THE RED CROSS’ MEDIATED ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS: Outreach and the civil imagination

Robert DeChaine’s Global Community seeks to understand how NGOs create and participate in global community. I aspire to join DeChaine’s conversation by examining digital platforms in use for outreach. I use Kingston and Stam’s categorizations of Supersize and Theory 2.0 as guides for understanding how NGOs communicate with constituents via the Internet. Additionally, Ariella Azoulay’s conception of civil positioning provides a framework with which to illustrate how the Internet affords identification with the unfamiliar. I present three case studies: a historical review of the American Red Cross’ outreach efforts, a online flash-game provided by the ICRC called Prisoners of War, and the American Red Cross’ online International Humanitarian Law curriculum. My method of comparative analysis traces rhetorical and design forms the Red Cross utilizes for outreach

Leveraging Final Degree Projects for Open Source Software Contributions

(1) Background: final year students of computer science engineering degrees must carry out a final degree project (FDP) in order to graduate. Students’ contributions to improve open source software (OSS) through FDPs can offer multiple benefits and challenges, both for the students, the instructors and for the project itself. This work reports on a practical experience developed by four students contributing to mature OSS projects during their FDPs, detailing how they addressed the multiple challenges involved, both from the students and teachers perspective. (2) Methods: we followed the work of four students contributing to two established OSS projects for two academic years and analyzed their work on GitHub and their responses to a survey. (3) Results: we obtained a set of specific recommendations for future practitioners and detailed a list of benefits achieved by steering FDP towards OSS contributions, for students, teachers and the OSS projects. (4) Conclusions: we find out that FDPs oriented towards enhancing OSS projects can introduce students into real-world, practical examples of software engineering principles, give them a boost in their confidence about their technical and communication skills and help them build a portfolio of contributions to daily used worldwide open source applications

Spartan Daily, April 28, 1969

Volume 56, Issue 107https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/5192/thumbnail.jp

GIS capacity building for risk management to help developing countries:Case of climate change problem in Amhara rural region (Ethiopia)

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.In the Ethiopian rural region of Amhara, variable atmospheric conditions and climate change are affecting the agricultural productivity and the consequences might be irreversible. However, scientific and technological advances nowadays can be more and more helpful to improve the situation. The purpose of the present work is to build the effective strategies that permit the utilization and integration of GIS technologies in the institutional and humanitarian works that are being carried out in the region. Our challenge will be to raise the geographical awareness and optimize the use of resources and tools in the region, involving the farmer communities as key stakeholders in the whole process. The work explains the first steps taken regarding the necessity of building GIS capacity for risk mapping, the data collection related to food security and the use of GIS technologies, being the training of the local staff the key point that leads to further steps such as the implementation of the mechanisms to share spatial information known as Spatial Data Infrastructures. By using SDI, combined with GIS software to access and manage the information, we may improve the understanding and interoperable utilization of geo-spatial data, and therefore contribute to the development of such a needy nation. All that, developed under the umbrella of an Inter-University Cooperation Program

Annual Report 2019-2020

LETTER FROM THE DEAN As I write this letter wrapping up the 2019-20 academic year, we remain in a global pandemic that has profoundly altered our lives. While many things have changed, some stayed the same: our CDM community worked hard, showed up for one another, and continued to advance their respective fields. A year that began like many others changed swiftly on March 11th when the University announced that spring classes would run remotely. By March 28th, the first day of spring quarter, we had moved 500 CDM courses online thanks to the diligent work of our faculty, staff, and instructional designers. But CDM’s work went beyond the (virtual) classroom. We mobilized our makerspaces to assist in the production of personal protective equipment for Illinois healthcare workers, participated in COVID-19 research initiatives, and were inspired by the innovative ways our student groups learned to network. You can read more about our response to the COVID-19 pandemic on pgs. 17-19. Throughout the year, our students were nationally recognized for their skills and creative work while our faculty were published dozens of times and screened their films at prestigious film festivals. We added a new undergraduate Industrial Design program, opened a second makerspace on the Lincoln Park Campus, and created new opportunities for Chicago youth. I am pleased to share with you the College of Computing and Digital Media’s (CDM) 2019-20 annual report, highlighting our collective accomplishments. David MillerDeanhttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1003/thumbnail.jp

Growth of technology-based social enterprises in the manufacturing sector

The recent intersection of two entrepreneurship streams – technology and social – has given rise to the emergence of technology-based social enterprises (TSEs). TSEs are of particular interest to many stakeholders as they have the potential to provide scalable solutions from a technological perspective to address diverse social challenges in the world. However, a review of the literature revealed a gap in knowledge on the growth process of TSEs because: (1) TSEs are an emerging phenomenon; (2) existing research on technology enterprises has predominantly focused on issues related to profit and value maximization; (3) existing research on social enterprises and non-profits typically do not have a technology focus. To address the gap in knowledge, in-depth case studies were conducted on five prominent TSEs based in Cambridge, United Kingdom – Raspberry Pi, Simprints, WaterScope, Solaware, and Blue Tap. The case studies were conducted in two stages – Stage 1 was structured around an initial resource-based conceptual framework derived from the literature; Stage 2 was structured around a legitimacy-based framework derived from literature. Findings from Stage 1 revealed the similarities and differences of growth between TSEs and commercial technology enterprises or traditional non-profits. The findings from Stage 1 also indicated that legitimacy as a resource has significance for the growth of TSEs, which led to the implementation of the legitimacy-based Stage 2 to provide further analysis. The findings from both stages were subsequently used to modify and enhance the initial resource-based conceptual framework. This study provides contributions to theory through the development of a conceptual framework to describe the growth process of TSEs. The study also revealed the strategic use of legitimacy as a resource by TSEs to grow. This study also contributes to practice by providing empirical findings on the resource acquisition process of TSEs. The findings highlight the importance of specific resources accessible by TSEs, such as the use of skill-based volunteers and pro bono resources, which are unconventional to both commercial technology-based enterprises and traditional non-profits. The study also revealed that the environment plays a crucial role in facilitating resource acquisition by TSEs. An environment such as Cambridge that has a rich ecosystem of individuals and organizations to support technology-based organizations has been found to be conducive for the growth of TSEs

