September 10, 2012
The Global Impact Study has updated the user survey dataset on the Global Impact Study web library. Most of the data remains the same – the only change to the dataset was to fix the above and below poverty line variables due to a syntax error in the previous dataset.
September 7, 2012
TASCHA Talk: Chris Coward September 27, 2012 To kick off the new academic year, this session was an introduction and overview of the Technology & Social Change Group and the US Impact Study. We covered the fields we operate in, our mission, research projects, and other activities, and we introduced our audience to the fabulous…
August 30, 2012
The Global Impact Study has recently updated the public access venue inventory web database. Access to the inventory database is easy and free – just sign up and sign in below to explore the different types of venues, number of venues, location of venues, and much more in six countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Lithuania, and the Philippines.
August 27, 2012
I have all these great conversations with Silvia Caicedo. We debate, help each other, work out ideas. She’s amazing. Finally I decided to record one of our talks and make it into the first Facilitating Change Podcast (yipeee!!!!!!!). There’s a too-long intro about innovation spaces. Sorry. Trying to set the context. The good stuff (i.e., […]
August 14, 2012
OK so here’s my latest attempt to come up with a practical definition of innovation spaces and why they matter for development. Innovation spaces are environments that foster community, creativity, and production. They provide a physical place to explore, experiment, and engage with new people, ideas, and technologies — promoting economic growth, social cohesion, and democratic […]
August 9, 2012
I’m writing a brief for Beyond Access: Libraries Powering Development — on innovation spaces. In it, I start by defining a range of innovation spaces: telecentre, hackerspace, coworking, fablab. (I’m working open: see and comment on messy work process.) The definition of a telecentre wasn’t working for me. It missed some crucial aspects: Access to support: people (formal […]
August 2, 2012
TASCHA Talk: Sara Vannini August 9, 2012 Social representations are systems of ideas, values, and practices people adopt to interact with their reality. Starting from this construct, this research investigates community multimedia centres in Mozambique and their perceptions by the local communities. Community multimedia centres are a particular kind of public access to ICTs…
July 23, 2012
The diffusion and exchange of knowledge between the dissent movements of the non-democratic countries is very important for the success of their struggle. Indeed, learning from both the best practices and mistakes of others who are in the similar situations helps you both to use the most effective tools, strategies and tactics in the similar situations of your own political endeavors, and to avoid errors which you could commit without such a knowledge transfer. During the Arab Spring such transfers occurred between many oppositional movements of the region, particularly – between the Tunisian and Egyptian ones.
July 16, 2012
TASCHA Talk: Buhle Mbambo-Thata August 1, 2012 The 21st century could be dubbed the “century of connections.” It is a century characterized by networks, digital content, cyber space and “internationalized spaces.” The information and library world has lived out these connections in several arenas. Dr. Mbambo-Thata discussed international librarianship as an energizing concept in a…
The Global Impact Study is pleased to announce the release of our user survey data. Over 5,000 public access ICT users were surveyed in libraries, telecenters, and cybercafes in Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and the Philippines. The data collected through these surveys is now publicly available in both SPSS/SAV and CSV formats. Accompanying the data at this time are two documents: a “readme” file that provides information on the complexities of the data, including survey skip patterns, and a document that explains new variables that have been added to the data to aid in data analysis.
