ICT4D

Altering participation through interactions and reflections in design

by Nicola J Bidwell

Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, Nicola J. Bidwell and Edwin Blake
CoDesign: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts. Vol. 8, Nos. 2–3, June–September 2012, 163–182

In this paper, we illustrate through a set of examples how our own conceptualisation of participatory design (PD) and... more In this paper, we illustrate through a set of examples how our own conceptualisation of participatory design (PD) and associated tools and techniques transforms within the design process itself. Co-designing with African rural communities has brought to light our many assumptions and intentions underlying commonly used methods and principles of PD. While genuinely striving for user involvement these same methods can hinder a truly participatory approach to design. We have learned much through our encounters and continuous reflections in various projects with southern African rural communities and seek to share our experiences in one particular, current project which led us to interrogate and revise our existing conceptions of PD. We also aim to infuse the evolution of PD with insights from Africa and cross-cultural design so that PD can better serve diversity globally.

Health-Line: Towards Speech-based Access to Health Information by Semi-literate Users

by Nosheen Ali

Orality-grounded hcid: Understanding the oral user

by Nosheen Ali

Speech vs. touch-tone: Telephony interfaces for information access by low literate users

by Nosheen Ali

Communicating in Designing an Oral Repository for Rural African Villages

by Nicola J Bidwell

Reitmaier, T, Bidwell, NJ., Siya, M., Marsden, G., Tucker, B., Kotze, P. (2012) IST-Africa: Regional Impact of Information Society Technologies in Africa. Dar es Salem, Tanzania, May 2012. ", paper reference number 153, included in the IST-Africa 2012 Conference Proceedings

Abstract: We describe designing an asynchronous, oral repository and sharing system that we intend to suit the needs... more Abstract: We describe designing an asynchronous, oral repository and sharing system that we intend to suit the needs and practices of rural residents in South Africa. We aim to enable users without access to personal computers to record, store, and share information within their Xhosa community using cellphones and a tablet PC combined with their existing face-to-face oral practices. Our approach recognises that systems are more likely to be effective if the design concept and process build on existing local communication practices as well as addressing local constraints, e.g. cost. Thus, we show how the objectives for the system emerged from prolonged research locally and how we communicated insights, situated in the community, into the process of design and development in a city-based lab. We discuss how we integrated understandings about communication between situated- and localresearchers
and designers and developers and note the importance of recognising and centralising subtle differences in our perception of acts of oral communication. We go on to show how the materiality of the software, the tablet form factor, and touch
interaction style played into our collaborative effort in conceiving the design.

The Complex Position of the Intermediary in Telecenters and Community Multimedia Centers

by Silvia Masiero

Co-authored with Savita Bailur, Information Systems and Innovation Group, London School of Economics and Political Science

The critical role of the information intermediary in supporting community participation in telecenters and community... more The critical role of the information intermediary in supporting community participation in telecenters and community multimedia centers [CMCs] has been recognized for some time. However, the literature has largely taken a neutral/positive perspective (that the center manager/staff are necessary social connectors and should ensure equitable access) or a negative one (that they may replicate hierarchies, be unwilling to help, or direct users toward “undesirable” information). Drawing on how identities are embedded within and formed by networks, this article takes a third perspective: Telecenter and CMC information intermediaries are in the complex positions of brokers and translators, and their roles are constantly negotiated and performed within multiple, dynamic, and constructed networks. This interpretive, narrative analysis of interviews with the center manager and staff at Voices CMC in India illustrates that intermediaries can be in an ontologically insecure position, bridging these multiple networks, but can also navigate their roles and create their “spaces of development” within these same networks. Therefore, the article argues that it should not be taken for granted that these intermediaries are simply executing policy; instead, further research into how they interpret and perform it in vernacular terms is necessary because this, in turn, can shape user perception of CMCs and telecenters.

ICT and development: East is east and West is west and the twain may yet meet

by Lars Soeftestad

Evaluating Community Informatics as a means for local democratic renewal

by Ian Goodwin

Published in Understanding Community Media (ed. Kevin Howley)

Theorizing Community as Discourse in Community Informatics: "Resistant identities" and contested technologies

by Ian Goodwin

Published in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies

Community informatics (CI) is a form of activism that involves the application of information and communication... more Community informatics (CI) is a form of activism that involves the application of information and communication technologies in pursuit of community development within localities. This article draws on discourse theory (DT) to re-evaluate activists’ self-interpretations that rely on community, and to make sense of the political struggles at the heart of CI. It is argued that activists’ community discourse constructs, through articulation, locally “resistant” collective identities and an associated collective agency capable of appropriating technology in pursuit of unfulfilled social demands. However DT also suggests that the socially progressive nature of CI is not guaranteed by recourse to the social ideal of community.

COMMUNITY INFORMATICS AND THE LOCAL STATE IN THE UK: Facilitating or assimilating an agenda for change?

by Ian Goodwin

Published in Information, Communication and Society

The emerging discipline of community informatics (CI) has begun to trace out a distinct agenda for change in the... more The emerging discipline of community informatics (CI) has begun to trace out a distinct agenda for change in the social uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Focusing upon the appropriation of ICTs by local communities who have been disenfranchised by technological development, this agenda foregrounds uses of the Internet in the pursuit of distinctly community-related objectives. However, the role that the local state ought to play within this agenda for change remains marked by a degree of controversy and ambiguity. Assertions of the need for community autonomy coexist uneasily with a recognition that the local state can help develop and sustain CI. Much current work therefore focuses upon exploring notions of ‘partnership’ between the local state and local groups in developing CI. Against this background, this paper draws on a case study of Birmingham City Council (BCC) in order to explore a series of significant organizational changes to local government, which have seen BCC adopt a fundamentally new ‘community leadership’ role. This shift to community leadership is being expedited by innovative uses of Internet technology. It is argued that, rather than straightforwardly re-creating BCC as a better partner to community groups in developing CI, such changes are deeply paradoxical. In the first instance shifts to community leadership have enabled BCC to develop valuable web resources that enhance their role as a partner facilitating citizen-led CI. Conversely, however, these changes are bound up in a broader attempt by BCC to reassert managerial control at a time when its legitimacy as a social institution is being questioned. Faced with a series of external challenges, BCC has replicated important CI activities in the pursuit of its own interests. Ultimately it is argued that this assimilation of CI could eventually undermine the broader CI agenda for change.

