Ictd pre conference symposium photos, bios, emails and abstracts

Opening Up the ICT Ecosystem through Inclusion, Training and Dialogue (OUI-ITD) CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

ICTD2013 PRECONFERENCE SYMPOSIUM AND ACADEMIC WORKSHOP 2-6 DECEMBER 2013

PARTICIPANT BIO

ABSTRACT Openness in Indian and US for – profit education technology ecosystems We report on a survey of 55 offerings in the Indian education technology (EdTech) space and compare it with the US EdTech space based on a second survey of 72 US EdTech offerings. In light of the recent work in open ICT ecosystems and their societal impact, we found that our observations from the survey were highly reflective of the openness of the respective education technology ecosystems and can be best understood when analyzed using this lens. We see how the concept of openness is applied to study these ecosystems and further discuss how it helps to understand the links between the education technology ecosystem, the education ecosystem and its innovation trends.

Aakar Gupta is a first year PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He has been working in the ICTD field for the past four years and has published at ICTD, NSDR and SIGCHI. His master's thesis explored a system for mobile crowdsourcing in developing regions. The system enabled novel distribution of graphical tasks to low-end mobile phones by leveraging a littleknown protocol to send small images via ordinary SMS. Via a 5-week deployment in semi-urban India which spread virally from 10 to 239 users, the Keywords: education; open ICT; ecosystem; education technology; India research found that the system is effective for digitizing local-language documents.

Prior to this, he worked with Microsoft Research India and Operation Asha in the eCompliance project to create a biometric monitoring system for tuberculosis centers in India. In addition, he has worked on projects in the education space which dealt with content creation for teachers and learning games for students. The details of his work can be accessed at: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~aakar/ aakar@cs.toronto.edu

The Short Message Service (SMS) as a Platform for Development-Oriented Mobile Services We have some evidence - not least from widespread adoption - that access to basic mobile communications can measurably improve the lives of the poor. As we move beyond voice and text messaging to value-added services and apps, however, the evidence is less clear. There are notable examples of successful mobile services targeting lo¬w-income users, with some explicitly tackling Melissa Loudon is a PhD candidate at USC's Annenberg School for development problems. Yet even in countries where low-income individuals Communication and Journalism. She has an undergraduate degree in report high levels of mobile use, their adoption of mobile services remains low Geomatics and Computer Science and an MSc in Civil Engineering from the (Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara 2011).

University of Cape Town, and an MSc in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) from the University of Manchester. This paper considers a particular mobile technology, the Short Message Service Before moving to USC in 2010, she worked in South Africa as a software (SMS), which is commonly used as a technology platform for developmentdeveloper and researcher on ICT4D projects. Recent publications include "ICTs oriented mobile services. I document the hirical origins and technical as an Opportunity Structure for Southern Social Movements: A Case Study of characteristics of SMS they relate to its function as a platform for mobe services, the Treatment Action Campaign" in Information, Communication and Society, as well as innovations by development-oriented services using SMS. The and "Enacting Openness in ICT4D Research" in Information Technologies & discussion argues that the “embodied structure” (Orlikowski 2000) of the International Development (ITID). Melissa has also written for platform intervene in the relationship between mobile services and development, and may go some way to explaining lack of adoption.

MobileActive.org on mobile security and mobiles and social change. melissa.loudon@gmail.com

Keywords: word; mobile for development, mobile services, short message service (SMS), non-smartphone users, platform studies

Integrating ICT Ecosystem for state wide view of health services: a case study for the state of Himachal Pradesh, India

Apurv Mehra is a final year dual degree (CSE) student of IIIT-Delhi. The work of integrating diverse healthcare systems and tools for analysis and better decision support are parts of his M.Tech thesis.

Apurv Mehra started working in the healthcare domain during his first year undergrad internship. He was passionate about healthcare and has knowledge about its working in India through diverse experiences. Being a son of doctors Apurv Mehra has had some prior exposure to the clinical side of healthcare services in India. In 2010 he started with a mHealth project to port SANA from Android to cheap Symbian phones for use in India. SANA is a telemedicine application developed by MIT students. Since then he has worked on development of modules (Blood Bank, Dhisreport) in OpenMRS, an open source medical record system and was involved with it as part of Google Summer Of Code 2012. He did his B.Tech project in Improving Healthcare efficiency using IT. He has also worked with Apollo Hospitals and ODK team on different projects. His focus has been to take projects to field for deployment and both the OpenMRS modules are deployed in district hospitals in India. apurv09064@iiitd.ac.in

Recent IT advancements have resulted in the digital collection of health related information. There exist diverse health information systems today, each addressing a specific need in the healthcare domain e.g. Hospital Information System collecting clinical, patient and administrative data; Health Management and Information Systems (HMIS) collecting health indicators across an area (such as mortality, births and vaccination) and systems for Telemedicine to provide access to healthcare for areas that are not easily accessible. Integrating the information collected across such diverse systems can be technically challenging, primarily due to the different data models and work flows being adopted to address specific requirements catered by such systems. However, such integration can provide significant benefits such as single point of access, detailed and real-time analysis and reduction in duplication of information.

In this work, we present a case study of integrating OpenMRS based hospital information systems and DHIS2 based HMIS deployed across the state of Himachal Pradesh (HP), India. OpenMRS based system is now deployed across 20 hospitals in the state while the DHIS2 based system is used for data collection for 17 reports under NRHM program. We used widely adopted interface for statistical data and metadata exchange in healthcare called SDMX-HD for data communication across the systems. We present the system architecture in detail and provide discussion on challenges and learning from development and deployment of such a system across the state of HP. Keywords: Interoperability; Health Information Systems; OpenMRS; DHIS2

The contribution of the DREAM IT project in the ICT ecosystem in Mongolia

Batbold Zagdragchaa has served as the DREAM IT project leader during the entire project period (2009-2013). He was generally responsible for research content, quality and methods and capacity building. He facilitated communications, networking, collaboration and gender sensitivity activities among the project stakeholders. His research interests are open educational resources, open government and ICT use in different socio-economic sectors.

He holds a Master's degree in International and Development Economics from the University of Namur, Belgium. batbold@npi.mn

The DREAM I.T. - Development Research to Empower All Mongolians Through Information Technology – was a series of applied research projects that were conducted over five years, between 2009-2013, have been significant to Mongolia for the opportunities availed to researchers and development workers from many universities, government and non-governmental organizations, to freely explore the potential of ICTs to contribute to the country’s socioeconomic development. The project stakeholders intended to contribute, visibly and concertedly to the development of the country by testing, learning and telling, with the hope of influencing policy, so that they might positively impact on both the ICT and socio-economic landscapes. The main objective of the project was to address the policy, technological, and socio-cultural obstacles, success factors, and effects of projects dealing with ICT-enabled applications and services to build a body of evidence to inform decisions taken by different groups such as policy makers, professionals and citizens.

Keywords: ICT4D, Governance, Education, Livelihood

The role of public internet access in the access to information, knowledge, and skills – a global comparison based on survey data and the analysis of various access models Telecenters have long recognized the importance of ICT education, and many cyber cafés and libraries have also provided opportunity to gain ICT skills to their visitors, either in the form of getting help from the staff or turning to the Bence Kollanyi is a Second year Master’s student in Public Policy at Georgia community of the venue. In my paper, I rely on survey data and the analysis of Tech. Originally, he is from Hungary where he received an MA in sociology in the literature to describe learning opportunities typically offered at libraries and 2005. For his master’s thesis, he studied the outcomes of a Hungarian telecenters, which are often financed by government programs and NGOs, and

government initiative where families with children at school could buy computers for half of the market price. Between 2004 and 2009, BenceKollanyi worked as a researcher at the Information Society and Trend Research Institute at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. During that time, as a researcher, he participated in two studies focusing on community internet, and also worked in the survey design and data analysis of the World Internet Project research series. Before he got the opportunity to study in the US, he started a Ph.D in sociology in Hungary, which he plans to complete after finishing his studies in the US. From 2009, he worked together with Michael Best within his research lab. His contributions included questionnaire design and data analysis in two projects focusing on the physical sharing of computers and collaboration in cyber cafes.

He also contributed to various research papers, and a paper he co-authored was accepted for the ICT4D 2012 conference. bence@gatech.edu

privately owned telecenters operated in a strictly commercial model.

Previous studies have shown that besides providing physical access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), public access venues (PAVs) have a crucial role in helping users to learn the critical skills to use ICTs effectively, especially in the context of developing countries, where ICT access and avenues of ICT-related learning may otherwise be limited.

I use the survey collected by the Global Impact Study to compare the services offered at public access points. The Global Impact Study project followed an open data approach and shared the raw data of 5010 survey respondents with the research community in view of broadening the research and political impact of the project. The research project focused on five countries with various social and economic backgrounds, two Latin-American countries, Brazil and Chile, Ghana from the African continent, as well as two countries from Asia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Keywords: Public Access Venue (PAV), ICTs for Development (ICTD), Survey, ICT skills

The Africa (ICT) Tech-innovation index study: Contextualizing the African (ICT) Innovation System The plans and most importantly periodic assessment of the ICT space. The dynamic and broad based nature of ICT however makes such an assessment a daunting task.

