Greetings readers! You'll notice that the site looks quite different, and indeed has a new title. This is because my coursework in my Ph.D. program has ended, and I've moved into a new phase of my research and professional life: preparing to write a dissertation. Calvin sums this process up perfectly: With all this in … Continue reading New look, new content
Research
This is not a mHealth Project
I was going through the BBC this morning, and after reading all about the new Pope (who believes that condoms may be morally acceptable but only to stop the spread of disease), I came across this far more interesting article about how public health researchers in Tanzania are retrofitting iPhones to act as field microscopes. So … Continue reading This is not a mHealth Project
2013 Update: Kenya, TechChange and TC109
So 2013 is off to a roaring start. I just relocated to a new place in the Petworth neighborhood in D.C. and learned that all the staff I worked with at the U.S. Institute of Peace back in the day all live within 5 blocks of me. But the big things on the horizon are … Continue reading 2013 Update: Kenya, TechChange and TC109
Crowdsourcing 2013’s Content!
So with the new year starting Tuesday, I will be continuing to blog into 2013. The past year has mostly focused on my interest areas, political science, conflict and technology. But I've also mused on things that are not my "core expertise", such as gun control and domestic politics. Since I'll be finishing coursework this … Continue reading Crowdsourcing 2013’s Content!
Kenya Trip! Mixed method research on mobile phones for peace
Since the end of the fall semester of 2011, I have been working on a paper that integrates theories of ethnic cooperation and information asymmetries to understand why mobile phones can have a significant effect on conflict prevention. You can find the working paper here. I presented this paper in Australia at the University of … Continue reading Kenya Trip! Mixed method research on mobile phones for peace
How ICCM Got Me Thinking About Experimental Design
We have all probably had a time when we thought to ourselves,"I have to tweet hard since most people won't see/remember one particular tweet." I would generally agree, but there was one tweet that stuck in my mind from the International Conference on Crisis Mapping this past weekend at the World Bank. It got some … Continue reading How ICCM Got Me Thinking About Experimental Design
ArmsGlobe: Google, PRIO and the Igarape Institute map the arms trade
I was scanning the Huffington Post this morning and came across the headline Global Arms Trade From 1992-2010 Visualized By Google. Tech, arms trading, and maps; sounded interesting since small arms control is something I'm deeply interested in. Using the NISAT database, PRIO, Google and the Igarape Institute got together and created an interactive map of the global … Continue reading ArmsGlobe: Google, PRIO and the Igarape Institute map the arms trade
Unpacking PopTip: Real time polling is cool, but should I be convinced it’s “right”?
Rarely does a day pass when the team at the TechChange office misses an opportunity to say something like "hey data nerd, look at this and tell us what you think." Often these requests are made unceremoniously on Twitter, forcing me to respond or risk what little confidence the public has vested in my intellectual … Continue reading Unpacking PopTip: Real time polling is cool, but should I be convinced it’s “right”?
Wrapping up in Geneva
Greetings all! So I wanted to post something quickly before I head to London tomorrow, and then finally home on Tuesday. I'll have more to write, and some reviews of the papers from the Tech4Dev conference later this week when I can sit with the conference proceedings and give the papers a good review. I … Continue reading Wrapping up in Geneva
Some initial thoughts from Tech4Dev
Whew, halfway through the week at the Tech4Dev conference at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. It's really interesting to compare this conference to ICTD 2012 at Georgia Tech in March, and seems to underline a distinct difference in the approach to ICTs and development in the United States and Europe. First, what a fantastic mix of … Continue reading Some initial thoughts from Tech4Dev
Charles P. Martin-Shields 