September 22, 2017
On Monday September 25, to mark the 2nd anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), IFLA will host a webinar about the report Development and Access to Information (DA2I). The report, developed as a partnership with TASCHA and IFLA, explores how access to information contributes to the SDGs. IFLA will also present DA2I supporting materials so you…
July 9, 2017
Everyone Can Develop, But Not Without Access to Information Ten years ago, Oxfam launched a successful campaign based on the proverb: ‘Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.’ The idea is an easy one to understand – sustainable solutions…
April 24, 2014
TASCHA Research Assistant Professor Maria Garrido has a chapter in a new book, Cyberactivism on the Participatory Web, edited by Martha McCaughey. Maria co-authored the chapter, “Twitter as the People’s Microphone: Emergence of Authorities during Protest Tweeting,” with Alexander Halavais of Arizona State University’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The chapter covers Maria and Alex’s research on over 30,000 Tweets using the #g20 hashtag, largely protest Tweets before, during, and after the 2009 G20 Meeting in Pittsburgh.
December 4, 2013
The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) takes place in Cape Town, South Africa December 7-10, 2013. Researchers from TASCHA regularly participate in this conference, usually held every 18 months. This year, TASCHA Director Chris Coward will present a paper at the conference based on the Global Impact Study, “The impact of public access to ICTs: Findings from a five-year, eight-country study.”
August 13, 2013
Last month, we released the final report of the Global Impact Study of Public Access ICTs, Connecting people for development: Why public access ICTs matter. In addition to the overall analysis presented in the final report, TASCHA researchers also conducted analysis specifically related to ICT access in public libraries in Botswana, Chile, and the Philippines. The report based on this analysis, Public libraries connecting people for development: Findings from the Global Impact Study, is now available for download. Using data from Botswana, Chile, and the Philippines, the report summarizes the study’s key findings with a focus on libraries, situating these venues in the context of national development, discussing some disputed issues, and providing recommendations for policymakers, library practitioners, and researchers.
July 2, 2013
While you’re likely reading this on your personal computer, enjoying reliable and fast internet, millions of people around the world still lack private access to this increasingly necessary resource to function and prosper in today’s world. How do those people connect to digital society? For many, digital inclusion is found at a library, a telecenter, or a cybercafé – their local public access ICT venue. For over a decade, significant investments have been made in these venues. However, their ability to contribute to development agendas has come into question in recent times, spurred by the spread of mobile phones and other new technologies and applications. The Global Impact Study was designed to address this debate by generating evidence about the scale, character, and impacts of public access ICTs.
Today, TASCHA is excited to announce the release of the study’s final report, Connecting people for development: Why public access ICTs matter.
April 16, 2013
A recent TASCHA project, in the research area of Social Movements, explored how Facebook and social media was used in Egypt before and during the Arab Spring. The Youth, ICTs, and Democracy in Egypt project drew on social movement theory and emphasizes various lines of analysis, asking the main research question, how did the use of ICTs impact the evolution of the youth movement and the trajectory of the Egyptian revolution? Findings from this research have recently been presented at multiple venues by members of the project team.
February 18, 2013
The Global Impact Study, a research project led by TASCHA, is excited to announce the upcoming release of the study’s final research report soon! After five years of research design, research implementation, and data interpretation and analysis, we are looking forward to finalizing and sharing the final report. The final report will be posted on the Global Impact Study website, but if you’d like to receive the final report via email, please sign up here.
February 22, 2011
On February 9, 2011, Global Impact Study Research Assistant, Michelle Fellows, presented a paper co-authored with Araba Sey at the 2011 iConference in Seattle, Washington. The paper, Loose Strands: Searching for Evidence of Public Access ICT on Development (pdf), uses a broad outcomes approach to review existing research on the impacts of public access to ICTs, including the extent to which public access ICTs are used and how they contribute to socio‐economic development.
March 13, 2009
The Compendium on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects, by Richard Heeks and Alemayehu Molla, is a valuable guide for researchers. The compendium reviews impact assessment methods and approaches, and includes detailed descriptions of eleven different frameworks.