This study outlines the findings aimed at deriving a common understanding of technology innovation from the African perspective. These are preliminary findings around the research aimed at generating a tech-innovation index for the ICT sector in Africa. The objective is to represent contextualized ICT techinnovation activity through an index that would be a standardized measure for Brian G. Omwenga is currently a student at the University of Nairobi, School of tech-innovation activity within the evolving ICT sector in Africa. In additional to Computing and Informatics pursuing a PhD in Computer Science. He holds a this, the study seeks to capture and trace the path of tech-innovation in the ICT Master of Science in Engineering Systems, Technology and Policy from the Sector in Africa, highlighting challenges and factors that enhance innovation

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (’09), and a Bachelors in Business within the continent.

Information Technology from Strathmore University (’04).

The research was carried out in 3 different African countries (Kenya, Rwanda & Botswana), with field work done over the period of January, 2013 to May, 2013. bomwenga@alum.mit.edu The study set out to generate definitions for African ICT tech-innovation, the innovation system, and the actors and activities that are currently affecting the ICT innovation system. The sample surveyed was purposive and nonprobabilistic. The sample frame was chosen to meet the purpose of the research, and these were selected based on a stakeholder analysis. With an overall response rate of 84% (target n=100), we achieved a 94% response rate in Nairobi, Kenya (n=47, target=50), a 90% response rate in Kigali, Rwanda (n=27, target=30) and an 85% response rate in Gaborone, Botswana (n=17, target=20).

The Africa ICT innovation system was then identified as a Complex, large-scale, interconnected, open, socio-technical (CLIOS) systems. The formulation of the CLIOS Process by Prof. Joseph Sussman (2009) et al was aimed at helping to organize and understand the CLIOS system’s underlying structure and behavior, identifying and deploying strategic alternatives for improving the systems performance and monitoring the performance of those strategic alternatives. • The CLIOS model, offers a basis for the analysis of input, throughput and output indicators within the system that assists in the generation of a dynamic index.

During the assessment several facts about technology innovation in Africa were identified. Key among them was that there are indeed technological innovations occurring in Africa. However, this potential has not been properly translated into tangible and significant output. The clarion call among most African innovators is poor adoption of their innovations and consequently inferior financial returns.

A further examination reveals that most of the technological innovations conceived in African are hardly well known within Africa let alone in other continents where they bear value that would be useful beyond the boundaries of the conceiving countries, consequently most of these remain as hidden innovations. This means that a lot of efforts are wasted in replicating efforts that have already been made elsewhere within Africa to reproduce the same technological outputs.

Besides entrepreneurial shortcomings the target markets are faced with serious and greatly limiting economic challenges that often make them less supportive of technological innovations. Perceptions also play a significant role in undermining the growth of technological innovations from Africa.

Technological innovations in Africa are generated mainly as a result of the market pull rather than technology push. This is manifested in the fact that most innovations occur in corporate and other commercial settings while research and academic institutions have very limited technological outputs.

Reshaping the role of users in the ICT ecosystem for rural areas in developing countries: from consumer to producer of their access infrastructure

Carlos Rey-Moreno received the Telecommunications Engineer degree at the University Carlos III de Madrid, the Master degree in Development and International Relations at Aalborg University and the Master degree in Telecommunications Networks for Developing Countries at University Rey Juan Carlos in 2006, 2008 and 2010, respectively.

From 2007 to 2011, he was a researcher at the EHAS Foundation participating in the design and implementation of long distance wireless networks in Spain, Peru and Malawi. Since 2012, he is with the Broadband Applications and Networks Group at the University of Western Cape. In this time, he has supervised the design and installation of the community wireless network in rural South Africa and measuring its socio-economic

Although it is undeniable the contribution made by mobile phones in increasing access to communications in rural areas of developing countries, it presents some constraints for the full inclusion of its dwellers in the Information Society.

Alternatives to the current main ICT ecosystem using other wireless technologies are emerging, but they do not fully close the affordability gap for accessing digital communications in rural areas. In this paper it is justified that an increased engagement from the users is necessary to close this gap. With the current technology, users can become producers of their own communications infrastructure, and so reshaping the ICT ecosystem for their own benefit. Apart from detailing this new ICT ecosystem, a proof of concept which is studying the real potential of this alternative ecosystem is introduced.

Keywords: ecosystem; rural; mobile phones; cooperative; bottom-up; community networks, wireless

impact is the main driver of his PhD. carlos.reymoreno@gmail.com

Regulatory Credibility and Telecommunication Investment: How South Africa institutional incompatibility with its regulatory design undermined telecommunications investment This paper argues that the design of the regulatory framework in South Africa is fundamentally flawed, as it is incompatible with the local institutional environment. This incompatibility has resulted in underperformance of the ICT sector, notably in terms of infrastructure investment. Where investment has occurred, it is largely due to commitments made outside of the regulatory authority.

Claire Pengelly is currently studying her Masters in Development Economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Expected completion date is 2014. After graduating with a Bachelor of Business Science in 2002 from UCT, she spent 10 years working in the internet technology field, primarily in digital marketing product management and services. Her passion is the internet and she wanted to use her skills from working in an international technology company to assist with ICT development in Africa. She hopes to work in a policymaking or research role once her degree has been completed. claire_pengelly@yahoo.com

The neoliberal and “best practice� approach for telecommunications regulation is the appointment of an independent regulator. This is intended to provide the market with a credible mechanism to level the playing fields, particularly when a powerful incumbent is present. This tactic was adopted in South Africa with the reforms passed in 1996. However the regulator (currently ICASA) has seen its independence and credibility undermined on numerous occasions over the past 17 years, with deleterious impact on the telecommunications sector. This lack of regulatory authority has largely arisen due to the inherent conflict that the intended governance of the sector has with its powerful stakeholders and institutional environment.

The governance of the ICT sector could be likened to an ecosystem, as the behaviour of key actors (organisations or individuals) within this political economy can influence the incentives of other players and their subsequent behavioural outcomes. For example, when the regulator called for applications for a Second National Operator (SNO), no first tier investors were interested.

Previous political interference in the appointment of the third mobile operator licence and the rigging of the process in favour of the incumbent meant that the credibility of the regulator had been undermined. This reduced the incentive for

investment in the SNO as the risks were seen as too high. For an independent regulator to survive and the governance of the sector to be effective, there needs to be some form of equilibrium between independent regulation and the institutional environment and their stakeholders. However powerful stakeholders and political institutions have been in near constant conflict with the sector’s policies and governance. This breakdown of the ecosystem’s linkages has resulted in a lack of regulatory credibility and subsequently in a scarcity of investment. Where investment has taken place, it has principally been as a result of credibility occurring outside the designated regulation authority.

The paper will examine key events that have had a significant impact on the regulator’s credibility and the associated investment or lack thereof. The vested interests and incentives of the various stakeholders within the political and economic ecosystem will be examined in order to explain the outcomes.

Through this analysis it will become clear that the concept of an independent regulator has not an effective strategy for South Africa’s ICT sector.

Keywords: telecommunications; investment; regulation; infrastructure

An Integrated Health Information System for Sustainable Technological Environment in Chiapas (México)

Cecilia Janeth Cruz Colmenares, after finishing a Masters in Telecommunications Networks for Developing Countries in 2009, Janeth has participated in the Analysis and Evaluation of Telecommunications and

Health Information Systems (HIS) are considered to be a transversal and multisectorial tool which can contribute to the improvement of information management in health processes, epidemiological surveillance and knowledge management at all levels of attention. The successful implementation and deployment of a HIS requires extensive institutional backing (e.g. from national and local governments, health institutes, international organizations) to provide a stable political and regulatory framework supporting health workers at different levels of care. The study is based not only on the choice of appropriate technology, but also highlights relationships between the different

Telemedicine in the Hospital General in Chiapas, Mexico. In 2013, she worked on the project of Tele-epidemiology in studying and predicting transmitted diseases for Vector, financed by the Science and Technology of Space-Mexican Agency. In 2012, she conducted an analysis about the viability within the Ministry of Health of Chiapas to determinate the adaptation of a System Health Information Management to improve the clinical-administrative process on each post and area within the Ministry. Recently Janeth has been working on the integration of the Pilot program with DHIS2 system for the Ministry of Health of Chiapas, Mexico. jance81@hotmail.com

levels in the institutions and their use of the technology. Thus, they form an ecosystem involving and defining different roles, strategies, and technologies.

This article is the result of over two years of work and research. The HIS implementation in Chiapas could represent a first step towards enhance the coordination between different health programs, levels and agents at local and national level in Mexico.

Keywords: communication technology; health information systems; appropriate technology, ecosystem

The Sms-text Adherence Reminder (StAR) Trial Information and Communication Technology Ecosystem Hypertension (HT), which has been identified as a leading risk factor for premature mortality and a major burden of disease, is poorly controlled among people managed in the primary healthcare (PHC) system in South Africa.

However, improved treatment adherence has been identified as a major contributor to controlled HT.

David B. Springer is a doctoral researcher in the field of biomedical engineering at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. He is most interested in the development of low-cost healthcare technology that can widen the access to healthcare in developing areas.

This paper outlines the information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem used in the SMS-text Adherence Reminder (StAR) trial. This is an ongoing individually randomised three-arm parallel group trial in a resourcelimited setting. This trial is assessing the efficacy of HT treatment adherence support delivered by SMS-text compared to standard care, done at scale while using open-source software and off-the-shelf hardware.

He has developed the ICT infrastructure for the SMS-text Adherence Support (StAR) study “a trial aiming to assess the impact of SMS-text messages on the support of patients with hypertension�. Through this trial, he has gained insight into the issues with the current ICT infrastructure in the public healthcare sector in South Africa and ideas for possible solutions to fix these problems.

