School of Information News

Kerry McNamara, scholar-in-residence in the School of Communication at American University, will speak at the Community Information Corps fall 2009 seminar series (SI 575) on Friday, Nov. 13 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in 311 West Hall. This event is free and open to the public. The topic is “(When) is Information Power? Lessons from the ICT-for-Development Field.”

For more than a decade, there has been widespread enthusiasm about, and experimentation in, using information and communication technologies (ICT) to combat poverty and promote economic and social empowerment in developing countries.

“ICT for development” — which built upon but did not always learn lessons from earlier “informatics for development” and “communication for development” efforts — has become a field of scholarly research and technological innovation in its own right. Over time, the field’s technical focus has shifted with the larger technological landscape, which is why (not surprisingly) the emphasis at the moment is heavily on the development potential of mobile technology (or “m-development,” now a more popular buzzword than the earlier “e-development”).

Yet, whatever the technology platform, the evidence base for the impact of ICT4D initiatives remains weak, and largely anecdotal. And puzzles remain about how to scale those applications that seem promising; how to make these interventions sustainable; and how to shape the broader enabling conditions that help assure a positive impact for these efforts.

This presentation will review some of the key lessons that have emerged from the ICT4D field in the past decade; explore some of the particular opportunities and challenges in using ICT to promote poverty-reduction and economic and social empowerment among the rural poor; and offer some thoughts on a framework for thinking about the enablers and impediments (institutional, structural, political, cultural) to using ICT as tools of economic and social change.

More information about McNamara’s work is available and you can learn more about the Community Information Corps.