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.
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 …
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.
It’s easy to see why there’s much excitement about the potential of digital innovation for humanitarian response. Making the delivery of medical aid or food as fast and efficient as possible literally saves lives. A recent webinar on the topic started off by showcasing a range of new technologies. It …
Big data has been hailed as a powerful resource to inform and advance sustainable development. But what type of big data are we talking about? How are we making sense of it? And how do we ensure that we’re not losing the individual to a wealth of numbers?
Does greater trust come with increased openness? Greater transparency, induced by ICT-generated data, in public institutions may show promise in certain political contexts. In others – namely in democratic environments already enjoying a degree of openness – it can be rather damaging, contrary to popular belief. Increased transparency has become …
Amazon has patented a new wristband to be used to track where their workers are placing their hands, raising renewed concerns about workers’ well-being.