This paper outlines the successful implementation of an open-source ICT ecosystem, comprising an electronic health record, with mobile device-based data collection and the collation of various independent sources of data to deliver a novel SMS-text-based intervention to 1372 participants.

Keywords: hypertension, SMS-text, adherence, open-source, low-resource

david.springer@eng.ox.ac.uk

Power and the Programmer: A Deconstruction of the Dynamics of Power and Influence at Kenya’s Technology Business Incubators

Eleanor Marchant is a doctoral student who conducts research at the intersection of communications, politics, and development with a focus on innovative uses of ICTs for development and transnational communications.

She has been a been a fellow at the Center for Global Communication Studies at UPenn, the Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy at Oxford University, the Media Institute in Nairobi, and most recently at iHub Research in Nairobi. Prior to retuning to academia, Eleanor spend five years working as a media investment and development practitioner. As a doctoral student, she strives to conduct research that merges her past and present lives and crosses the academic/practitioner divide. ermarchant@asc.upenn.edu

Kenya is home to the continent’s first technology business incubator, launched in 2010. Many have praised it and the community that has grown around it for its potential to build economic growth for the country and the region through fostering home grown technological creation. But the ecology around these incubators is transnational, in a constant state of evolution and adaptation, and filled with numerous different players with different political and economic motivations. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of these actors and their motivations in an effort to locate the balance of power in the space. Through the use of ethnography and critical discourse analysis, I make the case that a regular re-examination of these dynamics of production is essential if we are to understand who influences the kinds of technologies that are created and eventually used by people in Kenya and around the continent.

Keywords: technology business incubators (TBIs), information communication technologies (ICT), multi-national technology companies (MNTCs), social construction of technology (SCOT), Kenya, economic development

Stakeholders involvement and participation in the Internet governance ecosystem from an African perspective From an African perspective, Internet governance requires not only an understanding of the unevenness in access to and use of the Internet, but also of the disparities between developed and developing countries’ abilities to effectively participate in global Internet governance debates. Few developing countries participate in this debate, and even less in agenda setting for Internet Enrico Calandro is a researcher at Research ICT Africa and a PhD candidate in

business administration, telecommunications policy, at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. He holds a Master degree in Communications' sciences from the University of Perugia, Italy. He is a recipient of the Amy Mahan scholarship award for the advancement of ICT policy in Africa and UNDESA fellowship for international cooperation. ecalandro@researchictafrica.net

governance.

This paper seeks to understand how these factors transect with the notion of multistakeholderism as a form of deliberative democracy for Internet governance, which is often informed by assumptions from more mature markets and Western democracies. It does so by exploring the evolution of multistakeholderism through the mapping of the main international and regional instruments of the Internet governance ecosystem in Africa. The study assesses the ability of current multistakeholder initiatives to provide Africans with a compass to guide them through the miasma of cybercrime, political surveillance, censorship and profiteering that threaten the openness of the Internet. The paper also highlights the participatory and accountability gaps in the current status quo and ultimately asks what solutions can be devised to enhance the participation of African stakeholders.

Keywords: Internet governance, multistakeholderism, Africa

Capability of Mobility? An Ethnographic Study of Kibera, Kenya

Faith Njeri Is currently a PHD Candidate at the University of Leicester. Her PhD title is ‘Capability of Voice in Kibera, Kenya? An ethnographic study of the relationship between the youth and new media technologies in Kibera, Kenya’.

She holds an MA in International Design & Communication Management, University of Warwick,United Kingdom (2011). Her BA was in Communication

Voice of Kibera platform was created by the convergence of mapping software, mobile and Internet technology within the Map Kibera alternative ICT ecosystem. Kibera is the first slum in Kenya to integrate such an open community information exchange platform. However, despite the transformative potential of the technology for causes such as civic engagement, findings from participant observation and in-depth interviews of ten young men and eight young women reflect ambivalent usage of the technology.

Alternatively, the youth have appropriated the mobile phone, Internet and social media to expand and enrich their social networks in what is expressed as the capability of mobility. These findings reflect the importance of interrogation of the relationship between users and technology and are a necessary contribution to ICT4D literature inundated with understudied claims of the revolutionising

(Cum Laude) (Print Media), from Daystar University, Kenya (2010). fnk2@le.ac.uk

power of ICTs. Key words: Mobile internet, ICT ecosystem, capabilities approach, youth, Kenya Autonomous ICTs for Developing Regions

We propose that there is an inherent tension between designing information and communication systems for development (ICTDs) with minimal dependencies on the surrounding environment, and designing ICTD systems which have the greatest potential to improve human development outcomes. As a result, we suggest that ICTD practitioners face an either/or choice between maximizing the self-sufficiency of their systems and maximizing the human Henry Corrigan-Gibbs is a first-year PhD student at Stanford University, where development impact of their systems. We discuss our theory in the context of his research focuses on distributed systems, computer security, and applied prior work (e.g., “appropriate technology�) and a number of recently deployed cryptography. He is interested in understanding the proper role for computers ICTD systems. and computer science research in international development.

Keywords: ICTD; emerging regions; autonomous; appropriate technology; henrycg@stanford.edu development

ICT Ecosystem in Open Government Data Initiative in Indonesia: Case of National Budget Transparency Initiative in Ministri of Finance

Ilham Cendekia Srimarga has adequate competence as researcher, designer of social programs and project management especially in social development issue. Ilham has 12 years of experience managing research and advocacy projects on topics of ICT adoption, good governance, local budget, and public

This paper seeks to portray efforts of Ministry of Finance in materializing its initiative of promoting national budget transparency. The efforts, influenced by governance context and ICT development in Indonesia, experience conception and adoption processes that form the initiative into national budget transparency system currently run. This paper uses conception and technology adoption theory to learn how the budget transparency is concepted by actors in the institution into a unique transparency concept. It also learns how the concept is adopted into an operational system in the institution. This paper seeks to understand how ecosystem or actor configuration within which the conception and adoption processes take place influence choices on substance of the transparency and transparency system that is built. There is disconnection

services. These projects are mostly within multiple regions (implemented in 10 phenomenon between actors and between actors and ideas that occur because regions) works and involve local institutions. of the conception and adoption processes; and we seek to understand the phenomenon.

In research, Ilham Srimarga has experience in some relevant researches on ICT and Development, that is: (1) Research on Social Impact on Implementation of Keywords: budget initiative transparency, conception process,adoption process, Digital Leaning in Village Level•, Development Study Program, Bandung ICT ecosystem, and disconnection.

Institute of Technology. A research with objective to understand impacts of ICT program implementation in village community. The approach used by this research is understanding the ICT ecosystem combined with innovation conception and adoption approach; (2) Learning Study on Impact of Open Data in Developing Countries, supported by Web Foundation and IDRC. This research is the resource for this paper.

He has educational background on Informatics Engineering (Bandung Institute of Technology) and Development Studies (Bandung Institute of Technology).

He has worked in social development and good governance sector especially on enhancement of public participation for some NGOs in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia. ilham@sinergantara.or.id

Revenue Mobilization Programme: An IT solution for local government mobilization of property tax revenues in Sierra Leone

Jose Garcia MuĂąoz has 4 years of experience working in several NGOs from Spain as a project manager, with a focus on the use of the technology in

Revenues allow states to finance the provision of public goods and services, generating public savings that can serve as a resource for investment and promote economic growth. Domestic tax revenues are one of the most sustainable sources of financing for public expenditures in developing countries.

However, the main challenges in pursuing the revenue mobilisation agenda is the need to mobilise citizens so that they engage in taxation issues, and secondly to ensure that taxes are levied as consensually and as transparently as possibility. Since 2010 Revenue Development Foundation (RDF) has been working in urban property taxes supporting the local government of Sierra

developing countries. Later, in 2008,he obtained a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain to study a Masters at the Rey Juan Carlos University (Madrid) to focus on the research of the use of ICT in developing countries. He finished his studies in 2010 and later on started to work as a researcher for the Signal Theory and Communicatios Department. His research topics were related to the design of information systems architectures in developing countries. Unfortunately, due to the global crisis, he couldn't be paid anymore since January 2012 and had to continue working on these projects as a volunteer. In January 2013 Jose Garcia Muñoz had the opportunity to join in London to the Revenue Development Foundation (RDF), and right now is working at the same time as a software engineer and as a researcher on the impact of taxation information systems in low-income countries. He convinced that this work has positive results and will be of special interest to the audience. Jose Garcia Muñoz would be honoured to present it. josemp10@gmail.com

Leone. RDF provides a system for the creation of urban property databases which help to improve the synergy between municipal taxation and urban planning. This article highlights the relationships between people, local institutions and technology. More specifically, it aims to show the whole domestic taxation process and the actors involved in it, trying to evidence how ICT can improve transparency and reliability between government and citizens.

Keywords: domestic revenues; property tax; government transparency; Sierra Leone

The analysis of the dialogic communication potential of Ghanaian Political Parties The influence of ICT over the democratic development of national politics cannot be overemphasized. However, information communication technologies (ICT) and its attendant implications, continue to be largely ignored in studies on Africa’s political scene. Yet the potential of modern ICTs to profoundly alter political, social and economic relations are extensive.

Kweku Koranteng is research fellow of African Institute of Development Informatics and Policy, holds an MBA in Management Information Systems and currently pursuing his MSc. in Climate Change and Sustainable Development. Formerly a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Ghana Computer System, between 2006 to 2011 and also taught as a faculty member at SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College from 2011 to 2013.

