Connected Activism: Indigenous Uses of Social Media for Shaping Political Change

Prior studies describe digital tactics as specific strategies actors apply within broader repertoires of contention, specifically in social and political contexts. A comparison of EZLN, Idle No More, and the ongoing Rio Yaqui water rights movement reveals the kinds of community knowledge work that has to happen prior to and […]

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A Crowd-Sourced Knowledge Management Approach to Language Preservation and Revitalization: the Case of Te Reo Māori

Many linguists claim as many as half of the world’s nearly 7,105 languages spoken today could disappear by the end of this century. When a language becomes extinct, communities lose their cultural identity and practices tied to a language and intellectual wealth. Preservation of endangered languages is critical, but a […]

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Social media and digital technology use among Indigenous young people in Australia: a literature review

The use of social media and digital technologies has grown rapidly in Australia and around the world, including among Indigenous young people who face social disadvantage. Given the potential to use social media for communication, providing information and as part of creating and responding to social change, this paper explores […]

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It’s like going to a cemetery and lighting a candle: Aboriginal Australians, Sorry Business and social media

Death and funeral practices are a constant presence in many Aboriginal Australians’ lives—research in some communities found they are eight times more likely to have attended a funeral in the previous 2 years than non- Aboriginal people. This can be explained by two major factors: inordinately high rates of Aboriginal […]

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Exploring Social Media as Channels for Sustaining African Culture

Social media are becoming significant channels for information dissemination and communication around the world today. Internet and social media users run into hundred thousands daily; with young people constituting a large percentage. With the internet technology, social media, which consists of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, MySpace, have made the communication […]

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Survivance: An Indigenous Game for Change

Historical trauma caused by colonization has had generational effects on the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing of Indigenous communities. Survivance is a social media game for change that brings players through the Indigenous hero’s journey on a path to recovery through quests and acts of survivance. This paper briefly […]

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Indigenous New Media Symposium

February 21, 2014 | New York City | School of Media Studies at The New School The Indigenous New Media Symposium brings together Native American and First Nation media makers and creative activists to discuss how new media platforms are being used in the indigenous community to educate, organize, entertain, […]

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Saving a Language with Computers, Tape Recorders, and Radio

In California, efforts to save indigenous languages have a century long history. The use of technology in ever-new ways is a part of that history. The earliest technology to encounter an indigenous language was the wax cylinder. This instrument was used for recording the sounds of the languages from native […]

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A Lifeline for Endangered Languages

During a gruelling interview at the All Things Digital conference, on May 28th, Walt Mossberg cut off the Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook mid-sentence to raise an uncomfortable subject for the company. “There is a level of control that you exercise—curation, one might say, not just in your app store but […]

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The Use of Social Media Technologies to Create, Preserve & Disseminate IK

The preservation, management, and sharing of indigenous knowledge is crucial for social and economic development in rural Africa. The high rate of illiteracy (print-based) in rural Africa and the exclusion of indigenous knowledge from Western education add to the information gap experienced in rural Africa. Other challenges facing oral cultures […]

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Participatory Cultural Heritage: A Tale of Two Institutions’ Use of Social Media

The purpose of this study is to examine how and to what extent cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) are currently using social media to create a culture of participation around their digital collections and services. An environmental scan of New Zealand CHIs with a social media initiative was conducted and four […]

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Enduring Cultures – A Socio Cultural Toolkit

In the mad rush of modernization and the blind aping of Western manners, the East Indians (Roman Catholic ethnic group from the west coast of India) are slowly but steadily losing count of some of their most cherished customs and conventions, and are at the risk of being lost forever. […]

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Indigenous New Media Symposium 2014

The Indigenous New Media Symposium aims to bring together Native American and First Nation media makers and creative activists to discuss how new media platforms are being used in the indigenous community to educate, organize, entertain, and advocate.  In the past few years blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other tools […]

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Digital leisure for development: Reframing new media practice in the global south

Photoshopping of newlyweds, downloading the latest movies, teens flirting on social network sites and virtual gaming may seem like typical behavior in the West; yet in the context of a village in Mali or a slum in Mumbai, it is seen as unusual and perhaps an anomaly in their new […]

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Indigenous Rights and Social Media – a Sámi example

This blog post discusses indigenous uses of social media with the example of resistance against exploitation of the land and its raw materials in Swedish Sápmi – the cultural homeland of the Sámi, indigenous people of Europe. A growing conflict in Gállok was in the news in the summer of […]

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Global Voices interview: Kevin Scannell talks about indigenous tweets and blogs

Kevin Scannell is a professor of mathematics and computer science at St. Louis University in Missouri, USA. He told us how he got into the field of mapping Indigenous tweets and micro-blogs around the world.

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Social Media for Development (SoMe4D)

SoMe4D is the acronym for Social Media for international aid & Development. It is founded by freelance IT for development consultant & researcher Anand Sheombar. Initially the aim of SoMe4D is to bring together those who are interested in the activities of international aid and development organisations operating from or […]

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Social 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 […]

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Wait… What? Bridging Community Development & Technology (Linda Raftree’s blog)

NOTE: I have followed Linda’s tweets and read her blog since 2008, and met her very briefly during a meet up after the UN Week Digital Media Lounge in NYC in 2010. She’s got great energy and enthusiasm and is on my list of favorite ICT4D peeps. Cheers, Mark O. […]

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ICT4D Bibliography at ICTlogy.net

This is a gathering of literature on subjects related to the impact of Information and Communication Technologies in the society, especially in development curated by Ismael Peña-López. Thus, you’ll find readings about the Information Society, the Digital Divide, e-Readiness or Digital Literacy, as core themes, and the Digital Economy, e-Learning, […]

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