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Re: [Air-L] help on africa and computer donations
by Paul DiPerna 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

This past Sunday 60 Minutes ran a feature on Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child initiative. It was an update on a story they first reported in May. Link to the video: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2830221n Transcript text: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/60minutes/main2830058.shtml The business/political dynamics at play between the One Laptop Project and Craig Barrett/Intel are interesting. The CBS report implicitly raises some profound questions about how oligopolies (here in the US. for example) can actually stifle technological progress and the diffusion of an innovation to the masses. I'm not a business analyst by any stretch of the imagination, but that was one of my takeaways. - Paul Paul DiPerna Blau Exchange http://www.blauexchange.org online ID: http://claimid.com/pdiperna ----- Original Message ---- From: Scott MacLeod <helianth(a)gmail.com> To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 9:28:28 PM Subject: Re: [Air-L] help on africa and computer donations Hi, Here's the keynote address by MIT Media Lab's Nicholas Negroponte about the One Laptop per Child or XO-1 initiative at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society this year on May 31 - http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/06/17/nicholas-negroponte-ke…. In it , he tells how the initiative is proceeding, that this laptop will cost about $130, that it is basically ready, that they are targeting about 8 countries, and that one company built a new factory for them due to the scale of the project. It is primarily an educational endeavor. They'll use a mesh network that will work in remote locations. I'm not sure how they'll approach the language and literacy questions, from a partly engineering orientation. All of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society's media at Media Berkman is a rich resource. The scale and implementation of this project is impressive. Scott MacLeod See also wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_laptop_per_child On 8/27/07, nativebuddha <nativebuddha(a)gmail.com> wrote: > This student is looking for help. Any suggestions? > > -robert > > ----------------------------------------------- > > Hello, > > I am Alok Kotecha, a Computer Science major at the College of > Charleston. I am working on a paper for my English 102 class that is > based mainly on donating computers to the developing nations of > Africa, mostly Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique & Zambia. > > My main argument is that developed nations donate technology such as > computers to these counties with the aim of technologically advancing > the nations, however they do not consider the fact that donating > computers is not the main thing to be done at this stage. > > Below are some other arguments that I address in my paper: > > 1. Lack of infrastructure e.g. very few people have telephone lines > and this will stop them from connecting to the internet. (Wireless > connections are out of question in most places due to the high set up > costs and regular maintenance required.) > > 2. Security would be a concern - High crime rates might mean that > high security would be needed in order to protect computers from > theft. > > 3. Language would be a concern as well - Operating a computer that > interacts in English my be a problem for many people. > > 4. Health Care - Many people die everyday form malaria and other > diseases. In these cases it is always a good idea to save lives first > by providing better health care and medical services rather then > donating computers. > > Currently I have based my paper on statistics from UNDP and NYT > articles, but because this is a very recent issue I am currently > having problems finding more scholarly articles and I would > appreciate any suggestions you can provide. > > Thank you, > > Alok Kotecha > _______________________________________________ > The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list > is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org > Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > > Join the Association of Internet Researchers: > http://www.aoir.org/ > -- http://scottmacleod.com This email is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of this email message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and destroy/delete all copies of the transmittal. Thank you. _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

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Re: [Air-L] help on africa and computer donations
by David Brake 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Charles Kenny has some provocative things to say about the likely utility of computers for developing countries as well. Quite a bit of it is freely available online through his blog, and he writes quite clearly, so this might be a good place for a skeptical African to start: http://charleskenny.blogs.com/weblog/icts/index.html He's put out a book recently as well - Overselling the Web?: Development And the Internet --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone) Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm

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Re: [Air-L] help on africa and computer donations
by nsenga＠mediom.qc.ca 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Right on, Charles! The name of the game is just...MARKETING! Preferably worldwide, through all those "insidious" "aid" things. Nothing else but modern Trojan horses mantled in "charity" sentiments, whose main and true aim is just to conquer new markets. Never mind local creativity, indigenous and endogenous development hampered by all those subtle but ruthless impositions! Francois Nsenga Teacher and Researcher in Industrial Design, Ergonpomics and Sociology Montreal, CANADA P.S. Thanks for the bibliography list! Original Message: ----------------- From: Charles Ess cmess(a)drury.edu Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:35:56 +0200 To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] help on africa and computer donations In my view, this student is on the right track - but still short of a series of additional questions that I believe need to be taken into consideration. As briefly as I can: because these technologies embed and foster the cultural values and communicative preferences of their designers - whatever the good intentions of such projects, they run the very real risk of serving as a form of computer-mediated colonization. This colonization is all the more insidious because it is more subtle than gunboats or even smallpox-infected blankets - but the format is the same: a form of cultural imperialism towards "the Other" issuing from a naïve ethnocentrism that presumes that "our" ways of doing things, including communicating and the technologies that support communication, are universal. Those who do things differently are simply wrong, primitive, etc., and must simply learn to do things our way. Worst-case scenario: "wiring the world" in the name of democracy, freedom of expression, economic development, etc. becomes simply a high-tech way of obliterating the differences that define individual and cultural identity. The literature affiliated with the CATaC (Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication) conferences is chock-full of case-studies from around the world that demonstrate (a) many such projects fail - and sometimes fail disastrously - because designers and sponsors, to put it bluntly, are clueless about the cultural dimensions of what they're up to. This happens in spectacular ways with projects oriented towards indigenous peoples, for example (the South African Learning Centres are a primary example) - but similar results often crop up when crossing into Confucian-shaped societies in particular and more communitarian-oriented societies in general. (Crudely, ICTs have a built-in bias towards the individual - a bias that can foster behavior contrary to the prevailing cultural norms in such societies.) (b) such projects can succeed marvelously - but only by taking into account the cultural and communicative dimensions at work "from the ground up," i.e., by design and implementation processes that start with the clearest possible understanding of the cultural values and communicative preferences of the peoples, organizations, etc., to be involved. The literature here is extensive - much of it online, e.g. in special issues of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, as well as in more traditional print-based journals and a few books: Emma Rooksby & John Weckert (eds.) 2007. Information Technology and Social Justice. Hershey, PA: Idea Publishing Sri Kurniawan & Panayiotis Zaphiris (eds.). 2007. Advances in Universal Web Design and Evaluation Laurel Evelyn Dyson, Max Hendriks & Stephen Grant (eds.) 2007. Information Technology and Indigenous People. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing. C. Ess, Akira Kawabata, and Hiroyuki Kurosaki (eds.), "Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Religion and Computer-Mediated Communication," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (3), April, 2007. <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/ess.html> C. Ess. 2006. Du colonialisme informatique à un usage culturellement informé des TIC. In J. Aden (ed.), De Babel à la mondialisation: apport des sciences sociales à la didactique des langues. Dijon : CNDP - CRDP de Bourgogne, p. 47-61. C. Ess and F. Sudweeks (eds.), Culture and CMC: Toward New Understandings - special issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11 (1) (October 2005) <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/> C. Ess and F. Sudweeks (eds.), Technology of Despair and Hope: CMC in the Middle East - a special issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (November 2003) <http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol8/issue2/> Jonathan Zhu, Fay Sudweeks, and C Ess (eds.), Internet Adoption in the Asia-Pacific Region, special issue of Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7: 2 (January, 2002). <http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol7/issue2/> C. Ess (ed.). 2001. Culture, Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. On the South African Learning Centres: Postma, L. (2001). A theoretical argumentation and evaluation of South African learners¹ orientation towards and perceptions of the empowering use of information. New Media and Society, 3(3: September), 315-28. Snyman, M., & Hulbert, D. (2004). Implementing ICT Centres for Development in South Africa: Can cultural differences be overcome?² In F. Sudweeks & C. Ess (Eds.), Proceedings Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication (pp. 626-630). Murdoch, Western Australia: Murdoch University Hope that helps! - charles ess > ----------------------------------------------- > > Hello, > > I am Alok Kotecha, a Computer Science major at the College of > Charleston. I am working on a paper for my English 102 class that is > based mainly on donating computers to the developing nations of > Africa, mostly Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique & Zambia. > > My main argument is that developed nations donate technology such as > computers to these counties with the aim of technologically advancing > the nations, however they do not consider the fact that donating > computers is not the main thing to be done at this stage. > > Below are some other arguments that I address in my paper: > > 1. Lack of infrastructure e.g. very few people have telephone lines > and this will stop them from connecting to the internet. (Wireless > connections are out of question in most places due to the high set up > costs and regular maintenance required.) > > 2. Security would be a concern - High crime rates might mean that > high security would be needed in order to protect computers from > theft. > > 3. Language would be a concern as well - Operating a computer that > interacts in English my be a problem for many people. > > 4. Health Care - Many people die everyday form malaria and other > diseases. In these cases it is always a good idea to save lives first > by providing better health care and medical services rather then > donating computers. > > Currently I have based my paper on statistics from UNDP and NYT > articles, but because this is a very recent issue I am currently > having problems finding more scholarly articles and I would > appreciate any suggestions you can provide. > > Thank you, > > Alok Kotecha -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web

