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Technology and Development Redux
E-government Development I
Birth Running on the coattails of the now infamous dot-com bubble, e-government first saw the light of day before the end of the last Millennium. At that time, where hype overtook the tech scene yet again, adding ‘e’ (as in
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On Blockchains Research
Blockchain technology development has been accompanied by a substantial increase in related research. The latter usually trails new technology innovations, but it does tend to catch up in the short-term. Ten years after the emergence of blockchains, there is plenty
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Powering the Internet
Infrastructure development has been one of the main concerns of Internet promoters. It is usually posited as one of the key obstacles impeding universal access to the global network. Digital divide concerns and calls to connect the next billion are
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The Global Centralization of (Dis)Intermediation
Merchants are perhaps the most famous image of an intermediary, the not-so-loved “middleman” that buys cheap, sells dear, and becomes rich doing little work. Even in the supposedly dark Middle Ages, merchants could openly operate creating Merchant Guilds that promoted regional
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Case Study: WFP Building Blocks Jordan Refugee Pilot
[I wrote this edited draft case study for a larger blockchain research project led by The GovLab. The final project report included a shorter version of my draft.] 1. Overview Launched in January 2017, the World Food Program Building Blocks
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Algorithmic Inequality
Disruptive. One of the attributes that most use to describe in minimalistic terms the potential impact of new and emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) in society. While its actual meaning can vary from one person to another, disruption is
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Blockchain Technology and Human Development revisited
I was invited to Canada to discuss my blockchain technology paper. Here are my opening remarks at the panel organized by Government Affairs and IDRC. Speaking about a seemingly complex subject such as blockchains poses a challenge not only for
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Chasing ICOs (away?)
Recent events seem to suggest the cryptocurrency bubble is finally starting to deflate. Bitcoin, Ethereum and most of their crypto cousins are significantly down while regulators in several countries are finally beginning to take action on the ground. Nobel laureate economists
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An Overview of Blockchain Technology and Digital Identity
Like previous digital technologies, such as the Internet, blockchain technology (BCT) has been driven by a high degree of techno-optimism not yet backed by on the ground impact or reliable evidence. Undoubtedly, the technology, which is still in its infancy,
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Overall Perspectives on Technology
Disruptive, transformative and revolutionary are some adjectives commonly used to describe the potential impact of new and emerging technologies on society. Joblessness, human decay, and the Singularity sit on the opposite side, constantly reminding us of the darker side of
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Cryptocurrencies and Development
While not the only cryptocurrency around, Bitcoin was the first to solve the well-known double-spending problem that characterizes digital currencies. Tackling the issue demanded the creation of blockchain technology (BCT) combined with a brute force algorithm known as proof of
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Identifying the Displaced
After remittances and land titles, refugees are perhaps one of the primary targets of blockchain technology (BCT) initiatives promoting development or social impact. Bitnation, Aid:Tech and the UN World Food Programme, among many others, are good examples. Last month, at
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Blockchain Technology and Human Development
The blockchain tsunami has reached the shores of all seven continents in the world. It would be fair to say most Capitals have been flooded, slowly coming to terms with the new technology’s potential impact. Cryptography, hashing, Merkle trees, peer-to-peer
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Internet Access and Human Development
A recent news article nicely summarized efforts by Silicon Valley tech giants to close the so-called digital divide in developing countries. Not that this kind of initiatives is new – not at all. In fact, a plethora of projects and
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25 Years of the Sustainable Development Networking Programme, SDNP
The Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) was a UNDP global program that ran between 1992 and 2004. SDNP’s core goal was to enhance access to sustainable development information on a multi-stakeholder basis using new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Its
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Global Allocation of IP Addresses
Akami recently published its latest State of the Internet report for the 3rd quarter of 2016. As a content delivery provider, Akamai has access to real-time data on the status of Internet traffic and even monitors Internet attacks by country.
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Towards a Philosophy of Technology
Written back in 1984, the content of Albert Borgmann’s book loudly resonates today. Borgmann argues that contemporary life is shaped by technology that stamps its imprint all over the place, and can even define its whole character. However, such a
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Internet and more in Guyana
The first time I ever visited Guyana was in July 1997. Back then, I was working for UNDP, running a global project called the Sustainable Development Networking Programme, SDNP, whose primary goal was to promote access to information via the
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Blockchain and the Future of Society
Alongside artificial intelligence and robotics, Blockchain technology is enjoying widespread popularity around the globe. The surrounding hype seems to increase by the minute. Pundits and supporters see a plethora of applications for the technology not limited just to the financial
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Uber in Abuja
Last March, Abuja, the Capital of Nigeria, became the 400th city where Uber has launched operations. However, it was not the first city in the country as Uber started operations in Lagos 18 months earlier. A couple of weeks ago
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Status of ICT diffusion in Nigeria
I have been engaged on a short term Nigeria-based consultancy on the role ICTs1 Just in case, ICTs = Information and Communication Technologies. could play in promoting citizen engagement in public policy and decision-making processes – or what some call
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Theories of the Mobile Internet: Book Review
There is indeed no scarcity when it comes to books and articles dealing with the so-called mobile revolution. While most present the now usual techno-utopian perspective, only a few offer an adequate analytical framework to try to explain the rapid
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Relation between ICT Adoption and State Capacity
Introduction According to many observers, the rapid diffusion of new ICTs such as the Internet and social media has empowered people worldwide. Today, social media users, for example, have direct access to the public sphere and can thus launch campaigns
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Is Postcapitalism on its way?
