Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
I am not sure where to start in this conversation seems it started with Taran's post about geographical distribution of the use of social networking sites... Anyhow... the original topic seems to have morphed to hardware... then again.. is Second Life the same as a social network like Myspace? I may never know as I live a life of low bandwidth connections therefore I have not had the luxury of experiencing the online world that seems to speed past me... I have been a cautious fence sitter on the cell phone convergence trend. Sure they are getting amazing features, but from an educational perspective I still prefer a full sized keyboard, mouse and a decent sized screen... Yet I admit I am somewhat of a convert as I see that more and more can be done on tiny devices, but by and large I still feel that elearning has a long way to go on the larger sized platforms. There seems to be a plethora of $100 PC's popping up... either laptop or desktop variety, it seems we still have a very long way to go in the shared device category. To me -- there is nothing more pleasing than seeing 4 or 5 students surrounding a computer working together to come up with answers as they browse wikipedia or the many other free information databases. Mobile devices represent an individual user interface... surely as the screens get bigger and add on keyboards become common they may morph into a mini desktop at that stage several people can share the device at once. But for now I see one thumb typing as a burden to sharing. Many comments on various boards have been made about broadband penetration - a wonderful advancement with increased mobile phone device penetration is the demand for IP. My main connection to the net is a GPRS/EDGE connected Nokia phone sending bluetooth signal to my laptop. Sometime in the distant future Thailand says they will upgrade the networks to 3G and promise a far faster connection at a competitive price. Cambodia has had it for the past 5 months and my tests there show it is not bad... My concern here is that it is reducing the digital divide slower than hoped. An increase in mobile phone penetration seems to lead to reduced landline installation. Which means less in rural and remote regions. Less landlines means less high speed net access. Satellite access via low cost systems like www.ipstar.com ar some $55/month for a 128k connection ease the pain somewhat but still do not make up for the growing divide. OK... so what is next... mobile phones are becoming pervasive, net services expanding over mobile networks - but to me the most important element is still way behind... that being a robust eleanring network supported by locally cached material. Language, content and affordability remain the dividers... regardless of the latest gadgets if we cannot provide open content, appropriate content (vocational-technical skills development), local language support (plenty of materials are available but not in local languages - BOP are less fluent in world languages) - these so-called gadgets will remain barriers to making lasting impact in socio-economic mobility. We are supposed to be interested in the digital divide - yes? cheers Tim _ John Tim Denny, Ph.D. Advisor- International Development, Education and ICT Executive Director, PC4peace http://www.pc4peace.org Advisory Board, Masters of Development Studies -RUPP International Journal of Multicultural Education, Electronic Green Journal http://www.avuedigitalservices.com/VR/drjtdenny Join Cambodia Joomla! Users group - http://groups.google.com/jugcam The diligent farmer plants trees of which he himself will never see the fruit. Cicero (106-43 BCE) On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 5:02 AM, tom abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The capabilities of the cell phone are developing but access is controlled by the parties who need to have positive cash flow. There is now an app for the i-Phone that lets one access and participate in Second Life. In the US the service providers all have usb systems that connect to their cell services so that one has an alternative to the availability of broad band. One can buy English lessons in China which down load to a cell and there are cell phones that for all intents and purposes come close to the WII game system. Want to play dice? load the game, shake the phone, hear the rattle see what you rolled. The capabilities are such that one goes with what gives the best access at an affordable cost. The smart money appears to be on cells for many uses that are now forced onto the broadband networks. cells are NOT just the next gadget. thoughts? tom tom abeles From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2008 13:11:16 -0700 Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking What do you-all mean by the latest ICT gadget? Do you think it is trivial and will decline? From what I've seen all over West Africa
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Sabi ni Jacky noong Wed, 3 Sep 2008 23:31:29 -0400: I agree with the idea that mobile phone is the latest ICT gadget; however, there is a lot that remains to be done in terms of broadband penetration. You don't need much bandwidth for SMS, and there's a lot you can do with SMS. For example, the Community Heath Information System (CHITS -- http://www.apdip.net/resources/case/rnd48/view) excerpt In this study free and open source tools from the Linux community combined with participatory people-centric strategies were employed to enable implementation of an injury surveillance system by health workers. The project has three main components: a Short Messaging Service (SMS) for reporting injuries, training of health workers on injury surveillance and a web-based system for the graphic presentation of injury data used by decision makers. The pilot project was implemented in a poor urban village of the Philippines. SMS was selected because of its widespread penetration in the Philippines and its wireless capabilities. /excerpt Another SMS-enabled service is B2Bpricenow (www.b2bpricenow.com), a portal that provides up-to-the-minute price updates on market information for agriculture, consumer manufactures, and industrial produce. It brings together farmers and transport providers so that the former can get information such as pricing and transport availability from the latter. In a previous post (or it might've been in another mailing list), I thought that mobile telephone carriers could tie up with The Knowledge Channel (TKC) or some similar educational TV station to provide quick quizzes to the student viewers. TKC would flash a question on screen and invite viewers to SMS in their answers, and TKC would reply to a viewer's cell phone with either correct or wrong. In the latter case, it would send the correct answer. The carriers would lend their infrastructure, ideally at reduced SMS rates. So who needs 3G? G -- Daniel O. Escasa [EMAIL PROTECTED] contributor, Free Software Magazine (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com) personal blog at http://descasa.i.ph -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love email again ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Hi Tom, Thanks for the very interesting and insightful post. I agree with most of what you wrote and will spare everyone the bandwidth of reposting that which I agree with. However, a few questions: On Tue, 2 Sep 2008, tom abeles wrote: And, therein lies one of the problems in today's world where we expect the dark to be dispersed with the flick of a switch. [...] It is also why we default to technology. It seems to me that technology by itself does not solve these problems. In fact, perhaps it creates them by creating the expectation of instant solutions that often cannot be satisfied. Does anyone believe that it is possible to fix the digital divide, or that a particular combination of tools and technologies can do so? How is it different to the Mercedes divide or the clean water divide? I have seen families emotionally torn because they want their children to learn but if they are in school they can't work and work means food on the table for the entire family. OLPC? Some folks, putting their kids to work, are committing the ultimate sacrifice of eating their seed potatoes. It is a sacrifice, but if the family dies from hunger today then the seed potatoes will go uneaten and unplanted. Life is full of compromises. What does this have to do with technology and quick fixes? The metonymic digital divide represents that mythical armamentarium equivalent to Batman's tool belt or some pharmaceutical formulary, more a mix of paliatives and placibos to avoid having to deal with the core problems facing humans ever since Adam bit into the apple of knowledge. Sorry, I don't see how labelling part of the situation as the problem (the digital divide) equates to labelling part of a situation as a solution (Batman's tool belt) except in that both labels are useful learning tools (training wheels) for understanding the situation but fail to capture the entire reality. If that was not your point, please could you explain further? Cheers, Chris. -- Aptivate | http://www.aptivate.org | Phone: +44 1223 760887 The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales with company number 04980791. