2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development最新文献

Usage models of classroom computing in developing regions 发展中地区课堂计算机的使用模式

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937401

Rabin K. Patra, J. Pal, S. Nedevschi, M. Plauché, U. Pawar

引用次数: 44

Evaluation of a single radio rural mesh network in South Africa 对南非单一农村无线电网状网络的评估

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937415

David Johnson

{"title":"Evaluation of a single radio rural mesh network in South Africa","authors":"David Johnson","doi":"10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937415","url":null,"abstract":"This paper evaluates the ability of a low cost wireless mesh network to provide Internet access to a rural area in South Africa with limited broadband connectivity. The network was installed in a mountainous area with a wide range of distances between nodes ranging from long range 5.5 km links to short hops between buildings of only 30 to 50 m. Due to this combination of distances, a mix of unplanned node placement with omni-directional antennas and planned nodes using directional antennas was used. The current network consists of 9 nodes spread over an area of about 15 square kilometers. There is electricity at all the sites but power outages are common, occurring at average intervals of one outage in 7 days, lasting between 3 and 24 hours. The network provides a good service to the satellite based Internet with throughput rates ranging between 300 kbps for 4 hops and 11000 kbps for 1 hop and an average throughput rate of 2324 kbps. The paper evaluates the throughput and delay performance of the OLSR routing protocol being used in the mesh network as well as giving an overview of usage patterns and social behavioural patterns of the users. The users range from first time users in poorer areas of the network to fairly accustomed Internet users in wealthier farming areas.","PeriodicalId":299790,"journal":{"name":"2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":"244 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132573155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 53

Performance models for virtual scanning keyboards: Reducing user involvement in the design 虚拟扫描键盘的性能模型:减少用户在设计中的参与

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937405

S. Bhattacharya, A. Basu, D. Samanta

{"title":"Performance models for virtual scanning keyboards: Reducing user involvement in the design","authors":"S. Bhattacharya, A. Basu, D. Samanta","doi":"10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937405","url":null,"abstract":"Virtual scanning keyboards are augmentative communication systems used by people with speech and motor impairments. Each of these systems consists of (a) a virtual keyboard and (b) a scanning input method. Designers of these systems need to choose from a large number of design alternatives, which requires evaluating alternate designs. Evaluation of alternate virtual scanning keyboard designs with disabled users is problematic due to the difficulties in (a) getting sufficient number of users for evaluation, particularly in countries like India where social conditions prevent many potential users from participating in the design process and (b) collecting sufficiently large data for analysis due to users' physical disabilities. The problems can be alleviated with the use of model based design methods. In model based design, models of user performance are employed to evaluate designs automatically, thus reducing the need for extensive user testing. Existing performance models of motion impaired users, however, do not consider scanning input methods. This limits the applicability of the existing models to the design of virtual scanning keyboards. To address the limitation, we developed performance models of virtual scanning keyboards. The models are validated by comparing the model predictions with results from user trials. Development and validation of the performance models are described in this paper.","PeriodicalId":299790,"journal":{"name":"2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131205107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 2

Welfare, agency and “ICT for Development” 福利、机构和“资讯及通讯科技促进发展”

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937398

Aishwarya Ratan, S. Bailur

引用次数: 33

A survey of information systems reaching small producers in global agricultural value chains 对全球农业价值链中涉及小生产者的信息系统的调查

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937421

Tapan S. Parikh, Neil Patel, Y. Schwartzman

{"title":"A survey of information systems reaching small producers in global agricultural value chains","authors":"Tapan S. Parikh, Neil Patel, Y. Schwartzman","doi":"10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937421","url":null,"abstract":"Smallholder farmers face many challenges competing in the global marketplace. One major constraint is the lack of access to information and communications, which could be used to make decisions and reach new markets. In this paper, drawing from our experiences designing agricultural information systems in India and Central America, we provide a framework for understanding inter-stakeholder communications within agricultural value chains, focusing on the needs of small producers. First, we outline the major types of stakeholders - including farmers, consumers, intermediaries and various supporting organizations. Then, we survey the major categories of information systems supporting communication between stakeholders, focusing on those reaching small farmers. Based on this survey, we provide the following categorization of information flows within agricultural value chains: 1) link-to-link (L2L): those information flows required to coordinate the sale, movement, and distribution of produce along the value chain, 2) peer-to-peer (P2P): communications required to share knowledge and experiences between members of the same stakeholder group, and the expert community serving that stakeholder group and 3) end-to-end (E2E): communications between producers and consumers, for example, to facilitate exchange of non-economic values to be used as external inputs to market pricing (e.g, certification). We outline some reasons why current information systems have had difficulty in reaching small producers, and highlight a few technology trends that could contribute to increasing the fidelity and accessibility of communications, both between producers and consumers, as well as within their respective stakeholder communities.","PeriodicalId":299790,"journal":{"name":"2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132267977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 83

Electoral competition and digital development in India and South Africa 印度和南非的选举竞争和数字发展