This paper seeks to explore the dialogic communication potential of Ghanaian Political Parties Websites. How it is being used to bridging the digital gap between voters and potential voters. The interactivity of these websites were evaluated using Kent and & Taylor’s (1998) dialogic communication framework which has roots in philosophy, rhetoric, psychology, and relational communication theory.

He is the founder of mtechAfrica a students’ base technology think tank with specific focus on students’ entrepreneurship and research capacity development within the area of mobile applications and green business initiatives, He is also the co-founder of ICTD African Researchers Network.

The author is part of a technology space that seeks to activate and support the use and application of technology to resolving socio-economic, cultural and environmental issues (ICT for Development). His academic background in teaching and research at the tertiary level and His long standing years within the ICTD space, He is well positioned to fulfil any academic expectations and requirements. kkoranteng@ug.edu.gh

The analysis suggests that the political parties are very strong in providing useful information and an easy-to-use interface. However, the extent of conserving visitors and generation of return visitors varied amongst the parties. Similarly, whilst some parties attempted to close the dialogic loop by allowing visitor comments, there were very few responses from the parties to these comments.

The findings suggest parties need to allocate more resources and manpower, if they are to benefit from the dialogic potential of entire the ICT ecosystem. They need to change from viewing technology as just an add-on feature to politics rather than a process in itself with more far reaching consequences than being presented.

Keywords: communication, politics, online presence, dialogic communication

Analyzing ICT contribution to Socio-Economic Development

Masoumeh Maddah is member of ICT research center of Iranian academic center for education, culture and research (ACECR). She graduated as M.Sc. in socio-economic systems engineering and currently, she is PhD candidate in business history and management at the state university of Milan, Italy. Her main research interests are policy making for empowering ICT contribution to socio-economic development, ICT regulation, and ICT human resource development. She has participated in four national projects on ICT strategic studies. Nowadays, her research has been focused on analysing ICT

Regarding deep impact of ICT on countries' social and economic process across the globe, a large number of research works have considered the interrelations between ICT and development so far. Nevertheless most of these studies have focused on single aspect of development especially economic impacts of ICT. So there is a need for an integrated and comprehensive model that would consider different aspects of ICT contribution to the development like social, economic, cultural and political impacts. To narrow this literature gap, this paper by taking advantage of ecosystem perspective, introduces a new conceptual model for ICT-based socio-economic development. Proposed conceptual model contains different stakeholders – institutions, enterprises, inhabitants and households who innovate, create, produce, buy, sell, regulate, manage and use technology – and simultaneously draws interactions between them – policies, strategies, plans, processes and information with complimentary of economic, social, cultural and political reciprocal impacts (paths influences) within the environmental context. Furthermore, a theoretical framework - consists of dimensions, sub-dimensions and indicators of ICT-based socio-economic

contribution to socio-economic development. masoumeh.maddah@unimi.it

development - is elaborated on the basis of proposed conceptual model. This theoretical framework paves the road for the construction of a meaningful composite index (CI) to measure ICT-based socio-economic development.

Intended composite index would make possible cross-country comparison of ICT-based socio-economic development in different regions and also would be fruitful in benchmarking of best practices in order to draw policy lesson and initiatives for less developed countries.

Keywords: ICT ecosystem; socio-economic development; conceptual model; composite index; theoretical framework

A key but almost forgotten component of the ICT ecosystem: the relevance of strengthening ICT statistics Availability of quality data is key to any kind of effective evidence-based planning or public policy, not only ICT specific. Nevertheless, this document argues that ICT`s data collection presents particular challenges: 1) ICTs novelty and polysemy 2) ICTs impact on a diversity of fields in which multiple parties have diverging interests. 3) When lacking central coordination, these problems Matías Dodel is a sociologist (M.A. at Facultad de Ciencias Sociales- threaten to create a very inefficient statistical ecosystem, diminishing data’s Universidad de la República and B.A. at Universidad Católica del Uruguay or dissemination scope and credibility.

UCU) and Psychologist (B.A. at Psychology Faculty from Universidad de la We then present the tools and best practices to address ICT’s specific data República or UdelaR) who specializes in Information Society, Public Policy and collection problems. After summarizing the short history of international efforts Poverty/Inequality issues. to harmonize statistics, we describe the creation of the most relevant statistical standards to date -the core list. We then introduce a short characterization of Researcher at UCU´s Department of Social and Political Sciences, he also three national ICT statistics coordination models, stressing their strengths to teaches Methodology and Statistical Software packages at UCU. In 2012 he improve the statistical ecosystem. A final section presents a case of study of was selected as a grantee (Principal Investigator) on the Strengthening these tools, describing the Uruguayan experience.

Information-Society Research Capacity Alliance (SIRCA II) and in 2013 he was appointed as the director of World Internet Project`s Uruguayan Chapter at Key words: ICT, statistics, ecosystem, measurement, information society UCU`s Department of Communication.

Simultaneously, since 2009 he has been working as expert Sociologist on

Information Society and Electronic Government at the National E-government and Information Society Agency (AGESIC) of the Uruguayan government presidency.

Specialties: Information Society, E-Government, SPSS, Methodology, Quantitative Research matias.dodel@agesic.gub.uy

Internet and promoting housewives’ social interaction

Mehri Shahzeidi completed her master degree in Women Studies in 2009 at the Isfahan University, Iran. In terms of research she has been working in domains ranging from gender inequality, public space, and collective action to gender digital divide and virtual public space.

Mehrishahzeidi@gmail.com

In spite of the importance of social interaction in approaching a common understanding among people in society and birding social gaps, Iranian women, especially housewives, are a disadvantaged group in terms of social interaction.

Internet makes new forms of social Interaction possible. It provides people with an opportunity to directly communicate with each other, share opinions, and organize plans. Regarding to housewives’ limitation in interacting and communicating, we wanted to figure out whether Internet is able to promote their social interaction. To do so we utilized a qualitative approach as a research method. Data for the study were obtained from 30-50 minute semi-structured interviews, with 30 Internet users housewives aged between 18 and 40 years. It emerges that social interaction cyber filed provide a more flexible field in terms of regulations and limitations compare to social interaction field. In addition, these fields regarding their capital, competition, and autonomy develop different actions.

Key words: Internet; social interaction; housewives; field; habitus; capital

Creating an Enabling Environment for More Transparent and Better-Resourced Local Governments: A Case of E-Taxation in the Philippines This research joins the growing body of literature that advocates for the use of ICT in local governance more particularly in local public financial management.

Using a case study in Bohol, Philippines, this paper assesses whether the use of ICT has impact on local revenue generation. To answer the question, quantitative data from 15 municipalities were analyzed to determine the degree of revenue increase when these municipalities used the Enhanced Taxation Revenue Assessment Collection System (ETRACS). To support the quantitative data, interviews were conducted with both civil servants and taxpayers to determine how the system impacted on both duty bearers and claim holders.

This paper argues that the use of ICT can make possible more transparent and accountable revenue generation systems that reduces discretion and subjectivity on the part of government officials while at the same time facilitating more efficient and predictable taxation systems on the part of taxpayers.

Michael P. Canares is a graduate of law and accountancy. He also took up a masters degree in development studies at the London School of Economics. He has worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, AusAID, and in research projects funded by the United Nations Development Program, more recently with the International Development Research Center.

Mr. Canares also has a significant amount of work done with local government units and special planning bodies and is holding an advisory position to ten local government units in the country. Mr. Canares has presented in more than 10 international conferences. His recent research appears in an edited volume on Urbanization and Development (Oxford University Press, 2012) and the Key words: ICT and local governance, public financial management, revenue Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (2011). generation, e-taxation mikocanares@steupconsultants.com

The Role Of Different Players In The ICT Ecosystem Towards Poor Adoption Of Broadband In Pakistan Broadband adoption remains poor in low and middle-income countries such as Pakistan. This paper analyzes the role of previously determined statistically significant factors towards the adoption of broadband in Pakistan, and furthers the study of factors affecting broadband penetration in developing countries by analyzing other factors unique to the Pakistani context through descriptive

Mustafa Naseem is the Director, Innovations for Poverty Alleviation Lab (IPAL) at the Information Technology University, Lahore. He was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship (2011-2013) to pursue the MS-ICTD program at the University of Colorado at Boulder, during which he worked at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and worked at Verizon’s Internet and Technology Policy Group. Mustafa is also the recipient of the ATLAS Institute Directors Fellowship and the Dale Hatfield Scholars and Research Fellowship. mustafanaseem@gmail.com

statistics. The factors affecting broadband adoption are looked at from the lens of the ICT ecosystem, and categorized into: government regulations, firms providing broadband, and lastly the socio-economic condition of final consumerusers.

