"This book is a guide on how to build a community network, a shared local telecommunications infrastructure, managed as a commons, to access the internet and other digital communications services. It was written collectively by a group of community network pioneers in Europe, activists and researche
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rs during a writing residency week held in Vic, Catalonia in October 2018. It was a time of hard work and fast writing, but also of discussions in a friendly environment. Meant for a wide audience, the book includes practical knowledge illustrated by several hands-on experiences – a set of 32 real-life stories – as well as legal, technical, governance, economic and policy material extracted from netCommons, a three-year-long research project supported by the European Commission. Its goal is to guide the reader through a set of actions aimed at setting up and fostering the growth of a community network, but also, for policy makers, local administrations and the general public, to create the right conditions to let community networks bloom and flourish. Starting with presentations of successful community networks, and an introduction to the importance and the role of community networks, it provides stepby-step guidelines and concrete information on the resources needed to start a community network, get it running, and keep it sustainable in the long term. From technical options to economic models, governance choices, legal requirements, and the various skills involved, this lively resource proposes ways to engage with a local community at every stage of a community network." (Publisher description)
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"This e-book was first published in Spanish on April 23, 2017 on the occassion of the 10th Ibero-American Colloquium for Digital Journalism organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin. The book
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compiles reports from the series “Innovative Journalism in Latin America,” published on the Knight Center’s blog between December 2016 and April 2017. It also offers practical advice for digital journalistic innovation on different topics." (Cover)
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"Unfortunately, the Internet has fallen short of its promises in some other aspects, as its benefits have not fully reached people in the bottom of the income distribution. For example, skilled workers are better able to leverage the Internet to increase their earnings, whereas unskilled workers fac
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e a higher risk of having their jobs automated. High-productivity firms are more likely to use the Internet to grow their business, while mom-and-pop stores face the risk of being displaced. Rich countries, which tend to have stronger institutions than poorer countries, are better equipped to use the Internet to fight corruption and hold public officials accountable. In other words, the past three decades have shown that the benefits of achieving universal Internet access or increasing the size of the information and communication technology sector will not fully materialize unless governments improve their business environment, invest in human capital, and enhance their institutions. This message cannot be emphasized enough, especially for countries in the ECA region with a long tradition of distortionary industrial policies aimed at cherrypicking winners and losers. Reaping Digital Dividends: Leveraging the Internet for Development in Europe and Central Asia provides a framework for governments in the region to maximize the impact of the Internet on poverty reduction and shared prosperity. It highlights the diverse yet surmountable set of challenges. Although many people in the East remain unconnected, the experience of their neighbors to the West shows that achieving nearly universal Internet access does not guarantee success. For example, several factors hamper technology adoption among firms, while rigid regulations constrain the expansion of the sharing economy. This report argues that reaping digital dividends requires policies focused not only on the telecommunications sector but also on the analog complements, such as skills and the business environment. It also highlights that governments should be prepared to address the disruptive effects of new technologies and facilitate the transition of displaced workers to new and more productive jobs." (Foreword)
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"Mobile money, a service that allows monetary value to be stored on a mobile phone and sent to other users via text messages, has been adopted by the vast majority of Kenyan households. We estimate that access to the Kenyan mobile money system M-PESA increased per capita consumption levels and lifte
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d 194,000 households, or 2% of Kenyan households, out of poverty. The impacts, which are more pronounced for female-headed households, appear to be driven by changes in financial behavior—in particular, increased financial resilience and saving—and labor market outcomes, such as occupational choice, especially for women, who moved out of agriculture and into business. Mobile money has therefore increased the efficiency of the allocation of consumption over time while allowing a more efficient allocation of labor, resulting in a meaningful reduction of poverty in Kenya." (Abstract)
