Compendium on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects

Billions of dollars thoughout the world are invested each year by the public, NGO and private sectors in information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects such as telecentres, village phone schemes, e-health and e-education projects, e-government kiosks, etc. We all feel that these are good things, and yet we have very little sense of the effect of that investment. I know of some that failed because they were too "top-down". I know of others that were a resounding success (e.g., e-Bario) because they used a community development perspective from the start. But these anecdotes do not satisfy funders or governments. Put simply, there is far too little impact assessment of ICT4D projects.

In part that reflects a lack of political will and motivation. But in part it also reflects a lack of knowledge about how to undertake impact assessment of ICT4D. The "Compendium on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects" by Richard Heeks and Alemayehu Molla, IDRC & CRDI, 2008, aims to address that lack of knowledge.

"It presents a set of frameworks that can be used by ICT4D practitioners, policy-makers and consultants to understand the impact of informatics initiatives in developing countries.

The Compendium is arranged into three parts:
• Overview – explains the basis for understanding impact assessment of ICT4D projects, and the different assessment frameworks that can be used.
• Frameworks – summarises a series of impact assessment frameworks, each one drawing from a different perspective.
• Bibliography – a tabular summary of real-world examples of ICT4D impact assessment."

Citation details:

Heeks, R. & Molla, A. (2008). Compendium on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects. Manchester: IDRC. Retrieved January 09, 2009 from http://idrc-ia-for-ict4d-compendium.doc

Wikipedia and knowledge for all

In order to reach out to the rural communities, Wikipedia.com launched a Wikipedia Academy in Chennai, India on December 12, 2008. The Academy is a community driven initiative among online users. It will focus on spreading education and supporting Wikipedia by contributing articles to it. The Academy, which will have various chapters in India, is a voluntary organisation among online users to basically promote education through wikipedia.com.

Wikipedia Founder and iCommons Board Member, Jimmy Wales, launched the African Wikipedia Academy series at CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg just over a year before - in November 2007.

Check out this great video of the first Wikipedia Academy in Africa at CIDA City Campus.



It made a lot of sense that the first South African Wikipedia Academy took place at CIDA City Campus. Wikipedia is dubbed ‘the free encyclopedia’ and CIDA the first ‘free university’ in South Africa, but it is not only the “cost” that these two pioneering initiatives share. Both are founded on the concepts of community contribution: Wikipedia is built by thousands of contributors from around the world who share their knowledge with their fellow language speakers; CIDA is maintained by the students who help run the university, teach young people during their holidays and help pay university costs of other students when they graduate. It is this sense of community and community contribution that has made both Wikipedia and CIDA so successful in delivering quality education to the poor.

Here's another video of the South African Wikipedia Academy launch.

Distance Learning in Developing Countries

The site Distance Learning in Developing Countries is intended for anyone who is involved or interested in distance learning or distance education in developing countries. It should be useful to students interested in learning by distance, to teachers interested in teaching by distance, or to people interested in research on distance education in developing countries.

The website seeks to show how new ICTs - open educational resources, open source, Web 2.0, blogs, wikis, social networking, social bookmarking and other social software - can be used for distance education through online teaching and learning (e-learning).

The site is divided into three main user-sections:

• For students wanting to obtain online/distance training and education;
• For teachers wanting to obtain teaching ideas and resources for online and distance teaching;
• For researchers wanting research ideas and resources for distance education in developing countries.

Global Information Society Watch 2008

It is clearly important that developing countries are not left behind in their use of ICTs, otherwise the digital divide can become a knowledge divide - and in the information economy this can lead to even greater disadvantage, marginalisation and exclusion. But what is the reality in the various countries? Is the current use of ICT being colonised by particular multinationals? Is it a second wave of imperialiasm?

Global Information Society Watch 2008 (or GISWatch), published in print and online by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), the Third World Institute (ITeM), and Dutch development organisation Hivos, collects the perspectives of ICT academics, analysts, activists and civil society organisations from across the globe in over 50 reports.

GISWatch is both a publication and a process: it aims to build networking and advocacy capacity among civil society organisations who work for a just and inclusive information society. This is reflected in the growing number of participating organisations writing country reports – sixteen more than last year, the first year that GISWatch appeared. By doing this they hope GISWatch will impact on policy development processes in countries, regions, and at a global level.

Thirty-eight country reports have been written by authors from countries as diverse as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, Switzerland and Kazakhstan. At the same time, six regional overviews contextualise the country reports, and cover North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the countries that constituted the former Soviet Union, South-East Asia and the Pacific.