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Research on Social Networking
by greenhow＠umn.edu 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Greetings! I do research on emerging technologies in education. I'm wondering if anyone knows of people/papers examining social networking sites as learning contexts and/or their relationship to students' learning/success in school or college? I'm also interested in social networking Web sites for scholars and research in this area. Thank you for any referrals! > Cheers, > Christine Greenhow > Postdoctoral Associate > Learning Technologies > College of Education and Human Development > University of Minnesota > greenhow(a)umn.edu > Co-founder: www.admissionpossible.org

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micropayments . . .
by Ed Lamoureux 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

In Online World, Pocket Change Is Not Easily Spent By DAN MITCHELL Published: August 27, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26 — The idea of micropayments — charging Web users tiny amounts of money for single pieces of online content — was essentially put to sleep toward the end of the dot-com boom. In December 2000, Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor in New York University’s interactive telecommunications program, wrote a manifesto that people still cite whenever someone suggests resurrecting the idea. Micropayments will never work, he wrote, mainly because “users hate them.” . . . . http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/technology/27micro.html?th&emc=th Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Multimedia Program and Department of Communication Co-Director, New Media Center 1501 W. Bradley Bradley University Peoria IL 61625 309-677-2378 <http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/index.html> <http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/> AIM/IM & skype: dredleelam Second Life: Professor Beliveau

