ICTs for Development blog
Catch up on the most recent posts from our Centre for Development Informatics blog.
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How Big Data Changes the Locus of Organisational Power
Richard Heeks
19 September 2017
Big data can lead centres of power in organisations to move. Recent research on this was undertaken in an Indian state electricity corporation (“Stelcorp”), reported in the paper, “Exploring Big Data for Development: An Electricity Sector Case Study from India”. This found three shifts to be occurring, as illustrated. Power Shifts Associated with Big Data 1. […]
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Big Data and Electoral Politics in India
Richard Heeks
7 August 2017
What happens when big data and big politics collide? One answer arises from a recent study of big data in the electricity distribution sector in an Indian state: “Exploring Big Data for Development: An Electricity Sector Case Study from India”. [1] The state electricity corporation has introduced millions of online digital meters that measure electricity […]
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Manchester School of Computer Science team returns from teaching in Malawi
davidrydeheard
19 July 2017
An outreach team from the University of Manchester’s School of Computer Science has returned from a pilot project in Malawi, teaching computing in schools in the North of the country. It was a great experience all round, for the staff, CS students and schoolteachers on the team, and for the schools, where we met real […]
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An ICT4D Research Network in the North of England
Jaco Renken
12 July 2017
The potential benefits of a research network are outlined following a workshop for regional ICT4D researchers in the north of England
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The Affordances and Impacts of Data-Intensive Development
Richard Heeks
5 June 2017
What is special about “data-intensive development”: the growing presence and application of data in the processes of international development? We can identify three levels of understanding: qualities, affordances, and development impacts. A. Data Qualities Overused they may be but it still helps to recall the 3Vs. Data-intensive development is based on a greater volume, velocity […]
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ICT4D Course Curriculum and Teaching Materials
Richard Heeks
3 May 2017
The draft materials below are for use in conjunction with the textbook, “Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)” under publication as part of the Routledge Perspectives on Development series. They are designed for use in a ten-session teaching module consisting of nine teaching sessions plus one external visit / speaker / lab session. For […]
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The Demographics of Digital Development
Richard Heeks
13 April 2017
Any emergent digital development paradigm will be shaped by three changing demographics of ICT usage: geographical, maturational and experiential. Geographically, we have already moved from domination of the old Internet world (the US and Europe) to domination of the new Internet world (emerging nations of the global East and South), as summarised in the table […]
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Technology Foundations for Digital Development
Richard Heeks
14 March 2017
If there is to be a coming digital development paradigm, on what technologies will it be based? Mobile, broadband, and mobile broadband (hence smartphones and tablets) will be a key foundation for the digital development paradigm. They are already present or rapidly diffusing in developing countries. As these diffuse, cloud, social media and other Web […]
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An Emerging Digital Development Paradigm?
Richard Heeks
28 February 2017
Taking a longer-term view, the relationship between digital ICTs and international development can be divided into three paradigms – “pre-digital”, “ICT4D”, and “digital development” – that rise and fall over time (see Figure below). Changing Paradigms of ICTs and Development The pre-digital paradigm dominated from the mid-1940s to mid-1990s, and conceptualised a separation between […]
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Data Justice for Development
Richard Heeks
13 October 2016
What would “data justice for development” mean? This is a topic of increasing interest. It sits at the intersection of greater use of justice in development theory, and greater use of data in development practice. Until recently, very little had been written about it but this has been addressed via a recent Centre for Development […]
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