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937409

Jennifer Bussell

{"title":"Electoral competition and digital development in India and South Africa","authors":"Jennifer Bussell","doi":"10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937409","url":null,"abstract":"In the last decade many developing country governments made efforts to improve service delivery and access to information through the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). The character of these efforts, however, varies widely both across and within countries, resulting in continued inequality to access. What incentives influenced the initiation of these projects? How might variation in these incentives have affected the projects themselves? To answer these questions I compare the efforts of sub-national governments in India and South Africa to implement ICT-enabled service centers. In particular I consider what factors led to the implementation of ICT initiatives in urban versus rural areas. I find that politicians use ICT projects to achieve specific electoral goals and thus electoral conditions, specifically the character of political competition and ruling party support bases, can help to explain decisions to implement service centers for rural or urban populations. I use the cases of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in India and the Western Cape and Gauteng in South Africa to illustrate this argument.","PeriodicalId":299790,"journal":{"name":"2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131403192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 7

Devising neutral tools for development decision-making: The Poverty Assessor 为发展决策设计中立的工具:贫困评估器

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937411

C. Heffernan, Jun Yu

{"title":"Devising neutral tools for development decision-making: The Poverty Assessor","authors":"C. Heffernan, Jun Yu","doi":"10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937411","url":null,"abstract":"Pro-poor decision-making demands that the communication channels between development actors and the poor are strengthened. However, effective decision-making also requires that the complexities and inter-relationships between household livelihood, demographic, and economic factors are understood. Therefore, the following paper describes the design and implementation of the Poverty Assessor, a software programme to aid practitioners, policy makers and researchers in visualizing the direct poverty impacts of specific livelihood factors and events among populations of poor livestock keepers. The software enables users to profile individuals in relation to the national poverty line in each of the countries involved by selecting from a range of demographic and livelihood indicators. The tool operates by retrieving information from a database derived from the voices of 5,372 poor households in Kenya, India and Bolivia. The paper begins by offering a brief background to the issues involved and the creation of the tool. In the second section, results are presented utilizing examples from the Bolivian study set.","PeriodicalId":299790,"journal":{"name":"2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132914662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 3

Community radio for development in South Asia: A sustainability study 南亚社区广播促进发展:可持续性研究

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937412

F. Hussain, Rahul Tongia

{"title":"Community radio for development in South Asia: A sustainability study","authors":"F. Hussain, Rahul Tongia","doi":"10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937412","url":null,"abstract":"Community radio (CR) is a participatory medium and a subset of radio broadcasting. It is an inexpensive and popular way for disseminating content (information, news, entertainment, etc.) CR is designed to increase availability of localized information, media access and empowerment, and even market based growth and societal resource distribution for the community. We examine the sustainability of CR as a tool towards achieving the overall development in the South Asian region. A cross-country comparison of CR in areas including people's participation, regulatory scenarios, human resource development, technology usage trends, financial practices etc. shows a wide variety of CR applications and challenges. An indepth analysis of financial data and practices of several Nepalese CR stations (rural, urban, and semi-urban) alongside regulatory and anecdotal references from India and Bangladesh shows potential viability through advertising and other mechanisms. Even with an advertisement cap of 5 minutes per hour, every station shows the potential of achieving financial sustainability by selling a fraction of the allotted ad time (7%-46%). Our model shows that the monthly operating expenditure of types of stations turns out to be more significant than the annualized capital expenditure. In our analysis (and borne out in the real world), of the three considered stations, the semi-urban station has the highest cost per listener. Stochastic cost modeling of real world CR data show the trend of increased cost for content development is a trade-off for expanding the listener base and transmission time. We conclude with a proposed set of policy and operating recommendations to enable CR to play a significant role in overall South Asian development.","PeriodicalId":299790,"journal":{"name":"2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":"137 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134113323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 14

Design of early warning flood detection systems for developing countries 发展中国家洪水预警探测系统的设计

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937387

Elizabeth Basha, D. Rus

引用次数: 126

Digital Green: Participatory video for agricultural extension 数字绿色:农业推广的参与式视频

2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Pub Date : 2007-12-01 DOI: 10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937388

R. Gandhi, R. Veeraraghavan, K. Toyama, Vanaja Ramprasad

{"title":"Digital Green: Participatory video for agricultural extension","authors":"R. Gandhi, R. Veeraraghavan, K. Toyama, Vanaja Ramprasad","doi":"10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937388","url":null,"abstract":"Digital green is a research project that seeks to disseminate targeted agricultural information to small and marginal farmers in India using digital video. The unique components of digital green are (1) a participatory process for content production, (2) a locally generated digital video database, (3) human-mediated instruction for dissemination and training, and (4) regimented sequencing to initiate a new community. Unlike some systems that expect information or communication technology alone to deliver useful knowledge to marginal farmers, digital green works with existing, people-based extension systems and aims to amplify their effectiveness. While video provides a point of focus, it is people and social dynamics that ultimately make digital green work. Local social networks are tapped to connect farmers with experts; the thrill of appearing \"on TV\" motivates farmers; and homophily is exploited to minimize the distance between teacher and learner. In a four-month trial involving 16 villages (1070 households), digital green was seen to increase adoption of certain agriculture practices by a factor of six to seven times over classical person-only agriculture extension. The hardware investment was a TV and a DVD-player per village, and one digital camera and PC shared among all 16 villages. These results are very preliminary, but promising.","PeriodicalId":299790,"journal":{"name":"2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124540494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 218