Blogs

Mobile Internet study featured on ICTworks

Melody Clark on December 21, 2012

Thanks goes to ICTworks for featuring the Global Impact Study's Mobile Internet study, Public Access, Private Mobile, led by Marion Walton and Jonathan Donner. The post on ICTworks highlights the five central claims of the study.

Assessing the impact of innovation spaces: iHub Kenya

Christine Prefontaine on October 30, 2012

In May 2012 Nairobi’s *iHub released a report detailing the impact of the Hub on Kenyan entrepreneurs. You can read the launch post and  download the report from the iHub website. Here’s the abstract. This research aimed to understand the impact of the ICT Hubs to entrepreneurs. …

Innovation spaces, youth, social inclusion, public libraries: The podcast

Christine Prefontaine on August 27, 2012

I have all these great conversations with Silvia Caicedo. We debate, help each other, work out ideas. She’s amazing. Finally I decided to record one of our talks and make it into the first Facilitating Change Podcast (yipeee!!!!!!!). There’s a too-long intro about innovation …

Innovation Spaces, Take Two

Christine Prefontaine on August 14, 2012

OK so here’s my latest attempt to come up with a practical definition of innovation spaces and why they matter for development. Innovation spaces are environments that foster community, creativity, and production. They provide a physical place to explore, experiment, and engage with …

Re-defining “telecentre”

Christine Prefontaine on August 9, 2012

I’m writing a brief for Beyond Access: Libraries Powering Development — on innovation spaces. In it, I start by defining a range of innovation spaces: telecentre, hackerspace, coworking, fablab. (I’m working open: see and comment on messy work process.) The definition of a …

Please help free Bassel Khartabil

Christine Prefontaine on July 11, 2012

This is not digital advocacy in the abstract: Bassel and I have friends in common. Please take a moment to sign the letter to support his release. And if you can think of other ways to help you can let me know. From FreeBassel.org: On March 15, 2012, Bassel Khartabil was detained in a wave …

Hacking is the impulse to engage with something and figure out how to make it work for you

Christine Prefontaine on July 4, 2012

The open-source, maker/hacker, DIY ethic is a driver of innovation and civic engagement. To hack is to engage with something and figure out how to make it work for you. It involves pushing boundaries, breaking a few rules, trying out something new, remixing, modifying, creating. Underlying …

Knowledge mobilization: What do decision makers prefer?

Christine Prefontaine on June 28, 2012

We all know that providing information does not equal change. But it’s part of the process. As researchers, we can chunk and package and share our findings and recommendations in ways that make them more accessible. I like to call this edible evidence. And, if we’re really good …

Pizzas Google: A cautionary tale about your privacy

Christine Prefontaine on June 22, 2012

The magnificent and brilliant Silvia Caicedo (who needs to start a blog already) sent me this based on a conversation we had where I was freaking out about helping civil society organizations use social media and cloud services. Let me explain: I am a geek. I love tech. I’m often the …

A framework for assessing the impact of new media

Christine Prefontaine on June 21, 2012

In Digital Activism 101, Mary Joyce writes that activists can use digital technology to do only five things: shape public opinion, plan an action, protect activists, share a call to action, or take action. Then rinse and repeat. (Heh I love that phrase; stole it from Gunner’s …