TechPlus+

Bitcoin Inequality Revisited

13 February 202129 March 2021

Raul Zambrano

ICTD

The Bitcoin bulls are back in full strength, driving the price of the cryptocurrency to unprecedented heights. The digital currency is now approaching 50k. Nevertheless, pundits and fundamentalist supporters still see the sky as the only possible limit. Go figure. Read more

Greater “AI for Good”

22 January 20211 December 2021

Raul Zambrano

Artificial Intelligence, Governance, ICTD, Inequality

The proliferation of top, best, fails and prediction posts on almost any topic is now a staple of the annual transition from one year to the next. As the new year starts to see the light of day, we seem Read more

A Few Reflections on ICTD

19 January 20211 December 2021

Raul Zambrano

ICTD

As a multi-disciplinary field, ICTD research hosts a wide variety of knowledge and expertise initially developed in other academic areas, ranging from specialized information theory to broad economic development. That should not be a surprise as ICTs emerged from the Read more

Better “AI for Good”

12 January 202115 January 2021

Raul Zambrano

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Human Development, ICTD

While the dystopian camp perceives digital technologies as a formidable, perhaps even unsurmountable threat to society, those on the other, much more optimistic side do not seem to get tired of repeating its almost countless benefits. The latter camp apparently Read more

Best Films – 2020

31 December 20208 January 2021

Raul Zambrano

Film

Bellocchio’s The Traitor was the last film I saw in a theatre. The film was only playing once a day at 1pm, so an early lunch was required. The calendar said it was the last day of February. The very Read more

Ethics in Ethical AI

16 November 202029 December 2020

Raul Zambrano

ICTD

Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is one of the oldest computer programming commandments. It was first coined in the same decade as AI, the 1950s, thus suggesting the connection between the two goes back to their birth dates. GIGO is Read more

A Glimpse at Development Economics

1 November 202026 April 2022

Raul Zambrano

ICTD

ICT for Development (ICTD) has been around for over three decades. A multidisciplinary field involving researchers and practitioners from many different areas and backgrounds, ICTD has one clear objective: to deploy new ICTs in society to foster development. The first Read more

Digital Government in Jamaica

18 October 20201 April 2021

Raul Zambrano

e-governance, Human Development, ICTD

The last time I visited Jamaica was in the early 2000s. A few years before, we had launched the national node of the old and now defunct Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP). It was labeled JSDNP and did quite a Read more

Evolving COVID-19

16 September 202014 December 2020

Raul Zambrano

Human Development, Inequality

Over six months after its official birth, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand globally, as expected. Long-term lockdowns and other complementary measures have impacted, especially in industrialized countries that, back in June, were leading in cases and deaths. Not that Read more

Digital Government Governance Models

1 September 20201 April 2021

Raul Zambrano

e-governance, Governance, ICTD

Governments should fully understand the scope and reach of the various Digital Government (DG) institutional functions described in my previous post and their proper sequencing before they embark on comprehensive digital transformation processes. The policy units’ actual institutional location leading Read more

Digital Government Revisited – III

10 August 20201 April 2021

Raul Zambrano

e-governance, Governance, Human Development, ICTD, Open Government

Institutions matter, more so for the development and implementation of Digital Government (DG), whose core target is public institutions’ transformation. On the one hand, public institutions should have an array of capacities to ensure public investments in digital technologies are Read more

Digital Government Revisited – II

15 July 20201 April 2021

Raul Zambrano

e-governance, Human Development, ICTD, Inequality

Since the early 1980s, Governments have taken a bad rap. Menacing fingerpointing from most quarters ended up on a consensus that loudly declared them personas non-gratas. The 2009 Global Financial Crisis started to turn the tide. At the time, governments Read more