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
Causes of Effects…and Effects of Causes
Andrew Gelman and Guido Imbens recently posted a paper entitled "Why Ask Why? Forward Causal Inference and Reverse Causal Questions." It completely made my day, primarily because it succinctly deals with the way people naturally arrive at research questions with the help of some statistical logic. While I liked the models and the logic, what I … Continue reading Causes of Effects…and Effects of Causes
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
Social Network Analysis: A cool analysis of how SNA worked during the American Revolution
Lots of people saw Kieran Healy's humorous and thought proviking post about how some very basic matrix algebra and centrality analysis can be used to identify people within social networks using basic metadata. This article by Shin Kap Han goes into more depth about centrality and the power of weak bonds; I found the analysis of the … Continue reading Social Network Analysis: A cool analysis of how SNA worked during the American Revolution
Disaggregating Peacekeeping Data: A new dataset on peacekeeping contributions
Jacob Kathman at the University of Buffalo has an article in the current issue of Conflict Management and Peace Science about his new dataset on the numbers and nationalities of all peacekeeper contributions by month since 1990. This is a pretty fantastic undertaking since peacekeeping data is often difficult to find, and no small feat … Continue reading Disaggregating Peacekeeping Data: A new dataset on peacekeeping contributions
Tech4Dev Conference: Call for abstracts closes Oct. 14
My colleague Dr. Paula Lytle and I will be hosting one of the sessions at next June's Tech4Dev conference, focusing on the policy side of integrating technology into disaster response and preparedness. The Federal Polytechnic Institute in Lausanne is hosting the event; they do a great job and the city of Lausanne is lovely. If … Continue reading Tech4Dev Conference: Call for abstracts closes Oct. 14
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
EPFL Tech4Dev Conference call for papers!
My colleague Dr. Paula Lytle from the World Bank and I will be co-hosting a panel at the Polytechnic Institute of Lausanne's Tech4Dev Conference, June 4-6 2014! Our session will cover policy and technology for disaster risk reduction. The conference is a good one, particularly since it covers topics ranging from social policy to hardware … Continue reading EPFL Tech4Dev Conference call for papers!
Charles P. Martin-Shields 