News: Announcements

June 27, 2011

The in-depth study, The Impact of Public Access Venue (PAV) Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Available at Libraries on Sustainable Livelihood Strategies and Outcomes, will explore the impact of education, income generation, and employment opportunities on users of public access to ICT venues. This study, employing the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, will take place in Botswana. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach is particularly concerned with how (lack of) access to capital assets shapes vulnerability to shocks and trends, as well as the ability of individuals, households, and communities to cope with them. The livelihood strategies emanate from the interplay of vulnerabilities, capital assets, and the transforming structures and processes.

June 16, 2011

Co-PI of the Mobile internet in-depth study, Jonathan Donner, participated in the “Social Media for Development” workshop in Hangzhou, China in March 2011. He presented a position paper based on some of the hypotheses of the Mobile internet study at a pre-conference event of the Annual CSCW (Computer Supported Collaborative Work) conference.

April 28, 2011

Over the past few months, the survey analysis working group of the Global Impact Study has been planning for and implementing the user and venue survey data analysis. This working group, comprised of Mike Crandall, Chris Rothschild, George Sciadas, and Araba Sey, is working with the University of Washington’s Center for Statistical Consulting in the data analysis phase of the study. The Center for Statistical Consulting is helping to run the data, as well as advising the working group on options for statistical analyses.

April 18-21, 2011 was very busy and productive for us here at the Global Impact Study. We held two workshops – one on survey data analysis and one on our project-wide data integration plan. During the survey data analysis workshop, we reviewed initial user survey data to identify three high-level reports that we will produce this spring: a user profile report, a report on services offered at public access ICT venues and how people are using them, and a report on perceived impacts of using public access ICT.

April 26, 2011

This Friday, April 29th, join Fernando Baron, Ricardo Gomez, and Brittany Fiore-Sifvast for a coding pizza party. Help code a slew research papers on information and communication technologies for development, as part of an ongoing iSchool study — ICTD Narratives Study, 2000-2010 — that explores a decade of ICTD discourse. Results may be presented at the ICTD2012 conference next in Atlanta.

April 25, 2011

In this TASCHA Talk, Chris Coward and Melody Clark will reflect on their experiences at the Santiago Forum. You will hear two different perspectives. Chris attended the first two forums and has been a longtime follower of telecenters through his research. Melody comes from the library field and for her this was her first encounter with the telecenter community. The “talk” will begin with opening thoughts from Chris and Melody, to be followed by discussion.

April 19, 2011

Two TASCHA researchers, Ricardo Gomez and Elizabeth Gould, received a Literati Network for Excellence “Outstanding Paper” award for The cool factor of public access to ICT: users perceptions of trust in libraries, telecenters, and cybercafés in developing countries.

April 18, 2011

Adding to Melody and Maria’s update on our crisis informatics project in Chile, I wanted to share this newspaper clip from La Prensa, the local newspaper for the Maule region. The article highlights our local partner, ATACH, and provides a nice overview of the project, how the research will be conducted, and why it matters.

April 11, 2011

As part of our TASCHA Talk series, George Sciadas will bring us on a guided tour of information society statistics and analysis. George will describe, synoptically, the evolution of quantitative research in ICTs from the early days and the preoccupation with access through major milestones such as the digital divide, e-commerce and the ICT sector, to its present state of affairs internationally. This domain provides the common ground for multi-disciplinary research including the quest for “impacts.”