ICTs for Development blog
Catch up on the most recent posts from our Centre for Digital Development blog.
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Are Digital Labour Platforms like Uber Significantly Different from the Traditional Taxi Industry?
danielarubayi
23 May 2023
To respond to this question, I will use three main characteristics to highlight the differences and similarities between the traditional taxi industry and the ride-hailing platform industry in Lagos, particularly regarding drivers’ experiences.[1] Vehicle Access Access to taxis such as the Yellow taxis between the 1990s to 2007, was mainly done in-person. Throughout the city, … Continue reading Are Digital Labour Platforms like Uber Significantly Different from the Traditional Taxi Industry?
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Latest Digital Development Outputs (China, Platforms, Transformation, Water) from CDD, Manchester
Richard Heeks
16 May 2023
Recent outputs – on China digital; Digital platforms; Digital transformation; Digital water – from Centre for Digital Development researchers, University of Manchester: CHINA DIGITAL “China’s Digital Expansion in the Global South: Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda” by Richard Heeks, Angelica V Ospina, Christopher Foster, Ping Gao, Xia Han, Nicholas Jepson, Seth Schindler & … Continue reading Latest Digital Development Outputs (China, Platforms, Transformation, Water) from CDD, Manchester
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Five Principles for Collective Digital Sovereignty
Richard Heeks
9 May 2023
What would it mean for digital sovereignty to be collective, rather than individual or national? Digital sovereignty has been growing as a narrative, arising from the perception of a lack of control over the data, the value, the trajectories, etc of digital systems. The narrative has principally operated at two levels: the national and the … Continue reading Five Principles for Collective Digital Sovereignty
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Organisations Lead Digital Transformation for Development: So What?
Jaco Renken
17 April 2023
Organisations sit at the heart of DX4D in practice, and a better understanding of their role – their visions, the requisite competencies and the processes they follow – should be included on a future DX4D research agenda.
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Lessons for Other Countries from China’s Crackdown on Big Tech
Richard Heeks
3 April 2023
What can low- and middle-income countries learn from China’s recent approach to regulation of big tech? What Happened? China’s digital economy can be categorised into three phases[1]: a more open phase starting in the 20th century that encouraged foreign investment and collaboration; a focus on state support to build national and then global digital champions; … Continue reading Lessons for Other Countries from China’s Crackdown on Big Tech
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Why do people use and abandon smartwatch-based activity tracking functionality?
Julin Liu
2 March 2023
The activity tracking function of wearable devices is becoming more and more popular. A report from Insight indicated that 13 million wearable devices were carrying the activity tracking function, from a total of 19 million such devic [1]. It is clear from this that almost 69% of devices have the activity tracking function, which also … Continue reading Why do people use and abandon smartwatch-based activity tracking functionality?
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Can social media messaging benefit those in the Global South who are visually impaired?
Dr Chandrani Maitra
7 February 2023
Globally, 285 million people are visually impaired, a quarter of whom live in India. The disease burden results in significantly lower employment and productivity. The national blindness prevention strategy aims at eyecare promotion through health behaviour change by raising awareness. Traditionally, this strategy relies on healthcare information disseminated through radio, television, mass media campaigns, printed … Continue reading Can social media messaging benefit those in the Global South who are visually impaired?
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How are Data used to Create Change? The Case of Violent Attacks on Health Care
Larissa Fast
10 January 2023
On 28 March 2021 Myanmar security forces shot protesters in Yangon city. Some sought refuge in the hospital where soldiers and police followed them and opened fire. Unfortunately, this kind of violence on health care is all too common in contexts affected by armed conflict. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the World … Continue reading How are Data used to Create Change? The Case of Violent Attacks on Health Care
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How can smart cities shape a happier life? The mechanism for developing a “Happiness Driven Smart City”
Yitian Ren
27 December 2022
Smart cities are expected to provide better solutions for the intensified socio-economic and environmental challenges associated with unprecedented urbanisation by embracing advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs), where challenges like climate change, energy crisis, or social inequality could be addressed through the development and application of state-of-the-art technologies (United Nations, 2019). The idealised narrative of … Continue reading How can smart cities shape a happier life? The mechanism for developing a “Happiness Driven Smart City”
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Development Transformation as the Goal for Digital Transformation
Richard Heeks
13 December 2022
Richard Heeks, Bookie Ezeomah, Gianluca Iazzolino, Aarti Krishnan, Rose Pritchard & Qingna Zhou There’s a lot of talk currently about digital transformation for development. Sometimes styled “DX4D”, a quick definition would be radical change in development processes and structures enabled by digital systems. Digital transformation is thus not a goal. Instead, development transformation is the … Continue reading Development Transformation as the Goal for Digital Transformation
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