Community Informatics, Local Community and Conflict: Investigating under-researched elements of a developing field of study

by Ian Goodwin

Published in Convergence

Conflict within local communities is an under-researched theme in Community Informatics (CI). This article therefore... more Conflict within local communities is an under-researched theme in Community Informatics (CI). This article therefore aims to contribute to the development of CI as a field of study by analysing forms of internal conflict within Moseley Egroup — a CI initiative developed in Moseley, Birmingham (UK). Ultimately it is argued that conflict is an inherent part of local community and is important to CI for a number of reasons. Conflict impacts on the appropriation and social shaping of internet technology by local communities, and has broader implications on the extent to which CI regenerates localities and empowers citizens. In this sense conflict is identified as a productive force, shaping and reshaping both local community and internet projects mobilized in its name. Conflict also draws attention to the contested and mutable relationship that exists in CI between the online spaces that are created and the localities they are set up to serve. It is concluded that conflict and forms of social struggle within communities should form a central part of the developing CI research agenda.

Governance, Technology and the Search for Modernity in Kenya

by Warigia Bowman

published in William and Mary Policy Review

An ICT policy that produces broad access quickly is better than one that does not. Accordingly, success in ICT... more An ICT policy that produces broad access quickly is better than one that does not. Accordingly, success in ICT policymaking can be measured by three empirical measures: speed of passage, scope of implementation, and distribution, as well as one normative measure, process. ―Process represents an important normative dimension of ICT policymaking. Process measures the extent to which the ICT policymaking involves the citizenry, as represented by individuals, civil society groups, local private sector groups, and ideally, urban and rural residents (―wananchi‖). Kenya is a case of slow speed of passage, low scope of implementation, low distribution, but high process. The political history of Kenya‘s ICTpolicymaking explains why this county, with such capable people and relatively open ICT policymaking, has struggled to keep up with its poorer neighbors.

Digital doorway: social-technical innovation for high-needs communities

by Mario Marais

Stillman, L., M. Herselman, M. Marais, M. Pitse Boshomane, P. Plantinga
and S. Walton (2012). "Digital doorway: social-technical innovation for
high-needs communities." Electronic Journal of Information Systems in
Developing Countries 50(2): 1-19.

Reframing Empowerment: A New Paradigm for ICT4D

by Silvia Masiero

In this piece, we problematize the situated view of technology that, we argue, is very much diffused in ICT for... more In this piece, we problematize the situated view of technology that, we argue, is very much diffused in ICT for development (ICT4D), the domain in which our research is inscribed. Our problematization focuses on the idea of empowerment, that in development is regarded, we sustain, entirely in terms of participation and content - without, in effect, any real attention for the role of the technology in this process. Hence, drawing on the literature on technology as a social regulator, we propose a reframed idea of empowerment, which gives the right attention to the technological side of it, in terms of the actual balance of power between technology and its users. E-Krishi, an Internet platform implemented by the government of Kerala, a state in southern India, is proposed here as a case study to see technology-related empowerment in action.

Community Multimedia Centres in Mozambique: a Map

by Sara Vannini

White Paper

Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) in Mozambique have been setup for a decade and represent the most common model of... more Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) in Mozambique have been setup for a decade and represent the most common model of public access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) venues in the country.
This report briefly presents the history and typologies of CMCs in Mozambique, as well as an updated map of their current number and location. Finally, it casts a closer look to a sample of 10 CMCs, one per each province of the country, describing their context, cluster of services, technical instruments, group of people who manages CMCs and people who access them.
The information provided on the paper has been collected mostly in March – April 2011 within the field work of the project RE-ACT: social REpresentations of community multimedia centres and ACTions for improvement, a research and development project run by the NewMinE Lab: New Media in Education Laboratory of the Università della Svizzera italiana, University of Lugano, Switzerland, in collaboration with the Centre for African Studies and the Department of Mathemathics and Informatics of the University Eduardo
Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique.
This report is addressed to researchers and practitioners in the ICT for Development (ICT4D) field, as well as to policy makers working in the area.

Complementarity, Integration, and Responsiveness: Making E-Government Work in Developing Nations

by Robert Richards

Public Administration Review, forthcoming

This is a review of: Nagy K. Hanna, Transforming Government and Building the Information Society: Challenges and... more This is a review of: Nagy K. Hanna, Transforming Government and Building the Information Society: Challenges and Opportunities for the Developing World (New York: Springer, 2010).

An analysis of the factors affecting the sustainability of ICT4D initiatives

by Mario Marais

ICT and poverty: the indisputable link

by Alexander Flor

Written in 2001, the paper was presented in the Second Asian Development Forum in Bangkok and eventually published as... more Written in 2001, the paper was presented in the Second Asian Development Forum in Bangkok and eventually published as Chapter 2 of eDevelopment and Knowledge Management (SEAMEO SEARCA, 2001).

TekkiKids: Technology clubs for children

by Mario Marais

TekkiKids–Experiences in implementing technology clubs in a South African context

by Mario Marais