India’s right to information movement demonstrated the potential to combat corruption through social audits – an exercise to share and verify public records with people. India’s right to information movement demonstrated the potential to combat corruption through social audits – an exercise to share and verify public records with people. But this process requires a lot of time, skill and organizational effort – thanks to which very few audits are organized in India despite its potential. We...

Over the past decade there has been a phenomenal growth in mobile phone and internet usage in Africa which has attracted substantial media and academic interest. Over the past decade there has been a phenomenal growth in mobile phone and internet usage in Africa which has attracted substantial media and academic interest. However questions remain about the economically transformative nature and potential of this diffusion of communication infrastructures and artefacts. Based on over two...

An in-depth study of the most powerful electronics contractor and the lives of its 1.4 million workers. During 2010, 18 workers attempted suicide at Taiwanese-owned Foxconn Technology Group's Chinese facilities, where Apple and other high profile branded products are produced and assembled. They ranged in age from 17 to 25 - the prime of youth. Fourteen died, while four survived with crippling injuries. What had driven the young Chinese workers to commit the desperate act? What light did they...

How can NGOs like Oxfam come together with academics and practitioners alike to tackle emerging privacy and security challenges when it comes to effective management of data? Data has invaluable applications to ensure organisations like Oxfam are needs driven and responsive, meanwhile there are also huge risks to communities if the related processes are not designed and managed in a responsible manner. Adopting meaningful approaches to data security and ethical methodology is not a new effort...

Alloysius Attah discusses some of Farmerline's success factors, including its locally adapted technological solutions and strong local outreach Development organizations, governments, and many others have put high hopes in the potential of mobile technology to improve and upgrade agricultural markets and value chains. However, with a few exceptions, traction and scale of mobile applications targeting African farmers have mostly remained elusive. Farmerline is one such exception. In a short...

Since Tavaana's launch in 2010, the e-learning institute has safely educated thousands of Iranians about democracy and human rights. Since Tavaana's launch in 2010, the e-learning institute has safely educated thousands of Iranians about democracy and human rights. Through our live e-classes, documentaries and lectures aired on satellite TV, robust social networks, dissemination of ebooks and more, we are able to teach and inspire civic discourse about highly censored topics such as...

Tim Unwin focuses on current work at the CTO, where his own personal contributions focus especially on the use of ICTs by people with disabilities. Many of those engaged in using information and communication technologies for development in the early 2000s saw them as being an opportunity through which profoundly different social, economic and political structures could be created, that would in some way generate a fairer, more equitable global system. Recent rapid expansion in the use of...

David Souter uses the history and development of ICT4D as a framework to critique ICT4D approaches and consider the relevance of ICTs and ICT4D to the post-2015 development agenda. The presentation will use the history and development of ICT4D - and its relationships with both development policy and the ICT sector - as a framework to critique ICT4D approaches and consider the relevance of ICTs and ICT4D to the post-2015 development agenda. It will draw, inter alia, on recent work for the...

This seminar will investigate how different technologies were used by CDAC Network Members in the immediate response to Typhoon Haiyan, focusing particularly on how needs assessment data was collected, shared and acted upon. This seminar will investigate how different technologies were used by CDAC Network Members in the immediate response to Typhoon Haiyan, focusing particularly on how needs assessment data was collected, shared and acted upon. The session will discuss some of the challenges...

Dan McQuillan examines the Internet in a post-PRISM world, and asks if its power to tackle global poverty will be lost. This seminar will examine the Internet in a post-PRISM world, and ask if its power to tackle global poverty will be lost. While recognising the danger of nation states breaking up the Internet, I will concentrate on the already existing threat of tracking & big data and the emergence of algorithmic regulation. ICT4D may never have delivered on the promise of development...

Gregory Asmolov suggests applying the notion of activity systems and zones of proximal development, as conceptualized in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), to the field of ICT4D. The presentation suggests applying the notion of activity systems and zones of proximal development, as conceptualized in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), to the field of ICT4D. Relying on the principles and analytical apparatus of CHAT (Vygotsky; Leontiev, 1978; Engeström, 1989) it discusses...

Richard Heeks explores new post-2015 development agenda and its implications for ICT4D (information and communication technologies for development) research priorities. With the Millennium Development Goals about to reach their sell-by date, the new post-2015 development agenda is currently being formulated. This talk explores that agenda and its implications for ICT4D (information and communication technologies for development) research priorities. The presentation begins with an overview of...

Discussion of dominant approaches by intergovernmental agencies to information society policy and the prospects for introducing critical perspectives that acknowledge the power relations which inform information society strategies and actions.

A seminar exploring technology and regulation in the Somali territories of the Horn of Africa. Despite weak or non-existent government institutions, innovation has flourished with local solutions to local challenges. This seminar explores technology and regulation in the Somali territories of the Horn of Africa. Despite weak or non-existent government institutions, innovation has flourished with local solutions to local challenges. Money transfer companies have been leading the expansion and...

An assessment of the optimism surrounding the opportunities that social media offer for humanitarian action, drawing on analysis of the phenomenally popular and controversial Kony 2012 campaign. In early March 2012 the Kony 2012 viral video took the world by storm. Attracting over 70 million views in less than a week from its release it was equally criticized and admired as an example of the power of social media. In this talk Madianou assesses the optimism surrounding the opportunities that...

In a development context, the ways in which new media objects (eg ICTs) are defined in relation to other objects, people and institutions map out new figurations of power and connection, that revalue and recombine political agency. Drawing on case study material, this paper focuses on ways in which definitions of 'media' and other technical objects act to promote or prevent 'connection'. In a development context, the ways in which new media objects such as ICTs are defined in relation to...

Dr Thompson addresses some of the opportunities and contradictions presented by ICT4D and considers some emerging ways in which ICT4D researchers may contribute to the field. The discipline of ICT4D has never appeared more, or less, relevant. On the one hand, technology has become unprecedentedly pervasive, plastic, mobile, and cheap; increasingly based on open standards, emerging, platform-based architectures beckon towards an empowered era of development hubs, mashups, and commercial and...