Executive Summary Affordable broadband connectivity, services and applications are essential to modern society, offering widely recognized social and economic benefits. The Broadband Commission for Digital Development promotes the adoption of broadband-friendly practices and policies for all, so everyone can take advantage of the benefits offered by broadband. With this Report, the […]
Indigenous communities deploy high-tech mapmaking to staunch global land grab
With governments, loggers, miners and palm oil producers poaching their lands with impunity, indigenous leaders from 17 countries gathered on a remote island in Sumatra this week to launch a global fight for their rights that will take advantage of powerful mapping tools combined with indigenous knowledge to mark traditional […]
GIS • GPS • indigenous • land rights • mappingCommunity Maps Can Empower Indigenous Peoples to Assert Land Rights
An Australian-Filipino mining company during a September 2011 public consultation mobilized its “experts.” Their goal: to persuade local officials and indigenous and local communities about the “safety, merits and sustainability” of the company’s US$5.8-billion project in southern Philippines. The “experts” were armed with figures, graphs and pictures all showing the […]
community mapping • indigenous communities • land rights • mappingICT4D Research Ethics: Is it about Right?
Abstract: This article grew out of work with early career researchers working in ICTD and in mobile learning, specifically those at the intersection of those two emergent disciplines, the field sometimes called mobile learning for development. It originally provided an overview of issues that are important but not core to their […]
best practice • ethics • ICT4DUNIMAS team experiments with community mapping
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) is no stranger to rural ICT4D projects in Malaysia. Known best for their award-winning eBario project, a remote telecenter that brought internet to the indigenous highlands of Borneo in the late 90s, UNIMAS has a long, successful track-record of participatory community development projects. An article in […]
Borneo • eBario • ICT4D • mapping • Sarawak • UNIMASCommunity memory and ICT in a developing economy
Abstract The implementation of ICT in Africa pales in comparison with developed economies. Data of the use of landline phones, cellular phones and internet connectivity indicates that the most equipped African countries, of which there are only a handful, are worse off than the poorly connected countries in developed regions […]
2006 • Africa • community informatics • community memory • development • digital divide • poverty reduction • telecenter • telecommunicationsAn Overview of ICT Innovation for Developmental Projects in Marginalised Rural Areas
Abstract In recent years, assistance from developed countries to developing countries has intensified. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have also been widely deployed in developmental programmes, leading to the creation of a new field – ICT for development. This paper reviews a number of projects that introduce technically innovative ICTs […]
2007 • development • ICT4D • ICTs • innovation • ruralTelecentre Replication Initiative in Borneo, Malaysia: The CoERI Experience
Abstract There are many bridging-the-digital-divide initiatives implemented by various government agencies and non-governmental organisations throughout the world. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the critical success factors in providing remote and rural communities equitable access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Malaysia has its fair share of successes and […]
2012 • Borneo • CoERI • eBario • ICT4D • Malaysia • rural • telecenter • UNIMASHCI as an Instrument for Strengthening Culture and Language of a Colombian Native Community
Abstract This paper is about the relationship between culture and human-computer interaction. Cultures are live, open and in continuous change. Computer and information technology, as external factors for non-Western-industrialized societies, may trigger transformations, that sometimes, could be considered as negative or unwanted. For example, the usage of Western word-processors modified […]
2011 • Colombia • culture • culture | preservation • HCI4D • human computer interaction • language | preservation • NasaEthiopic at the End of the 20th Century
Abstract As globalization and modernization come to bear on Ethiopia, cultural and linguistic survival increasing depends on the adaptation of technology to local needs. The pervasiveness of electronic communication technology is forcing societies world wide to face the challenge of cultural preservation with an immediacy never before seen. Societies that […]
2006 • culture | preservation • Ethiopia • ICTs • language | preservationThe Foundation for Indigenous ICT in Ethiopia
Abstract Ethiopia’s standards body, the Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia, has legalized the nation’s first character set standard. The highly anticipated standard, ES 781:2002, sets the foundation that future computer, software, and electronic communication standards of Ethiopia will be built upon. With “Ethiocode” now at hand, Ethiopia is braced […]
2004 • Ethiopia • ICTs • localization • orthography • UnicodeIndigenous Youth & ICT: The Jakun & their Quest to Preserve their Traditional Knowledge – Malaysia
