Bridging the Divide Between Theory and Practice in ICT for Development

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in the use of information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D/ICTD). In academia, this has manifested itself as evaluations of Internet kiosks (e.g. e-Choupal, Akshaya, telecentre.org) and other ICTD interventions, as well as projects like One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), Wireless Long Distance Networks (WiLDnet) and MultiMouse, which endeavor to innovate new technologies that address the specific needs and requirements of communities in developing countries. We propose to hold a roundtable discussion, in which PhD students interested in or currently working on questions around information and communications technology in emerging regions can discuss some of the overarching issues entailed in our research topics. In particular, we examine the multi-disciplinary nature of our research, and the role of I School students in understanding where theory and practice meet in ICTD. Information schools, as a place where social science and technological practice intersect, are well positioned to do this research. Technologists often look at ICTD from an engineering and implementation perspective. Social scientists have a good understanding of the social structures and other factors underlying ICTD deployments. However, communication between the two groups is often limited by a lack of shared vocabulary, and a difference in practice. As I School students, we take an interdisciplinary view on this question, which we hope will result in a more synthesized and well-grounded approach to ICTD interventions. As with other interdisciplinary endeavors, our challenge is to bridge the divide between theory and practice, understanding how our efforts in understanding ICTs and implementing new ones can contribute to academia. What is the role of social theory and development theory in real-world ICTD deployments? How can existing bodies of knowledge contribute to ICTD practices? Can there be a theoretical basis for practical deployments? We believe that the answer is an affirmative ???yes,??? but there is no clear and obvious path for us to take in carrying out theory-driven ICTD research projects. For that matter, there are no clear and obvious venues in which we should publish the results of our research. We have two main goals for this roundtable discussion: 1. Community Building: Identify and share experiences with students from other I Schools also interested in this topic, discussing ways in which we can better support each other across schools. 2. Approach: Discuss the challenges of doing ICTD research, specifically addressing the challenge of linking theory and practice in the work that we do. ICTD work necessarily ranges across a wide variety of disciplines, encompassing (but not limited to) fields like public health, development policy, business, education, development theory, human-computer interaction, and networked systems. As individuals, we are not able to be experts in all of these areas simultaneously. As a community, however, we will be able to leverage one another???s expertise, building a collective understanding of the work we endeavor to carry out

Open Governance and Surveillance: A Study of the National Rural Employment Program in Andhra Pradesh, India

This dissertation grapples with the questions: Does transparency lead to accountability? Is it possible to "democratize" surveillance, turning surveillance into an instrument of democratic control over state bureaucracy? Can a state bureaucracy combine visions of surveillance within the state and "openness" to citizens to help police itself? To address these questions, I studied an "open governance" project located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and involving the countrywide National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). I raise the questions about transparency and accountability at two different levels: first at the level of the bureaucracy, and second at the level of the citizens themselves. Looking at the two inevitably raises further questions of the power relations both within the bureaucracy and between the state apparatus and the citizens it is intended to serve. Looking within the bureaucracy, I show that local bureaucrats and politicians have discovered ways to subvert these formal efforts of control through informal norms. Looking at relations between the state apparatus and the citizens, I examine the recruitment of citizens in two different social contexts, a class/caste-divided village and a tribal community. Between the bureaucracy and the citizenry, I argue that the state has attempted to construct a state-civil society "sandwich" to squeeze the lower-level bureaucrats both from the top, using information technology, and from the bottom, getting testimonies from workers by opening government records. Here, I find that expectations of participation from below in response to transparency from above are not met because workers fail to participate as expected. A central part of what follows explores and delineates the multiple, complex reasons for this failure of the "public sphere." Overall, these findings illustrate how hard it is to actually eliminate last-mile corruption, even with sophisticated technological and social strategies. (Nonetheless, I also find and lay out numerous potential benefits to this program.) In conclusion, I argue that instead of the prevalent metaphor of "sunlight," open governance is better thought of as a "flashlight" and that people embrace openness and reject surveillance depending on whether they are the subject or the object of the "flashlight." This shift in metaphor helps to raise more directly the inevitable issues of power

Toward Automated Support for Transparent Interoperable Queries

Many object-oriented databases (OODBs) are based on programming languages (such as C++, CLOS and Smalltalk) that pre-date Java. Given Java's rapid emergence, there is a growing need for interoperating existing or legacy OODBs with new applications that require Java. Unfortunately, there are few mechanisms that allow software developers to easily integrate Java applications with non-Java OODBs. Although various interoperability mechanisms have been developed, these approaches have some significant drawbacks in practice. They are often di#cult to use, provide little, if any, automated support, and produce software that is di#cult to engineer and maintain. In this paper, we describe ongoing work in providing interoperability support that allows application developers to seamlessly and transparently access non-Java OODBs from Java applications. Our approach involves embedding statements written in an object query language (called JOQL) into Java applications that are used to query C++-ba..