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"Visual images have been a central component of propaganda for as long as propaganda has been produced. But recent developments in communication and information technologies have given terrorist and extremist groups options and abilities they never
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would have been able to come close to even 5 or 10 years ago. There are terrorist groups who, with very little initial investment, are making videos that are coming so close to the quality of BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] or CNN [Cable News Network] broadcasts that the difference is meaningless, and with access to the web they have instantaneous access to a global audience. Given the broad social science consensus on the power of visual images relative to that of words, the strategic implications of these groups' sophistication in the use of images in the online environment is carefully considered in a variety of contexts by the authors in this collection." (Publisher description)
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"This sourcebook is meant to equip development and communication professionals with a useful set of guidelines, reference materials and learning resources to apply communication in rural development initiatives. The main goal is to enable readers to design and implement rural communication strategie
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s combining participatory methods with communication processes, media and tools best suited for a specific situation. In particular, the sourcebook aims to develop the following capacities in ComDev: Identifying the phases and steps in communication planning for development; Conducting situational analysis and participatory communication appraisal in the field; Developing a workable communication strategy and plan of action; Facilitating multistakeholder dialogue and collaboration to successfully implement ComDev activities; Designing, pre-testing, producing and using multimedia ComDev materials; Assessing the results of ComDev initiatives and promoting long-term sustainability; Understanding ComDev as it applies to agriculture and rural development issues." (Page 2)
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"Contributors to the volume explore various questions concerning the opportunities and constraints for governance associated with the startling growth in digital technologies in the Global South. In areas of limited statehood, places where the reach of the state is limited and weak, can mobile phone
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s, geographical information systems, and other digital technologies help fill the governance vacuum? In general, Livingston and Walter-Drop conclude with the contributors that where missing governance is information-based (bits), digital technology has a tremendous impact. Yet a major constraint is found in its ability to fill the governance vacuum concerning the provision of material collective goods (atoms)." (Abstract)
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"In recent years, cyberculture has informally reported a phenomenon named the 1% rule, or 90-9-1 principle, which seeks to explain participatory patterns and network effects within Internet communities. The rule states that 90% of actors observe and do not participate, 9% contribute sparingly, and 1
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% of actors create the vast majority of new content. This 90%, 9%, and 1% are also known as Lurkers, Contributors, and Superusers, respectively [...] Our goal was to determine if the 1% rule applies to moderated Digital Health Social Networks (DHSNs) designed to facilitate behavior change. Methods: To help gain insight into participatory patterns, descriptive data were extracted from four long-standing DHSNs: the AlcoholHelpCenter, DepressionCenter, PanicCenter, and StopSmokingCenter sites. During the study period, 63,990 actors created 578,349 posts. Less than 25% of actors made one or more posts. The applicability of the 1% rule was confirmed as Lurkers, Contributors, and Superusers accounted for a weighted average of 1.3% (n=4668), 24.0% (n=88,732), and 74.7% (n=276,034) of content. Conclusions: The 1% rule was consistent across the four DHSNs. As social network sustainability requires fresh content and timely interactions, these results are important for organizations actively promoting and managing Internet communities. Superusers generate the vast majority of traffic and create value, so their recruitment and retention is imperative for long-term success. Although Lurkers may benefit from observing interactions between Superusers and Contributors, they generate limited or no network value. The results of this study indicate that DHSNs may be optimized to produce network effects, positive externalities, and bandwagon effects."
