Comments on: ICT4Peace, OLPC and Technology for Social Change – A conversation with Sanjana Hattotuwa http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/ because information can save lives Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:58:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Paul Currion http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/comment-page-1/#comment-10783 Paul Currion Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:42:59 +0000 http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/#comment-10783 In the end, it comes back to that question - is it worth it? We can do these things as hobbies, or experiments, but it's up to the audience to decide if it's worth pursuing. Because none of these have commercial potential (open to question), there's precious few metrics to work out if the audience actually care or not about the service. Having said that, there might be scope to create an audience, particularly an internal audience, as they have done at Christian Aid. In the end, it comes back to that question – is it worth it? We can do these things as hobbies, or experiments, but it’s up to the audience to decide if it’s worth pursuing. Because none of these have commercial potential (open to question), there’s precious few metrics to work out if the audience actually care or not about the service. Having said that, there might be scope to create an audience, particularly an internal audience, as they have done at Christian Aid.

]]> By: Tom L http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/comment-page-1/#comment-10705 Tom L Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:59:37 +0000 http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/#comment-10705 Our forum <em>sort of</em> performs a <a>Slashdot</a> task in that a common type of post is a link to an interested resource of some sort. <a>AidBlogs</a> makes interesting reading, and it'd be interesting to scrape the urls listed in the incoming AidBlogs feeds and make an automated "What aid blogger are reading" list. Don't forgot the <a href="http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=007177108143617966093%3Auqy0ijny1h4" rel="nofollow">humanitarian drive cooperative search</a> which you put together makes use of PageRank - a weak but net-ubiquitous determinant of value. I was also thinking to experiment a little with <a>Yahoo Pipes</a> and humanitarian/development websites, although I can't quite see the benefit ... Our forum sort of performs a Slashdot task in that a common type of post is a link to an interested resource of some sort. AidBlogs makes interesting reading, and it’d be interesting to scrape the urls listed in the incoming AidBlogs feeds and make an automated “What aid blogger are reading” list.

Don’t forgot the humanitarian drive cooperative search which you put together makes use of PageRank – a weak but net-ubiquitous determinant of value. I was also thinking to experiment a little with Yahoo Pipes and humanitarian/development websites, although I can’t quite see the benefit …

]]> By: Paul Currion http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/comment-page-1/#comment-10700 Paul Currion Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:10:59 +0000 http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/#comment-10700 I like Slashdot but I think it built up momentum early on and has been cruising on that critical mass. The experience of <a href="http://www.aidworkers.net" rel="nofollow">Aidworkers Network</a> has been that it's really hard to engage aid workers in the same way - we've tried three different approaches now, none of which have been fully successful. There's no list of podcasts as far as I know - aid work is a bit niche - although the <a href="http://www.aidworkers.net/?q=blogs" rel="nofollow">blog aggregator</a> on AWN has been very successful. I have been converted to podcasts as a great communication medium that we should use more. The question is, what's the audience? What's the message? I think given the connectivity problems in many parts of the world, we're looking at podcasts as part of the dialogue between aid workers, and from aid workers to the public. Don't get me started on the OLPC again, or we'll be here all day. I like Slashdot but I think it built up momentum early on and has been cruising on that critical mass. The experience of Aidworkers Network has been that it’s really hard to engage aid workers in the same way – we’ve tried three different approaches now, none of which have been fully successful. There’s no list of podcasts as far as I know – aid work is a bit niche – although the blog aggregator on AWN has been very successful.

I have been converted to podcasts as a great communication medium that we should use more. The question is, what’s the audience? What’s the message? I think given the connectivity problems in many parts of the world, we’re looking at podcasts as part of the dialogue between aid workers, and from aid workers to the public.

Don’t get me started on the OLPC again, or we’ll be here all day.

]]> By: Michael Howden http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/comment-page-1/#comment-10105 Michael Howden Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:17:30 +0000 http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/01/30/ict4peace-olpc-and-technology-for-social-change-a-conversation-with-sanjana-hattotuwa/#comment-10105 Thanks for the podcast Paul! I think that they are a great medium for absorbing new information and very convenient to listen to while traveling. Do you know of any good sources of humanitarian/aid podcasts? Particularly with any with an IT focus. I was interested by you criticism of the OLPC project, I have my own doubts, particularly on a more technical level. I’ll have to blog about that sometime. I agree with your argument about the online Signal to Noise ratio being too low. It would be great if there was a forum to rate good websites/blogs/podcasts for aid workers. Maybe a humanitarian <a title="Slashdot" href="http://slashdot.org" rel="nofollow">Slashdot of sorts? Thanks for the podcast Paul! I think that they are a great medium for absorbing new information and very convenient to listen to while traveling. Do you know of any good sources of humanitarian/aid podcasts? Particularly with any with an IT focus.

I was interested by you criticism of the OLPC project, I have my own doubts, particularly on a more technical level. I’ll have to blog about that sometime.

I agree with your argument about the online Signal to Noise ratio being too low. It would be great if there was a forum to rate good websites/blogs/podcasts for aid workers. Maybe a humanitarian Slashdot of sorts?

]]>