Wayan Vota Joins the VSO International Board
Picture a dusty, hot Saturday afternoon in Kaduna, Nigeria, the buzz of cheap Chinese motorbikes filling the air. In the backroom of a small community foundation, I introduce myself to the two people told to me as the “hardest working loan officers at Fantsuam Foundation.” Bent over their laptops, sweat dripping on their brow, two […]
Read MoreThe $35 Aakash Tablet Will Fail Education Just Like the $100 OLPC Laptop Did
Recently, the CEO of Datawind presented his case to the World Bank on why the Aakash tablet computer will revolutionize education in India. During his talk, he presented this slide as justification that his tablet was not the XO and that Datawind would be more successful in reaching a 5 million units sold milestone than […]
Read MoreMy ICT4D Postcard from Wuse Market in Abuja, Nigeria
Dear Mom, Whenever you hear of how poor, hungry, or desperate Africa is, I want you to think of this photo. This is innovation happening in real time in Nigeria. Two teenagers have a business with a laptop and an SD card reader. They take DVD movies people buy in the market and convert them […]
Read MoreThe Challenge of Defining ICT4D Or Why Erik Hersman is ICT4$
Yesterday, Erik Hersman (aka. White African) dropped a blog bomb into the sometimes contentious debate around the term ICT4D – information and communication technologies for development. In his The Subtle Condescension of “ICT4D” post he says: I have cognitive dissonance over the term “ICT4D“. The term “ICT4D” is confusing, hypocritical and has a whiff of […]
Read MoreThe 10 Levels of Failure – a framework to fail in everything you do
After recently hosting Fail Faire DC to great success, I give you the 10 levels of failure as a framework for ICT interventions, with great deference to Jamer Hunt for starting the meme on the types of failures and David Roy for building on it. May you fail at reaching #1. Catastrophic failure Failure a […]
Read More