Learning

Adjusting to a New Technology: Experience and Training

How does the economy react to the arrival of a new major technology? The existing literature on General Purpose Technologies (GPTs) has studied the role that mechanisms like secondary innovations, diffusion, and learning by firms play in the adjustment process. By contrast, we focus on a new mechanisms based on the interplay between technological change and human capital accumulation. We show that technological change that requires more education and training, like computerization, necessarily produces an initial slowdown. Surprisingly, however, technological change that lowers the training requirement, like the move from the artisan shop to the factory, can produce either a bust or a boom. We identify three key properties that determine which effect will occur: (1) the productivity of inexperienced workers; (2) the speed with which experience increases productivity; and (3) the level of general skills required to operate the new technology.

Ashoka: Social Entrepreneur for Development

Ashoka's mission is to shape a citizen sector that is entrepreneurial, productive and globally integrated, and to develop the profession of social entrepreneurship around the world. Ashoka identifies and invests in leading social entrepreneurs - extraordinary individuals with unprecedented ideas for change in their communities - supporting them, their ideas and institutions through all phases of their careers. Ashoka Fellows benefit from being part of the global Fellowship for life. Ashoka's vision is that of a global society that is able to respond quickly and effectively to social challenges everywhere. Ashoka does not accept government funding; business entrepreneurs and their foundations, corporations, individuals and volunteer chapters finance Ashoka's work.

Digital Opportunity Trust

Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) is a Canadian-based not-for-profit organization that makes technology work for people and their enterprises, with a view to promoting locally driven social and economic development. DOT starts by teaching people of all backgrounds about ICTs through customized training programs. Then learners link the programs to practice by designing projects that apply their knowledge in ways that make technology work for them. DOT is a virtual but very real network of global and national partnerships. Together we build local capacities to deliver training, stimulate business opportunities and connect people to new livelihoods.

Global Information Infrastructure Commission

The Global Information Infrastructure Commission is a confederation of chief executives and other officers of business firms engaged in the development, manufacture, deployment, operation, modernization, financing, and use of services and products based upon information and communications technologies. The GIIC mission is to: advocate the promulgation, adoption, and enforcement of responsive public policies; convene forums within which to address public policy challenges and different approaches thereto; collaborate with other sectors of society; conduct formal studies; and publish and in other ways share and disseminate the conclusions of its deliberations and research.

Human capacity development (HCD)

This project deliverable assesses human capacity development (HCD) capacity and existing constraints and proposes strategies to reduce or eliminate the constraint. It provides an overview of the existing HCD and makes recommendations. This report satisfies the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Terms of Reference for the Human Capacity Development Scope of Work: The role of the Human Capacity Development (HCD) Specialist will be to evaluate the current status, capacity, and potential of the education and training in ICT related skills and knowledge in Bangladesh, particularly in relation to the key competitive success factors identified through the survey and external market research.

International Center for Information Ethics

This is an academic website on information ethics. It is a platform for exchanging information about worldwide teaching and research in our field. It gives the opportunity to meet each other. It provides news on ongoing activities by different kinds of organizations. And it is free. The success of this website depends on the will of the people interested in this subject to share their knowledge with others.

ITU Launches a Multi-million Dollar Project to Bridge the Global Digital Divide

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced today the launch of its Internet Training Centres Initiative for Developing Countries (ITCI-DC), a multi-million dollar project aimed at closing the gap in Internet and "new economy" skills in developing countries. Under the initiative, ITU plans to establish 50 training centres to provide skills in Internet Protocol (IP) networking and services by July 2003 in existing non-profit institutions in developing countries. It is expected that the centres will also function as incubators to help small and medium-sized enterprises to develop Internet-related services.

Meet the Champions: Interview with John Daly on ICT Capacity Building in Developing Countries

This is an exclusive interview for the ICT for Development community on the Gateway, as part of the "Meet the Champions" series. John Daly is currently a freelance consultant, working primarily with the World Bank on the Development Gateway Foundation. He has also worked with the Bank on issues of science and technology policy, and served as acting Work Program Administrator of info-Dev from 2000 - 2001.

Multi-user, Low-cost ICTs Access Points for Skills Generation and Social Inclusion in Urban Areas

A short study on the use of ICT as a tool to empower children of the urban poor and to help find solution to the problem of urban violence in Nigeria.

Poor Connections: Trouble on the Internet Frontiers

Numerous obstacles keep the information revolution from spreading unfettered to the furthest reaches of the globe. RAND researchers have looked at four regions where the "information superhighway" has hit roadblocks: China, Russia, Latin America, and parts of the Middle East. The researchers map the obstacles unique to each region and, where possible, point the way toward potentially overcoming them.

