What role do information and communications technologies (ICTs) play in economic development? Are they a tool augmenting existing development efforts, or can they lead to entirely new strategies for improving the livelihoods of communities and nations? Can bridging the digital divide help create prosperity? These are just some of the issues that will be addressed in the Economic Development community.
A simple Action Plan.
By: mohini singh, A Sense Of Place Network | May 2, 2006
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| We are all aware of the handicaps that our less fortunate brothers and sisters face due to lack of proper opportunity and money to help them realise their goals.The question is what we can do to help them?
I believe that an Action Plan is the first step in this attempt to help the less fortunate.An Action Plan that sets easily achievable goals so that we cannot say that this is not possible for me to do since I am so busy with routine things.
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Reinventing Community Networks as Economic Development Solutions
By: Frank Odasz, Lone Eagle Consulting | December 1, 2005
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| Low-cost open source content management systems with rich tutorials on entry-level web-based self-employment and peer-mediated mentoring make perfect sense as a tool for community networks. |
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Designing for Change in the Developing World
By: Francis Raven, A Sense Of Place Network | June 17, 2005
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| Since its inception at MIT five years ago, Design that Matters (DtM) has proven a visionary force in the creation of products for the developing world. From an affordable, non-electric incubator for premature babies to the Kinkajou, a lightweight low-power projection system, DtM has forged new paths in the application of technology within developing nations. But the group's truly radical contribution may just be their business model. DtM refuses to own the process. Instead, using "innovation chain management," a channel of external organizational partners provides the knowledge and input necessary for product realization. |
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Technology for Social Inclusion: An Interview with Mark Warschauer
By: Francis Raven, A Sense Of Place Network | May 4, 2005
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| Mark Warschauer, author of Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide, talks about the social aspects of digital empowerment in this interview. "Social inclusion refers to the extent that individuals, families, and communities are able to fully participate in society and control their own destinies, taking into account a variety of factors related to economic resources, employment, health, education, housing, recreation, culture, and civic engagement."
Dr. Warschauer's research focuses on the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) in schools; the impact of ICT on language and literacy practices; and the relationship of ICT to institutional reform, democracy, and social development. |
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Women Emanicipation is Economic Development!!!
By: Henry Ekwuruke, TakingITGlobal | March 9, 2005
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| Women's emanicipation is great!!! |
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Robert Fairlie on the Economics of the Digital Divide
By: Nia Ujamaa, Center for Media & Community | January 18, 2005
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| The economist Robert Fairlie was first driven by questions about the underlying causes of the racial disparities related the digital divide before critically examining the problem as a whole. His growing body of research, most recently conducted in partnerships with the Latino Policy Institute and the Joint Center for Poverty Research, has laid the groundwork for a deeper understanding of the economics behind the divide. Fairlie’s findings confirm what many have assumed, and just as many have countered.
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A Nation Online: 2004 U.S. National Digital Divide Report Released
By: NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce | January 10, 2005
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| The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has just released the latest national digital divide report, A Nation Online.
The report states that a dramatic uptake of broadband technologies has fueled the nation's rising use of the Internet. The report also finds that broadband users are more likely to use the Internet more frequently and in a wider variety of ways, and broadband usage is lower in rural than urban areas.
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2005 Thematic Meeting of the World Summit of the Information Society
By: Francis Raven, A Sense Of Place Network | January 10, 2005
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| On January 18th and 19th of 2005, a Thematic Meeting of the World Summit of the Information Society will be held in Antigua Guatemala. |
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Trust and the Internet
By: Francis Raven, A Sense Of Place Network | December 10, 2004
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| A major assumption of those interested in the digital divide is that economic development depends upon computer and Internet access. If this were not the case, the fact that there is a digital divide would be much less worrisome. That is, if economic development was not correlated with a community’s access to computers and the Internet this access would not be seen as quite so crucial. In a talk on November 17th at the Harvard Law School, economist Paul Zak provided one of the missing links between Internet usage and economic development: trust. |
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Scotland’s Craigmillar Project: Combating Virtual Inequality in the Digital Age
By: Dr. Andrew McDonald and Phil Denning | December 10, 2004
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| The Craigmillar Community Information Service (CCIS), a project funded by the European Union and Scottish Executive, is a community-based Internet service and training provider, a port of quality digital applications and services focused on employment, education, arts, youth, social welfare and the environment. |
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PEOPLink and CatGen: Empowering a Global Network of Artisans
By: Nia Ujamaa, Center for Media & Community | December 2, 2004
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| Peoplink began as a fair trade website that sold retail items from a number of rural artisans around the world, facilitating direct connections between sellers and buyers. The original goal of the venture was to increase the profits of artisans in emerging economies by removing the middleman from the sale. Their challenge was to make people realize that they could sell their product over the Internet. Now, they've created an e-commerce tool for artisans around the world to sell their goods on the Internet, without the interference of exploitative middle men. |
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Digital TV Future Still in Doubt as FCC Focuses on Easing Ownership
By: Kevin Taglang, Telecommunications Policy Consultant | December 19, 2002
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| Four years since recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters, there has been little action to further define or implement public interest obligations for broadcasters in digital age. |
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Can ICT Stimulate Economic Development?
