Most recent events

15 December 2020 at 13h CET: Anna Bon defended her PhD thesis "Intervention or Collaboration? Redesigning Information and Communication Technologies for Development" in the Aula of Maastricht University. 11 December 2020: Sophie Vos and Hella Schaefers presented again at the IFIP conference the Food Security Project "Sustainability and Ethics by Design". 26 November 2020: Sophie Vos and Hella Schaefers present their paper at the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute.

Proceedings Workshop DigDiv DigHum now available

On Tuesday 7 July 2020 the WebSci’20 Workshop: Digital (In)Equality, Digital Inclusion, Digital Humanism took place, this year, a virtual event. The workshop moderators were Hans Akkermans, Victor de Boer and Anna Bon. Keynote speakers: Mirjam de Bruijn, Richard Heeks and Leen Zevenbergen. See all papers at: ACM WebSci'20 DigDivDigHum Workshop Final Proceedings: [PDF].

Events until November 2020

18 November at 13.30 - Guest lecture by Anna Bon at the VU bachelor course: Global Prosperity & Development. 7 July 2020 - Workshop Digital (In)Equality, Digital Inclusion and Digital Humanism (DigDivDigHum), was collocated at the WebScience Conference. 30 March - 31 May: the ICT4D course at VU, this year virtually due to Corona. 7 February 2020 VU meets Rijks I-Ecosysteem. 9, 10 January 2020: General meeting at UDS Campus, Tamale, Ghana. 13 - 18 January 2020: Workshop in Bamako with farmers from AOPP about the Seed value chain.

Intervention or Collaboration?

9 August 2019 - the second edition of the book: Intervention or Collaboration ? Rethinking ICT4D, by Anna Bon has been published.

W4RA and Bolesian: AI4good

W4RA started a strategic partnership in AI4good, Bolesian’s expertise in artificial intelligence can contribute to the W4RA’s mission to support farmer-managed regreening activities specifically by enhancing information, communication and knowledge sharing for rural development. W4RA and Bolesian are working on various projects related to ICT4D: from detection of tree loss in rural Mali to digital storytelling in rural Ghana. To be continued...

W4RA and AOPP perform analysis of emerging Seed Value Chain in rural Mali

AOPP is a farmer organization in Mali, with more than 250 member farmer cooperatives, and a footprint in the whole of the country. VU and AOPP have worked together since 2011 to help improve the food security situation in Mali, in the effort to this with sustainable agro-ecological innovations. Essential is the information exchange in the valule chain, for a performing market.
Participative, collaborative information analysis workshops are done, to elicit the tacit knowledge which is necessary for selforganization of the network. This project started in February 2019 and will be carried out in the coming months.

W4RA events

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The Web alliance for Regreening in Africa

Although the Internet offers a wealth of information, and the World Wide Web has become today's paradigm of information and knowledge sharing on the planet, it is still inaccessible to the illiterate and to most rural communities. Moreover, most websites offering information about Africa are written in English, French, and other European languages. Few, however, contain relevant content information in local African languages. Furthermore, the Web is only accessible with an Internet connection, which most rural households do not have, relying instead on radio and mobile phones for communication. These are all important obstacles to overcome. But we believe this is possible to achieve - due to today's advanced ICT technologies and the local and international technical-scientific expertise present in the W4RA collaboration program.

Watch the W4RA films

The Web of Voices – documentary

W4RA short clip

by Leeuw van Moerkerken

Blog post about DigDivDigHum workshop

Blog from the University of Southampton about the DigDivDigHum workshop, posted by Jo Dixon here.

Seed information for Malian Farmers – OKP project

The OKP project "Information and knowledge management of seed systems and trees crops for farmers in Mali" aaimed at enhancing food security & local trade in rural Mali, has been successfully completed by AOPP and the W4RA team of VU. The complete project report will be available soon. The collaboration between W4RA and AOPP continues....

Student projects ICT4D Summer 2019

July 2019 - Innovative ICT4D research by students of VU Amsterdam and UNIMAS Sarawak Malaysia: m-health, e-business, m-education, blockchain technology, digital storytelling, AI4D Read more...

Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism

W4RA supports the Vienna Manifesto. April 2019 - An international group of influential scientists have called for deliberation and action on current and future technological development: "The system is failing. We must shape technologies in accordance with human values and needs, instead of allowing technologies to shape humans." More on this topic..

