Sorry for the lull in updates, the past few day’s I’ve been overwhelmed with attending conferences, panels and meetings around Kampala.
The first was TEDC (Technology and Education in Developing Countries) which was organized by Clint Rogers. Attendance was good, I think it was only slightly curbed by the price and some miscommunication about what that price was. Among the presenters were Warner Woodsworth (Professor at Brigham Young University) and Tim Unwin (UNESCO Chair at ICT4D).
In comparison IMTS (Innovative Mobile Technology & Services for Developing Countries) was free, had over fifty attendees on the first day (Friday) which probably nearly doubled on the second (Saturday). The list of panelists included several people working with Technology in Developing countries including Arvi Hurskainen (Computational Linguistics), Nathan Eagel (MIT/EPROM), Fisseha Mejuri (Professor at Makerere/MCASD), Jussi Impio (Nokia/NoRA/Mapya) and more. It was all about sharing research and results related to application development for mobile devices.
There was a lot of interesting ideas being tossed around from Mapya (a social network for kids in developing countries), Village Connection (mobile access for small villages that would otherwise be off the grid) and a lot of discussion about what makes effective GUI for use with local languages.
The two conferences definitely represented two different schools of thought going on as it relates to technology in developing countries. On one side you have people who use technology but are still a bit skeptical about the gross benefits to society. On the other side you have people who have long since embraced technology, to the point that it’s almost an afterthought. The divide tends to be generational, so it’s no surprise that the TEDC presenters were generally older in age than the people presenting at TIMS. I’m sure you can all guess which school I align myself with. I can best relate my feelings on this difference in thinking by saying this: technology (to some people) is like the ground we walk on, you don’t need to debate the fact it’s there anymore….you just figure out how to best use it. TEDC had some very blatant anti-constructionism, anti-constructivism themes running through many of the presentations although computers still played a large role in the ideas and projects of the attendees and speakers. Meanwhile, IMTS was very much about using technology to solve real case problems and presenting real case outcomes.
Regardless both where quite interesting and, in my opinion, it’s always good to exercise both sides of a debate before making up one’s own mind.
Regardless I thought I’d share the slides from my presentation at TEDC….
I’ll also share the notes that I took at IMTS-DC08…
About the author: Jonathan Gosier is a software developer, writer and social entrepreneur. He currently lives in Kampala, Uganda where he incubates and invests in East African entrepreneurs as the CEO of Appfrica Labs. He's also a TED Fellow.
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Notes from TEDC and IMTS-DC08 at Makerere University
Sorry for the lull in updates, the past few day’s I’ve been overwhelmed with attending conferences, panels and meetings around Kampala.
The first was TEDC (Technology and Education in Developing Countries) which was organized by Clint Rogers. Attendance was good, I think it was only slightly curbed by the price and some miscommunication about what that price was. Among the presenters were Warner Woodsworth (Professor at Brigham Young University) and Tim Unwin (UNESCO Chair at ICT4D).
In comparison IMTS (Innovative Mobile Technology & Services for Developing Countries) was free, had over fifty attendees on the first day (Friday) which probably nearly doubled on the second (Saturday). The list of panelists included several people working with Technology in Developing countries including Arvi Hurskainen (Computational Linguistics), Nathan Eagel (MIT/EPROM), Fisseha Mejuri (Professor at Makerere/MCASD), Jussi Impio (Nokia/NoRA/Mapya) and more. It was all about sharing research and results related to application development for mobile devices.
There was a lot of interesting ideas being tossed around from Mapya (a social network for kids in developing countries), Village Connection (mobile access for small villages that would otherwise be off the grid) and a lot of discussion about what makes effective GUI for use with local languages.
The two conferences definitely represented two different schools of thought going on as it relates to technology in developing countries. On one side you have people who use technology but are still a bit skeptical about the gross benefits to society. On the other side you have people who have long since embraced technology, to the point that it’s almost an afterthought. The divide tends to be generational, so it’s no surprise that the TEDC presenters were generally older in age than the people presenting at TIMS. I’m sure you can all guess which school I align myself with. I can best relate my feelings on this difference in thinking by saying this: technology (to some people) is like the ground we walk on, you don’t need to debate the fact it’s there anymore….you just figure out how to best use it. TEDC had some very blatant anti-constructionism, anti-constructivism themes running through many of the presentations although computers still played a large role in the ideas and projects of the attendees and speakers. Meanwhile, IMTS was very much about using technology to solve real case problems and presenting real case outcomes.
Regardless both where quite interesting and, in my opinion, it’s always good to exercise both sides of a debate before making up one’s own mind.
Regardless I thought I’d share the slides from my presentation at TEDC….
I’ll also share the notes that I took at IMTS-DC08…
Download My IMTS-DC08 Notes