For most people, including many well-known economists, the 2007 global economic crisis was a rude awakening: It seemed to have come out of nowhere, but it certainly managed to bring deep pain to billions of people – and pockets. Soon
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Technology and Development in History
Nowadays, the diffusion pace of technologies on a global scale is unprecedented. This is true for Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) best represented by the Internet (and all its newer platforms) and mobile technologies. Most will also agree that technologies somehow play
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Digital Dividends Déjà Vu
Background The first time I run into the notion of digital dividends was at the end of the last century. At the time, the first dot-com boom still running at full steam, totally unaware of the looming crash. Building on
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A “social” history of Bitcoin?
A recent article by one of its lead developers argues that Bitcoin, defined as an experiment, has utterly failed. While the initial concept was to develop a form of digital money that was completely decentralized and autonomous from any bank
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Humans vs. Robots: A False Dilemma?
Nowadays, autonomous vehicles are all the rage. We even hear that perhaps in a few years cars will make human drivers obsolete. Instead, roads and highways will be filled with vehicles that drive themselves and carry humans as passengers only. We
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How the West Came to Rule: Book Review
What role if any did non-Western nations played in the emergence of the West as a dominant historical force? This seems to be the key question the comprehensive book by Anievas and NIsancioglu attempts to answer. The problem is undoubtedly
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New Technology and Surveillance: An Odd Couple?
Snowden’s revelations had put into evidence the seemingly strong link between new technologies such as the Internet and the capacity of some states to harness it as a tool for massive surveillance in real time. As some had argued, these
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Belated review of “Why Nations Fail”
The book by Acemoglou and Robinson is now quite famous book and certainly does not demand yet another review. The debate between the authors and Jeffrey Sachs is also well known (see http://bit.ly/1Ed4maK for the latest and here for an
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Innovation and Inequality in an Unequal World
Innovation has taken the world by storm. More than a pure storm, it is now looking more like a stationary looping hurricane. No escape. Embrace or die. Only a few have opted for the latter. In any event, this is,
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Robotics and job creation: Is this time different?
Debates on the impact of automation on job creation are certainly not new. On the one side, we find those who argue that automation is the trigger for massive unemployment. On the other side are those who say automation can
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Who are the Refugees?
A few weeks ago, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, published its latest report on the current status of people who have been displaced from their homes and lands. Although I have not closely tracked down
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The future of automation and the automation of the future
Chaplin’s 1936 Modern Times, by now a classic of silent cinema, offers an inside glimpse of the automation of industrial production in the first part of the 20th Century. Our little tramp has somehow found a job in a factory,
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Towards a Political Economy of (Open) Data
Apps and data Almost five years ago, while working together with former UN colleagues, we decided to create a mobile app that could show data on the progress towards the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The key
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ICTs and Inequality: An Overview
Not without reason, Inequality seems to have taken command of most development, socio-economic and even political discussions. The fact that a supposedly “technical” and long (and excellent too!) book such as Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century became a best-seller of
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Social Innovation and Governance: A Quick Glance
The idea of innovation, certainly not new to development practitioners, is once again picking up steam. In fact, it has become a buzzword now permeating many discussions and development conversations. The Arab Spring and other social movements in both the
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Women, empowerment and new technologies
Yesterday we celebrated the International Women’s Day (IWD) for the 108th time. The celebration first took place in 1908 in New York CIty. Back then it was called the International Working Women’s Day (IWWD), first organized by the Socialist Party
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10 steps to ensure successful ICTD/e-governance implementation
Since the dawn of the new Millennium we have seen rapid changes in the ICT environment where mobiles and mobility are explicit trendsetters. The same can be said about the use and deployment of ICTs in the public sector. We
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Perception, Sampling and Crowdsourcing
In Kurosawa’s 1950 film classic Rashomon, four people share with us gripping details about a murder and alleged rape that had taken place 3 days earlier on the road in the middle of a deserted forest. Three of them were
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Public Sector Information, Open Data and Data Revolution
