On this page, you will find regularly updated information about the research I am doing on issues regarding Information and Communication Technologies on Development (ICT4D).
The biggest project so far has been the empirical study on critical success factors for ICT4D projects conducted from May to October 2006.
Feel free to browse around and also to post any comments, suggestions or questions. For personal enquiries, please send me an e-mail.
Nikos Nikolidakis
I was invited by ijgd (Internationale Jugendgemeinschaftsdienste e.V.), a German non-profit organization which, amongst others, organizes volunteer service programmes in Germany and abroad. I was asked to hold a presentation on the Digital Divide at a seminar on "Media Perspectives On, From and In Developing Countries" (own translation from German).
The presentation can be accessed here.
I finished my thesis!
When I started working on it in January 2006, I had no idea what it would mean to do this study and I am very happy that I finally completed it. You can access the result of almost one year of work here.
I hope to also write a shorter abstract of the paper, but this will take me at least a couple of weeks. Whoever does not have enough time to read through all pages can also just read the conclusion - the main results are listed there. Any feedback to the thesis is also highly appreciated!
Many thanks to all the people that made this work possible, especially to my interview partners in South Africa from the Africa Drive Project, Cell-Life and tuXlab.
All the best, Nikos
As announced in my last entry, I took part at the ICT4D Postgraduate Symposium in London and presented my own preliminary results.
The two days with many presentations on all kinds of different topics related to ICT4D were extremely motivating not only for the completion of my own thesis, but also for future involvement in the scientific area of ICT4D. Short (and subjective) abstracts of each presentation as well as some pictures of the symposium can be found at www.ictlogy.net, a very good ICT4D Blog with many other interesting sources on the topic.
Thanks a lot to all the organizers from the ICT4D Collective - it was fantastic!
Ok, I know I haven't been too good at updating that blog - please excuse my tardiness... The reason is that nothing much interesting has happened regarding my thesis work since my return from South Africa.
I transcribed all my interviews to be able to better work with them and then started to write on the actual thesis paper. The Introduction and the Theoretical Part are finished already, also almost the whole chapter on the national level, where I describe the political (ICT) framework of South Africa.
Next week, I will present my prelimenary findings at the ICT4D Postgraduate Symposium organized by the ICT4D Collective at Royal Holloway, University of London on September 14 and 15, 2006. The presentation will be online here at the end of next week.
My last week in Pretoria was packed with various interviews, with stakeholders of both ADP and tuXlab.
The time in Pretoria was a very effective time, and although only having two weeks for the amount of interviews planned, I managed to conduct most of them.
I am especially grateful for the great support I received from the ADP team. They not only took the time to speak with me, but moreover, they showed great interest in my work and supported me by suggesting more people to speak with and by helping me arrange meetings with them.
June 16, 1976: Hundreds of young people die in Soweto, the biggest township near Johannesburgin, in a violent turnout of a peaceful demonstration against the Bantu Education System which leads to further demonstrations and riots throughout June 1976.
"Many consider the riots an event which signified the beginning of the end for apartheid. The effects of the riots echoed across the country. After the riots, many black citizens were awakened to the reality of apartheid, and started to resist, while some white citizens also withdrew their support for the government." (cited from Wikipedia article).
Today, June 16 is "Youth Day", a national holiday in South Africa.
June 16, 2006: 30 Years later, around 60 people, most of them under 20 and from different disadvantaged communities around Johannesburg meet in a bank office in one of the fanciest malls of Johannesburg.
Coming from different forthcoming tuXlabs, they will get whole weekend of training, including the set-up of a computer lab and the use of the various software that comes with a tuXlab. Different sponsors, including a bank, a computer distributor, an internet service provider, are also there to present their contributions, for example a bunch of new computers or a life-long internet connection for the affected tuXlabs.
And again: it's the young people who impress me most: their deidication to learn, their dedication to improve their situation, to overcome the "Economic Apartheid" that is still present in South Africa, their dedication to also help others through what they are doing and not only themselves. And the tuXlabs help empower them to do so.
This is the fourth update on how my cooperation with the organizations I am working with is going:
Africa Drive Project (ADP) (more about ADP):
I am in very good email communication with people that worked or used to work with ADP. Being in Pretoria since two days. I already conducted very informative interviews with three ADP stakeholders, including SAP Research and eDegree.
Tomorrow, I am going to visit the University of North-West, Mafikeng Campus to participate in a ADP Technology Meeting. Other meetings for interviews with "ADP people" are scheduled for next week.
Cell-Life (more about Cell-Life):
Very helpful and forthcoming team so far. I visited their office a couple of times and were told to come in whenever I want to. Already conducted interviews with Cell-Life staff, with a representative of the Desmond Tutu AIDS Foundation, as well as with counsilors of the Hannan Crusaid Treatment Centre in Guguletu who use the Cell-Life technology to make Anti-Retro-Viral Treatment more effective. There, I had very interesting discussions, also besides the interviews, with the women who both get treatment and counsil other clients...
I am planning on conducting some more interviews with Cell-Life stakeholders during my last week in Cape Town.
tuXlab (more about tuXlab):
Met with part of the tuXlab team and already had a great discussion about the project. Went to a fascinating launch of a new tuXlab in Khayelitsha (see below) and conducted first interviews. Besides, I had a very good talk with Computers 4 Kids.
I am going to attend a tuXlab event in Johannesburg on June 16 and hope to be able to talk to some of their other stakeholders, including co-ordinators of some of the tuXlabs in schools in the Western Cape Province in my last week in Cape Town.
This is the third update on how my cooperation with the organizations I am working with is going:
Cell-Life (more about Cell-Life):
Very helpful and forthcoming team so far. I visited their office a couple of times and were told to come in whenever I want to. Already conducted interviews with Cell-Life staff and with counsilors of the Hannan Crusaid Treatment Centre in Guguletu who use the Cell-Life technology to make Anti-Retro-Viral Treatment more effective. There, I had very interesting discussions, also besides the interviews, with the women who both get treatment and counsil other clients...
I am going to conduct interviews with more Cell-Life staff, as well as a representative of the Desmond Tutu AIDS Foundation the following week.
tuXlab (more about tuXlab):
Met on Tuesday with part of the tuXlab team and already had a great discussion about the project. Went to a fascinating launch of a new tuXlab in Khayelitsha (see below) and conducted first interviews. I am going to talk to some of their partners, including co-ordinators of some of the tuXlabs in schools in the Western Cape Province and Computers 4 Kids. Also, I will attend a tuXlab event in Johannesburg on June 16.
Africa Drive Project (ADP) (more about ADP):
I am in very good email communication with people that worked or used to work with ADP and I will be in Pretoria, where the headquarters of ADP are, from June 12 to June 23. There, I am going to conduct interviews with ADP stakeholders, including SAP, eDegree, GTZ and some of the involved schools.
Yesterday, I was able to attend the launch of a tuXlab, the "Ikamva Youth tuXlab", in Khayelitsha.
I was very much impressed by the activists of Ikamva Youth, not only because of their very professional organization of the "launching celebration". Moreover, it was great to see how young people and especially youths from disadvantaged communities were able to actually change their living conditions to the better and to get support from outside partners (here: the Western Cape Provincial Government, VIA Technologies, tuXlab and others...).
Of course, a computer lab in a library is only a small step on the road to appropriate living conditions. Showing that the youth of Khayelitsha has been able to achieve that, however, makes me more optimistic about the fact that much more can be achieved...