It was great to hear Sir Tim Berners-Lee give a Keynote Address at ICTD2010 on 14th December. Some photographs are given below:
Category Archives: ICT4D
Scholarship holders at ICTD2010
Through the generosity of the sponsors of ICTD2010, we were able to make more than 100 offers of scholarships, most of which covered flights, accommodation and registration. This was an absolutely central part of our agenda in putting together the conference, because we wanted to create an opportunity for all of us to learn from each other. It was therefore great to see so many colleagues from Africa, Asia and Latin America attending, and the rich diversity of our scholarship holders is reflected in the pictures below
Filed under ICT4D, ictd2010, Photographs
Day 2 at ICTD2010
Wow! Time passes so fast when you are enjoying yourself!! We had some excellent and thought provoking papers at ICTD2010 on Day 2. Here is just a selection of some of the photographs I took throughout the earlier parts of the day, not only of the plenary sessions but also of the great posters and demos. Thanks to everyone for their commitment and enthusiasm in contributing to these diverse modalities of representing their research.
Oh yes, and I just wanted to add that the conference App is indeed available for all smartphones – through the Web App – and I very much want to thank oMbiel and campusM for the work that they did in putting the structure together and providing this to the conference for free as a partner. If you have any complaints about the content, then that’s definitely my fault since I did this – and yes, the wake up calls and alerts you get on the App do indeed come from my laptop!
Filed under ICT4D, ictd2010, Photographs
Open Mic/Jam session at ICTD2010
Thanks to Ugo for bringing together such an amazing set of ICT4D talent for last night’s party in the Stumble Inn. It was an fine start to the social programme – and thanks to everyone for being so willing to contribute with everything from teaching us how to do Flamenco (Nicholas Negroponte style), to poetry to dancing. The evening finished off with a guest performance from singer-songwriter Roxanne de Bastion…
Filed under ICT4D, ictd2010, Music, Photographs
The first afternoon at ICTD2010
Wow – what a great set of sessions on the first afternoon of ICTD2010 – everything from IPID’s award for the best postgraduate paper, through practical training in participatory video, to media literacy, SPIDER’s session on decision making and accountability, and a mirror of what’s been happening online! Thanks so much to Dorothea Kleine for putting such a great programme together, and for all the team who registered delegates so swiftly – there’s even a picture below of me thanking Matthew Woodham from Facilities Management at Royal Holloway, University of London, who has been fantastic in ensuring that everything has run so smoothly.
Filed under ICT4D, ictd2010, Photographs
The first morning at ICTD2010
Thanks to everyone for getting ICTD2010 off to such a great start. I just want to thank the whole team of postgraduates, undergraduates and visitors acting as staff for everything that they have done, as well as the registration team who have processed everyone so efficiently! Brilliant effort and team work!
Below are some shots from the morning’s sessions
Filed under ICT4D, ictd2010, Photographs
On-site arrival now open for ICTD2010
The bag-packing is over, the rooms are prepared, and delegates have started to arrive at ICTD2010! Thanks to all of the helpers who have put everything together, and especially to Sandie and Annieka for managing the registration process. Come and get your badges, registration packs and meal tickets!
Filed under ICT4D, ictd2010, Photographs
Packing Bags for ICTD2010
Very many thanks to Caitlin, Ati, Ben and Ettie for all of their help in packing the delegate bags for ICTD2010 this morning! Given the larger than expected numbers attending, not all delegates will be able to have the full suite of sponsor materials in their bags, but the first 550 delegates to collect bags will indeed have a bag, hard copy programme and digital card with the papers, programme and session materials on it!
Filed under ICT4D
Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education initiatives: reflections from WISE
The second WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) summit provided an opportunity for colleagues from Education Impact to host a lively and highly participatory workshop designed to contribute to more effective monitoring and evaluation of ICT in education activities, focusing particularly on developing countries.
It was premised on two assumptions:
- that there is too little monitoring and evaluation of ICT for education initiatives, and much of what is undertaken is of poor quality; and
- that it is important to differentiate between monitoring (the process of continuing self-reflection within organisations and individuals aimed at improving their performance) and evaluation (the review of outcomes against targets, often undertaken by external agencies)
The workshop began by identifying the reasons why there is so little effective monitoring
and then why there is so little good and effective evaluation
This was then followed by a discussion of how we can ensure better monitoring
and the things that need to be put in place to ensure better evaluation.
Clicking on the above mind-maps enables them to be viewed at full size!
ICTs, citizens and the state: moral philosophy and development practices
Great to see my latest paper just published in The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries – thanks to Mark Levy and Vignesh Ilvarasan for all their editorial work on this.
The paper examines the moral implications of the use of ICTs in e-government initiatives, focusing especially on national databases, identity cards, and surveillance technologies. It suggests that in resolving debates over these, we need to reach ethical resolutions concerning notions of trust, privacy, and the law. It also draws attention to the ethical problems that emerge in linking the notion of of Universal Human Rights with the introduction of ICTs in developing countries.
As I argue in the paper, “The really difficult ethical questions that arise from this are about how we judge whether it is better for poor and marginalised communities for such egovernment initiatives to have been introduced, or whether they might actually be more advantaged if their governments did not spend vast sums of money on their implementation. Just because it is possible to implement national citizen databases, to use biodata for ID cards, and to introduce sophisticated digital surveillance mechanisms does not mean that it is right to do so”.
Filed under Development, Ethics, ICT4D
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