By: Bill Gillis, Director; Matthew Mitchell, Program C, WSU Center to Bridge the Digital Divide | August 9, 2002
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| This brief article explores the challenges faced by those who attempt to document the relationship between information communication technologies (ICT) and development. The authors present a model for making sense of this relationship. |
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Nonprofits in the Information Age
By: Dr. Richard Ryberg,Dr. Donald Mowry,Keri Saxrud,Am, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire | August 8, 2002
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| Researchers in the Midwest have begun to study how local nonprofit agencies are integrating technology into their organizations. |
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Extending the Information Revolution: International Aid and Development
By: Kenan P. Jarboe, Athena Alliance | July 9, 2002
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| Kenan P. Jarboe, president and CEO of the Athena Alliance, calls for increased action by the G8 Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) in working with countries to develop national “eStrategies” and promote education and entrepreneurship. |
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Extending the Information Revolution - Information Ownership
By: Kenan P. Jarboe, Athena Alliance | July 2, 2002
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| Kenan P. Jarboe, the president and CEO of the Athena Alliance, discusses the expanding copyright policies that may be endangering the nation’s economic growth. |
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Extending the Information Revolution - Financing and Community Renewal
By: Stockton Williams, Enterprise Foundation | June 7, 2002
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| Stockton Williams, senior director of public policy at the Enterprise Foundation, discusses the value of public support in filling financing and savings gaps that exist for low-income people and communities. |
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Extending the Information Revolution - IT Infusion in Small Manufacturing Firms
By: Mark Troppe, National Center on Education and the Economy | June 6, 2002
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| Mark Troppe, Director of Economic and Workforce Development for the Workforce Development Program at the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) discusses ways to ways to help existing small manufacturers better utilize information technology.
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Extending the Information Revolution - Entrepreneurship
By: Erik Pages, Policy Director, National Commission on Entrepreneurship | June 6, 2002
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| Erik Pages, the policy director of the National Commission on Entrepreneurship discusses the importance of expanding our nation’s commitment to supporting entrepreneurship.
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Extending the Information Revolution - Economic Development
By: Kenan P. Jarboe, President and CEO, Athena Alliance | June 6, 2002
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| An excerpt from Extending the Information Revolution: A White Paper on Policies for Prosperity and Security. Kenan P. Jarboe, president and CEO of the Athena Alliance , discusses the importance of advanced telecommunications to economic development.
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Extending the Information Revolution- Secondary and Post-Secondary Education
By: Samuel Leiken, Senior Policy Consultant, CAEL, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) | April 22, 2002
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| Samuel Leiken, senior policy consultant to the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) discusses the importance of advanced telecommunications to secondary and post-secondary education. This article is taken from a larger piece, Extending the Information Revolution: A White Paper on Policies for Prosperity and Security. Published in February 2002 by Athena Alliance, the white paper calls for a broad strategy of inclusion to help all Americans benefit from the shift to an information economy. |
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Inside the Digital Divide: Connecting Youth to Opportunities in the New Economy
By: Bob Pearlman, Former President, Autodesk Foundation | April 9, 2002
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| A new study finds that the digital divide in Silicon Valley incorporates four components: a workforce gap, an educational achievement gap, an interest gap, and a technology skill and access gap. |
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Extending the Information Revolution: IT Utilization by Non-profits and Community Groups
By: Ryan Turner, OMB Watch | March 12, 2002
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| Non-profits serve valuable, yet often overlooked, roles as community facilitators, in which they have the position of early adopters and arbiters of tools, resources, and practices most likely to succeed in addressing individual and community needs. As such, it is important that these organizations use technology in their day-to-day operations – not just on the role of these organizations in providing access to the technology. |
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Broadband Strategy: Lessons Learned from the U.S. Interstate Highway System
By: David H. Deans, Economic TeleDevelopment Forum | March 2, 2002
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| Policymakers around the globe are reviewing initial proposals for a National Broadband Network Infrastructure program. But with no proven public policy model on the subject and scale already in existence, perhaps there are lessons to be learned by studying the events that led up to the creation of the U.S. Interstate Highway System.
