I spent the last two months managing a research collaboration between Samoa’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the National University of Samoa, collecting nation wide data on how people use information and information technology to respond to natural disasters. This data will feed into my dissertation, as well as be useful to the Ministry and the National University, who will be using it for policy development and research. The research team wanted to make this data publicly available, since funding for the research came from MCIT and thus we see it as a public good. You can download the data here, and below is the suggested citation:

Martin-Shields, Charles, Ioana Chan Mow, Lealaolesau Fitu & Hobert Sasa. (2014) “ICTs and Information Use During Emergencies: Data from Samoa,” MCIT/NUS Data Project. Dataset available at: https://charlesmartinshields.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/mcitnus-survey.xlsx

The thrust of the research design was multifold. For MCIT, it’s important to know how people get their information, especially when trying to allocate spectrum or regulate communication providers. The research team from NUS does quite a bit of work with ICT4D and the social aspects of access to communication technology, so having data on use preferences from around the country is helpful in their research agenda. My own research looks at technologies as proxies for socio-political behavior, aiming to understand how social and political context affects the way that people use technology to manage collective action problems during crisis.

The dataset takes inspiration from the work I’ve done with Elizabeth Stones, whose dataset on Kenyan information use and trust inspired my thinking on doing a tailored replication in Samoa. We welcome feedback on the data, our structure, and hope that it can be useful to others working on ICT policy.