While there is a lot of buzz about big data also in the world of international development and humanitarian responses, this post would like to remind that non-big data still matters for us as development practitioners – not because of technological deficiencies but because big data risks condemning humans to passivity.
Fashmaps tells the story of a crisis mapping project but unlike other crisis mapping initiatives, such as Flowminder or ACLED, in which data subjects are mobile within a crisis, the subjects of these data are static and they are the crisis.
Big Data for development has undeniably delivered great advances and will continue to do so. Still, it is only as good as the people who create it and as the people who use it. And, as technology continues to develop, much is still unknown.
“Until the lion learns how to write, every story, will glorify the hunter” African proverb Who is best suited to tell their story other than the people themselves? Africa is now being described as a rapidly economic growing continent where exists the full potential for an economic evolution. This …
Where are TED talks on Big Data placed in the grey zone between global social movements and global capitalism? I take a look at four TED talks on big data to see where they fit in.
Information generation, storage capacity and data sharing has been made easier and cheaper now than ever before thanks to leaps of technological advances. Our daily interaction with the internet on various platforms plus mobile phones has enabled creation of huge amounts of data where estimates have that 90% of the …
Tune into any event on digital innovation for development these days and you are bound to hear about the virtues of blockchain technology. It promises to make transactions of any type of personal data more efficient, transparent and secure – from finances to identity records and property titles. But before …
To address gaps in data gathering and generation in the digital age, the origins of datafication might provide an evergreen reminder that not all data is digital and that referring back to analog data might be key to addressing older, systemic problems.
Improving service delivery through digital solutions is a key area of e-governance initiatives. ICTs are touted as a means to give citizens a voice by channelling and communicating their concerns to local administrations. But an equally important aspect is often overlooked: The influx of citizen inputs also needs governments that …
Gone are the days when the utility of phones was to make phone calls. Mobile phones for development have endless potential surpassing that of the desktop computer. Their value is primarily in data-gathering and knowledge-sharing, but not without a fair share of associated risks.