A clinical study of cutaneous lesions in neonates at a tertiary health care center in Chennai

Background: Neonatal dermatoses constitute an important category of cutaneous disorders. They range from physiological transient conditions at one end to serious pathological entities at the other. Any of these could be a source of immense anxiety to the parents, and therefore the significance of their adequate awareness amongst dermatologists. Aim and Objective: To study the clinical pattern of various dermatoses in neonates at a tertiary health care center in Chennai. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, and observational study conducted at our institute which included a detailed dermatologic examination of each neonate followed by recording each finding and their statistical analysis. Results: In the 220 neonates analyzed, 97 were females (44.1%) and 123 males (55.9%), with 126 being term babies (57.3%), 86 preterm (39.1%), and 8 postterm (3.6%). Physiological skin changes (52.7%) were the most common cutaneous change identified, followed by transient non-infective dermatoses (20%), developmental defects (7.3%), birth marks (7.3%), eczema (6.8%) and infections (5.9%). Conclusion: Studying neonatal dermatoses holds significance to all dermatologists so that they are able to differentiate physiological and pathological conditions, thereby relieving unnecessary therapy for neonates in circumstances not requiring any and also facilitating to allay undue anxiety among parents

Section 3: Knowledge Systems: Outcome of the Workshop at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (WorldAgInfo Final Report)

WorldAgInfo Project Final Report extractThe WorldAgInfo Project final report, which this document is a part of, summarizes the results of activities undertaken as part of the 21st Century Agricultural Education and Information Systems Project (WorldAgInfo), May to December 2007, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by A.R. Mann Library, Cornell University. Project activities included consultations with staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; site visits to South Asia and Africa by members of the project's Design Team; two international workshops convened in Ithaca, New York (described in this section), and Livingstone, Zambia, to bring together policy makers, scholars, instructional technology and curriculum specialists, and private sector representatives; literature reviews on topics relevant to smallholder agriculture in Africa and South Asia; and smallholder interviews conducted on site in India, Sri Lanka, Mali and Zambia by agriculture undergraduate and graduate students. The report offers a wealth of ideas for innovations in agricultural education and information systems, pulling together the creative thinking of the many people who participated in the project, which included members from the fields of agriculture, information technology, and education

Section 7: Literature Reviews (WorldAgInfo Final Report)

WorldAgInfo Project Final Report extractThe WorldAgInfo Project final report, which this document is a part of, summarizes the results of activities undertaken as part of the 21st Century Agricultural Education and Information Systems Project (WorldAgInfo), May to December 2007, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by A.R. Mann Library, Cornell University. Project activities included consultations with staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; site visits to South Asia and Africa by members of the project's Design Team; two international workshops convened in Ithaca, New York, and Livingstone, Zambia, to bring together policy makers, scholars, instructional technology and curriculum specialists, and private sector representatives; literature reviews on topics relevant to smallholder agriculture in Africa and South Asia (listed here, and provided in full in the First KM Reviews collection); and smallholder interviews conducted on site in India, Sri Lanka, Mali and Zambia by agriculture undergraduate and graduate students. The report offers a wealth of ideas for innovations in agricultural education and information systems, pulling together the creative thinking of the many people who participated in the project, which included members from the fields of agriculture, information technology, and education

Section 5: Site Visit Reports (WorldAgInfo Final Report)

WorldAgInfo Project Final Report extractThe WorldAgInfo Project final report, which this document is a part of, summarizes the results of activities undertaken as part of the 21st Century Agricultural Education and Information Systems Project (WorldAgInfo), May to December 2007, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by A.R. Mann Library, Cornell University. Project activities included consultations with staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; site visits to South Asia and Africa by members of the project's Design Team; two international workshops convened in Ithaca, New York, and Livingstone, Zambia, to bring together policy makers, scholars, instructional technology and curriculum specialists, and private sector representatives; literature reviews on topics relevant to smallholder agriculture in Africa and South Asia; and smallholder interviews conducted on site in India, Sri Lanka, Mali and Zambia by agriculture undergraduate and graduate students (documented here). The report offers a wealth of ideas for innovations in agricultural education and information systems, pulling together the creative thinking of the many people who participated in the project, which included members from the fields of agriculture, information technology, and education

Section 1: WorldAgInfo: 21st Century Agriculture Education and Information Systems Project (WorldAgInfo Final Report)

WorldAgInfo Project Final Report extractThe WorldAgInfo Project final report, which this document is a part of, summarizes the results of activities undertaken as part of the 21st Century Agricultural Education and Information Systems Project (WorldAgInfo), May to December 2007, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by A.R. Mann Library, Cornell University. Project activities (summarized and contextualized in this section) included consultations with staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; site visits to South Asia and Africa by members of the project's Design Team; two international workshops convened in Ithaca, New York, and Livingstone, Zambia, to bring together policy makers, scholars, instructional technology and curriculum specialists, and private sector representatives; literature reviews on topics relevant to smallholder agriculture in Africa and South Asia; and smallholder interviews conducted on site in India, Sri Lanka, Mali and Zambia by agriculture undergraduate and graduate students. The report offers a wealth of ideas for innovations in agricultural education and information systems, pulling together the creative thinking of the many people who participated in the project, which included members from the fields of agriculture, information technology, and education