TechPlus+ | Technology & Development Redux
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The future of automation and the automation of the future
Read more: The future of automation and the automation of the futureChaplin’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, which is in the middle of an unspecified city, and spends his time doing the…
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Towards a Political Economy of (Open) Data
Read more: Towards a Political Economy of (Open) DataApps 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 purpose of the project was to raise awareness of people in general on how the…
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ICTs and Inequality: An Overview
Read more: ICTs and Inequality: An OverviewNot 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 sorts last year is a good indicator of the relevance of this topic in our…
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Social Innovation and Governance: A Quick Glance
Read more: Social Innovation and Governance: A Quick GlanceThe idea of innovation, certainly not new to development practitioners, is again picking up steam. In fact, it has become a buzzword that is now permeating many discussions and development conversations. The Arab Spring and other social movements in both developed and developing countries brought back to the forefront not just the catalytic importance of…
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Women, empowerment and new technologies
Read more: Women, empowerment and new technologiesYesterday, we celebrated 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 of the US. At some point, the additional W dropped, and the event became a celebration…
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Governments, Crowdsourcing and Innovation
Read more: Governments, Crowdsourcing and InnovationThe paper on the role of governments in crowdsourcing I presented at the last ICEGOV 2014 gathering in Guimaraes, Portugal, is now available here – in this blog. The paper was supposed to be published by ACM Press as part of the proceedings of ICEGOV. However, the proceedings are still unavailable on the ICEGOV or…
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UNDP/Motorola Mobiles for Human Development Report
Read more: UNDP/Motorola Mobiles for Human Development ReportThe report has now been published online by UNDP and can be downloaded here. I also placed a copy here just in case the previous link is unavailable. Below are the conclusions to the report which I wrote a few months back. They still hold their own ground. Conclusions and way forward The analysis of…
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10 steps to ensure successful ICTD/e-governance implementation
Read more: 10 steps to ensure successful ICTD/e-governance implementationSince 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 started with e-government and then moved to e-governance a few years later -we can also…
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Human Rights and Utopia
Read more: Human Rights and UtopiaThe use of the words “human rights” in the English language only started in the 1940s. It was just until the late 1970s that the concept as we know it today emerged in full force. Nevertheless, historians of human rights have been able to trace the idea back to the Greek Stoics and study its…
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Best Films – 2014
Read more: Best Films – 2014This was not the best of years, that is for sure. Let us call it a big transition year that included a huge roller-coaster ride that lasted not seconds but months. A bit longer that what is probably really needed. Yet, I was able to some how see 144 films. That is almost 10% less…
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Pakistan Interview: e-governance and development
Read more: Pakistan Interview: e-governance and developmentI gave the following interview to a local business newspaper during my mission to Pakistan. The interview was published on 15 December. BR Research: You have previously worked in Pakistan. How was the e-governance situation like back then, and how is it now? Raul Zambrano: It was back in 1993 when UNDP launched an initiative…
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Saudi Arabia National Open Source Software Policy
Read more: Saudi Arabia National Open Source Software PolicySeems this process has been going on for a while now (see previous blogs on the subject), but this time around I am told the policy will be approved by the national government early next year. The original text is now in Arabic so I will not be able to comment directly but our friends…
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Proposal for Social Innovation and Development, Colombia
Read more: Proposal for Social Innovation and Development, ColombiaWe pitched this proposal to the social innovation of Colombia’s Ministry of ICTs. Seems however their approach to the issues is more supply driven and technology focused. We will see… Innovación Social para el Desarrollo Humano Introducción La última década ha sido testigo de la rápida difusión de las TICs a nivel global, en particular…
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BTOB: ICEGOV 2014
Read more: BTOB: ICEGOV 2014This was my third ICEGOV meeting and I can tell you I felt lots of deja vu. In the interim, UNU’s e-government unit has moved from Macao to the beautiful city of Guimaraes, Portugal, which the Portuguese call “the city where Portuguese culture was born”. Indeed, they have secured solid institutional support from the Government…
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Pakistan Technology and Strengthening Democracy Meeting
Read more: Pakistan Technology and Strengthening Democracy MeetingI was invited to speak at this meeting thanks to the elections team in New York who furnished my name to the Country Office in Pakistan. I had attended a similar meeting in Guadalajara, México, in April 2013. With the support of our office in Mexico City, a book (actually two books, one in English…