Keywords: broadband; adoption; developing country; LLU; competition; Pakistan

Travail of Telecommunication Sector in Nigeria: Case for An Internet-Driven Grid Interoperability Platform for ICT Ecosystem

Oluwafemi Oriola is an Assistant Lecturer in Computer Science Department, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko. He is currently in his 3rd year of his Ph.D in Computer Science at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Oriola Oluwafemipossesses a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science Degree in Computer Science from Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko and University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria respectively. His research interest is in the area of Distributed Systems, Network Security and Information Systems. oluwafemioriola@yahoo.com

The period between 1960 and 1985 marked the control of telecommunication sector in Nigeria by the Federal Government-established Nigeria External Telecommunication Limited, which was responsible for the postal and telecommunication needs of Nigerians. In January 1985, Nigeria Telecommunication Limited was carved out of it to oversee only the telecommunication division and it was much around till 1999. Over these periods, a lot of crisis such as poor network and customer service, theft and destruction of telecommunication facilities, non-accountability of income and leadership politicization bedevilled the sector. These debilitating situations however engendered at different times within the period certain policies and programmes aimed at alleviating the problems such as changing of Nigeria Telecommunication Limited to a public liability company and establishment of Nigeria Communication Commission in I992 to supervise the activities of the telecommunication institutions. By 1999 when the Global System for Mobile Telecommunication was introduced into the telecommunication sector of Nigeria, it became clear that the existing structure could not carry the new system because of dilapidated infrastructure and public institutions ineptitude behaviour. Hence, the Nigeria Government further encouraged private sector participation by the privatisation of Nigeria Telecommunication PLC and licencing of other private telecommunication service providers. Although, the problems that were formally encountered with the Nigeria Telecommunication

PLC seemed relapsed at first but in no time, daunting problems such as poor network service, increased tariff, credit service incredibility and other practices violating the cooperation agreement emerged. These affected the trust Nigeria citizens had in the sector. In 2011, the Federal Government of Nigeria established Ministry of Communication Technology as part of its cardinal programmes to ensure all round development of Information and Communication Technology in the country. The Ministry was saddled with the responsibilities of coordinating and monitoring both public and private Information Technology and Communication Technology Agencies’ practices in Nigeria. In its quest to harmonise the existing policies and programmes in the sector, a new policy on Information and Communication Technology was developed with the following focus areas: research, development and innovations; infrastructure; manufacturing, capacity building; investment; and legal framework. But as good as the policy might seem, there is no impartial common management structure within the sector to ensure standard and probity. And since computer-based automation is useful in such area, it appears the right option.

Grid System is a cost-effective automated platform that is made up of hierarchical distributed servers, each with a specific function. It can address security and policy concerns of resource owners and users, work with many resource types and sharing modalities, scale to large number of resources and participants, and operate efficiently when dealing with large amounts of data and computation. Therefore, it stands a better chance in fostering improved Information and Communication Technology Eco-system in Low and Medium Economies. This paper hence presents an Information and Communication Technology ecosystem interoperability platform called “NIFOCOMGRID”, an integrated framework for interoperation among Nigeria Information and Communication Technology stakeholders, policies and facilities. In the study, the global and ubiquitous phenomenon called Internet serves as a veritable implementation environment. Thus, distributed servers that operate on internet are proposed. The servers’ services are organized in hierarchy with varying ecosystem components access privileges executable with Service Component Architecture. The Ministry is at the highest level while the facilities occupy the

lowest level. Each of the ecosystem components is composite, containing substituent units with unique identities. The feasibility of the proposed ecosystem interaction platform is demonstrated in a Software Agent Simulation Environment. We conclude that the problems experienced in telecommunication sector will not reoccur in the present Information and Communication Technology sector of Nigeria if the framework is implemented.

Keywords: Nigeria, Telecommunication, Information and Communication Technology Ecosystem, Grid-based Interoperability, Internet-supported Infrastructure

The tech-innovation gallery of Kenya study: Analyzing Innovation Competitions as Enablers in the Africa

Pauline Wanjiku is a holder of Bsc. in Business Information Technology (BBIT) from Limkowing University of Creative Technology (Malaysia) and is currently pursuing an Msc. in Information Technology Management (ITM) at The University of Nairobi(UON) in Kenya. Being a part of the growing tech community in Kenya, she is affiliated to the Nailab Incubation hub as consultant in IT Project Management “Focus on Web, Mobile and desktop applications.� Further to this, Pauline is involved with United Nations Industrial and Development Organisation (UNIDO) Kenya where she is working on a project on Mapping the Kenya National Innovation System (KNSI). Pauline is passionate about expanding girls interest in STEM careers by exposing them to women role models in the field, it is for this reason that she is a member of Akirachix an organization that actively mentor and train girls aged 13 to 18 in

Innovation has long been viewed as an enabler of socio-economic development.

This has resulted in an effort to catalyze innovation and innovativeness within different communities. Many initiatives have been proposed to enable innovators, by addressing the various challenges that exist. Some of these enablers are focused on education, capacity building, financial inclusion or seed funding. Initiatives of this sort have taken on various forms such as innovation award competitions, hackathons, incubators, accelerators, etc. which evaluate their measure of success by executing a wide reaching campaign and eventually picking the select few innovative winners. The effectiveness of these initiatives needs to extend beyond the campaign, by looking much further down the road as to whether the innovations and innovators did in fact result in sustainable products in the market and established firms within the industry.

This research seeks to interrogate the effectiveness of such initiatives as enablers of innovation, evaluating their impact and analyzing as well as charting out best practices of innovation enabler initiatives for effective innovations to market. The research shall further evaluate the impact of the innovations that derive from such enabler initiatives, juxtaposing them from the more fundamental traditional, go-it-alone innovation initiatives to propose the

Tech across the country. She is also a member of the recently formed WMIAfrica (Women who Mentor and Innovate - Africa) an online platform that seeks to showcase and celebrate professional women in STEM, through sharing of stories and highlighting achievements of African women in STEM, with a mission to motivate, inspire and impact young women. pwwanjiku@gmail.com

effectiveness of such enablers to innovation. In addition, the research shall also seek to generate innovation trends and patterns, analyzing not only the successful but the unsuccessful innovation submissions, and create a trajectory that can be useful in the decision making process of which applications should get innovation awards.

Keywords: ICT, Innovation, Competitions, Hackathons, Incubators

Community cellular networks: challenges and opportunities

Peter Bloom: is a long-time community activist and the coordinator of Rhizomatica, an organization dedicated to connecting rural and indigenous communities with communication technologies (rhizomatica.org) that works in Nigeria and Mexico. He is studying for a Master's degree in Rural Development at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico. rhizomaticomms@gmail.com

Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world lack cellular coverage, leaving many out of one of the most important technological innovations of the last few decades. In response, and owing to recent open-source technological developments that have substantially reduced installation costs, a small number Community Cellular Networks (CCNs) have begun to appear in rural areas around the world. Through two example cases from Indonesia and Mexico, this work investigates how CCNs offer viable, scalable alternatives to traditional models of cellular service delivery that increase rural connectivity. We also examine opportunities and barriers within existing telecommunications policy relating to CCNs as well as how issues of local capacity, governance and access to capital can be resolved in CCNs to position them to operate in an economically sustainable manner while providing quality services to supposedly unprofitable areas. Finally we offer policy recommendations to strengthen and legitimate these networks.

Keywords: information and communications technology for development; cellular systems; telecommunications policy; access to Information

Understanding factors contributing to adoption and use of ICT within research collaborations in Kenya

Petronilla Muriithi is a PhD student in the third year of study at the University of Brighton in the UK, sponsored by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK and under the supervision of Lyn Pemberton and David Horner. She is also an academic member of staff at the Institute of Computer Science and Information Technology (ICSIT), at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya. She holds an MSc in Information Systems from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. p.muriithi@brighton.ac.uk

Use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support research work is becoming increasingly common among researchers globally, and is associated with a number of benefits. However, the extent and type of use is largely dependent on the context, including people, their research practices and supporting infrastructure. This study set out to establish use of ICT in support of research collaborations in Kenya, and identify factors contributing to their adoption and use. We employ mixed methods research design, involving 248 academic scientists in four disciplines across four major Kenyan universities. We find that other than Email and mobile phone, other forms of ICT are hardly used for communication by the studied population. Several factors affect adoption and use practices, including availability and access to ICT resources, nature of the work, national and institutional ICT and research environments and the social cultural practices of researchers. Using Venkatesh et al’s Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model as our analytical framework, we present a discussion of the findings and their implications for policy, practice and design of technologies that support research collaborations in Kenya.

Keywords: research collaborations, developing countries, ICT, UTAUT

Assessment of Information Systems strategic alignment maturity levels in Kenyan public universities Deriving value from Information Systems (IS) investments has been a great concern in most organizations. IS strategic (Business-IS) alignment has been argued as one of the approaches of achieving IS value. Various researchers have proposed approaches to understanding the importance, achievement and maintenance of strategic alignment in organizations. This paper uses a strategic alignment assessment framework derived from Luftman’s Strategic Alignment Maturity Model (SAMM) to establish alignment maturity levels of public Kiyeng Philip Chumo is PhD Student at Faculty of Economic, Social and Political universities in Kenya. The approach adopted considers both Corporate (decision Sciences & Solvay Business School, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. He making) level and IS project implementation level in evaluating strategic works in Directorate of ICT, Moi University as ICT Planning and Development alignment maturity of an organization.

Officer and a part time lecturing in same university on the areas of Management Information Systems and IS Project Management. He has a The study found out that the alignment maturity scores is higher at IS project Master’s degree in Business Administration with a bias in Management implementation level as compared to corporate level. There is also consistency Information Systems. His interests are in the field of organizational informatics in alignment maturity scores ranking of the scores of alignment factors in the and IS project management. two levels with communication and partnership scoring high at both levels while the human resource skills is ranked lowest at both levels. k.chumo@gmail.com Keywords: Strategic alignment, Information Systems Investments, Strategic Alignment Maturity Model (SAMM), IS project implementation

Conflict in collaboration: An experiment in manufacturing ICTD innovation The quest for the low-cost computer has been among the primal motivations of innovation and practice in the ICTD world from its very beginnings. We discuss continuing developments in case of the low-cost Indian tablet, Aakash, publicized as the world’s cheapest computer, and situate these within a history of India’s quest for development through technology in the past two decades.

