Venn Diagram Location of m4D and Apps4D in ICT4D
Recently, Ken Banks put forth an interesting question in his post “Mobile community: The holy grail of m4d?” He essentially asked “Who is the mobile community?” and hinted that there is a lack of clarity in the definition and therefore the need for a specific mobile community.
Taking his hint, Nate Barthel suggested we think of a Venn diagram of the m4D community as overlapping the ICT and development communities, with Prabhas Pokharel creating this one so we could visualize a m4D community.
I’d like to present my own Venn diagram of m4D, adding in Apps4D:
Now here is each category explained, along with its placement in these respective communities:
- ICT
Information and communication technologies represent the full array of solutions, from FM radio to cloud computing that the world uses to create and relay information electronically. - Mobile
Mobile technologies, from the mobile phone to the iPad are a subset of ICT that, like the name suggests, are primarily focused on allowing the user to interact with ICT while in motion. - Development
Often called “international development”, its the industry seeking to increase the economic and social development of disadvantaged communities and countries. - ICT4D
Where the use of ICT is for the purpose of developing a community, its referred to as ICT4D (ICT for Development). - m4D
Where mobile technologies are used for development, this is called m4D and is a subset of both mobile and development. - Apps4D
Where software applications interact with mobile technologies, often but not always as software on the mobile device itself, for development, it is Apps4D.
Now this does not mean that m4D should not have its own community – it should. I only wanted to show its location, and to an extent its size, relative to the other communities.