The Global Information Society Watch 2008 Report is available for download by chapter or complete in one large file (5213 Kb).

Newly launched Teacher2Teacher Network

I have just returned from a trip "down-under" with my Kenyan partner. She hadn't been there before so it was very exciting. Australia is a remarkable country - well worth visiting - although I guess I'm biased. But as with all travels to new cities or countries, it is so much better if you know someone there or are travelling with a group of like-minded people. Here's a social networking site for teachers that enables this - as well as a lot more.

Teacher2Teacher Network is a safe, private and exclusive social networking community for educators around the world to Connect, Share and Learn. Membership is open to educators from kindergarten through university.

Utilizing Web 2.0 technology, T2T Network is dedicated to harnessing the collective wisdom of its members and has restricted site and community access to Educators Only. T2T Network charges a nominal membership fee with a portion going directly to charity. The first 500 educators to register will receive their first year free.

This new site offers many features not found on other professional social networking sites. G.A.P. Adventures has agreed to provide T2T members significant savings on adventure travel. This allows T2T Adventure Travel Trekker members to come together in an exclusive T2T Members-only group, enabling them to meet and travel with T2T Network members from across the country and around the world. The T2T National/International Home Exchange is the vacation alternative offered to educators around the world. If you are willing to allow someone else to live in your home and you don't mind living in someone else's house or apartment, then this great vacation and travel alternative may be the affordable answer your family has been looking for. A conference and seminar feature allows members to browse many national and international education conferences in places like Rome, Paris and Hawaii. The features also include book discussion forums, teacher exchange opportunities, lesson plan sharing, lecture notes sharing, open source education resources, educational technology resources, discounts and a career center for browsing job openings and uploading resumes.

Surgeon saves boy's life by text

I know there are now quite a lot of examples of e-medicine around, but this story from the BBC News UK really caught my attention.

While working with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in DR Congo, vascular surgeon David Nott used text message instructions from a colleague to perform a life-saving amputation on a 16-year-old boy. The boy's left arm had been ripped off and was badly infected and gangrenous. Mr Nott knew he needed to perform a forequarter amputation, requiring removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade.

He contacted Professor Meirion Thomas, from London's Royal Marsden Hospital, who had performed the operation before. "I texted him and he texted back step by step instructions on how to do it," he said.

David Nott explains the procedure

The operation is only performed about 10 times a year in the UK, and requires the back-up of an intensive-care unit. Patients usually lose a lot of blood during the procedure. Mr Nott had just one pint of blood and an elementary operating theatre, but the operation was a success and the teenager made a full recovery.

(Full story at BBC News UK)

Conference on Communities and Technologies

Fourth International Conference on Communities and Technologies
June 25-27, 2009, on the campus of the Pennsylvania State University

Paper submission deadline: December 15, 2008

http://cct2009.ist.psu.edu/

The Communities and Technologies biennial international conference serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities - both physical and virtual - and information and communication technologies. Researchers studying aspects of the interaction between communities and technologies from any disciplinary perspective are invited to participate.

Sponsored by Microsoft Research and Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology. In cooperation with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM SIGCHI and SIGCAS). Proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library.

Information technology is not just for people who bowl alone!

Intelligent Communities

Creating a More Connected Community with Broadband: An Intelligent Communities ePanel

As friends of the Intelligent Community Forum, we would like to invite you to a special ePanel organized by the Ontario Ministry of Government Services:

What: An online discussion with four leaders of communities named as Intelligent Communities on how their communities are using broadband to help citizens and organizations increase their efficiency, expand their knowledge and improve living standards.

When: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 9:00 am - 10:30 am EST

Where: http://digitalontario.na3.acrobat.com/intelligentcommunities/

** You must pre-register by emailing digitalontario@ontario.ca **

Minimum Computer Requirements: Pentium II, 128mb RAM, 56kpbs Internet connection, speakers or headphones, most common internet browsers. (For full compatibilities, visit www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/systemreqs/)

ePanel Moderator:
Louis Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

ePanel Experts:
Gordon Kennedy, Former Deputy Chief Executive, Scottish Enterprise, City of Glasgow - 2004 Intelligent Community of the Year

William Lin, Chief Executive Officer, Dragon Telecom, Tianjin, China - Two-time Top 7 Intelligent Community

Lev Gonick, Vice President, Information Technology Services, Case Western Reserve University, City of Cleveland - Two-time Top 7 Intelligent Community

Thomas Hurst, Chief Investment Officer, City of Sunderland - Five-time Top 7 Intelligent Community

Find out how the Intelligent Community Forum defines intelligent communities. Register for the ePanel today - spots are limited! Participants will be able to ask questions, rate content, take quick surveys and post comments.