We analyze 212 articles on Aakash and discuss the conflicts that formed part of the manufacturing and production of the state sponsored tablet along with the way its consumers were imagined.. We argue that Aakash has gone beyond being a technology artifact to a device that represents Indian aspirations at Preeti Mudliar is a recent PhD graduate in Organizational Communication and several levels – as a forward thinking state, an ingenious entrepreneurial class, Technology from the University of Texas, Austin. Her interest in ICTD began and an energetic population that needs nothing but access to technology to with examining the performance of participation through mobile phones by an succeed. underserved community in India. Since then, she has continued writing on participation and has also explored newer areas in ICTD research such as Keywords: technology in education, collaboration, innovation, tablets, world’s studying the ecosystem of use surrounding public computing centers in Texas. cheapest tablet More recently, Preeti has been exploring the discourse surrounding Aakash that claims to be the world’s cheapest tablet. Produced in India, Aakash has generated immense curiosity and controversy about its claims. She led the analysis and writing on the discourse surrounding Aakash as an ICTD object accepted for presentation at ICTD 2013. She is now revisiting the data to understand the ecosystem of ICT use and production that drives the process of innovation and collaboration on ICTD ventures. Given her ongoing research, she is very keen to participate in the ICTD preconference and receive feedback on her work. The travel scholarship will also enable her to attend the conference. Preeti is presently working as an independent researcher while on the job market in India and will need financial assistance for the conference. preetimudliar@gmail.com

Examining the Gender Divide in the ICT Labour Market: Highlights from Uganda As African countries realign their policies to devise ways of tapping into the emmerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) industry , a gap in engagement with ICTs between men and women particularly in ICT skills development (university education) and consequently in the labour market is evident, a dimension that has been termed as one component of the digital divide. The extent, reasons and consequences of this gender gap have received Priscilla Mwondha is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Development Studies at the little attention in African countries including Uganda.

Institute for Social Development, University of the Western Cape. Her This paper sheds light on the ICT gender divide in the ICT Labour market in research topic is ‘Bridging the ICT Gender Divide in Uganda: A Comparative Uganda. I argue that the gender divide that exists today is a result of historical Study of University to Work Transition Patterns among Male and Female ICT and cultural events that continue to shape the gender landscape in Uganda. I Graduates’. Priscilla holds Bachelor of Arts with Education degree from the describe how the negative externalities arising from the social construction of School of Education, Makerere University Kampala, holds a Masters in gender identities has served to exclude women from public life and the ICT International Development degree from the Josef Korbel School of labour market.

International Studies, University of Denver, Colorado and has a passion for Keywords: Gender, social constructions, Information and Communication education, specifically girls and women’s education.

Tecchologies, ICT labour market, sustainable development priscillamwondha@gmail.com

The limits of ICT-enabled ecosystems in eliminating corruption?

Participation, dialogue, openness. These are values we cherish and aspire to.

Who would be in favor of unilateralism, monologue, or isolation as guiding principles of development? The issue is not whether openness, a positive attribute in itself, can promote better policies, but rather what are the conditions required for openness to succeed. Chief Economist, World Bank "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful . . .and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

-George Orwell Rajesh Veeraraghavan Is a sixth year graduate student at the School of

information from University of California, Berkeley, and is hoping to graduate May 2014. Rajesh is actively writing his dissertation. During his time at Berkeley he has been largely internally focused by taking courses and preparing and conducting field work that he has neglected the more professional endeavors like going to conferences. Being a first generation college graduate in his family from India, he feels inadequate in handling the professional pressures of academia. He has had a paper accepted at the ICTD conference that would benefit from having funding to attend. Rajesh-was very thrilled to find efforts are made to help out students who would be in financial need. He is a proud father of two young sons and it is a challenge to be a full time student and to find resources to be able to travel to conferences like this.

Rajesh likes the explicit theme of the pre-conference which seem to help emerging scholars to contend with the ICT ecosystem and go beyond technology determinism. rajesh@berkeley.edu

This paper examines the link between openness and development in the context of an open governance project in India to argue that there are limits to how much development you can get with openness •. Some scholars locate the limits to openness with the lack of capacity of the individual receiving the information and suggest working on capacity building at the grassroots[Elder]. Some scholars locate the problem in the one-way information flow •, which rests on the philosophy build it and they will come― and instead suggest a two-way information flow •, which is about bring them together and build it with them [Ramaswamy]. While going beyond techno-deterministic thinking, they still take for granted participation and citizen action to supply the political work needed for better governance.

In this paper I examine a public works project in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India that seems to go beyond the limitations of existing open government projects. I studied the State-created ICT ecosystem of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (NREGA) to eliminate corruption at the lastmile. My work is based on a year-long ethnographic observation that helped me understand this ICT-enabled ecosystem for corruption reduction. I also administered a survey to quantify the level of civic participation. The ICT ecosystem had two components: planner bureaucrats deployed ICT-enabled surveillance to control the day to day practices of the lower bureaucracy to eliminate corruption and an active project of approaching the workers of NREGA, by conducting audits (social audits •) to improve the quality of the government records. The project underlying assumption is that ICT-enabled surveillance puts a top-down pressure on the lower bureaucrats while social audits put a bottom-up pressure by enlisting active participation from the workers.

While acknowledging that corruption has been mitigated, I argue that there are fundamental limits to this approach. To help understand the limits, I deploy Powell metaphor of overlapping ecologies • where predators lurk around to undermine intentions[Powell]. I find that the lower bureaucrats - as predators try to turn the idea of openness on its head and force a public reading of the findings, putting pressure on the workers to not testify. This goes against the

intentions of the planner bureaucrat, who had seen openness as a tool to curb corruption. While, the state has taken some steps to address this elite capture of transparency •, by appointing state mediators, there is a further complication[Wright]. How to differentiate between politically motivated wind • from the search of the objective truth that the rationality of the audit values[Orwell]? Ultimately, the social audit logic retains the rationality exemplifying an anti-politics machine• which cannot take into consideration politically motivated speech (Benjamin, Ferguson, Li).

I argue that openness is not necessarily a positive attribute. • Truly opening the ICT ecosystem goes beyond inclusion and training and rests on dialogue. While sunshine (open information laws) is useful for an ecosystem and predators could be controlled, facilitating dialogue among the overlapping ecologies has to contend with messy political work.

Mobile Ecosystems among Low-skilled Migrants in Singapore: An Investigation into Mobile Usage Practices

Rajiv Aricat is a PhD student at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, NTU, Singapore. His research interests include the impact of mobile phone on the acculturation of migrants, new media and transnational political participation of migrants, and patterns of mobile phone appropriation. He has published a book chapter co-authored with Dr. Arul Chib and his co-authored journal articles are forthcoming in Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies and Mobile Media & Communication. aric0001@e.ntu.edu.sg

With the diffusion of low-cost communication technologies like the mobile phone, there is increased research attention on the acculturation of migrants at the lower-strata. Drawing on from this understanding, the paper argues that the definition of ICT ecosystems can benefit if the principle of adaptation is included into the theoretical schema, along with principles of selection and competition, as defined by Martin Fransman. To demonstrate how acculturation happens as a non-institutionalized process among low-skilled migrants – both in the life domains as well as in the mobile ecosystems – the study follows a pluralistictypological approach, which defines acculturation as assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization. Quantitative and qualitative data from 528 male migrant workers from South Asia in Singapore showed that they could be grouped under the titles of ‘aspirational migrant’, ‘culturally petrified’ and ‘rootless drifter’, on the basis of the acculturation strategies they adopted and mobile phone usage patterns they followed.

Keywords: acculturation, migrants, mobile phone, ICT ecosystem, development, ICTD

The role of partnerships in ICT-based election monitoring – A case study of Uchaguzi, Kenya 2013

Rhoda Omenya work pulls from extensive research experience in the field of community development. She focuses on spurring citizen participation in the tech scene, specifically, local tech solutions that empower communities. Rhoda was the lead of the monitoring and evaluation of Uchaguzi Kenya 2013 as well as the Kenya Open Data research. Rhoda studied Environmental Services at Kenyatta University (Nairobi, Kenya). rhoda@ihub.co.ke

On March 4th 2013, Kenya held General Elections to elect their 4th president under a new constitution. Uchaguzi, an ICT based platform, was deployed to monitor the elections through citizen engagement. Uchaguzi required collaborative efforts. iHub Research carried out an evaluation of the deployment using a combination of research tools. Predetermined metrics, which can be extended to various ICT ecosystems, were used to assess the Uchaguzi deployment under six categories deemed critical for a successful deployment: partnerships, publicity and outreach, personnel, technology, workflows and citizen experience. This paper makes an in-depth study of partnerships as a metric for successful ICT-based election monitoring deployments by analyzing strengths and weaknesses of the Uchaguzi ecosystem. We identified selection of appropriate partners as the deployment’s greatest strength and dialogue, as the weakest link. This paper further seeks to outline best practices for future deployments with regard to partnerships – the bedrock of a deployment.

Keywords: partnerships, elections, Kenya, deployment, ecosystem, Uchaguzi

A study of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ecosystem in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa

The synergetic interaction of software developers, tech entrepreneurs, government agencies, local partners, international donors and the ICT community have proved invaluable in the development of ICT/mobile apps design, development, implementation, testing, utilization and maintenance have made tremendous impact in the development, growth and sustenance of Rising John Osazuwa: has a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Computer Science from ecosystem .

