From: Global Washington [mailto:admin@globalwa.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 4:50 PM
To: Chris Coward
Subject: The Dark Side of ICT - 3rd in a series of lectures on technology and communications in development

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OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS

July 6th

Global Washington Member Meet-Up

July 19th

Back to the Future: Recent Evolutions in EU Development Policy

The Dark Side of ICT

Global Washington presents the third in a series of lectures and panels on information and communication technology and global development

Session 3: The Dark Side of ICT

Speakers:

Emily Bancroft (VillageReach)

David Lubinski (PATH)

Kentaro Toyama (University of California, Berkeley)

Information and communication technologies hold out the tantalizing potential to catalyze international development. The Internet can connect remote smallholder farmers with agricultural experts. The mobile phone can increase incomes of low-income fishermen. The personal computer can streamline data collection in rural healthcare. But, "can" is seldom "does." While the potential for positive impact through information technologies is significant, this potential is rarely realized in practice. What's worse, there are cases when the technology causes more harm than good.

In this panel discussion, the speakers will draw on existing research and personal experience to highlight the dark side of ICT in global development. They will present examples of well-intentioned ICT gone badly, discuss the mechanisms of negative impact, and share thoughts on how negative impacts can be minimized.

Space is limited! Register today!

When: Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

4:00pm - 5:30pm

Where: Global Washington Office

500 Union St., Suite 801

Seattle, WA 98101

Price: FREE for Global Washington members (members, contact admin@globalwa.org for a discount code)

$15 for non-members

Register: Global Washington website

Speaker Bios

Emily Bancroft is a Program Manager and the Health Systems Group Lead at VillageReach. She is responsible for the design, development and management of health system intervention programs at VillageReach, a global health organization focused on improving health sector infrastructure at the “last mile” in low-income countries. Improving access to data from last mile communities is a key component of VillageReach’s work, and Emily acts as an interface between the Health Systems and Information Systems groups within the organization. Emily has worked with health workers and program staff in rural health facilities across a number of countries in Eastern and Southern Africa and has direct experience with how the use of information technology at the facility and community level can both support and harm efforts to improve data quality and health system performance. Prior to joining VillageReach, Emily worked with I-TECH, Physicians for Huma! n Rights, and NPower. Emily has an MPH from the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine and a BA from Princeton University.

David Lubinski leads the global health management information systems (HMIS) program at PATH in Seattle, Washington. The HMIS program seeks to unlock the full potential of information and communication technology to improve population health and strengthen health systems in the world’s poorest countries. Current partners include leaders in telecommunications, device manufacturing, computing platforms, software development, and system integration. Representative HMIS projects include: (1) the redesign of logistics management information systems in Zambia, Senegal, Vietnam, and Rwanda, (2) a mobile device platform for community health workers in Zambia, India and Tanzania, and (3) the development of common requirements and standards for national health insurance information systems in Thailand, India, Ghana, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Prior to his work at PATH, Mr. Lubinski was chief technical officer for the World Health Organization&! rsquo;s Health Metrics Network. Previously he was general manager of the health industry business unit at Microsoft. He has also held senior positions in health policy and finance at the state level.

Kentaro Toyama is a visiting scholar in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He is working on a book that argues that increasing wisdom should be the primary focus of global development. In 2004, Toyama co-founded Microsoft Research India, where he started an interdisciplinary research group to understand how electronic technology could support the socio-economic development of the world’s impoverished communities. The group’s award-winning projects – including Digital Green, MultiPoint, and Text-Free UI – have been seminal in ICT-for-development research. Since 2009, he has been active as a vocal critic of the hype that pervades technology projects in international development. Prior to his time in India, Toyama did computer vision and multimedia research at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA, USA and Cambridge, UK, and taught mathematics at Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana. He received a PhD in C! omputer Science at Yale and his bachelors from Harvard in Physics. http://www.kentarotoyama.org

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