News: Announcements

August 29, 2014

This summer TASCHA, along with the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, hosted 25 of Myanmar’s leaders from government, civil society, political parties, ethnic communities, libraries, and the media. The fellows took part in a 5-week professional development program focused on information strategies for societies in transition. These distinguished individuals and the UW-Myanmar project team invite you to join them for a lunch reception where you can learn about their proposed projects and the plans for a Myanmar Information Laboratory.

August 28, 2014

Family farming is a predominant form of agriculture both in developed and developing countries, with over 500 million productive units in the entire world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is promoting 2014 as the international year of family farming. This particular form of agriculture work refers to farms that are managed by family members and are usually small or medium in size and productivity. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are playing a key role in this scenario. New generations of younger farmers are embracing ICTs, demonstrating that the two spaces can be complementary. Mobile phones, particularly, are providing a great platform to connect them to the “rurbanity,” a new (key) concept to understand hybrid spaces where cities and the countryside are part of the same social reality.

August 18, 2014

The discourse surrounding the Maker Movement, particularly in the political spectrum, focuses heavily on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education, manufacturing, and jobs (Kalil, Extreme Marshmellow Canons, 2012). It is the technology and tools that are ushering in “the new industrial revolution” (Anderson, 2012). Through democratizing access to these tools, “anyone can change the world” (Hatch, 2014 p.10). Makerspaces are said to give communities facing social and economic challenges the ability to create jobs, innovate, and grow small businesses, through access to the tools of production (Barjarin, 2014) (Gershenfeld, 2005).

August 13, 2014

This summer TASCHA, along with the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, is pleased to be hosting 25 of Myanmar’s leaders from government, civil society, political parties, ethnic communities, libraries, and the media. The fellows are taking part in a 5-week professional development program about information strategies for societies in transition. Please join us for a panel discussion and reception with the fellows of the UW-Myanmar Leadership Program to learn about Myanmar on Thursday, August 21st, 5-8pm, at the UW Club.

August 6, 2014

TASCHA researcher Jessica Beyer has a new book out, Expect Us: Online Communities and Political Mobilization, published by Oxford University Press. People use online social forums for all sorts of reasons, including political conversations, regardless of the site’s main purpose. But what leads some of these people to take their online political activity into the offline world of activism? In her book, Jessica looks at political consciousness and action in four communities, each born out of chaotic online social spaces that millions of individuals enter, spend time in, and exit moment by moment: Anonymous (4chan), IGN, World of Warcraft, and The Pirate Bay.

July 31, 2014

We’ve developed numerous resources to help answer the overarching question, “Why do public access ICTs matter for development? The goal of the resources listed below is to help make the study’s findings and data more accessible and relevant to the international development, public library, and public access communities. It is our hope that you’ll find these materials useful in understanding the study’s key findings and recommendations, as well as for use in your own work

Early on in the digital divide conversation, myriad donors and governments invested in telecentres — public spaces where people could access computers and learn about the internet. Fast forward to today, where billions have personal internet in their pocket and use Facebook daily, and there is a real question — do we still need public access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the age of the mobile phone?
A recent IREXtech Deep Dive discussion sponsored by IREX’s Center for Collaborative Technology and co-sponsored by the University of Washington’s Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA), brought together a group of leading public access technology experts and development practitioners to debate this question and envision various public access futures. Highlights of the discussion follow.

July 30, 2014

The extensive discourse regarding ‘making’ and the maker movement is primarily centered on the opportunities that ‘making’ creates for society, particularly for manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Through this blog post series, “Making and the maker movement: A democratizing force or an example of cultural reproduction?” (this is the first blog post out of a series of 5), I aim to critically examine this discourse, not in an attempt to discredit the movement and its supporters, but rather to draw attention to the issues and challenges of the maker movement and how these may be addressed. These point-of-view pieces will draw on literature, media, and conversations with people who are actively engaged in the movement.

July 23, 2014

TASCHA’s research is supporting the active engagement of its partners, Association of Progressive Communications (APC) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), in the post-2015 agenda development process. Together with APC and IFLA, we have prepared a briefing paper, “Public access: Supporting digital inclusion for all – Maximising the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for inclusive social and economic development.” Two different versions of the paper were presented in Geneva at The Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), Seventeenth Session, May 12-16, 2014 and the WSIS+10 High-Level Event, June 9-13, 2014

June 13, 2014

One of TASCHA’s recent research projects is focusing on innovation spaces (including makerspaces), and what the implications and opportunities are for libraries. We are working on crystallizing some aspects of this research and where we see it heading. We’re lucky to have maker movement maven Lauren Britton here with us in Seattle for a week to help us flesh out our ideas and contribute her expertise in the area. Lauren was one of (if not THE only) groundbreaking leaders of the makerspace movement within libraries. To maximize Lauren’s time with us, we invited our colleagues and students from the University of Washington to join us for an informal discussion on libraries and makerspaces. Lauren kicked off our discussion by providing a background on makerspaces, definining a makerspace for us, and shared her experience setting up a makerspace in the Fayetteville Public Library in central New York. We went on to discuss how libraries and makerspaces fit together compared to other places makerspaces exist, some of what she has learned over the past few years, and where things might be heading for makerspaces in libraries. Here’s a recap of our lively and informative discussion.