News

April 17, 2014

We recently launched a project that is looking at public internet access and use in Vietnam. One of the main objectives of the study is to understand the role library-like institutions, such as cultural post offices in Vietnam, play in providing public access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Surveying public access venues, users, and non-users to gather data about public access in Vietnam is a critical component of the study. While critical to answering our research questions, collecting data on a large scale like in this project can be challenging. As such, we are excited to employ a different method of data collection in this study, using the Open Data Kit (ODK), developed here at the University of Washington’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Using Android-based tablets, researchers in the field will implement the surveys and collect data through ODK.

February 11, 2010

Although the Global Impact Study’s basic approach remains the same, we’re learning along the way and our thinking is evolving. This post summarizes the updates in the project’s research design, articulated around four basic components: (1) inventory and surveys that provide a big-picture view; (2) focused studies of specific mechanisms through which public access impacts livelihoods; (3) an assessment of indirect and aggregated impacts, which takes the community as the unit of analysis and looks at non-users and alternative information sources; and (4) a look at alternatives and complements to public access, focusing on mobile phones.