W4RA and The Value Engineers set up partnership

W4RA and The Value Engineers started a strategic partnership to study the sustainability of the Seed Value Networks in Rural Mali using the e3 value methodology. Value networks in rural Mali are a very difficult to study, due to the complexity of this low resource context. Despite the size and extent of the seed value networks, financial sustainability is far from being achieved for the particiaping seed producers. By studying the network using e3 value, W4RA and The Value Engineers will try to detect the strengths and weaknesses and the potential business opportunities of this value network. In 2017 the W4RA team started a projevct in Sarawak, Malaysia with TVE See blog.

W4RA research in the News

29 June 2019 - Interview with Marc Hegeman and Carlbandro Edoga about apps for the homeless poor Ad Valvas 17 June 2019 - The Foroba Blon service, featuring in an article in the Los Angeles Times by Anna Pujol Mazzini.

W4RA publications

Find all Published research papers related to the W4RA research program; All VU Student papers related to ICT4D; View Posters ; Technical documentation: deliverables VOICES project.

Condoléances

21 Juin 2019 - Avec une forte émotion nous avons appris les évènements malheureux qui se sont passés sur l’axe Sévaré–Bandiagara et qui ont concerné une délégation de l’AOPP revenant d’une formation. L'équipe W4RA partage avec nos partenaires de l’AOPP cette triste nouvelle que cinq personnes de l'AOPP sont décédés. Nous exprimons nos sincères condoléances et prions pour les blessés et pour ceux qui ont été enlevés. Qu’ils soient retrouvés sains et saufs.

Reflecting about the ICT4D course 2019

The ICT4D course at VU was concluded last week. Students gave their feedback on this course. View a few of their quotes.

Updates

Two research papers have been presented at the 2019 IFIP WG 9.4 conference, 1 - 3 May 2019 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, by Anna Bon. Digital Development: Elements of a Critical ICT4D Theory and Praxis and Community-centered, Project-based ICT4D Education in the Field

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W4RA stories

About W4RA
AI for SDG: agent-based analysis of the Seed Value Chain in rural Mali?
Blogroll
Buenos Aires TO-INN workshop March 2018
Call for papers and posters (closed)
Chris Reij raconte sur le reverdissement en Afrique et le partage de connaissance
Chris Reij tells about Regreening in Africa and knowledge sharing
Citizen journalism in rural areas in Mali
Contact
Downscale
Downscale 2013 – part 1
Downscale 2013 video – part 2
Downscaling the Semantic Web – Second international workshop 2013
Films
Foroba Blon logo
Foroba Blon, community radio in Africa and the Web
ICT4D 3.0 in a nutshell
ICT4D Student essays 2019
ICT4D Symposium 6 April 2016 – Tuinzaal VU – W&N Building
Interview with Zakary Diarra, beekeeper in Mali
Keynote speakers at the Workshop Digital (In)equality, Digital Inclusion, Digital Humanism
Le Web par la Voix – documentaire
Leen Zevenbergen: Once upon a future
Naomi Dembelé, Bianivo Mounkoro and Anna Bon about agro-forestry value chains in Mali
News
Partners
- Culture Citizenship Participation: Perspectives from Latin America on Inclusive Education
- Partners and their logos
Posters
Program committee “The Web and the Digital Divide”
Program of the day
Publications
- Voices project deliverables
- W4RA Working Papers
Publications related to W4RA
RadioMarché logo
RadioMarché prototype
RadioMarché, Voice-based market information system
Real World Research
Reflections on the ICT4D course 2019 at VU
Registration form Perspectives on ICT4D Symposium 2019
Sponsors of W4RA
Student papers on ICT4D
Student projects ICT4D course VU 2018
Symposium Perspectives on ICT4D: The Web and the Digital Divide – Sunday 27 May 2018
- The Annual Symposium “Perspectives on ICT4D”
Tabalé logo
Tabale, a mobile voice-based micro blogger
Tentative program and info for ICT4D in the Field
The Making of RadioMarché
The Web and the Digital Divide
Timezones
TO-INN kick off meeting in Barcelona
Upcoming events
VU team participates in pre kick-off TO-INN workshop in Rome, March 2017
W4RA achievements
W4RA presents three new master theses by students Information Science@VU
W4RA short summary clip
W4RA short trailer
Web of VOICES at European Development Days, Brussels 26 november 2013

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W4RA Calendar

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