I'm excited to be invited to present some of my work November 5 at Georgetown University's Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies - here's some info, I think it'll be a fun talk!
Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship
MCIT/NUS ICTs in Emergency Survey: Replication data
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 … Continue reading MCIT/NUS ICTs in Emergency Survey: Replication data
Laying over, all over
I'll be headed to the ISA conference in Toronto tonight, and since I'm coming from the South Pacific the journey will be full of layovers long and short. If you are in: - Auckland, New Zealand! I will be there tomorrow all day and all day on April 1 wandering the streets and looking at things. … Continue reading Laying over, all over
Samoa Post: End of semester observations
So I've been in Samoa for a semester now, working with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and getting things in order to do dissertation fieldwork. I'll probably post again before the end of the year, but here are a few key themes that have emerged in conversation as I've developed relationships with my … Continue reading Samoa Post: End of semester observations
Samoa Update: What “Kickstarting an Emergency” got me thinking
Andrej Verity, who works at UN-OCHA, wrote a thought provoking and enjoyable post earlier this week about alternative crowdfunding and Kickstarter-type mechanisms for distributing aid funding to beneficiaries during disaster response. I posted a few short thoughts in the comments section of the post, but thought it'd be good to expand on them a bit. Hopefully … Continue reading Samoa Update: What “Kickstarting an Emergency” got me thinking
Samoa update: A little informed consent, a lot of economics
I'm embracing my status as a political scientist working in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MCIT). While a lot of my experience in the tech space tends to be tool-centric, I'm finding more and more that the challenges on the user end (in this case Samoa) are related to policy and economics. The … Continue reading Samoa update: A little informed consent, a lot of economics
The Fulbrighters make the paper in Samoa
We're all pretty excited to be here working with the Samoan government - we made the paper here in Apia, and so far the welcome from our counterparts and Samoan friends has been fantastic! The interviews and photos were from the welcome event the embassy and Charge d'Affaires Peter Ganser organized last week.
Samoa Week One: There’s tech and there’s practicality
I'm wrapping up my first week on the job with the Samoan Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, where I'm working as part of my Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship. I'm working in the Policy Formulation Office of the Ministry, and over the course of the year, I'll be working on ICT for disaster response policy, cyber security, … Continue reading Samoa Week One: There’s tech and there’s practicality
Arrived in Samoa
I’ve arrived in Samoa to start my Clinton-Fulbright Fellowship, working with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology on disaster management and response policy. I’ll be blogging on the technical details of what I’m doing starting next week, but just wanted to post a few photos from my journey.
Charles P. Martin-Shields 