For more information on ICF and the criteria for evaluating intelligent communities, please visit the Web site: http://www.intelligentcommunity.org

ePanels support the Ministry of Government Services’ (MGS) research into the challenges and opportunities of broadband technology.

Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5)

The the Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5), held at the University of London in July 2008, was a huge success. It was advertised in this blog on February 25, 2008, when I was eagerly anticipating going. Unfortunately I couldn't attend - instead I had an appointment with a Gamma Knife machine :-)

Here are some details of the event taken from an article in Connections/EdTech News, October 2008.

PCF5: EXPLORING ACCESS TO LEARNING FOR DEVELOPMENT

More than 700 delegates from 70 countries attended the Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5) at the University of London in July 2008. COL's biennial forum has grown to become one of the world's leading international conferences on learning and global development. This year's forum was by far the largest. The theme of PCF5 was "Access to Learning for Development" and the unique contributions that open and distance learning (ODL) can make towards achieving international development goals.

There were more than 320 papers, workshops and discussions around the forum's four main action themes:
. Children and young people;
. Governance, conflict and social justice;
. Health; and
. Livelihoods.

Three cross-cutting issues - appropriate learning technologies, institutions and learner support - helped to inform the discussions. Over four days, delegates discussed best practices, shared their experiences and were inspired by keynotes from leaders in ODL.

COL's Excellence in Distance Education Awards were also presented at PCF5.

THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

PCF5 was hosted by COL in partnership with the University of London, forming a part of the University's celebration of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of its External Programme.

Vice Chancellor Sir Graeme Davies opened PCF5 with comments about the world's first open access university - the University of London. While many people associate distance education with the Internet and modern technology, the University of London began offering distance education in 1858 to enable people to learn without having to come to London. They exploited state-of-the-art technologies of the day - the postal service (developed to take advantage of the new railways) and the printing press. The University of London worked with partner institutions that provided local support and in so doing, helped to develop universities throughout the Commonwealth.

Charles Dickens' magazine, All the Year Round, called the University of London "the people's university". The External Programme's many graduates include five Nobel Prize winners, many heads of state and prisoners of war during World War I and II.

............. and finally, what everyone has been waiting for ...........




PCF6 TO BE HELD IN KOCHI, INDIA

COL President Sir John Daniel and Dr. Latha Pillai, Pro Vice-Chancellor of India's Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), took the podium at PCF5 in London to announce that the Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning will be held in Kochi (Cochin, Kerala), India, co-hosted by IGNOU in late November 2010.
www.col.org/pcf6

Towards a digital Quito

Original article: "E-government, access and transparency route: Towards a digital Quito,
06-11-2008 (Quito)"

Traditional Ecuadorian chiva inviting citizens for a trip to a cybernarium.
© UNESCO

All through this month, a local chiva, the traditional Ecuadorian bus, will be travelling to popular neighbourhoods of Quito and inviting citizens to get on for a trip to the closest cybernarium, the capital’s public Internet access centres. Once in the cybernariums, free training courses are to be provided on how to access local government information and use e-government services.

This activity is part of UNESCO’s IFAP project ‘E-Government Model for World Heritage Cities - Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), Quito (Ecuador) and Cusco (Peru)’, supported by the Spanish government and implemented in collaboration with the Municipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito.

In addition to the bus, radio and television spots will be broadcast daily in order to disseminate the information as widely as possible and invite citizens to participate. Local secondary schools will also be sending their students.

Target groups for this activity are secondary school students, neighbourhood leaders, social workers and organizations as well as house wives and elderly people. Each cybernarium will receive daily groups of 150 people, who will be divided into smaller groups of 25 for the training sessions. After each training course, the participants will receive a certificate as well as a set of information materials.

The main objective of this initiative is to sensitise citizens on the benefits of e-government services in a festive environment, motivating them to use information and communication technologies (ICT) without fear.

My comment: This top-down model of providing access to "local government information" and "e-government services" didn't work particularly well in Australia some years ago - thank goodness the government improved its approach later. We need to get away from using ICT to "deliver information" and embrace using ICTS to "communicate with one another".