News: Announcements

November 19, 2012

The Global Impact Study is pleased to announce the release of the Mobile Internet in-depth studyresearch report, Public access, private mobile: The interplay of shared access and the mobile Internet for Teenagers in Cape Town. Led by Marion Walton of the University of Cape Town and Jonathan Donner of Microsoft Research India, this study assesses and describes the interplay between public PC-based Internet access and private mobile-based access for urban teenaged public access venue users in Cape Town.

November 9, 2012

Along with fellow TASCHA student Luis Fernando Baron, I had the opportunity to attend the 13th Association of Internet Research conference (AoIR 13). At the beginning of the conference, we were welcomed to the University of Salford by the Internet Research President Alex Halavais. He made a special point of welcoming first-time attendees, and as one, I felt personally greeted. Then the first session started with the “ignite” talks, where each speakers gets 5 minutes—but must have 20 slides and each slide must automatically progress forward in 15 seconds.

TASCHA students Norah Abokhodair and Luis Fernando Baron participated in the 13th conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) at University of Salford in Manchester between 18 and 21 of October 2012. The conference focused on the theme of technologies, considering the impact of the Internet in a context where life is entangled with technologies of all kinds.

October 2, 2012

A brief based on some of the emerging findings of the Global Impact Study, Public access and development: The impact of public access venues and the benefits of libraries, has just been released. This two-page brief describes findings about the impact of public access venues on development, including the unique benefits successful public libraries offer. This brief is based on data from the surveys of over 5,000 public access venue users in five developing countries.

Coinciding with the first Beyond Access event, Local Alternatives for Global Development: Rediscovering Libraries, on October 3, 2012, TASCHA has released the results of its study, Beyond Access: Perceptions of Libraries as Development Partners, in the forms of a brief and full report.

September 28, 2012

Beyond Access, an initiative that believes that libraries power development, is holding its first conference on October 3, 2012 in Washington, DC. The event, Local Alternatives for Global Development: Rediscovering Libraries, will bring together library representatives, government officials, and international development professionals from all over the world to spark ideas and dialogue about how libraries contribute to global development.

September 20, 2012

TASCHA Research Assistant Professor Maria Garrido leaves today to participate in a five-week research residency at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) in Seville, Spain. Maria will be working with researchers at the Information Society Unit designing a study to better understand the role of eInclusion intermediaries, such as telecenters and libraries, in advancing social and economic policy goals.

September 13, 2012

Global Impact Study’s Melody Clark had the opportunity to present some of the study’s findings at the International Federation of Library Association’s (IFLA) annual conference in Helsinki, Finland on August 16, 2012. The presentation, part of the Policy, Strategy, and Advocacy track, focused on results from the Global Impact Study, particularly findings about libraries, based on the study’s user survey data.

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…