So for those who don't know, this past Sunday I designed a simulation and training day for the Digital Humanitarian Network that we ran as part of ICCM. It was probably one of the most challenging simulations I've worked on for a number of reasons, but also probably one of the most important. I'll walk … Continue reading The Design Side: Some lessons learned from the DHNetwork sim from the designer
Technology
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
Amnesty Australia talk
Big shout out to the TechChange team, especially to Gerard McCarthy our Director of Asia/Pacific Programs to getting this video rendered, edited, and up for viewing. Just some thoughts on tech, human rights and small island states - the talk was given in July in Sydney, Australia.
An Unscientific Look at Stock Market Performance and Mobile Money, Pt.2
Yesterday we wrapped the post by saying that perhaps there's some way that market indicators such as currency performance and basis rates could indicate the ripeness for a mobile money program in a country. This begs the question though about whether mobile banking actually leads to better economic outcomes for people, or just tells us … Continue reading An Unscientific Look at Stock Market Performance and Mobile Money, Pt.2
An Unscientific Look at Stock Market Performance and Mobile Money, Pt.1
I'm still on this "political economy of technology for development/peace" kick. This article came to mind since I've seen a lot of research on mobile money from the mobile telephone access side, but not much on the macroeconomic side (please share if you have good stuff on this!). I do like this piece from William Jack … Continue reading An Unscientific Look at Stock Market Performance and Mobile Money, Pt.1
Post on the Lowy Interpreter!
For those who have been wondering what I've been doing with my writing, and why I haven't been as active on Espresso Politics the last few days, here's the excuse. My colleague Gerard McCarthy and I had a blog post on tech for diplomacy in the Asia/Pacific region published on the Lowy Institute's blog The … Continue reading Post on the Lowy Interpreter!
A Musing on Tech for Peacebuilding: Continued
So I started writing to shake off the rust before the grist mill of academia starts back up later this month, and writing becomes a demand instead of a pastime. Earlier I wrote a piece where I delved into my excitement and skepticism about how technology will lead to peace and stability. This not to that … Continue reading A Musing on Tech for Peacebuilding: Continued
A Musing on Tech for Peacebuilding
It's been ages since I posted, so instead of a targeted piece on some particular topic I thought I'd post something general. Consider it a shakedown post to get the rust off. A bunch of things happened this summer which have shifted my view on technology and peacebuilding. In some ways my belief that these … Continue reading A Musing on Tech for Peacebuilding
The Impact of Tech: Getting Past ‘Good Versus Bad’
The emergent theme from my travels this summer presenting academic papers on tech for social change hasn’t been “is it good or bad,” but instead “why are their good and bad outcomes, and can these be generalizable?” It’s this kind of question that motivates me as a political scientist. Yes, indeed technology can be used … Continue reading The Impact of Tech: Getting Past ‘Good Versus Bad’
Crowdsourcing Done Well: A follow up from yesterday’s post
Yesterday's post may have been a bit of a downer given the critical position on crowdsourcing that I took. While I think a critical eye is necessary to grow the space, I wouldn't want to leave out what's being done well. With that in mind I wanted to point folks to Patrick Meier's recent post … Continue reading Crowdsourcing Done Well: A follow up from yesterday’s post
Charles P. Martin-Shields 