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Hi Taran, On Tue, 2 Sep 2008, Taran Rampersad wrote: I'm really feeling sorry for the dead horse I've been beating, but it seems it needs to run a few more laps. Thanks, that made me laugh a lot :-) That would be mobile phone - the future of computing is being discussed on another email list I participate on with the changed context that the mobile phone brings. In essence, the PC doesn't really know it's dead yet - partly because it isn't dead *yet* and also because no one really seems to understand how the market is changing. I don't agree that the mobile phone has killed the PC. They are used for very different things. Can you see a businessman tracking his stock or calculating optimal market strategies using databases and spreadsheets on a mobile, or a student reading or writing textbooks and essays on one? We may see convergence, we may see divergence, we will certainly see adaptation to niches, but I don't believe that the mobile phone is the answer to the world's problems any more than the PC is. The mobile phone has forever changed the landscape - even gaining special mention in the UNESCO report brought out this year. If anything, the mobile phone is accidentally closing the digital divide. After all, it's ubiquitous even in nations that are pretty good at avoiding change (i.e., the developing world). It's becoming ubiquitous in nations that are bad at paying for technology, that much I agree with. Bed netting is a fact of life that many people grow up with - the true problem is *affording* it. Irrigation is a common sense use of science which varies upon application, so it doesn't translate well to the web until you can upload topography and soil type data and assure that the results are near perfect. I think that the internet is a digital analogy to irrigation. It makes other pieces of technology (fields vs computers) more effective and useful. No, maybe simply participating in discussion is the first step. Thus, the mobile phone. It is an important step, but not the first (that is the willingness to participate in discussion) or the second (that is the ability to afford to participate in discussion), and no more than an accessory to the steps that follow (that is turning discussion into action and change). The truth is that the developing world doesn't need PCs as much as it needs better mobile phones and telecommunications regulation. True, but it does need them. Importing PCs into developing nations that have no legal or other infrastructure for disposal only pollutes developing nations that need the very fertile soil that is being polluted. No, they have a useful function when used correctly. The important thing is to import working equipment and place it in situations where it can and will be used for real benefit, and sustainably. The same applies to mobile phones as well, unfortunately. But not quite in the same way, because I don't think phones are dumped on developing countries in the way that PCs are, so there is one less hidden agenda in exporting them. What we need to do, IMHO, is stop playing with the tiger's tail if we have no plans for dealing with the teeth. Is this a warning about e-waste, PCs vs mobiles, empowerment of developing countries or general feline policy? Cheers, Chris. -- Aptivate | http://www.aptivate.org | Phone: +44 1223 760887 The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales with company number 04980791. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Hi Steve, On Wed, 3 Sep 2008, Steve Eskow wrote: The divide is part of a larger situation. If technology enthusiasts haven't the patience and the skill to study and take into account the larger situation which will surround a new technology, they can do more harm than good. What techniques and tools do you find useful in studying the situation and adapting the solution to it? Cheers, Chris. -- Aptivate | http://www.aptivate.org | Phone: +44 1223 760887 The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales with company number 04980791. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Thanks for your hospitality, Taran! On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 12:16 AM, Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree, Jacky, but the problem of broadband penetration is a matter of cost and telecommunications regulation. This has been mentioned more than once at the CARICOM Internet Governance meetings, as an example - meanwhile the mobile phone subverts this by allowing voice and text communication as well as, in some cases, internet access. At the end of the day, it isn't about gadgets. It's about policy and costs. (As a subnote - good to see someone from Haiti here!) Jacky wrote: I agree with the idea that mobile phone is the latest ICT gadget; however, there is a lot that remains to be done in terms of broadband penetration. Jacky Poteau Haiti -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com http://www.opendepth.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by Creating - Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Jacky Poteau, MSW, MCP President, FATEM www.fatem.org Voicemail: 1-866-98-FATEM (983-2836) Skype name: jackypoteau ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Chris Wilson wrote: That would be mobile phone - the future of computing is being discussed on another email list I participate on with the changed context that the mobile phone brings. In essence, the PC doesn't really know it's dead yet - partly because it isn't dead *yet* and also because no one really seems to understand how the market is changing. I don't agree that the mobile phone has killed the PC. They are used for very different things. Can you see a businessman tracking his stock or calculating optimal market strategies using databases and spreadsheets on a mobile, or a student reading or writing textbooks and essays on one? I'd say you'll see this within the next 5 years due to the following: (1) Improved hardware. (2) Improved software. The stepping stones are video and input. But let's take stock: no one ever thought text messages would be such a big deal despite the awkward keyboard on a mobile phone. But there it is. The video and input can be solved with output jacks for monitors and keyboards. At the end of the day, mobile phones are all over. PCs are not. Mobile phones have more computing power than the first PCs right now. PCs are heavier to ship (a large factor). We may see convergence, we may see divergence, we will certainly see adaptation to niches, but I don't believe that the mobile phone is the answer to the world's problems any more than the PC is. No, the answer to the world's problems remains geopolitical despite how flat Friedman thinks the Earth is. ;-) The mobile phone has forever changed the landscape - even gaining special mention in the UNESCO report brought out this year. If anything, the mobile phone is accidentally closing the digital divide. After all, it's ubiquitous even in nations that are pretty good at avoiding change (i.e., the developing world). It's becoming ubiquitous in nations that are bad at paying for technology, that much I agree with. I think that it would be more fair to say that some nations simply do not allow for rapid adoption by *governments*. Bed netting is a fact of life that many people grow up with - the true problem is *affording* it. Irrigation is a common sense use of science which varies upon application, so it doesn't translate well to the web until you can upload topography and soil type data and assure that the results are near perfect. I