Empowerment through Knowledge*
IDIA, the International Development Informatics Association, is an association serving as a forum for international cooperation between organisations focusing on research in the use of ICT for developing economies and societies (ICT4D), where various constraints impact on the use of ICT compared to highly developed regions. IDIA, established in 2006, provides opportunities for scholars and technical specialists alike to exchange knowledge on the modes and principles of applying ICT to such regions.
IDIA has members on all continents and relevant sub-continents, from various sectors:
- Universities
- Research Centres
- Government
- Non-profit organisations
- Business
Why Development Informatics?
The World Bank and other well-meaning institutions and authors, including the MDG, typically claim that one quarter of the global community live on less than USD1.00 per day. However, this claim is based on a specific economic ideology, where that USD1.00 is calculated with regards to spending money, is an overgeneralisation, and does not account for the fact that USD1 goes much further in a self-sustaining rural village than in the slums of a large city. DI should investigate such claims, and through proper research present a balanced view.
More than 40% of global population work in the agriculture sector, which is typically rural and removed from cheap telecommuncations networks. About 30% of world population is unemployed. In economically developing regions, telecommunication networks are poorly developed. Though the mobile industry is growing at a phenomenal rate, even in developing regions, the globe is not covered by cheap networks, and access is not cheap. Ironically, access in Africa, the poorest of all continents, is also also the most expensive.
Given this background, more than a billion people will remain unconnected well into the middle of the 21st century.
With some lateral thinking and re-engineering of ICT systems, it it quite possible to indeed connect the diconnected more than a billion people on this planet. Well, that is if they needed to connected. DI investigates the arguments for and against, the assumptions, the arguments. And if indeed a case can be made that the world needs to be connected, what kind of conenctivity, what kind of devices, what kind of content?
Development Informatics operates against this background. It focuses on fundamental questions regarding development, and specifically using ICTs for development. And if ICT is indeed important, finding relatively cheap solutions for total global connectivity and access to information.
It is not necessarily about connectivity. It is not necessarily playing into the hands of globalists. It is not necessarily using the classic PC-internet model of ICT. It is also not about technology for the sake of technology; but more about enabling communities to make their own choices. And if ICT can assist in that decision-making process, what should the nature of the ICT be?
The value system on which this is based is that ICT experts may be able to create systems that will enable such communities to have access to information and knowledge, and thereby empowering themselves. The experts cannot empower communities, and neither should the experts determine what communities need - communities themselves should determine their own needs. The role of ICT experts is merely to provide the necessary enabling tools. ICT enables, communities empower themselves.
Development Informatics may seek technological solutions, but the moral ground and value system is supportive, rather than dominant.
Conferences and Workshops
The 4th International Development Informatics Association Conference is to be held in Cape Town, 3-5 November 2010.
We hold annual workshops in South Africa. See more.
People
Administration
Photos
We have now implemented our photo albums. Thanks to Jean-Paul Hounkanrin for developing this for us. See Photos.
