Thanks Yaw for summarizing how Change has grown remarkably in the last few years! Even I didn't realize that Change mailing list has so many subscribers including many prominent personalities across the world. Otherwise on a previous mail thread on "Can Technology End Poverty", I would have slightly hesitated before matching Kentaro's quotations like this: *"Many development experts promote information and communicationtechnology (ICT) as a way to relieve global poverty. They should pay more attention to the human beings who use it." -- Kentaro Toyama* With my own quotations like this: *"When you hand over some technology, money or any other aid to help someone, there is an implicit assumption that the receiver has knowledge about how to use it wisely for generating sustainable well-being for herself. If this wisdom is missing in the receiver, then the aid is not only at the very least useless, but potentially harmful" –- Abhishek Prateek* :-) Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Cheers! Abhishek On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 9:53 PM, Yaw Anokwa <yanokwa@gmail.com> wrote:
In December 2007, Brian DeRenzi and I started discussing the idea that became Change. It has been incredible to see that idea evolve over the years and so every December I try to document what has changed about Change.
Let’s start with the website. This year, we have had 13.7k visits (46% increase over last) and 9.2k visitors (64% increase). The bulk of those hits come from the Americas, but we’ve doubled traffic from Asia, Europe and Africa.
The mailing list has grown to 300 subscribers and the Change seminar regularly hosts up to 50 people who discuss topics ranging from water accessibility to games for good.
Change-affiliated faculty are now offering classes (undergraduate and graduate) that center on ICTD. We’ve also seen Change-affiliated projects deployed in the field, cumulatively win over a million dollars in funding, and make strong academic contributions. More importantly, some of these projects are scaling up and touching the lives of tens of thousands of people.
As 2010 comes to a close, I want to publicly thank Nell O’Rourke, Gaetano Borriello, Richard Anderson, Beth Kolko, Ruth Anderson, Chris Coward and Joyojeet Pal for their efforts supporting and growing this group. Without their hard work, Change would still be just an idea.
If you are interested in participating (working on projects, blogging on the site, giving or documenting talks, organizing events, etc), please email me.
Thanks,
Yaw
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