think that the internet is a digital analogy to irrigation. It makes other pieces of technology (fields vs computers) more effective and useful. I think the Internet offers the potential for making things more effective and useful. Even so, we're looking at 20% Internet penetration - which means that the number of people offline is roughly equivalent to the world population of 1995. No, maybe simply participating in discussion is the first step. Thus, the mobile phone. It is an important step, but not the first (that is the willingness to participate in discussion) or the second (that is the ability to afford to participate in discussion), and no more than an accessory to the steps that follow (that is turning discussion into action and change). I respectfully disagree. One must know that there is a discussion before one can participate, and thus one has to fall into the discussion somewhere along the line. :-) The truth is that the developing world doesn't need PCs as much as it needs better mobile phones and telecommunications regulation. True, but it does need them. That may be so, but the *how* and *why* vary according to population, socioeconomic conditions and a variety of other reasons. Sure, I'd like to see more tech in agriculture (since this is what I'm doing these days) but at the end of the day, people don't need a PC as much as they need a piece of technology that makes their jobs easier. The mobile phone is actually much more useful and versatile to farmers than a PC. Calculator, communication and even a few games to kill time. Importing PCs into developing nations that have no legal or other infrastructure for disposal only pollutes developing nations that need the very fertile soil that is being polluted. No, they have a useful function when used correctly. The important thing is to import working equipment and place it in situations where it can and will be used for real benefit, and sustainably. And I offer that this has been what many have said for decades, and yet... The same applies to mobile phones as well, unfortunately. But not quite in the same way, because I don't think phones are dumped on developing countries in the way that PCs are, so there is one less hidden agenda in exporting them. They are dumped. Where else do people throw them? What we need to do, IMHO, is stop playing with the tiger's tail if we have no plans for dealing with the teeth. Is this a warning about e-waste, PCs
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Mobile phone now-a-days is the latest ICT gadgets that truly bridges the digital divide in society. The marvel of this product incorporated with IP-technology will let anyone communicate in Data, Voice, Fax, Audio, Viodeo mode Freely across the world. Thanking you, B.K.Satapathy On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 6:50 PM, Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm really feeling sorry for the dead horse I've been beating, but it seems it needs to run a few more laps. That would be mobile phone - the future of computing is being discussed on another email list I participate on with the changed context that the mobile phone brings. In essence, the PC doesn't really know it's dead yet - partly because it isn't dead *yet* and also because no one really seems to understand how the market is changing. The mobile phone has forever changed the landscape - even gaining special mention in the UNESCO report brought out this year. If anything, the mobile phone is accidentally closing the digital divide. After all, it's ubiquitous even in nations that are pretty good at avoiding change (i.e., the developing world). That said, I have yet to see how disseminating information on bed netting on the Internet helps with dengue and malaria - and the same applies to irrigation (which I have been doing myself lately). Bed netting is a fact of life that many people grow up with - the true problem is *affording* it. Irrigation is a common sense use of science which varies upon application, so it doesn't translate well to the web until you can upload topography and soil type data and assure that the results are near perfect. No, maybe simply participating in discussion is the first step. Thus, the mobile phone. The truth is that the developing world doesn't need PCs as much as it needs better mobile phones and telecommunications regulation. Importing PCs into developing nations that have no legal or other infrastructure for disposal only pollutes developing nations that need the very fertile soil that is being polluted. The same applies to mobile phones as well, unfortunately. What we need to do, IMHO, is stop playing with the tiger's tail if we have no plans for dealing with the teeth. Steve Eskow wrote: Is it the hardware and software divide that is our central concern here, our goal to get as many computer per capita over there as we have here? Or is our goal the information and knowledge divide, with the computer the intermediary that gets the information about irrigation and bed netting and the alternatives to kerosene lighting to the people who need it? If it's the latter, we might aim to get one computer to a poor rural village, train one literate person in its use, and have him or her get the information about irrigation and kerosene and bed netting to the people who need it, perhaps using community radio as the disseminator. Is that one way of easing the digital divide? Steve Eskow -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com http://www.opendepth.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by Creating - Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- e-Orissa Bhubaneswar,India. Cell:91-9861128546 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
I agree, Jacky, but the problem of broadband penetration is a matter of cost and telecommunications regulation. This has been mentioned more than once at the CARICOM Internet Governance meetings, as an example - meanwhile the mobile phone subverts this by allowing voice and text communication as well as, in some cases, internet access. At the end of the day, it isn't about gadgets. It's about policy and costs. (As a subnote - good to see someone from Haiti here!) Jacky wrote: I agree with the idea that mobile phone is the latest ICT gadget; however, there is a lot that remains to be done in terms of broadband penetration. Jacky Poteau Haiti -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com http://www.opendepth.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by Creating - Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Tom and all, Your message suggests--to me at least--the need for discussions such as this to go back to first principles from time to time. Are you right about the unspoken belief driving this discussion: that closing a digital divide is the sine qua non leveling the economic (and hence all others) playing field? First: computers and cell phones--then food, clothing, shelter? First: economics: and economics will provide education and social and political reform? Those of us who do spend time in the poor world are used to seeing a crop of computers in a school closet, or hidden behind a curtain: no one knows how to repair them, keep them running--or what to do with them when they are running. Is it the hardware and software divide that is our central concern here, our goal to get as many computer per capita over there as we have here? Or is our goal the information and knowledge divide, with the computer the intermediary that gets the information about irrigation and bed netting and the alternatives to kerosene lighting to the people who need it? If it's the latter, we might aim to get one computer to a poor rural village, train one literate person in its use, and have him or her get the information about irrigation and kerosene and bed netting to the people who need it, perhaps using community radio as the disseminator. Is that one way of easing the digital divide? Steve Eskow On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 7:15 AM, tom abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am not certain that I am in agreement with Maria Laura's definition which appears to be tautological in nature. I am also not certain that engaging in an intellectual reparte makes sense in a list where the unspoken belief is that closing a digital divide is the sine qua non for leveling the economic (and hence all others) playing field. Deal and Development are Humpty Dumpty terms ( a word means what I want it to mean). Perhaps Deal has a pejorative connotation while Development has perceived positive sensibility? Debatable! Maybe a little time, a deep breath and some philosophy/humanities to temper those standing at the ready with their Blackberry might make sense? Right now the US education system is so enamored with educating for the science/tech/engineering/math that programs for the humanities and social sciences are being mothballed. Tour the developing world and look at the Development skeletons, like Shelly's Ozymandias- the result of Deals. tom tom abeles Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: What's the difference between a development phenomenon and an economic deal or phenomenon? --- ...An economic phenomenon can be almost anything related to markets, and therefore transactions. The word deal refers to this transaction view. Development, on the other hand, involves a value judgment. A development phenomenon means that something good or desirable has taken place, and different groups may make different value judgments as to the desirability or goodness of a phenomenon or situation Maria Laura -- _ See what people are saying about Windows Live. Check out featured posts. http://www.windowslive.com/connect?