Second-Level Digital Divide: Differences in People's Online Skills

Much of the existing literature on the digital divide - the differences between the "haves" and "have nots" regarding access to the Internet - limits its scope to a binary classification of technology use by only considering whether someone does or does not use the Internet. To remedy this shortcoming, in this paper I look at the differences in people's online skills. In order to measure online ability, I assigned search tasks to a random sample of Internet users from a suburban county in the United States. My findings suggest that people search for content in a myriad of ways and there is considerable difference in whether individuals are able to find various types of content on the Web and a large variance in how long it takes to complete online tasks. Age is negatively associated with one's level of Internet skill, experience with the technology is positively related to online skill, and differences in gender do little to explain the variance in the ability of different people to find content online.

The Digital Partnership

The Digital Partnership aims to promote affordable access to technology and training for learning, enterprise and development through sustainable private/public partnerships. Digital Partnership is all about creating access to ICT in ways that are scalable and sustainable. Digital Partnership uses private sector know-how and resources - for public purposes. It works to integrate donors, for-profit providers, public services and communities together for one objective: the provision of affordable access to technology and training for learning, enterprise and development.

The Role of ICTs in Economic Development: A Partial Survey

The diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their potential as a development tool have generated a wide array of views. The variety of views suggests that the role and impact of these technologies are still obscure and that the debate regarding them suffers from a lack of unambiguous evidence. Recognizing the need for clarity, this paper attempts to answer three questions: first, what features distinguish these technologies from those invented in the past; second, what are the channels through which ICTs are expected to promote development, and finally, what justifies the confidence placed in ICTs as a development tool, that is, is there empirical evidence supporting the claims made for or against the use and spread of these technologies?

Guide to Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Welcome to The Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations. We offer this site as a resource for graduate students who are writing theses or dissertations, for graduate faculty who want to mentor ETD authors, for graduate deans who want to initiate ETD programs, and for IT administrators at universities. The Guide is designed specifically for academic researchers and their mentors, yet anyone interested in research and e-publishing will enjoy this resource.

Information for All Programme

The Information for All Programme is the only intergovernmental programme exclusively dedicated to promoting universal access to information and knowledge for development. This is a key plank in building Knowledge Societies.

WebWorld - Communication and Information in the Knowledge Society

The Communication and Information Sector (CI) programmes are rooted in UNESCO’s Constitution, which requires the Organization to promote the “free flow of ideas by word and image.” It consists of: the Communication Development Division, the Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace & the Information Society Division. The Sector also provides the secretariats for two intergovernmental programmes: the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) and the Information for All Programme (IFAP).

Knowledge Base for ICT Volunteers in Development and International Online Volunteers

This resource has been prepared specifically to help ICT Volunteers working in developing countries, particularly those working under the UNITeS umbrella; and online volunteers currently serving UNV-related projects, particularly those staffed by onsite volunteers under UNITeS. However, we hope that it will help in any ICT or online volunteering experience supporting international development. The material is based on feedback and contributions from many online volunteers and organizations.

Contributing to Education in Developing Countries

Based at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, WorldTeach offers the benefits of a well-established volunteer organization, while also providing more comprehensive, personalized support and training as a small NGO. In each of our programs, volunteers are placed in schools and host communities in developing countries that specifically request WorldTeach volunteers and would otherwise be unable to afford or locate qualified teachers. Volunteers receive training, language preparation, and field support, empowering them to make an impact that will last long after they leave.

Digital Opportunities for All: Meeting the Challenge

This report is the result of a unique international collaboration. The Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force), created by the G8 Heads of State at their Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in July 2000, brought together forty three teams from government, the private sector, non-profit organizations, and international organizations, representing both developed and developing countries, in a cooperative effort to identify ways in which the digital revolution can benefit all the world's people, especially the poorest and most marginalized groups.

Planning for Sustainability

Schools Online offers several valuable resources for teacher development and technical assistance.

The IT Capability of Nations: A Framework for Analysis

This study seeks to develop an analytical framework to evaluate individual countries’ technological capabilities, and extend this framework to facilitate an understanding of the factors most strongly influencing the development of that capability, both in the past and the future. In this report we first present a model for evaluating a country’s IT capability, and then embed this model into a broader framework that addresses the determinants of capability. To illustrate the utility and application of these models, we apply them to two specific country-sectors: the high-performance computing sector in the Soviet Union/Russia and information technologies more broadly in Syria. The latter section further employs the framework to characterizing the threat(s) to U.S. national security of the diffusion of information technologies to that part of the world.