University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, and Advanced Certificate in ICT Policy and Strategic Planning (Online) 2011, Advanced Certificate on Select participants were awarded pre-seed grants for 50 technology Internet Governance and e-Participation (Online) 2012 and Certificate on ideas/ventures targeted at typical social challenges faced by the average African.

Internet Governance from Diplo Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland. He is By focusing on the early stages of high-impact, results-oriented ventures, the undergoing his Postgraduate Studies in Computer Science in the University of pre-seed funding supports experimentation and prototype development in Ibadan, Nigeria. order to accelerate the adoption of the solutions. Each technology venture then has the potential to become a self-sustaining profitable social enterprise.

Rising has been involved in promoting Internet Governance and Internet Security in his institution. He was a participant in the Certificate on Internet Open innovation ecosystem facilitates end-users participation in the design of Governance & Internet Standards Development Workshop, Internet Society, new services, products and societal infrastructures that improve their quality of Ghana Chapter, 2013 and the Sixth Annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) life.

Meeting, United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON), Kenya, September 27-30, 2011.

Through partnership between citizens, social entrepreneurs, subject matter experts, businesses and public authorities, the ICT and mobile innovation hubs He was engaged as Principal Systems Analyst and Head, Information in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria facilitates the design and prototype testing of Technology, Redeemers University, Ogun State, Nigeria. He was responsible tomorrows best social innovations in Information and Communication for the maintenance of information technology management and computing Technology for development (ICT4D) through the application of ICT in health, infrastructure. Rising-John was a member of the University's Strategic mobile banking, information management and agriculture support.

Planning Committee. risingosazuwa@gmail.com Open Living Lab manifests in practice as idea mapping sessions, code parties, challenges/competitions and developers camps (hackathons). High potential solutions from the labs are supported to enter the market through our PreIncubation Unit.

Open Living Labs have resulted in over 50 social technology products/venture being launched for community and market operations, within the last two years.

The Fruitful interaction of the ICT ecosystem have resulted in benefits for citizens, students, lecturers, government, entrepreneurs and researchers: It empowers citizens, as end-users, to influence the development of innovative services and products that eventually could benefit the whole society, It allows government, industry and entrepreneurs to develop, validate and integrate new ideas through partnerships that increase their chances of success, It facilitates the integration of technological innovation in society and increase return on investments in relevant research.

Cross generational, intercontinental and multi-stakeholders collaboration have been identified as indispensable facilitators of successful ICT ecosystems. Open process, open systems, open operations and open governance promote growth, collaboration, innovation and rapid development.

Keywords: ICT ecosystem, innovation, ICT4D, Open ICT ecosystem, entrepreneurship

ICT Ecosystem: The Case of a Mobile Banking Feasibility Study among Smallholder Cocoa Farmers in Ghana

Robert Okine Kabutey provides senior leadership for the strategic use of information technology resources in support of the mission and goals of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Co-founded mFriday, a mobile web lab of developers and enthusiasts to develop SMS and mobile apps

Smallholder farmer access to agricultural finance has been a major constraint to agricultural commercialization in many developing countries including Ghana.

The ICT revolution in Africa has however brought an opportunity to ease this constraint. Mobile phone-based banking services that started in the urban areas of Ghana have started to spread to the rural areas. Using these m-banking services, farmers can ultimately receive payment for their crops and use their phones for other transactions. The study gives a snapshot of the ICT ecosystem through the lenses of a feasibility study of a mobile banking system for smallholder producers and agro dealers in the five (5) cocoa regions in Ghana.

The study explored how smallholder producers and agro dealers can utilize their

to solve socio-economic problems in the Ghanaian communities and mobile phones for future input and output payment. It also assesses the factors beyond. Also co-founded KAN CMS, an Open Source Content Management conditioning the use of mobile banking.

System (CMS), mainly to facilitate the management of website content for Higher Educational Institutions. Robert has undertaken consultancy services on Keywords: m-banking, agricultural, finance, mobile phone, farmers, cocoa behalf of organizations such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CTA / ECOWAS, MAK-Edu Consult, Newmont, World Bank, World Cocoa Foundation, etc. He is a regular speaker at conferences, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Learning International Network Consortium, eLearningAfrica conferences, ICTD International conferences, ICT4Ag, etc. bobby@mfriday.org

From Jubilation to Condemnation: How School Community Citizens and Netizens Shape the OLPC Initiative in Kenya through their Representation in the Media The ICT ecosystem in Kenya is perhaps one of the most diverse and dynamic in sub-Saharan Africa. Development efforts in Kenya have benefited from people, policies and technologies, particularly the mobile phone. Yet, one area where the presence of technology is still contentious is education.

Ronda Zelezny-Green is a U.S. Fulbright Student Scholar to Kenya (2013-2014), educator, teacher trainer, researcher and learner who has lived and taught on four continents and visited more than 30 countries. She is a Research Associate with @iLab Africa at Strathmore University in Nairobi. Zelezny-Green is an expert in gender, learning and mobiles, and advocates participatory and sustainable approaches to the use of mobiles for educational purposes.

Ronda has an M.A. in Applied Linguistics, an MSc in Practising Sustainable Development (ICT4D Specialism), and a graduate certificate in Instructional Design for mobile environments. During her studies, she has specialized in gender issues and the use of technology for educational and development purposes, with a focus on mobile learning. In addition to conducting field-

In April 2013, the Uhuru Kenyatta government, also referred to as the Jubilee Coalition, announced plans to realize a campaign promise to provide every Kenyan child with a solar laptop. Within the emergent Kenyan ICT ecosystem for education, the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) promise was initially met with “jubilation.” Yet, by the time the Uhuru government marked 100 days in office, a growing chorus of condemnation directed at the initiative had emerged in the blogosphere, and in online and print newspapers.

Through discourse analysis of various media where the initiative has been featured, this article, underpinned by the theory of the social shaping of technology, will explore the role of school community citizens’ and netizens’ opinions in shaping the ICT ecosystem for the OLPC initiative in Kenya.

based research in Kenya, she has designed and manages a pen pal program Keywords: ICT ecosystem, Kenya, education, OLPC, edtech, eLearning, discourse with schools in the Kisii region of the country. analysis, media Ronda has published and presented on a number of topics related to mobiles for development (M4D). She enjoys reading, traveling and volunteering; in the digital space she enjoys hanging about on Twitter @GLaM_Leo. rondazg3@gmail.com

ICT4D Design Patterns for a Common Language in ICT Ecosystems

Satoru Tokuhisa has a BA in Political Science from Keio University, Japan in 2002 and a PhD in Media and Governance from Keio University Graduate School of Media and Governance in 2007. He has been engaged in research on both design theories in interdisciplinary design and practices based on them with a background of sociology, philosophy, psychology and computer science.

His work has been entered into a number of challenging competitions such as SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies (2003, 2005), Japan Media Art Festival (2004, 2007), Asia Digital Art Award (2005, 2008), FILE (2007, 2008), Laval Virtual (2006, 2008) and U-35 Creators Japan (2013).

An ICT ecosystem encompasses the policies, strategies, processes, information, technologies, applications and stakeholders that together make up a technology environment for a country, government or an enterprise, and includes diverse individuals. This environment needs a common language to discuss the technologies. This research uses the concept of Pattern Language by architect Christopher Alexander as a common language, and aims to propose an original format for ICT4D Design Patterns. Compared with the existing design pattern in software engineering and HCI(Human Computer Interaction), ICT4D Design Pattern focuses on contexts. This is because the contexts in which simple but wicked problems arise are quite complicated in the BOP, and designers cannot find problems or offer solutions ahead of the contexts. ICT4D Design Pattern is described with a format of Name, Area, Context, Problem, Example, Category, and Impact, and this paper indicates a design pattern as a sample. The next step will increase the number of design patterns, reveal the relationship among the elements which consist of contexts, and develop a Pattern Language.

In addition to academic activities, he has contributed to society based on his Keywords: BOP, ITCT, design pattern, pattern language, format academic achievements. While studying at the Graduate School, he cofounded UTUTU Co., Ltd., and in 2009 he co-founded Sikake, both of which are organisations who design communication media to deliver more fun in our daily lives with innovative technologies. In 2013, he was appointed as CCO (Chief Creative and Communication Officer) of Navigator Platform Inc. which organises a media for personal investors.

Recently, he has been especially interested in a design framework to achieve Design Driven Innovation which means a radical change of meaning about a product, a BOP (Bottom of the Pyramid) design framework to achieve Vernacular Innovation which focuses on local and natural elements in the field, and a Pattern Language for the developing world. His research concept is to develop design tools and methods using models from the designers' viewpoints. dangkang@kmd.keio.ac.jp

Mobile Phone Ecosystems and the Informal Sector in Developing Countries – Cases from Jamaica This study investigates the role of the ICT ecosystem within the informal business sectors of rural and urban Jamaica, relying on an exploratory collective case study methodology to highlight the differences in how the use of mobile phones have facilitated and enhanced entrepreneurial opportunities for business operators existing in the informal economy. The findings of the study confirm existing research about the socio-economic benefits of ICTs but also Stephen Johnson is a Project Manager for the Centre for Leadership and highlight specific characteristics related to informal ICT ecosystems. For Governance. He has worked on several national and international polls, example, we found that there was a close-knit set of entrepreneurs who were motivated by competition between one another but who would still engage in surveys and development oriented research projects. mutual learning and information sharing. These ecosystems also entail a system of social hierarchy among the actors, although there is potential for mobility.

