours en apprentissage. L’important n’est pas de polir chaque voix, mais d’écouter celles qui n’ont pas encore été entendues ». 

Le texte intégral est disponible ici.

Audio en français

Tous les fichiers audio relatifs au livre sont également disponibles sur notre podcast, avec un nouvel épisode chaque semaine.

Episode 13 in English. Yuliya Morenets on “Beyond the Token Seat: Rethinking Youth Inclusion in Global Forums”

This is the thirteenth episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, Yuliya Morenets tells the story of an encounter in the registration lobby of an IGF event to show how youth inclusion often rewards familiarity over innovation. She concludes that “If we want real participation, we must move beyond tokenism. We need to invest in youth not just as performers, but as builders—messy, passionate, and still learning. The point is not to polish every voice but to hear the ones that haven’t been heard”.

The full vignette can be read here.

Audio in English

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Episode 12. David Hollow on “Evidence-driven decision-making in the use of digital technologies in education”

This is the twelfth episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, David Hollow argues that building a cuture of evidence-driven decision making can help ensure that EdTech is used wisely to mitigate the global learning crisis. He argues that everyone can contribute to building such a culture of evidence-based decision-making in EdTech by asking the following question: will this use of technology lead to an impact on learning outcomes that is cost-effective and works at scale?

The full vignette can be read here.

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Episode 11. Janet Longmore on “The Youth-led Imperative”

This is the eleventh episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, Janet Longmore provides a summary of the six main learnings from the work of Digital Opportunity Trust with young people drawing especially on their recent experiences in Rwanda and Uganda. Implementation of these learnings can provide a fundamental ‘mindset shift’ that reflects new skills and an entrepreneurial socially responsible spirit, resiliency and adaptability among young people that are critical for navigating employment and self-employment opportunities in a digital economy.

The full vignette can be read here.

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Do follow the podcast here to be the first to hear each new episode

Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto – a quick summary

For those wanting a quick summary of the arguments made in my upcoming book Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto, the video and graphic below provide an outline of its concluding reflections (click on the slide to see the animated video).

Full details of the book are also available through the following links:

Order your copy direct from Routledge here