Just got back from ICTD 2012 down at Georgia Tech, and am excited about the state of the field. This conference is a gathering for academics and practitioners working in the international development and technology spaces. We got to see talks about everything from mapping to public health, mobile phone applications and new open source … Continue reading ICTD 2012
“BBC keen on paternalistic analysis of Libyan governance”
Editor's Note: I don't think the BBC is actually keen on paternalistic analyses of Libyan governance. The title of this post is a riff on the title of the BBC article that it's based on. From what I could tell on the BBC News Africa landing page, Libyans are not interested in democracy and want … Continue reading “BBC keen on paternalistic analysis of Libyan governance”
Big day of ethics and research in conflict settings at S-CAR!
Hey everyone! I'm participating in a conference on research and ethics in conflict zones today at George Mason University's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and it might be interesting to pop in on remotely since it's being streamed live since it's now archived here!
A follow up post on the hippos
So I realized that maybe my interest in hippos body surfing in Gabon might have seemed random, and wanted to write a quick follow up post on why, as a doctoral student studying conflict prevention and social resilience, I enjoyed the article so much. Aside from the hippos, which were pretty cute. There are a … Continue reading A follow up post on the hippos
The economics of body surfing hippos
I'm not sure how many people scanned through the scrolling photos on the top of the BBC website today, but I stopped on the one that featured two hippos body surfing. I wasn't sure what the article was about, but I'm a sucker for anthropomorphic animals. It turns out that these hippos live in Gabon, … Continue reading The economics of body surfing hippos
Pitfalls to Research, Technology and Crowdsourcing
I'll be giving a presentation at George Mason's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution on February 9 on research methods and crowdsourcing in conflict affected settings. As I've been preparing, I've been lucky enough to have the input of the TechChange team and in particular the inimitable Rob Baker as I developed the portion of the … Continue reading Pitfalls to Research, Technology and Crowdsourcing
My thoughts on “The Tragedy of Great Power Politics”, Or How I Learned to Love Offensive Realism
The strength of John Mearsheimer’s The Tragedy of Great Power Politics is also its inherent weakness. This review will analyze the strengths of Mearsheimer’s approach to the argument, and will then explore where the argument appears to be lacking. What Mearsheimer creates in this book is a carefully argued defense of offensive realism, and he … Continue reading My thoughts on “The Tragedy of Great Power Politics”, Or How I Learned to Love Offensive Realism
A video on the inspiration for the blog title
Hi everyone, more content will be coming soon, but for now the BBC produced a nice little video about the Viennese coffee houses that inspired the title of the blog. Starting the 23rd, I'm back to academia and thus back to producing fun new pieces, hopefully with some guest contributors!
A Good Question
I often try to balance my excitement around peacebuilding, technology and social change with a sober understanding of the limits of technology in this space. Of course sometimes these limits can be easy to forget about, and you need a student to bring you back to earth. For those who haven't taught, having a student … Continue reading A Good Question
A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 2
I ended the first post in this series claiming that Facebook is a space for developing Pragmatic Meaning, while Twitter is not. As discussed in the last post, we are looking at a long-tail process when we set about making meaning in a political environment. In the context of a political movement if we compare the … Continue reading A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 2
Charles P. Martin-Shields 