Monday, November 30th, 2015

12:00-1:30pm (lunch at 12pm, talk starts at 12:30pm)

Bloedel Hall 070

Use of Mobile Devices in Public Access to ICTs: Preliminary results from a study in Latin America

Venues for Public Access to ICTs (PAVs) and Mobile Technologies have been extensively studied for their potential to give access to information and enabling underserved communities’ development, especially in the developing world. The field of ICT for Development (ICT4D) addressed them, one after the other, as possible ways to bridge the digital divide.

At first, the rapid growth of mobile technologies adoption was considered as the end of the need for PAVs. With more than 6 billion mobile subscriptions in the world, and more people having access to a mobile than to electricity or clean water in developing countries, mobiles have been reshaping the technological ecosystem of access. Yet, PAVs have not been replaced by mobiles. While we can envision that PAVs are starting to include mobile technologies to provide their services, very few studies have been considered the topic so far.

In this conversation, preliminary results from an online survey conducted among Latin American PAVs’ operators will be presented. Results will inform on both the variety of mobile-related services that PAVs are providing in the region, and on operators’ perception of mobile technologies as having a role to support development.

Sara Vannini is a visiting scholar at UW’s Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA). Sara is also a postdoctoral research fellow with the BeCHANGE group and Executive Director of the NewMinE – New Media in Education Lab at the University of Italian Switzerland (USI), Lugano, Switzerland. Sara’s research is in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development, focusing in particular on the issues of Public Access to ICTs and the appropriation and social representation of technologies in underserved areas of developing countries. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences from USI, and an M.A. in Latin American Literatures from Bologna University, Italy.

See more at: http://www.saravannini.com

 

 

Sara Vannini, PhD

Visiting Researcher - TASCHA

Executive Director - NewMinE Lab

PostDoctoral Researcher - BeCHANGE Research Group