How the material for this week is structured:

Instead of providing a narrated slideshow for this week's topic, we thought we will follow the principle of Web 2.0 and reuse and remix a number of video clips to prompt you to think about the issues raised in the overview.  Some of these clips are draw from YouTube and other sites, such as the One Laptop per Child. Some are original footage shot by Leslie Chan (the interview with Khaled Fourati from IDRC in 2011, 2005 during the World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis. These videos should also help you with the two key questions that we posted for the discussion forum.

As you watch the video clips, watch out for the following:

1. Who are the “players” depicted in the various segments?
2. Whose “voices” are being heard?
3. What are the key “messages” in each segment?
4. Who are the intended audience of these videos?
5. What are the assumptions about the role of ICT in development in each clip?

The first section of videos illustrate what we would characterize as "technological optimism". We included in here a recent summary of the 2010 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)  Forum. You may want to look up the history of the WSIS, its origin, its significance, and the "players" involved.

The second video in this section is from the well known project One Laptop per Child. The video depicts a rural village in Western Uganda and how the school children are using the laptop provided by the project. Why did we include it in this section under "technological optimism"?

This section focuses on the work of a particular development agency, the International Development Research Centre of Canada, who according to its web site,

"was one of the first development agencies to embrace ICTs as a key means to foster development and alleviate poverty."

"From its creation in 1970, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has been committed to advancing the role of information in development. A tradition of innovation that began with an emphasis on building databases and information systems has evolved into a focus on the transformative nature of information and communications technologies (ICTs)."

http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-43441-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Conversation with Khaled Fourati, IDRC from Leslie Chan on Vimeo.

This is an interview of Khaled Fourati, Senior Program Officer at IDRC, about his interests in the emerging roles of ICT in enabling human well-being and various innovative knowledge creation and sharing models, both at the grass root level as well as other levels, such as higher education institutions. This far ranging conversation covers many aspects of ICT for development. The interview was recorded in Cape Town in August, 2011, with the purpose of sharing Khaled's insight with Leslie's students in international development.

The IDRC has supported the implementation and the research of many ICT4D projects over the years. In addition to what Khaled highlighted in terms of current projects, the videos below show some of the earlier ICT related activities supported by IDRC. For more examples, go to the IDRC web site or watch this video about IDRC on Youtube.

This section features two clips of Richard Stallman, the founder of the free software movement, which laid the foundation for other open movements. Note his references to four different freedoms associated with free software and why they are so important, especially for development.

In this last section, we look at the nature of Web 2.0 and how the design principles and architecture of the net enables new kind of behaviour and social organization. How do these ideas relate to development?