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_connect2_082008 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
I am not certain that I am in agreement with Maria Laura's definition which appears to be tautological in nature. I am also not certain that engaging in an intellectual reparte makes sense in a list where the unspoken belief is that closing a digital divide is the sine qua non for leveling the economic (and hence all others) playing field. Deal and Development are Humpty Dumpty terms ( a word means what I want it to mean). Perhaps Deal has a pejorative connotation while Development has perceived positive sensibility? Debatable! Maybe a little time, a deep breath and some philosophy/humanities to temper those standing at the ready with their Blackberry might make sense? Right now the US education system is so enamored with educating for the science/tech/engineering/math that programs for the humanities and social sciences are being mothballed. Tour the developing world and look at the Development skeletons, like Shelly's Ozymandias- the result of Deals. tom tom abeles Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: What's the difference between a development phenomenon and an economic deal or phenomenon? --- ...An economic phenomenon can be almost anything related to markets, and therefore transactions. The word deal refers to this transaction view. Development, on the other hand, involves a value judgment. A development phenomenon means that something good or desirable has taken place, and different groups may make different value judgments as to the desirability or goodness of a phenomenon or situation Maria Laura -- _ See what people are saying about Windows Live. Check out featured posts. http://www.windowslive.com/connect?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_connect2_082008 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Great response, very illuminating. Thanks! The narratives of the world are numberless. . . . there nowhere is nor has been a people without narrative.--Roland Barthes Sarah Blackmun-Eskow President, The Pangaea Network 290 North Fairview Avenue Goleta CA 93117 805-692-6998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.pangaeanetwork.org -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 7:01 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: What's the difference between a development phenomenon and an economic deal or phenomenon? This is a real question, not a rhetorical one. S. Dear all: I did not get all the mails on this topic since our mail server did not work during a few days last week, so I hope I am not repeating what you have said before. I agree that this is a real question. An economic phenomenon can be almost anything related to markets, and therefore transactions. The word deal refers to this transaction view. Development, on the other hand, involves a value judgement. A development phenomenon means that something good or desirable has taken place, and different groups may make different value judgements as to the desirability or goodness of a phenomenon or situation. Reaching consensus about whether we have witnessed an economic phenomenon is easy.Reaching consensus about a development phenomenon may not be. Also, development implies moving forward in a desirable direction. Learning is also involved in development. As societies and communities learn (by doing, by interacting, by observing)they change their judgement and values about development. That´s how sustainable development evolved. Keeping this difference in mind helps us help others. The values of those who have are different than the values of those who don´t have. So, who decides what can be considered a development phenomenon towards bridging the digital divide? Hope this helps. Maria Laura Secretaria de Desarrollo Universitario Instituto Universitario Aeronautico Avda Fuerza Aerea 6500 Cordoba 5010, Argentina Tel:: +54 351 5688832 http:// www.iua.edu.ar ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: Good heavens, what a cliché! If you take that view, denying that societies have segments and interest groups, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, and everything in between and all about, then hoping for justice is pointless. Really? I do not think so. Your second paragraph communicates what I meant in the same line. My suggestion is: No society has just one set of expectations. It has many, and some win out over others, and some rise to power and then decline. Exactly. But in the end, it is society that decides. Individuals make choices based on their own expectations. All of this is encapsulated in 'Any society is the sum of it's expectations'. All the subsocietys, everything else - it all falls under that. Response to pollution law is the sum of the global society's expectations. Response to World Hunger is the sum of the global society's expectations. And so it goes. You talk about parts of society in your first paragraph. But they are parts of a society. And their expectations are reflected in the sum. If you want to change the world, perhaps the expectations are what are most important to look at. Does a person in New York City have the same expectations as someone in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti? When you look at what people expect - and how high their expectations are, relatively speaking - I think you'll find a trend. S. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Taran Rampersad Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 7:32 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: There is no good metaphor to express this situation in all of its raw power and destructiveness. Perhaps a non-metaphorical expression is needed. Any society is the sum of it's expectations. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by creating. — Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by creating. — Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: What's the difference between a development phenomenon and an economic deal or phenomenon? This is a real question, not a rhetorical one. S. Development would be more tangible. Economic tends to be more abstract. Development is - or should be - based on metrics. Economics is based on incentives and motivations with a currency of trade. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by creating. — Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Good heavens, what a cliché! If you take that view, denying that societies have segments and interest groups, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, and everything in between and all about, then hoping for justice is pointless. My suggestion is: No society has just one set of expectations. It has many, and some win out over others, and some rise to power and then decline. S. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Taran Rampersad Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 7:32 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: There is no good metaphor to express this situation in all of its raw power and destructiveness. Perhaps a non-metaphorical expression is needed. Any society is the sum of it's expectations. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by creating. Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Good. What you point out is essentially education. This education about dangers of aids should begin in schools. Children will know and how to advise their illiterate parents. We do it by Learning English through anti-Aids campaign where subjects like comprehension are based on aids. They learn English at the same time the dangers of aids. They remember because they need to get the right scores. Catch them young before they gets it. Any volunteers or contributors of such articles among members? Action not just talk :) Anyone who knows any NGOs wishing to go into this direction? We have no resources to develop this at the moment. Regards Alan Foo www.paperlesshomework.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- On Sat, 8/16/08, Sarah Blackmun-Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Sarah Blackmun-Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking To: 'The Digital Divide Network discussion group' digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Date: Saturday, August 16, 2008, 4:15 AM One of the most successful forces against the spread of HIV in Africa is one of your favorites: the church people. In Uganda, for example, clergy promoted the ABC approach: Abstinence, Be faithful, use a Condom. If church (and mosque) leaders do have the reputation and credibility we think they do, and that seemed to be true in Uganda, then we have a simple, honest, moral approach right at hand. S. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joe Beckmann Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 8:16 PM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking A meeting of minds is far from difficult: western techniques are easier to transport than western technology - and netting via medicine men is virtually how the Edna McConnell Clark foundation almost wiped out Trachoma (http://www.trachoma.org/). It's a lot more complicated than condoms imply, since it takes disclosure to deal with condoms, and that disclosure is pretty culture-bound. Hence 52% of the new HIV cases in the US are black women. The newest rage of PEP pill pushing is much, much more controversial - if anybody has any real interest in ending the epidemic - since (a) we've known for more than a decade that it works, and waited until pharma found a financial incentive to make it popular and (b) we've also known that it doesn't take a lifetime of pill taking, in spite of last week's notice that it is precisely that treatment that pharma is now pushing. The corruption of the west is something that spreads a lot faster and easier than our benevolence. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: There is the digital divide, and the health divide. And perhaps those divides are related. Westerners live longer than those in the poor countries, or so the mortality tables tell us. Western hard and software interests: are they the ones who are promoting the digital divide idea for their shareholders and executives? Is this list part of a Microsoft/Intel conspiracy? And big pharma: are they the ones promoting antiretrovirals for their shareholders? Western DDT almost wiped out malaria in parts of sub-Saharan Africa until it was banned--and the mosquitoes and malaria returned with a vengeance. There seems to be little evidence that local medical knowledge can prevent or treat malaria. The bed netting developed in the West, but certainly able to be produced locally, can. What, if anything, is the right thing to do or not do, say or not say, about bed netting and malaria in sub-Saharan Africa? And should the help of the local medicine man be enlisted in the bed netting campaign? Condoms can reduce the frequency of death-dealing AIDS in Africa. Big pharma medications can keep people alive once they have contracted the disease. ICT can bring information about these life-enhancing possibilities to Africa. What do we do, or not do, about life and death in Africa, and who will involve the local medicine man, and how, and what to do if he is not interested but has his own routines? Steve Eskow On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Joe Beckmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To get back to that medical model, don't under-estimate the medicine man vs the doctor. Last week's HIV/AIDS Conference in Mexico City discovered that pre-exposure prophylaxes (PEP) actually work, but framed that working in terms of a daily dose of an anti-viral and/or use of microbicides (which are still in testing). There is over 15 years of research that proves fairly conclusively that PEP has always worked about 87% of the time, and that, in most cases, a single dose of a microbicide before exposure is all it takes. It is not coincidental that Bush signed a $55billion subsidy the week before the PEP announcement, and that lots of big pharma can support any solution that guarantees a daily pill, subsidized
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Metaphors, while compelling, can be misleading and ultimately destructive. A chunk of the billions of dollars of aid goes to Western experts and consultants: the aid establishment, looking out for its own financial interests. Another goes to the corrupt indigenlous politicians and government functionaries who skim money off the top in order to achieve the affluence that their positions require. How much is actually used for the benefit of poor people is not known. In addition, locally controlled development often needs Western expert help to succeed, but is reluctant to accepting Western help because of centuries of abuse from the West. There is no good metaphor to express this situation in all of its raw power and destructiveness. Perhaps a non-metaphorical expression is needed. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steve Eskow Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 9:42 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Joe Beckmann's warning about the limits of the first things first axiom is well taken--and it's the danger that the ecology metaphor intends to avoid. There is no necessary linearity in a web of interconnections, and no obvious starting point. Those who have watched developments, or in many cases lack of developments, in some of the poor countries--who have watched billions of dollars of well-intentioned aid result in no visible betterment of human conditions--might understandably question the utilty and the accuracy of such a notion as an indigenous capacity to succeed. At times, indeed, it seems as if there is an indigenous capacity to fail. The positive deviants notions is another usefl idea that can have disastrous results in practice. Those who the intervener sees as positive deviants might be seen as negative idiots by those locals whose cooperation is crucial to the success of an intervention. And even the universally applauded notion of home grown and locally controlled development is often a fiction. Quite often the positive deviants know that the resources and the skills that the community needs to break out of poverty aren't in the local community: if the local medicine man could prevent and cure AIDS they wouldn't need non-local doctors and antiretrovirals. So: all the metaphors, and all the formulas, and all of the homilies point us in important directions, and all of them have to be used with great care. Steve Eskow. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Joe Beckmann [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: My only reservation about an ecology of need is an implication that there are a sequence of readiness opportunities, that it's hard to do d before doing a, b, and c. There is a need/readiness system, and the system also includes - almost inevitably but not at all obviously - an indigenous capacity to succeed. Social interventions that ignore those positive deviants where success can be a foundation for further success will almost inevitably fail; others, that build on local capacity to enhance locally derived strategies for success, are far more sustainable because they have local sponsors, invested in expanding their efficacy. One of the more interesting approaches is a formal evaluation of that positive deviance adapted by the Institute of Positive Deviance at Tufts. http://www.positivedeviance.org/ The Institute of Positive Deviance has begun to ramp up a variety of programs in a variety of social services to demonstrate this approach. In education, for example, there is http://www.teacherdrivenchange.org/teacherdrivenchange/2008/07/index.html. Their model is a slightly more academic spin on the older organizers' strategies framed by people like Saul Alinsky (well represented here http://www.itvs.org/democraticpromise/alinsky.html). In short, this is anti-imperialism: solutions don't come from one place and get dropped on another; they've got to be home grown, nursed, and with local support. For the Digital Divide this means well documented local change has the greatest transportability, since others can see what people went through in creating their own solutions. It is the process that can be transferred, not it's product. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:46 AM, Jaevion Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks, this is very useful. I really like the last idea of the ecology of need. I beleive it is one of the things that are preventing the sustainability for nmany social interventions and programmes across the world and in the Caribbean. For example in Jamaica, several persons enter a community provide persons with the opportunity but illiteracy, poverty, culture, etc prevents the programme from making that exponential impact that it had intended to. The result is that within months the programme fails and is forced to withdraw from the community. The designers then go back to the drawing
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Sarah Blackmun-Eskow wrote: There is no good metaphor to express this situation in all of its raw power and destructiveness. Perhaps a non-metaphorical expression is needed. Any society is the sum of it's expectations. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by creating. — Michelangelo The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. - Nikola Tesla ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
and economic acts, across the oceans can change a small village in a small country in Africa at the click of a mouse. Many in the development community keep hoping for such a perfect storm, like the Cargo Cults, unwilling to accept that life is fragile for all creatures on the earth and there is no guarantee that on this planet change will not lead to losses. After all, most development has a strong polyanna element. Triage is not seen as an option. c) we are enamored with technology (things and social technology). Thus the problems between the enfranchised and disenfranchised (in all dimensions) is knowledge- educate and the rising tide will equalize all boats on the seas and raise all ships equally. Hence the problem has been cast as a digital divide. Instead of the US political cliche, a chicken in every pot, it is now a smart phone in every home. information/knowledge/education, hopefully digitally distributed, is the equivalent of the 6-gun in the US west, the great equalizer. It's the liberal (or progressive) answer to problems created by a conservative past. Esperaremos tom Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:41:46 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Joe Beckmann's warning about the limits of the first things first axiom is well taken--and it's the danger that the ecology metaphor intends to avoid. There is no necessary linearity in a web of interconnections, and no obvious starting point. Those who have watched developments, or in many cases lack of developments, in some of the poor countries--who have watched billions of dollars of well-intentioned aid result in no visible betterment of human conditions--might understandably question the utilty and the accuracy of such a notion as an indigenous capacity to succeed. At times, indeed, it seems as if there is an indigenous capacity to fail. The positive deviants notions is another usefl idea that can have disastrous results in practice. Those who the intervener sees as positive deviants might be seen as negative idiots by those locals whose cooperation is crucial to the success of an intervention. And even the universally applauded notion of home grown and locally controlled development is often a fiction. Quite often the positive deviants know that the resources and the skills that the community needs to break out of poverty aren't in the local community: if the local medicine man could prevent and cure AIDS they wouldn't need non-local doctors and antiretrovirals. So: all the metaphors, and all the formulas, and all of the homilies point us in important directions, and all of them have to be used with great care. Steve Eskow. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Joe Beckmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My only reservation about an ecology of need is an implication that there are a sequence of readiness opportunities, that it's hard to do d before doing a, b, and c. There is a need/readiness system, and the system also includes - almost inevitably but not at all obviously - an indigenous capacity to succeed. Social interventions that ignore those positive deviants where success can be a foundation for further success will almost inevitably fail; others, that build on local capacity to enhance locally derived strategies for success, are far more sustainable because they have local sponsors, invested in expanding their efficacy. One of the more interesting approaches is a formal evaluation of that positive deviance adapted by the Institute of Positive Deviance at Tufts. http://www.positivedeviance.org/ The Institute of Positive Deviance has begun to ramp up a variety of programs in a variety of social services to demonstrate this approach. In education, for example, there is http://www.teacherdrivenchange.org/teacherdrivenchange/2008/07/index.html. Their model is a slightly more academic spin on the older organizers' strategies framed by people like Saul Alinsky (well represented here http://www.itvs.org/democraticpromise/alinsky.html). In short, this is anti-imperialism: solutions don't come from one place and get dropped on another; they've got to be home grown, nursed, and with local support. For the Digital Divide this means well documented local change has the greatest transportability, since others can see what people went through in creating their own solutions. It is the process that can be transferred, not it's product. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:46 AM, Jaevion Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Hi Tom, Please say some more about this: cell phones are not a development phenomenon- it's an economic and business deal with political participation What is a development phenomenon? How are technologies, like the digital technologies, related to development? Steve On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 2:43 PM, tom abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: hi steve I think you are right- Hope is the key But bad policy and false hope is another issue. And a lot of the precious capital in the development arena has this problem cell phones are not a development phenomenon- it's an economic and business deal with political participation tom Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:46:51 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Perhaps, Tom, hope is the only constant we have, the driver and the engine. Remember Emily Dicinson's Hope--it begins Hope Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all, Perhaps the only universal law worth remembering for our work is that there is no universal law that works every time. What works today in Situation A lets us down in Situation B. Those of us in the rich countries have some reason to be grateful to science and technology. Many of us are alive and functioning because science and technology has cut us apart and reassembled us with metal and plastic parts. We are cyborgs. And there always surprises to confound us. Many technologies get to Accra and stay there, or diffuse throughout the nation slowly and painfully. But cell phone: overnight they are everywhere. Scott Fitzgerald said something like So we press on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Something like that. Good to be in touch again. Steve On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:07 PM, tom abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks for this post Steve. Perhaps some insights from a few gray beards on the list are needed from time-to-time. Let me suggest some other issues: a) The problem with science is that