Abstract Information and communications technology (ICT) is fast catching up with youth throughout the globe. Once confined to the affluent of urban populace, ICT is now transcending boundaries, cultures and the economy of the masses, bridging the gap between urban and rural youth. New technology is creeping into aboriginal villages […]
2007 • development • ICTs • indigenous / traditional knowledge • Jakun • knowledge tradition • Malaysia • youthFragile memories: Indigenous knowledge and development
Abstract This paper examines the nature of knowledge with particular reference to so-called “indigenous knowledge” and its treatment within development interventions. It highlights some of the theoretical arguments and different sides of the debate concerning hierarchies of knowledge with development narratives and discourse. Much indigenous knowledge is contained in oral […]
2004 • development • development discourse • indigenous / traditional knowledge • knowledge systems • oral traditionHuman–Computer Interaction and Global Development
A publication by Kentaro Toyama (2010) Abstract International development is concerned with making life better for the least privileged people of the world. Since the 1990s, HCI has engaged increasingly with development through an interdisciplinary field known as “information and communication technologies for development,” or ICT4D. This article overviews the […]
development • HCI4D • human computer interaction • ICT4D • impact of | ICTs • infrastructureStoryBank: Mobile Digital Storytelling in a Development Context
A paper by David M. Frohlich, Dorothy Rachovides, Kiriaki Riga, Ramnath Bhat, Maxine Frank, Eran Edirisinghe, Dhammike Wickramanayaka, Matt Jones and Will Harwood (2009) Abstract Mobile imaging and digital storytelling currently support a growing practice of multimedia communication in the West. In this paper we describe a project which explores […]
2009 • development • digital storytelling • HCI4D • human computer interaction • India • mobile • multimediaDigital Preservation Technology for Cultural Heritage
“Digital Preservation Technology for Cultural Heritage” discusses the technology and processes in digital preservation of cultural heritage. It covers topics in five major areas: Digitization of cultural heritage Digital management in the cultural heritage preservation Restoration techniques for rigid solid relics Restoration techniques for paintings Digital museums It also includes […]
2013 • asset management • cultural heritage • culture | preservation • digital humanities • virtual museumIltyem-iltyem: Sign languages in Central Australia
Iltyem-iltyem is an online resource for sign languages used in Indigenous communities in Central Australia. This site contains several hundred video clips of signs for public view. The project was piloted by members of the sign language team from Ti Tree in Central Australia. This website is for people who […]
Anmatyerr • Australia • dictionary • language | preservation • sign language • videoSocial Media: Brazil’s Indigenous Tribes Go Online in their Struggle To Be Heard
Brazil has several marginalized groups that often don’t have a voice in government decision-making and are invisible to the majority of the country’s population. One such group, the country’s indigenous tribes, must constantly fight for their land against farmers and developers. Conflicts arise regularly but very few of them reach […]
Amazon • Brazil • indigenous communities • participatory • social change • social mediaCultural Differences, Technological Imperialism and Indigenous GIS
Summary Do all people, from all cultures and all languages, think about geographic space and geographic processes in more or less the same way? Or are there significant cross-cultural variations in how different peoples conceptualize and reason about geographic processes, features and places? Dr. David Mark of the State University […]
2006 • cross-cultural • geographic • geospatial • GIS • YindjibarndiIndigenous, ethnic and cultural articulations of new media
This article extends a lineage of research that reveals possibilities by which indigenous and ethnic communities have appropriated media technologies to serve their own cultural, political and social visions. This article focuses on networked and database-driven ‘new’ media and information systems, and the possibilities and potentialities these hold within cultural […]
2006 • cultural protocols • database • diaspora • indigenous communities • information system • Native American • network • new mediaRhizomatica
Rhizomatica promotes “Mobile Communications for All” by aiming to provide cellular service to underserved and overlooked communities. It helped launch the first autonomous cellphone network in a small, Zapoteca community in Oaxaca, Mexico. According the the Rhizomatica “About Page,” According to the ITU, 2-3 billion people around the world lack […]
cellular networks • ICT4D • infrastructure • telecommunicationsMexican village launches autonomous cellular network
A small indigenous village in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico launched what could be a new paradigm in local telecommunications services: a community-run carrier-grade autonomous cellular network. With the support of US-based international non-profit Rhizomatica, the Zapoteco village Villa Talea de Castro now offers cell phone service for its residents […]
cellular service • ICT • indigenous • network • Oaxaca | Mexico • Telcom • telecommunications