The International conference on information and communication technologies and development (ICTD) 2010 in London

The ICTD 2010 in London

If ICT is properly applied, can it be a key enabler of a carbon-constricted economy? Faizul Khan Tanim returns from the conference and writes on the interesting insights

The International conference on information and communication technologies and development (ICTD) 2010 conference from December 13-16, hosted by the ICTD Collective at Royal Holloway, University of London was the latest in a series of highly successful international ICTD conferences held in Doha (2009), Bangalore (2007) and Berkeley (2006). It provided a forum for researchers, practitioners and all those with interests in the use of information and communication technologies in development practice to meet to discuss the latest research advances in the field.

ICTD 2010 combined two days of plenary peer-reviewed paper sessions, with two days of workshops, panel sessions, discussion forums, and demos, including a keynote by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a graduate of Oxford University who invented the World Wide Web (www), an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing, while at CERN the European Particle Physics Laboratory, in 1989 and ICTs Climate Change and Development Workshop by Richard Heeks and Angelica Valeria Ospina from Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester.

The conference also hosted sessions on different subjects of ICT like mobile applications and its use in agriculture; ICT and e-governance; poster and demo presentations and ICT for persons with disabilities, a burning issue which was constantly reminded by ICT Researcher Vashkar Bhattacharya from Bangladesh.

The conference saw interesting posters on a rights-based look at ICT centers for persons with disabilities in Latin America by Michele Frix and Joyjeet Pal and vaccine cold-chain monitoring using mobile by Rohit Chaudhri. In this section, Mafruha Alam from Bangladesh presented her poster on assessing the scope for use of mobile based solutions to improve maternal and child health in Bangladesh.

The presentation of Sir Tim introduced the the history of Web, and the different organizations Tim is engaged in (W3C, Web Science Trust, the Web Foundation). He currently addresses issues, such as the importance of voice technologies, mobile entrepreneurship, open government data and more general issues, including the importance of open data, open format, open standard or the fact that data connection is an enabler for lots of people to access and offer content, and therefore a minimal bandwidth should be available for everybody for free.

He emphasized on the importance of enabling people to put online information and share, rather than just considering that even the most underprivileged communities have only needs of information, but are not potential providers of information to others. He ended his discussions by highlighting on topics like development cross-cuts different dimensions such as education, democracy, health, etc. and that the web could be a glue to all these dimensions which will reinforce each other in a virtuous circle.

Finally during the question/answer session, interesting and pressing issues were discussed. Answering an interesting question like - What are the limits of Open Government...Is it Wikileaks? Sir Tim said: Open data is actually data that the government has decided to make public. Then, we have to differentiate between transparency and privacy and secrecy or stealing data. How do we define those concepts and what are their boundaries that are difficult to answer. Probably there’s the need for both secrecy and the need for a whistle-blower.

On the issue of climate change and ICT, It has become a major and increasing challenge to international development. Richard Heeks was one of the the organizers of this workshop which discussed the consideration of rapid diffusion of ICTs in developing countries, focusing on understanding the role (positive and negative) of ICTs in climate change adaptation, mitigation, monitoring, and strategy via presentations, group discussion and an expert panel.

Richard Heeks is one of the pre-eminent and highly-cited academics in the emerging sub-discipline of "ICTD" - ICTs for Development, and has written six books, more than 30 refereed articles, and over 100 other papers and reports.

In the workshop Richard and Angelica organized, interesting points came out - the intensification of climatic uncertainty and variability continuing to affect vulnerable contexts worldwide, the importance of adopting innovative, yet locally-appropriate approaches to climate change challenges has become critical.

There were important questions like - But what do ‘innovative responses’ involve within developing contexts where poverty and vulnerability prevail? Followed by interesting answers from the duo Richard and Angelica.

Based on resourcefulness and creativity, innovation within vulnerable environments often involves adopting new practices using the tools at their disposal like low-cost ICTs such as mobile phones.

According to the International Telecommunication Union, ICTs can play a key role tackling climate change by enabling a low-carbon future - helping to reduce emissions through green and smart applications and also by providing the means for implementing new approaches to environment/climate monitoring, disaster preparedness and adaptation within developing contexts.

Experiences from the field are starting to evidence this potential. In terms of monitoring, for example, mobile phones can contribute to effectively communicate meaningful climate data, including alerts, to small farmers and vulnerable populations, while community radio stations are being used to share and disseminate climate change adaptation practices, giving local stakeholders the possibility to interact within a broader community, while helping to bridge the gap between new and traditional knowledge in this area.

The use of Web 2.0 and digital media is also changing the way in which we perceive and understand the challenges posed by climate change, helping to provide a voice to the most vulnerable –specially young generations to share the impacts of climate change manifestations in their lives, as well as the coping mechanisms adopted in response to them. Interesting example in this regard is the initiative ‘Portraits of Resilience‘, which empowers youth to create awareness on the local impacts of climate change using digital media.

*This article was first published in The Independent's Weekend Magazine, January 07 2011

Photos: 1 - Mafruha, 2 - Rohit, 3 - Michele, 4 - Richard Heeks & 5 - Sir Tim Berners-Lee