it works, to a certain extent, for the natural environment. As many have pointed out the idea of finding universal laws, programs that can be cloned, etc in social systems, the false notion of western Enlightenment, might be called as in Levin's book, The Tyranny of Reason The political philosopher John Gray (not the Mars Venus person) points out similar ideas in his collection, Heresies. Yet, in the development community hope springs eternal, like the milk horse hoping to catch that elusive carrot held out by the driver b) Natural or human created Tsunamies- weather or changing political and economic acts, across the oceans can change a small village in a small country in Africa at the click of a mouse. Many in the development community keep hoping for such a perfect storm, like the Cargo Cults, unwilling to accept that life is fragile for all creatures on the earth and there is no guarantee that on this planet change will not lead to losses. After all, most development has a strong polyanna element. Triage is not seen as an option. c) we are enamored with technology (things and social technology). Thus the problems between the enfranchised and disenfranchised (in all dimensions) is knowledge- educate and the rising tide will equalize all boats on the seas and raise all ships equally. Hence the problem has been cast as a digital divide. Instead of the US political cliche, a chicken in every pot, it is now a smart phone in every home. information/knowledge/education, hopefully digitally distributed, is the equivalent of the 6-gun in the US west, the great equalizer. It's the liberal (or progressive) answer to problems created by a conservative past. Esperaremos tom Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:41:46 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Joe Beckmann's warning about the limits of the first things first axiom is well taken--and it's the danger that the ecology metaphor intends to avoid. There is no necessary linearity in a web of interconnections, and no obvious starting point. Those who have watched developments, or in many cases lack of developments, in some of the poor countries--who have watched billions of dollars of well-intentioned aid result in no visible betterment of human conditions--might understandably question the utilty and the accuracy of such a notion as an indigenous capacity to succeed. At times, indeed, it seems as if there is an indigenous capacity to fail. The positive deviants notions is another usefl idea that can have disastrous results in practice. Those
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
My only reservation about an ecology of need is an implication that there are a sequence of readiness opportunities, that it's hard to do d before doing a, b, and c. There is a need/readiness system, and the system also includes - almost inevitably but not at all obviously - an indigenous capacity to succeed. Social interventions that ignore those positive deviants where success can be a foundation for further success will almost inevitably fail; others, that build on local capacity to enhance locally derived strategies for success, are far more sustainable because they have local sponsors, invested in expanding their efficacy. One of the more interesting approaches is a formal evaluation of that positive deviance adapted by the Institute of Positive Deviance at Tufts. http://www.positivedeviance.org/ The Institute of Positive Deviance has begun to ramp up a variety of programs in a variety of social services to demonstrate this approach. In education, for example, there is http://www.teacherdrivenchange.org/teacherdrivenchange/2008/07/index.html. Their model is a slightly more academic spin on the older organizers' strategies framed by people like Saul Alinsky (well represented here http://www.itvs.org/democraticpromise/alinsky.html). In short, this is anti-imperialism: solutions don't come from one place and get dropped on another; they've got to be home grown, nursed, and with local support. For the Digital Divide this means well documented local change has the greatest transportability, since others can see what people went through in creating their own solutions. It is the process that can be transferred, not it's product. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:46 AM, Jaevion Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Thanks, this is very useful. I really like the last idea of the ecology of need. I beleive it is one of the things that are preventing the sustainability for nmany social interventions and programmes across the world and in the Caribbean. For example in Jamaica, several persons enter a community provide persons with the opportunity but illiteracy, poverty, culture, etc prevents the programme from making that exponential impact that it had intended to. The result is that within months the programme fails and is forced to withdraw from the community. The designers then go back to the drawing board. To be able to understand the ecology of need we cannot just recognise a problem in a handful of persons and beleive then that it warrants intervention. Proper research must be done at phase one to determine the needs of the individuals living wthin a specific area - the truth is these programs really need a wholistic approach. You may be going to reduce illiteracy but you will have to include poverty reduction components such as school feeding programmes, uniform allowances, travel stipend, etc. Regards, Jaevion Nelson Marketing Partnerships Coordinator Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network www.jamaicayouthadvocacynetwork.org Asst. Programmes Officer Violence Prevention Alliance www.vpajamaica.com Jaevion Nelson (Jae) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:36:26 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking The intervener--all of us who want to help--studies the culture and the need before choosing a path. Before choosing a technology. Where there is a digital divide there are often--usually--other divides. For example: there may be no Internet in the area to be served. Or there may be Internet but many of the intended beneficiaries have no electricity. Or they cannot read. Cannot read what is on the computer screen, whether it is in English or Twi. That is: there is an ecology of need. If the good-hearted social entrepreneur does not have a complete map of the territory of need, it is almost certain that he or she will blunder. Steve EskowOn Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 4:57 AM, Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This post from the Trinidad and Tobago Computing list may be of interest to some. It demonstrates geographical distribution of social network use. It is a nice datapoint, I think. Richard Jobity wrote: Computing - General Discussion on Computing in Trinidad and Tobago http://royal.pingdom.com/?p=336 With the help of Google data, we have looked at 12 of the top social networks to answer a simple, but highly interesting question: Where are they the most popular? The social networks we included in this survey were MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut, Last.fm, LiveJournal, Xanga, Bebo, Imeem and Twitter. Popularity by country (how we got the data) Google Insights for Search makes this quite easy for you. For a search term (for example MySpace), it will highlight the regions where that search
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
