Chris Coward and Karen Fisher will be organizing a fishbowl session on the transferability of ICTD innovations from income-poor to income-rich countries at ICTD 2010 on December 16th, from 3:30 to 5:00PM at Royal Holloway College, University of London.
Most low-cost, easily implementable ICTD innovations are designed for developing-country contexts. Examples include mobile money, SMS (e.g. Ushahidi, Frontline SMS), and e-skills training programs. This interactive session focuses on the factors that facilitate or mitigate the transfer of these innovations to communities facing economic and social challenges in richer countries. Participants will identify innovations, discuss what makes them portable (or not), and explore steps that might encourage replication or uptake outside the developing world. Questions include: To what extent is the proposition that most low-cost, easily implementable ICTD innovations are designed for developing-country contexts correct? What are examples and counter examples? Which ICTD innovations have already spread from the South? Which others could potentially transfer? Do ICTD innovations that have spread from South to North share any common characteristics? Do they only benefit the poor, or have they been more widely adopted by richer segments of society (e.g. mobile money)? Which contextual factors ? ranging from determining needs, design/build, implementation, and adoption ? influence transferability? How are the methodologies applied to developing ICTD innovations in the North similar to or different from those in the South? What would a more-focused effort to design and implement ICTD innovations in richer countries look like? How would such an effort appeal to or draw on the expertise of the ICTD community? Find out more at http://cis.washington.edu/2010/09/30/ictd2010-innovation-fishbowl/
