News: Syndicated

November 21, 2011

This mind map lays out a framework for thinking about “innovation grounds” — spaces where people can come together and generate ideas, solutions, knowledge, culture, and relationships. It emerged from perceiving coworking spaces as next-generation telecentres; seeing connections between telecentres, coworking spaces, hackerspaces, and libraries; and being somewhat exasperated at how libraries are often overlooked as key actors in community development — despite the fact that they’ve always been places where people convene, learn, and create (especially information… and we’re in the information age, Hello!).

November 17, 2011

The TASCHA Winter 2012 Research Seminar focuses on analysis of data from the Global Impact Study. The Global Impact Study comprises a variety of research activities, including a comprehensive set of surveys of public access venue owners/operators, users, and non-users at more than a thousand public access venues in Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and the Philippines. The result is a rich source of data on demographics, usage needs/behaviors, and services in these countries. The seminar will focus on analysis of the survey data and provide opportunities to participate in different aspects of the project from crunching numbers to reviewing related literature.

October 11, 2011

On October 20, 2011, Araba Sey and Chris Rothschild will discuss the development and implementation of the Global Impact Study surveys. The talk is part of the Technology and Social Change Group’s (TASCHA) TASCHA Talk series.

October 5, 2011

Seven NGOs share innovative technology programs at the “Learning from outside the library” session at the Gates Foundation Global Libraries annual grantee peer learning meeting.

October 4, 2011

Innovation hubs and co-working spaces are flourishing. Community technology centers and libraries can ride this trend. Physical space offers important, often overlooked, value for people coming together around technology.

September 25, 2011

Despite the title, Tufte’s keynote for the Tech@State event on data visualization was the same that he gave at a one-day workshop I attended in 1999. It was a brilliant talk then, and it’s still good now. It could have been better if Tufte addressed implementation. The how. The practice of creating good infographics for decisionmakers.

September 23, 2011

A few snippets from the “Mobile Technology and New Media: Trends and Opportunities” panel at the September 23 Tech@State event. No analysis. Just stuff I wanted to remember.

July 12, 2011

Last month I attended a conference on Youth, Partnerships, Employability: From Innovation to Scale, hosted by the International Youth Foundation. I moderated a session on “The role of technology in helping youth at risk gain access to information, skills and resources.” This session centered on a presentation by Javier Lasida who had conducted an evaluation […]

July 8, 2011

After two years of fieldwork, we convened our research partners from around the world for a project-wide workshop during the last week of June, 2011. This workshop is significant in the Global Impact Study timeline, as it launched the next phase of our study – data analysis and integration. The majority of the workshop was devoted to sharing and discussing the emerging findings from each of the research activities.

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.