Open Mapping towards Sustainable Development Goals

This collection amplifies the experiences of some of the world’s young people who are working to address SDGs using geospatial technologies and multi-national collaboration. Authors from every region of the world who have emerged as leaders in the YouthMappers movement share their perspectives and knowledge in an accessible and peer-friendly format. YouthMappers are university students who create and use open mapping for development and humanitarian purposes. Their work leverages digital innovations - both geospatial platforms and communications technologies - to answer the call for leadership to address sustainability challenges. The book conveys a sense of robust knowledge emerging from formal studies or informal academic experiences - in the first-person voices of students and recent graduates who are at the forefront of creating a new map of the world. YouthMappers use OpenStreetMap as the foundational sharing mechanism for creating data together. Authors impart the way they are learning about themselves, about each other, about the world. They are developing technology skills, and simultaneously teaching the rest of the world about the potential contributions of a highly connected generation of emerging world leaders for the SDGs. The book is timely, in that it captures a pivotal moment in the trajectory of the YouthMappers movement’s ability to share emerging expertise, and one that coincides with a pivotal moment in the geopolitical history of planet earth whose inhabitants need to hear from them. Most volumes that cover the topic of sustainability in terms of youth development are written by non-youth authors. Moreover, most are written by non-majoritarian, entrenched academic scholars. This book instead puts forward the diverse voices of students and recent graduates in countries where YouthMappers works, all over the world. Authors cover topics that range from water, agriculture, food, to waste, education, gender, climate action and disasters from their own eyes in working with data, mapping, and humanitarian action, often working across national boundaries and across continents. To inspire readers with their insights, the chapters are mapped to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ways that connect a youth agenda to a global agenda. With a preface written by Carrie Stokes, Chief Geographer and GeoCenter Director, United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This is an open access book

Traversing Invitational Spaces: The Beautiful Iraqi Women Project

The Beautiful Iraqi Women project was a short-term participatory research project co-designed and co-facilitated with Iraqi refugee women. Pragmatic project goals were to learn about Iraqi refugees\u27 resettlement experiences and create accessible and welcoming entries into the different spaces that govern refugee resettlement processes. Theoretical goals were concerned with learning how invitational rhetoric concepts of safety, immanent value, self-determination, and sharing perspectives contribute to achieving the pragmatic goals. Research questions framing this project were: RQ1: How is invitational rhetoric constructed in a short-term project with Iraqi refugee women? RQ2: In this invitational space, what do Iraqi participants\u27 shared perspectives reveal about their lived experience as resettled refugees? The project was conducted through a series of weekly research and reflexive sessions over a six-week period with two groups of participants: seventeen Iraqi refugee participants and six Access participants. Access participants were individuals invited by Iraqi refugee participants due to their positions in and access to institutions that regulate policies and practices that influence refugee resettlement. I collected data through audio recordings of select research sessions, and my field notes. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and uploaded into Dedoose software. Arabic conversations were not translated. I applied provisional, focus, and affective first cycle coding processes; and one two-stage pattern-coding scheme to organize the data, then used hermeneutic and rhizoanalytic approaches to analyze the data. In response to RQ1, my analyses produced two strains of safety, procedural and psychic; located a distinct form of immanent value based in trustworthiness of an individual perspective; and identified observable expressions of self-determination through Iraqi identified self-regulation procedures, and decision making authority. Sharing perspectives served two key functions. First, the process of sharing perspectives allowed participants to get to know each other better, thereby revealing different positionalities among participants. Second, Iraqi refugee-shared perspectives challenged perspectives held by others in ways that precipitated multiple meaning-making spaces in which to explore specific perspectives emerging from particular Iraqi participant-identified issues. My second analytic pass responded to RQ2. My analyses suggest that Iraqi refugee lived experience occurred within distressing and regulated contexts; contexts relieved through Iraqi togetherness. Iraqi-refugee distress was noticed in three dimensions: psychic pain, obligations to help other Iraqi refugees navigate and comprehend resettlement processes, and discrimination unique to the New Mexico context. Iraqi refugee distress was intensified through thwarted attempts of Iraqi participants to engage in the governing structures of resettlement due to regulatory constraints that appeared unintelligible; lacked clear accountability processes; and were non-responsive to the particularities of being an Iraqi refugee in New Mexico. Iraqi togetherness was expressed through spending time with other Iraqi refugee women, and recognized as a political organizing strategy. In a final analytic move, I synthesized the analyses produced during the project cycle and identified two ways the invitational research produced in this project can be translated as praxis in transformative and rhizomatic research. I conclude by offering invitational strategies of inquiry that could be applied in future participatory research projects