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Extending the Information Revolution: Telecommunications Infrastructure
By: Karen Kornbluh, Markle Fellow, New America Foundation | February 25, 2002
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| Only 10 percent of smaller companies have access to the $90 billion of fiber-optic cable in the country. Karen Kornbluh argues this nation needs a clearly articulated goal of universal broadband access similar to our previous goals of universal electrification and phone service. |
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Building Connected Communities: The 5Comm Advanced Telecommunication Project in Southwest Minnesota
By: Mark Erickson, 5Comm | January 18, 2002
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| After more than a generation of decline, rural communities across America are increasingly looking towards technology and application of advanced, community-based telecommunication models to stem the downward economic spiral. |
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Small Business Slowly Adjusts to an Expensive and Complex New Economy
By: Kade Twist, Benton Foundation | October 29, 2001
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| The Internet provides small businesses with the opportunity to market goods
and services and improve efficiency and productivity. However, many small
businesses lack the time, money, expertise and broadband connectivity to
take full advantage of New Economy opportunities.
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Youth Are Problem-Solvers…. Not Problems to Solve
By: Tony Hebert, Ph.D., and Amy Ostermeier, University of Tennessee | October 15, 2001
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| Advocates for civic engagement and community renewal have highlighted youth as an important resource in rebuilding a civic society for the future and in creating healthy communities today. |
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Sweatshops and Hummingbirds: Cultural Ecology on The Edge
By: Michael North and Paul Swider, Greenstar Corporation | May 29, 2001
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| Greenstar provides self-financing solar community centers for villages in the developing world, from which digital elements of traditional culture are created, including music, artwork, poetry, photography and video. |
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Shrinking the Gap with Business-Education Partnerships
By: Jessica Boelter, Candle Corporation | February 26, 2001
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| Candle employs high school students from the Foshay Learning Center in south central Los Angeles. “Academic studies are vital, but we stress the added importance of learning responsibility and enhancing one’s ability to socialize in a work environment. Only this way will students truly have the opportunity to achieve their goals. |
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Sharing Silicon Valley's Digital Bounty
By: Christopher Ross, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Silicon Valley Project | February 6, 2001
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| The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Silicon Valley Project in East Palo Alto, California seeks to establish "digital connections" between technological companies and minority- and women-owned business enterprises in the San Francisco Bay Area. |
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Sustainable Solutions to the Digital Divide
By: Max Savishinsky, Global Partnerships and the Global Digital Divide | December 4, 2000
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In 1993, Global Partnerships was founded in Seattle, Washington as a private, non-profit foundation with the mission to unite business and community in sustainable solutions to poverty. Since that time, Global Partnerships has been looking toward new markets for sustainable development in Latin America where people, especially the poorest of the poor, lack access to credit, technology, and other tools needed to fight the cycle of poverty.
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Meeting Workforce Demands in the Digital Economy
By: Kevin Taglang | December 4, 2000
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The Economics and Statistics Administration of the US Department of Commerce report Digital Economy 2000 examines the growing importance of information technology (IT) on the US economy. This article discusses the Digital Economy 2000's workforce findings since they reflect the sustainability of our IT-driven economy. |
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Making Globalization Work For The Poor
By: L. Michael Hager, President, Resolve-Consult International, LLC | December 4, 2000
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It may be time to consider additional ways of bringing the wealth-creating dynamics of business globalization to low-income populations. Entrepreneurial spirit exists at all levels of society, but legal and other constraints confine most rural business people and urban street vendors to local markets.
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Addressing the Demand for an Information Age Workforce
By: Kade Twist, Benton Foundation | December 4, 2000
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| The economic explosion of the information technology (IT) industry and the dramatic rise of e-commerce has created an enormous demand for workers who can create, apply and use rapidly changing technologies. The Department of Commerce estimates that by 2006 the number of computer engineers and scientists will grow by 114% and the number of systems analysts will increase by 103%. One way to alleviate this tremendous demand for workers is by investing in the relatively untapped resource of women and minorities. |
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