Finally, we note that our findings suggest a potential reconsideration of Stephen has a strong passion for research and has assisted on several national definitions of the informal sector that emphasize low-skilled labour. research projects. Stephen currently serves as the Director of Caribbean Action Keywords: ICT ecosystem, informal economy, micro entrepreneurship, ICT4D Researchers; a small research firm which aims to emphasize and highlight the need for research in decision making for both the private and public sectors.

Stephen received his Bachelor of Science Degree with First Class Honours in International Relations from the University of the West Indies in May 2009, and Masters of Science Degree in Government with distinction in 2011, his

thesis was entitled; International cooperation in a global world: protecting the sovereignty of the nation state of Jamaica from the threat of cybercrime which received the MSc. IR staff prize for the best performance in the final year research paper. Additionally, he also received The University of the West Indies, Mona Principals Research Award; Research Project with the Greatest Business/Economic/Development Impact-A National Strategy for Mainstreaming Youth Development in Jamaica. Mr. Johnson is currently coauthoring a book on Cybercrime in the Caribbean. stevechrisjohn@gmail.com

Working towards the digital inclusion of older people in Brazil: lessons learned from ethnographical studies of ICTs use This paper aims to explore the ICT use of older people in Brazil in order to contribute to fostering their digital inclusion. A rapid ethnographic study was performed with 78 participants (aged 60+) in a centre that teaches computer classes to older people in Brazil. The results highlight factors that can contribute to the uptake of ICT amongst older people ICT, such as using communication tools and working with multimedia, and others that limit it, such as difficulties using input devices and creating accounts. The results also reveal how the participants designed their own solutions to deal with most of their difficulties.

Drawing on these results, strategies to foster the uptake of ICT in Brazil are suggested. The paper also discusses how specific the results and strategies are to older people in developing/developed countries.

Susan M. Ferreira is a PhD Student in the Interactive Technologies Group, Department of Information and Communication Technologies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Barcelona, Spain). She received her masters in Information, Communication and Audiovisual Media Technologies (TICMA) by UPF in 2009. Susan graduated in 2005 in Computer Science from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, where she obtained a master degree in Electrical Engineering in 2007. With a background in network management and communication, her current research interests are related to Human Keywords: older people, digital inclusion, ICT use, ethnography, ICTD Computer Interaction, digital inclusion, Interactive Television and older people. susanferreira@gmail.com

Local African Ecosystems: Mapping the communicative ecology of communities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.

The communicative ecology framework is used to explore ICT use and interaction in the wider context of people’s lives. The research findings demonstrate the truism, that technology does not have an independent determinative existence. Using an exploration of the complex and dynamic links, both real and potential, between ICTs and community development in Nigeria’s diverse and troubled Niger Delta region, the paper makes a strong case for: first, the social embeddedness of ICTs in developing world contexts and, second, the empowerment of local populations in defining the parameters of such a ‘fit’. I conclude with an integrated media framework for how ICTs may be successfully deployed to support the development of marginalised communities in Africa.

Uduak Okon is a member of the ICT4D Collective, University of London since 2007 where she has taught the course unit on Information Communication Technology for development in the Department of Geography. The Collective is the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, and a Research Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London. She holds has PhD in Development Geography from University of London, and an MSc in Analysis, Design and Management of Keywords: Communicative ecology, community development, rural Information Systems from London School of Economics, University of London. communities, information and communication technology, Nigeria, Africa Her research specialisation includes: Development in Africa, ICTs for Development, Sustainable communities, and New media and African Diaspora communities. okonud@yahoo.com

Management of Telecommunication Ecosystems in Rural Communities: The Balance between Quality of Experience and Quality of Service in the provision of e-Health services

Veronica Rojas-Mendizabal is a Telecommunications Engineer. She earned her Master’s degree in Telecommunications and Telematics from Catholic

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a vital role in socioeconomic development. In the case of the health context, the use of ICT has been exponential, not only for increasing the coverage of services, but also for having an impact in the quality of such services. Unfortunately, the health services in rural and under-served remote locations have received limited, and in many cases neglected attention. Lack of financial resources combined with lack of medical staff and a clear definition of socioeconomic priorities affect the

University of Bolivia (UCB) in La Paz, Bolivia in 2008. She worked on self-similar traffic models on QoS for VoIP communications. In 2009, she did a Post Graduate Course in Satellite Communications at the Regional Center for Education in Space Science and Technology for Latin America and the Caribbean (CRECTEALC), a United Nations space educational centre, in Puebla, Mexico. Currently, she is a doctoral student in Electronics and Telecommunications at the Centre for Scientific Research and Superior Education of Ensenada (CICESE), in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, working on QoS/QoE for e-Health satellite applications. vrojas@cicese.edu.mx

delivery of quality health services in rural areas. Recent developments in eHealth and related fields, have demonstrated the enormous potential of technology when devices, systems and processes are applied in conjunction with elements of socioeconomic and cultural nature. In order to guarantee the technical efficacy of the e-Health services we use the Quality of Service (QoS) to measure the performance of parameters such as data rate transmission, jitter and delay. However, the user requirements are essential to achieving the expected results originally established. Thus the incorporation of the Quality of Experience (QoE) becomes important to consider the human factors involved in evaluating the effectiveness of technologies employed. Our contribution describes elements of a management framework for telecommunications ecosystems centred on rural communities. Our purpose is to explore alternatives for increasing the efficacy of e-Health services when QoS and QoE are incorporated from the inception of the projects taking into account both domestic and outside stakeholders and their systematic interaction. We suggest that for the case of e-Health it is necessary to have a comprehensive and explicit ecosystem with an interdisciplinary focus and integrating the social, technical and economic contexts. In order to accomplish an adequate user acceptance, a dynamic balance between QoE and QoS must be accomplished in all the stages of the e-Health project. This balance will have a direct impact on the costbenefit and cost-efficiency factors of the e-Health services and in turn on the socioeconomic conditions and quality of life of the rural populations. We argue that the understanding of the interactions of patients and medical specialist, their contexts and social reality constitute key requirements for the deployment of successful e-Health projects in rural communities.

Keywords: Quality of Experience, Quality of Service, e-Health, Information and Communication Technologies

Viscous Open Data: The flow of data in a public university governance ecosystem This paper explores the flow of data by constructing an open data ecosystem using the case of the South African public university governance. It reveals three different forms of supply from the same government dataset within the ecosystem. Based on the insights revealed by the particular ecosystem, the paper argues for the importance of the information context in which open data is supplied if it is to contribute to the ecosystem in ways that will allow the ecosystem to evolve. In the absence of government’s efforts to supply an Francois van Schalkwyk is an independent researcher and consultant in the informative context, intermediaries are likely to step into the vacuum, but, as fields of higher education studies, open data and scholarly communication. He this paper points out, questions remain around the sustainability and broader holds a BA(Hons) from the University of Cape Town, an MPhil in Publishing impact of open data supplied by intermediaries.

Studies from Stirling University (UK), and an MEd degree from the University of the Western Cape (South Africa). He is currently involved in three research projects: (1) the Scholarly Communication in Africa Project (SCAP); (2) the Keywords: open data, ecosystem, governance, university, viscous data, higher Interconnectedness of Engagement Projects at Two African Universities; and education, South Africa (3) the Open Data in Developing Countries project. In addition to his academic interests, he is the managing director of the publishing services company, COMPRESS.dsl, and a trustee of the not-for-profit, open access publisher African Minds. OpenUCT Initiative, Centre for Higher Education Development, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. francois@compressdsl.com

Lifting the veil on ICT gender indicators in Africa

Gender equality has been identified as critical to the realisation of knowledge societies. The increased take up of ICTs, particularly broadband, has been linked increasingly to economic growth and social inclusion. Yet, the uneven nature of such ICT access and use developments is widely known.

This study makes use of the conceptual framework of inclusivity which provides a lens through which the findings of the Research ICT Africa (RIA) 2012 household and individual survey is explored. Focusing on mobile phones and the internet, the study highlights the differences in use patterns among individuals Mariama Deen-Swarray is a researcher at Research ICT Africa and is currently from a gender perspective, the barriers they face and the socio-cultural factors working on the analysis of the business and household surveys recently that influence and limit their full participation in the ICT ecosystem. conducted in 12 African Countries. Prior to joining RIA, Mariama worked as a researcher at ITASCAP, a private financial services and research institution in While increased access to the internet through mobile phones by those at the Sierra Leone and as a Researcher at the Namibian Economic Policy Research bottom of the pyramid has improved access, the unevenness in use and the Unit in Namibia. She has been involved in the information and communication skills to optimise the informational, educational, and indeed entertainment, technology sector and has worked in several ICT related studies. She has value of the internet is as wide as ever. The results show that women generally participated in ICT Conferences and has contributed to several publications in have less access to ICTs than men and this increases as the technologies and the field of ICTs. Mariama holds a Masters (MPhil) in Economics from the services become more sophisticated and expensive, requiring greater levels of University of Ghana and a BSc (First Class) in Computer Science and Economics income and education to access and operate. An analysis of the data from the University of Namibia. demonstrates, however, that the reason for this relates to the fact that women mdeen-swarray@researchictafrica.net are more concentrated among lower income groups, at lower education levels and in rural areas, or – stated more generally – at the base of the pyramid.

Where there is greater equality between men and women as reflected in education and income, there is generally greater ICT access and more equitable use.

Keywords: Gender, sex disaggregation, indicators, ICT policy, inclusivity, exclusivity