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Fwd: [Icommons] CCau Report - Unlocking the Potential through Creative Commons
by Jeremy Hunsinger 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Begin forwarded message: > From: Jessica Coates <j2.coates(a)qut.edu.au> > Date: August 27, 2007 2:08:30 AM CDT > To: cci(a)lists.ibiblio.org, icommons(a)lists.ibiblio.org, cc- > community(a)lists.ibiblio.org > Subject: [Icommons] CCau Report - Unlocking the Potential through > Creative Commons > > Apologies for the no subject post. Here's a second try. > > _____ > > From: cci-bounces(a)lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:cci- > bounces(a)lists.ibiblio.org] > On Behalf Of Jessica Coates > Sent: Monday, 27 August 2007 5:04 PM > To: cci(a)lists.ibiblio.org; icommons(a)lists.ibiblio.org; > cc-community(a)lists.ibiblio.org > Subject: [CCi] (no subject) > > > > I am very pleased to announce the release of a new report by the > Australian > Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and > Innovation > (CCi) (http://cci.edu.au) and Creative Commons Australia > (http://creativecommons.org.au <http://creativecommons.org.au/> ) - > Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons: An Industry > Engagement and > Action Agenda. > > This report draws upon the CCau Industry Forum, a research-focused > industry > engagement event hosted by CCi in November 2006. The event was > designed to > follow up a recommendation in the Australian Government's 2005 Digital > Content Action Agenda report > (http://www.dcita.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/ > 37356/06030055_REPORT.pdf) > that the industry should "engage with work occurring in the area of > alternative approaches to intellectual property licensing, such as > Creative > Commons". Focusing on the government, education and the creative > industries > sectors, the Forum aimed to evaluate understanding of and attitudes > towards > copyright, open content licensing (OCL) and the Creative Commons > initiative > within Australia. > > > The Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons report > evaluates and > responds to the outcomes of this Forum and presents a strategy for > continued > research into Creative Commons in Australia. Full copies of the > report can > be downloaded at http://creativecommons.org.au/unlockingthepotential. > > Apologies for cross-posts. > > > > > > > > Jessica Coates > > Project Manager > > Creative Commons Clinic > > Queensland University of Technology > > > > ph: 07 3138 8301 > > fax: 07 3138 9598 > > email: j2.coates(a)qut.edu.au > > > > _______________________________________________ > Icommons mailing list > Icommons(a)lists.ibiblio.org > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/icommons jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu) wiki.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.stswiki.org/ sts wiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ Learning Inquiry-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series

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big grants for big ideas
by David M Silver 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

folks, there's been a recent surge in new media / social media grant opportunities and they are coming from many different directions. here are four: (please note: this same post also exists on my blog. the blog version is superior because it has hyperlinks to the grants, the sponsoring organizations, etc. if interested, please visit: http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2007/08/big-grants-for-big-ideas.html ) 1. ACLS digital innovation fellowships: third annual competition sponsored by the american council of learned societies. ACLS digital innovation fellowships "support digitally based research projects in all disciplines of the humanities and humanities-related social sciences. it is hoped that projects of successful applicants will help advance digital humanistic scholarship by broadening understanding of its nature and exemplifying the robust infrastructure necessary for creating further such works." the fellowships award time off from teaching and up to $55,000 for stipends and $25,00 for project costs. eligibility: US citizenship or permanent resident status; PhD or equivalent in all fields of the humanities and the humanistic social sciences. deadline: october 3, 2007. 2. digital humanities start-up grants: a big time set of grants co-sponsored by the national endowment for the humanities (NEH) and the institute of museum and library services (IMLS). the goal of the digital humanities start-up grants is "to encourage innovations in the digital humanities. by awarding relatively low-dollar grants during the planning stages, the goal is to identify projects that are particularly innovative and have the potential to make a positive impact on the humanities." level I grants range from $5,000 to $25,000; level II grants range from $25,000 to $50,000. eligibility: 1) US-based nonprofit organizations and institutions; 2) state and local governmental agencies and native american tribal organizations; and 3) US citizens and foreign nationals who have been living in the US for at least three years. deadline: october 16, 2007. 3. knight news challenge: a competition run by the john s. and james l. knight foundation. the goal of the knight news challenge is "to spur innovation in the delivery of information and news using digital media." does your idea use digital media? is it new and original? does it involve giving people access to news/information? is your idea timely? does your idea create a community and does it affect people in a specific geographic area? is it open source? if you said "yes!" to each question, you should apply. they are giving away $5 million this year and plan to drop $25 million over five years period. eligibility: anyone. deadline: october 15, 2007. 4. macarthur foundation's innovation awards and knowledge-networking awards: a public competition sponsored by the foundation's digital media and learning initiative and administered by the humanities, arts, science and technology advanced collaboratory (HASTAC). innovation awards "support learning pioneers, entrepreneurs, and builders of new digital learning environments for formal and informal learning." knowledge-networking awards "support communicators in connecting, mobilizing, circulating or translating new ideas around digital media and learning." innovation awards are $100,000 and $250,000; knowledge-networking awards range between $30,000 and $75,000. eligibility: the primary applicant must be at least 21 and be a US citizen or resident with a work permit for the duration of the grant term. also eligible: nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and corporations. deadline: october 15, 2007. david silver http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/

