Change IT! S. Revi Sterling, University of Colorado Boulder Voices 2015 - www.globaltechwomen.com Session Length: 1 Hour Dr. Revi Sterling founded and directs the only Information and Communication Technology for Development graduate program in the United States. This talk would demonstrate how IT (ICT as the rest of the world calls it) has given a quantum boost to international development efforts, and will give examples of what works and what doesn’t when technologists turn humanitarians. This talk will open avenues for technologists of all types and levels to truly make impact with their ideas, while promoting collaboration rather than competition. Sterling will point audiences to helpful resources while catalyzing their creativity.

1. Revi Sterling, PhD
Founding Director – ICTD Graduate Program
ChangeIT!
How to take your
technical skills and
put them to use as a
digital humanitarian

3. Student speaking in Mexico Congress on
ICT for anti-trafficking
Agriculture extension tech project, Nigeria
Maternal health monitoring technology, Kenyatta
National Hospital
Distance education and water monitoring, Peru

5. This just in…
“Most of the world’s 7.2 billion people still do not have
Internet access, but there is a lot that governments can do
to make sure their citizens are not left in the dark.”
“The good news in that most of humanity
now lives within read of wireless networks.
About half the world’s population, or 3.6 billion
people, had cellphone service last year, up
from 2.3 billion people in 2008. And one-third
of all people used mobile networks to connect
to the Internet last year.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/opinion/getting-the-
whole-world-online.html

6. For the other 2/3,
we have
ICT for Development
– Software, hardware, services, policies to
address some of the biggest barriers to
sustainable human progress: climate
change, conflict, food insecurity, gender
inequity, lack of access to resources,
migration, global price fluctuations…
– What can technology do to help end
poverty, and how?
– What can you do with your technical skills?

7. Definitions:
• Development = “enlarging the pie” (opportunities,
resources, capacity building, social well-being,
democratization… no one wants to give up their piece of
pie, so we have to make a bigger one – through ICT.)
• ICT = Information and Communication Technology
• ICTD = “” + Development
Why do we need ICTD?
• Millennium Development Goals and 20 years of decline
• Can tie other development efforts together
• Technology is coming, regardless
• Current efforts in ICTD have been dismal
Technology’s Role in Development:
• Infrastructure
• Capacity building/training in ICT
• Digital content and services

8. Who is doing ICTD?
Foundations
Think Tanks
NGOs
FBOs
Private Sector
Trade Associations
Development Agencies
Governments
Academia

9. ICTD 1.0 ICTD 2.0 ICTD 2015 
Technology driven:
telecenters, web, email
Engagement driven:
Working with
communities, platforms
Data driven: big data,
open data, monitoring
and evaluation, Internet
of Things
Technology for
technology’s sake
Technology to support
development sectors
How do we define
technology?
Access: bring people to
technology
Bring technology to
people
Who is left behind?
Equipment: recycled,
donated, PC-based,
technology charity
Custom hardware,
mobile-based, pilots – but
is it computer science?
Underserved places are
the cutting edge locales
to conduct tech research
Funding: CSR, high tech
RFPs, fad donors, gov’t
Funding: foundations,
“grand challenges”, tech
moguls, BOP strategies,
social entrepreneurship
Funding: crowdsourcing,
partnerships, social
enterprises, Dev RFPs
combined w research
Adoption of ICTD:
marginalized in
development industry
Move towards
mainstreaming, academic
response, hackathons
Leapfrogging; Global
South produces its own
technology; technology as
“glue” to sustain/scale
Palepu and Sterling

10. ICTD 1.0

11. UN Millennium Development Goals
“Measuring the impact of ICT in meeting the MDGs”
“ICT role in achieving the MDGs”“ICT - MDG linkage at regional and national level”
“MDGs & WSIS”
“ICT for Development: Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals”
“Innovation and Investment: ICT and the Millennium Development Goals”
“How ICT Can Help Us Meet the Millennium Development Goals”

12. • “Leapfrog” traditional development
• Information = empowerment
• Mobile/Internet Drive Economic Growth
‘Technology as panacea’ phase
Qiang, 2009

16. ICTD 2.0

21. Too many pilot projects
Mobile health
projects in Uganda –
pre moratorium

22. COVERAGE: In Africa just 50 percent
of the rural population is covered by
cell service
CONTENT: Language and literacy
issues (500m)
COST: Internet costs average 1.7%
of average income in developed vs.
31% in developing countries
-ITU

23. The “secret” digital divide
• Internet Gender Gap in SSA: 43%
• 25% gap worldwide (200M)
• 75% of the world’s poorest are women
• 500M illiterate women WW
• Inequitable development ≠ sustainable
development
• Role of tech/role of culture

24. ICTD 2015

25. Post-2015 framework

26. Sterling, 2013

27. supply-side development
vs.
demand-side development

28. Leapfrogging
Networking and Connectivity Energy Monitoring and Evaluation
IPv6 (Bhutan); TV White Space;
Google Loon, UAV/drones
Micro grids, phone
charging/light hybrids
Big Data, Open Data,
Integrated sensors, Internet of
Things

29. http://blogs.worldbank.org/ic4d/files/Kelly_Techhubs_0.pdf

30. Looking
Ahead

31. Get to know Global Development!!
• Start with Wikipedia – “International
Development”. Get a few books that come up
under Introduction to International Development
• Look at the UN system, Center for Global
Development, Institute of Development Studies,
Overseas Development Institute, ELDIS, The
Guardian (UK) Global Development news
(http://www.theguardian.com/global-
development)
• Beware of reading ONE pundit

32. Get to know ICTD!!!
• Don’t start with Wikipedia
• http://www.ictworks.org/
• http://paper.li/tag/ict4d (we do everything in twitter,
#ict4d #ictd #mhealth…)
• http://paper.li/GBI_Net/1399905970
• http://blogs.worldbank.org/ic4d/
• https://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/
• ICTD Jobs: http://ict4djobs.com/
• ITID Journal – Free from MIT press
• Conference proceedings from ACM ICTD conferences
(ICTD2006, ICTD2007, ICTD2009, ICTD2010, ICTD2012,
ICTD2013 – next is 2015)

33. What ICTD really needs
• Mobile development
• Big data/data scientists
• Networking
• Interoperability
• HCI experts
• Usability experts
• Technologists with domain expertise in development areas
(agriculture, gender, mobile payment systems)
• Policy people – esp for spectrum mgmt., privacy
• NLP, Drupal, databases, embedded systems, educational software,
gamification, security (requests I’ve gotten w/in last 2 months)
• Drones/hardware
But needs all these people to have a sense of context and culture
that you can only get by knowing something about int’l development
(What’s been done before? What might/might not work?)

34. ICTD
Revi.Sterling@Colorado.edu
Revisterling.com