For a while, I have been planning on writing about the post-2015 High-Level Panel (HLP) report and the role of ICTs in the new development agenda. As I see it, the report has missed an ample opportunity here (as the
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ICTs and Sustainable Development: Tacking Stock
Background The idea of SDNP ( http://www.undpegov.org/sdnp/) emerged during preparations for the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. The perception that many countries, especially poorer ones, lacked reliable information to make effective decisions and promote sustainable development issues was on
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Weekly Update: 15 July
This week was essentially focused on the upcoming BDP agenda for change and the follow-up to the GMM. I posted some of my inputs earlier in the week in this space. Overall, BDP seems to be taking a low profile
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Free/Open Source Software and Public Sofware: Concept Note
Objective The purpose of this concept note is to shed some light on the notion of Public Software (Software Publico,SP), based on the original model developed by the Brazilian Government (Software Público Brasileiro – SPB), and compare it with the
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Latinux Magazine Interview
“Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are not an end in itself but rather a means to reach people and enhance their lives.” (Raúl Zambrano) Born in Colombia, Raul Zambrano is trained as an engineer, sociologist and economist. He currently works
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ICTs and the Millennium Villages: A Research Proposal
Background There is no question that the last 20 years have witnessed the explosive deployment and grow throughout the globe of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). This growth has been usually identified with Internet access which, according to
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e-governance Assessment Mehodology
Methodology Framework The proposed methodology framework focuses on measuring the value delivered by e-governance projects to different stakeholders and beneficiaries, as well as the effectiveness in the way UNDP implements and manages such projects. In general, a positive correlation is
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Comments on Draft Governance Assessments Global Programme
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:14:45 -0500 (EST) From: Raul Zambrano To: Noha El-mikawy Cc: Terence D Jones , Bjoern Foerde , Pauline Tamesis, Joachim Nahem , Veronica Perera Dear Noha,As mentioned in my previous message, here are some comments
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e-gov and gender
I am still I am still working on the e-gov and gender paper. It is taking longer than expected but then again the previous draft was a bit all over the place. I hope to finish this in a couple of
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Meeting with MOFA on Non-Core Funding
This morning BDP and BRSP met with Mr. Nobuaki Ito, Director of Multilateral Cooperation Division, Economic Cooperation Bureau, MOFA at the Japan Mission to the UN. Minutes of the meeting were prepared by MOFA and are available. The big idea
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Beta Laptop
I received a message from the OLPC team informing me that I will be receiving a B laptop early this week for testing purposes. The unit is being FEDEX to my office. I saw a similar machine a couple of
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e-voting Selected Papers
Found this uselful site (http://www.social-informatics.net/evoting.htm) that is being maintained on a continuous basis by the Department of Science System Assessment at the Rathenau Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Open Source and the NY Times
I was interviewed for a NY Times on the Open Source vs. MS Windows “war.” The article was published yesterday. It is here. The article’s title, however, seems to mix so-called shareware with Open Source. Those are two very different
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Meeting with the Advisory Board of Ireland Aid
Stephen, Radhika and I met with the Advisory Board. Yuri Afanasiev from RBEC was also present. After the presentation by Stephen, members of the delegation raised serious concerns about the relevance of ICT vis-�-vis other development priorities. They saw huge
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SDNP Malawi
Malawi SDNP Meeting with Azusa Kuwota, PO Malawi CO. The future of SDNP is at stake and after 7 years of supporting the programme the CO is eager to make it an independent entity. For this purpose, a national consultant
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Meeting with UNF – Conectas Project
I met with Malak Poppovic (UNF Senior Advisor, Sao Paolo) and Lena Sinha (BRSP) to discuss the above project and identify potential for collaboration. Conectas (http://www.conectas.org) is a non-gov, non-profit network working on human rights on a global scale. One
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UN ICT Task Force Meeting
Stephen, Radhika and I met with Sarbuland Khan and Sergey Kambalov to discuss a) ICTD Strategies workshop and b) follow-up to high level meeting of this morning with the UN on WSIS The TF expressed interest in supporting the proposed
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Irish Aid Meeting
Today, Stephen, Sarah and myself met with an Irish Aid delegation which included Mr. Tom Hanney- Director, Multilateral UN Policy, Ms. Dympna Hayes Deputy Director, Multilateral UN Policy, and Ms. Joana Betson, First Secretary. Mission of Ireland to the UN.
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Private Sector RM Strategy
Yesterday, Sarah and I met with Casper Sonneson from BRSP to discuss the above. BRSP has some resources and consultants that can work full time on this. They are planning to do a pilot on two practice ares, ICTD and
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