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next round of ycombinator startups by oct 11
by Jeremy Hunsinger 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

http://ycombinator.com/w2008.html jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu) () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers http://www.stswiki.org/ stswiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ LI-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series

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First e-strike?
by George Floros 26 Aug '07

26 Aug '07

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/ibm_italy_strike/ IBM faces Second Life strike By Martin Banks Ever wanted to go on strike, be part of that feeling of solidarity on the picket line, but felt too cowardly to take the risk? September should see just the opportunity for you. That is when Rappresentanza Sindacale Unitaria IBM Vimercate (RSU), the official trade union representing IBM's 9,000 workers in Italy, is planning a most novel form of industrial action -- a strike on Second Life -- and it wants as many avatars as possible manning the picket lines. Details of what form the industrial action will take in this virtual world are scant at the moment, except that a Union spokesman has hinted that they are hoping Second Life avatars from around the world will participate. A statement sent to The Register by the RSU sets out the reasons for the industrial action as follows: It seems that the reasons for this first virtual strike are related to the renew of the internal agreement. While IBM is one of the company with major profits, its employees are receiving very few fruits of this big mountain of money. The internal climate is below all the IT industries (taking advantages for the famous IBM's competitor: HP), and the drop that overflowed the glass is the long and inconclusive negotiation for the internal agreement. While the works council, supported by the majority of IBM Italy employees, was asking for a small salary increase, IBM responded with the complete suppression of the "productive results benefit", with a loss for a single employee of €1000 per year. For a company that wants to lead the corporate social responsibility, this is really too much. IBM has a widely reported presence on Second Life which is now set to face, at the very least, a picket line of characters that come straight out of the darker recesses of wild imaginings. It will be interesting to see how it plays out should the strike take place. The RSU is obviously hopeful that IBM's local management will see things its way, and the action does raise some interesting considerations. Second Life is already being seen by many corporations as a good marketing and merchandising tool, but the union is seeing its potential slightly differently. "The high offices of the company are worried, because this action will turn on the lights on the project of creation of a global union alliance, that is engaging the unions from over 16 countries worldwide, including the new IT boundary: India," the statement said. What can be used to motivate people to buy products or services can, just as easily, be used to inform and motivate workers in a global economy that they can take global collective action. They could even test out industrial action tactics in relative safety. It could be a tantalising prospect for a committed union activist. It will be interesting to see what actual impact the virtual industrial action has in the real world, and how IBM handles it. UK Second Lifers with long memories may also be keeping a wary eye open for an appearance by the ultimate avatar for such situations -- The Iron Lady of Orgreave.

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World Information Access Project, 2007 Data Memos
by Philip Howard 26 Aug '07

26 Aug '07

Dear AIR: A series of short data memos from the World Information Access Project are now online at www.wiareport.org. Topics include - The World's Libraries Online The Urban Digital Divide I: Global Cities v. Regional Centers The Urban Digital Divide II: Rich v. Poor Cities National Dependency in the Information Age Has Privatization Contributed to the Relative Decline of Internet Hosts Africa? Muslim Political Parties Grow Online In addition, a there is *.pdf version of the briefing booklet we are sending out to journalists, academics and policy makers. It includes a particularly cool map "Wired Countries of the World" with a original comparative data about wired governments, political parties, libraries and civic groups in 190 countries. http://www.wiareport.org/wia_report_2007_map_only.pdf Many people from this list are already on the mailing list and will be getting a hardcopy of this map in the mail. But if this looks particularly interesting, send me an email and I'll happily make sure one is posted to you. Phil Dr. Philip N. Howard Assistant Professor Department of Communication University of Washington

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