the slides and audio from sylvain's talk have been added to http://change.washington.edu/2010/02/sylvain-cibangu-on-contributions-of-cell-phones-on-corn-growers-in-the-congo/
On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 06:50, Yaw Anokwa <yanokwa at gmail.com> wrote: > This Thursday at Change, Sylvain Cibangu will be discussing his > upcoming work on the contributions of cell phones to economic > development in Africa. Specifically, he is doing an information study > of corn growers? experiences in the Congo. > > "The last few decades, information and communication technologies for > development (ICT4D) has been seeing unprecedented cell phone spread > across the globe. By the same token, extensive literature shows cell > phones to be the shaper of economic development in rural areas of > developing countries. However, experts bemoan little to no systematic > study showing cell phones? effects on individuals? development in > rural areas, all of which is coupled with increased anecdotes, > donor-sponsored stories, and context-independent figures. More > particularly, the basic needs of users in rural areas have received > little attention. In fact, cell phone literature has focused on > m-banking, micro-credits, markets, prices, transactions, ease of > travel, entrepreneurship, and the like, assuming that, as is the case > in the developed world, users? basic needs are taken care of. The > present project seeks to fill this gap by investigating cell phone > usages with regard to corn growers? basic needs in the Congo. To this > end, the projects employs the information model (iModel), combined > with capabilities approach (CA). IModel focuses on information uses > and context-specific users and needs whereas CA understands > development as the expansion of human capabilities. The goal is to > allow cell phone-led development that enhances corn growers? > capabilities." > > What: Sylvain Cibangu on Contributions of Cell Phones on Corn Growers > in the Congo > When: Thursday, February 11 at Noon > Where: UW, Paul Allen Center, Room 403 >