Perhaps, Tom, hope is the only constant we have, the driver and the engine. Remember Emily Dicinson's Hope--it begins Hope Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all, Perhaps the only universal law worth remembering for our work is that there is no universal law that works every time. What works today in Situation A lets us down in Situation B. Those of us in the rich countries have some reason to be grateful to science and technology. Many of us are alive and functioning because science and technology has cut us apart and reassembled us with metal and plastic parts. We are cyborgs. And there always surprises to confound us. Many technologies get to Accra and stay there, or diffuse throughout the nation slowly and painfully. But cell phone: overnight they are everywhere. Scott Fitzgerald said something like So we press on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Something like that. Good to be in touch again. Steve On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:07 PM, tom abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks for this post Steve. Perhaps some insights from a few gray beards on the list are needed from time-to-time. Let me suggest some other issues: a) The problem with science is that it works, to a certain extent, for the natural environment. As many have pointed out the idea of finding universal laws, programs that can be cloned, etc in social systems, the false notion of western Enlightenment, might be called as in Levin's book, The Tyranny of Reason The political philosopher John Gray (not the Mars Venus person) points out similar ideas in his collection, Heresies. Yet, in the development community hope springs eternal, like the milk horse hoping to catch that elusive carrot held out by the driver b) Natural or human created Tsunamies- weather or changing political and economic acts, across the oceans can change a small village in a small country in Africa at the click of a mouse. Many in the development community keep hoping for such a perfect storm, like the Cargo Cults, unwilling to accept that life is fragile for all creatures on the earth and there is no guarantee that on this planet change will not lead to losses. After all, most development has a strong polyanna element. Triage is not seen as an option. c) we are enamored with technology (things and social technology). Thus the problems between the enfranchised and disenfranchised (in all dimensions) is knowledge- educate and the rising tide will equalize all boats on the seas and raise all ships equally. Hence the problem has been cast as a digital divide. Instead of the US political cliche, a chicken in every pot, it is now a smart phone in every home. information/knowledge/education, hopefully digitally distributed, is the equivalent of the 6-gun in the US west, the great equalizer. It's the liberal (or progressive) answer to problems created by a conservative past. Esperaremos tom Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:41:46 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Joe Beckmann's warning about the limits of the first things first axiom is well taken--and it's the danger that the ecology metaphor intends to avoid. There is no necessary linearity in a web of interconnections, and no obvious starting point. Those who have watched developments, or in many cases lack of developments, in some of the poor countries--who have watched billions of dollars of well-intentioned aid result in no visible betterment of human conditions--might understandably question the utilty and the accuracy of such a notion as an indigenous capacity to succeed. At times, indeed, it seems as if there is an indigenous capacity to fail. The positive deviants notions is another usefl idea that can have disastrous results in practice. Those who the intervener sees as positive deviants might be seen as negative idiots by those locals whose cooperation is crucial to the success of an intervention. And even the universally applauded notion of home grown and locally controlled development is often a fiction. Quite often the positive deviants know that the resources and the skills that the community needs to break out of poverty aren't in the local community: if the local medicine man could prevent and cure AIDS they wouldn't need non-local doctors and antiretrovirals. So: all the metaphors, and all the formulas, and all of the homilies point us in important directions, and all of them have to be used with great care. Steve Eskow. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Joe Beckmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My only reservation about an ecology of need is an implication that there are a sequence of readiness opportunities, that it's hard to do d before doing a, b, and c. There is a need/readiness
Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking
tom Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:41:46 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net Subject: Re: [DDN] Google Insights - social networking Joe Beckmann's warning about the limits of the first things first axiom is well taken--and it's the danger that the ecology metaphor intends to avoid. There is no necessary linearity in a web of interconnections, and no obvious starting point. Those who have watched developments, or in many cases lack of developments, in some of the poor countries--who have watched billions of dollars of well-intentioned aid result in no visible betterment of human conditions--might understandably question the utilty and the accuracy of such a notion as an indigenous capacity to succeed. At times, indeed, it seems as if there is an indigenous capacity to fail. The positive deviants notions is another usefl idea that can have disastrous results in practice. Those who the intervener sees as positive deviants might be seen as negative idiots by those locals whose cooperation is crucial to the success of an intervention. And even the universally applauded notion of home grown and locally controlled development is often a fiction. Quite often the positive deviants know that the resources and the skills that the community needs to break out of poverty aren't in the local community: if the local medicine man could prevent and cure AIDS they wouldn't need non-local doctors and antiretrovirals. So: all the metaphors, and all the formulas, and all of the homilies point us in important directions, and all of them have to be used with great care. Steve Eskow. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Joe Beckmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My only reservation about an ecology of need is an implication that there are a sequence of readiness opportunities, that it's hard to do d before doing a, b, and c. There is a need/readiness system, and the system also includes - almost inevitably but not at all obviously - an indigenous capacity to succeed. Social interventions that ignore those positive deviants where success can be a foundation for further success will almost inevitably fail; others, that build on local capacity to enhance locally derived strategies for success, are far more sustainable because they have local sponsors, invested in expanding their efficacy. One of the more interesting approaches is a formal evaluation of that positive deviance adapted by the Institute of Positive Deviance at Tufts. http://www.positivedeviance.org/ The Institute of Positive Deviance has begun to ramp up a variety of programs in a variety of social services to demonstrate this approach. In education, for example, there is http://www.teacherdrivenchange.org/teacherdrivenchange/2008/07/index.html. Their model is a slightly more academic spin on the older organizers' strategies framed by people like Saul Alinsky (well represented here http://www.itvs.org/democraticpromise/alinsky.html). In short, this is anti-imperialism: solutions don't come from one place and get dropped on another; they've got to be home grown, nursed, and with local support. For the Digital Divide this means well documented local change has the greatest transportability, since others can see what people went through in creating their own solutions. It is the process that can be transferred, not it's product. On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 8:46 AM, Jaevion Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks, this is very useful. I really like the last idea of the ecology of need. I beleive it is one of the things that are preventing the sustainability for nmany social interventions and programmes across the world and in the Caribbean. For example in Jamaica, several persons enter a community provide persons with the opportunity but illiteracy, poverty, culture, etc prevents the programme from making that exponential impact that it had intended to. The result is that within months the programme fails and is forced to withdraw from the community. The designers then go back to the drawing board. To be able to understand the ecology of need we cannot just recognise a problem in a handful of persons and beleive then that it warrants intervention. Proper research must be done at phase one to determine the needs of the individuals living wthin a specific area - the truth is these programs really need a wholistic approach. You may be going to reduce illiteracy but you will have to include poverty reduction components such as school feeding programmes, uniform allowances, travel stipend, etc. Regards, Jaevion Nelson
