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”?
Crowdsourcing
So I felt like I should add something about tech…
So the last few things that went up were academic self-critique and a book review. Since "tech" is in the blog title, I thought I should put something up that touches on the digital world. For now, we'll revisit something a little older and I'll make sure I get something new up this week that's tech for … Continue reading So I felt like I should add something about tech…
Another video about a TechChange course
Eli Sinkus (@elisinkus) does it again. For those who might be interested in how technology can make your research better/easier/more robust, TC-110: Social Media and Technology Tools for Research might be useful to you. TC-110 from TechChange on Vimeo.
ICTD 2012
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
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!
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
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
A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 1
The title of this website refers to Habermas’s Theory of Pragmatic Meaning, and uses a reference to the coffee house as the place where political meaning is made regardless of class, family, or economic station. With this in mind, I’m currently writing a paper for the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences that draws on … Continue reading A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 1
Using mixed methods to understand a mixed field
So after 13 weeks and 4000 pages of reading, I finally finished all my term papers on December 16. My goal was to explore the world of ICT4D and ICT4Peace in ways I hadn't thought of before. I was introduced to anthropological theories of the person (challenging for me, a dedicated positivist), and critical theory … Continue reading Using mixed methods to understand a mixed field
SwiftRiver: Where Software Meets Social Change
This post was also originally published on the TechChange blog, and was popular; the theme is still relevant especially as crowdsourcing becomes a more prevalent approach to conflict prevention. You land in a country that is recovering from a long war. The infrastructure is limited, but there is a nascent democratic government. To make up … Continue reading SwiftRiver: Where Software Meets Social Change
Charles P. Martin-Shields 