Report on using technology to help at-risk youth and people with disabilities gain employment

Researchers at the Technology and Social Change Group in the University of Washington in Seattle (Joyojeet Pal, Jay Freistadt, Michele Frix, and Phil Neff) have recently released an important report on the impact of technology training on the employment prospects of at-risk youth and people with disabilities in five countries in Latin America.
The report’s findings [...]

Fake Aid: a critique of DFID’s rights based approach to development funding

The International Policy Network has recently published a damning critique of rights-based approaches to development, particularly as represented in the funding decisions of the UK’s Department for International Development.
Fake Aid concludes that:

‘The value of DfID’s ideological rights-based approach for alleviating poverty is unclear’
‘Even if DfID’s communications programmes succeed in spreading the view that people are [...]

Freedom on the Net

For those who may not have read it yet, Freedom House’s publication entitled Freedom on the Net: a Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media and published in April 2009, provides a very valuable assessment of the balance of interests in the spread of the Internet and mobile telephony across the world.
As Freedom House’s blurb [...]

Reflections on ICT4D @ The British Council, Manchester

A visit to the British Council’s offices in Manchester today, and an invitation to give a ‘brown bag’ lunch update on current issues in ICT4D that might be of interest to staff there, provided an opportunity for the following reflections:

There are important differences between ICTD and ICT4D – quite simply the “4″.  Much work in [...]

@Africa Gathering

A rainy Saturday morning in London – Ed Scotcher has brought us all together to explore the interface between ICTs and African development in the first Africa Gathering.  He kindly asked me to say a few words of introduction – why is this Africa Gathering important?

A joined up approach – it brings together people from [...]

ICT4D and Slumdog Millionaire

What’s the connection?
Well, according to a report by Shubhajit Roy in  Express India, Vikas Swarap (whose first novel Q and A provided the basis for the film Slumdog Millionaire) says that he was “was inspired by the hole-in-the-wall project, where a computer with an internet connection was put in a Delhi slum. When the slum [...]

The great Google debate…

Google’s business model has proven to be fantastically successful – they give users something for ‘free’, but  that use actually gives the company something of real value.  Should Google therefore pay users?
A chance meeting earlier this month in Berlin, reminded me that in October 2007, the UK’s Sunday Times published an interesting article entitled “Google.  [...]

December – Online Educa, Berlin

In late November or early December every year, many of the world’s leading figures in e-learning make their way to Berlin for Online Educa.  This (14th) year was no exception – as ever, those left on the dance floor early on Friday morning somehow recovered enough to participate enthusiastically later in the day!!!
Members of the [...]