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"Global and regional networks of investigative journalists, backed by donors and fueled by globalization and an explosion in data and communications technology, are growing increasingly effective and sophisticated. Journalists are linking up as never before to collaborate on stories involving intern
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ational crime, unaccountable businesses, environmental degradation, safety and health problems, and other hard-to-report issues. Strategic investments into investigative journalism programs can have significant positive impact in a wide range of countries, including those in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Such funding will be most effective if it is long term and integrated into broader initiatives that include legal reform and freedom of information. Despite its frontline role in fostering accountability, battling corruption, and raising media standards, investigative reporting receives relatively little support - about 2 percent of global media development funding by major donors. Nonprofit investigative reporting organizations, now numbering 106 in 47 countries, have been pivotal drivers of the global spread of investigative journalism. These include reporting centers, training institutes, professional associations, grant-making groups, and online networks." (Executive summary)
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"The rise of e-books in American culture is part of a larger story about a shift from printed to digital material. Using a broader definition of e-content in a survey ending in December 2011, some
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43% of Americans age 16 and older say they have either read an e-book in the past year or have read other long-form content such as magazines, journals, and news articles in digital format on an e-book reader, tablet computer, regular computer, or cell phone. Those who have taken the plunge into reading e-books stand out in almost every way from other kinds of readers. Foremost, they are relatively avid readers of books in all formats: 88% of those who read e-books in the past 12 months also read printed books.2 Compared with other book readers, they read more books. They read more frequently for a host of reasons: for pleasure, for research, for current events, and for work or school." (Summary of findings, page 3)
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"Guided by two overarching questions – do people want or need health news, and are they satisfied with the health news available to them – Internews used a mixed methods approach, conducting surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, as well as mining years of project data and rep
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orts. In general, the assessment found that the media is a key factor in improving the lives of Kenyans by providing more, better, and deeper coverage of complex health issues that matter to them." (Internews website)
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"The Social Media Reader is the first collection to address the collective transformation with pieces on social media, peer production, copyright politics, and other aspects of contemporary internet culture from all the major thinkers in the field. Culling a broad range and incorporating different s
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tyles of scholarship from foundational pieces and published articles to unpublished pieces, journalistic accounts, personal narratives from blogs, and whitepapers, The Social Media Reader promises to be an essential text, with contributions from Lawrence Lessig, Henry Jenkins, Clay Shirky, Tim O'Reilly, Chris Anderson, Yochai Benkler, danah boyd, and Fred von Loehmann, to name a few. It covers a wide-ranging topical terrain, much like the internet itself, with particular emphasis on collaboration and sharing, the politics of social media and social networking, Free Culture and copyright politics, and labor and ownership. Theorizing new models of collaboration, identity, commerce, copyright, ownership, and labor, these essays outline possibilities for cultural democracy that arise when the formerly passive audience becomes active cultural creators, while warning of the dystopian potential of new forms of surveillance and control." (Publisher description)
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"This practical guide to sustainable IT offers a detailed, hands-on introduction to thinking about sustainable computing holistically; starting with the choices you make when buying technology, the software and peripherals you use, through to how you store and work with information, manage your secu
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rity, save power, and maintain and dispose of your old hardware. Suggestions and advice for policy makers are also included, along with some practical tips for internet service providers. Written by IT expert and environmentalist Paul Mobbs, the purpose of the guide is to encourage ICT-for-development (ICTD) practitioners to begin using technology in an environmentally sound way. But its usefulness extends beyond this to everyday consumers of technology, whether in the home or office environment. We can all play our part, and the practice of sustainable computing will go a long way in helping to tackle the environmental crisis facing our planet." (Back cover)
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"During this period of rapid and significant change in journalistic practices, journalism educators are re-examining their own profession and contributing to the invention of new models and practices. This edited volume of studies by respected international scholars describes the diverse issues jour
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nalism educators are grappling with and the changes they are making in purpose and practice. The book is organized into three sections -- education, training and employment - that explore common themes:
" How the assumptions embedded in journalism education are being examined and revised in the light of transformative changes in communication;
" How the definitions of journalism and journalists are broadening in scope and what this means for educators;
" How newsrooms and training programs around the world are being re-examined and made more effective." (Publisher description)
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"The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy offers insights into the boundaries of this field of study, assesses why it is important, who is affected, and with what political, economic, social and cultural consequences. Provides the most up to date and comprehensive collection of essays f
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rom top scholars in the field includes contributions from western and eastern Europe, North and Central America, Africa and Asia; offers new conceptual frameworks and new methodologies for mapping the contours of emergent global media and communication policy; draws on theory and empirical research to offer multiple perspectives on the local, national, regional and global forums in which policy debate occurs." (Publisher description)
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"For many post-conflict countries like Peru, the end of gunfire does not necessarily imply an end to internal conflict. Remaining post-conflict societal friction may even be as threatening to long-lasting peace as the war itself. This situation may
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be attributed, in part, to the media’s failure to adequately mediate conflicting views of a country’s history—its causes and consequences, its villains and heroes. Certainly, newspapers, radio, and television, as well as the newly emerging micromedia (e.g., e-mail) and middle media (e.g., web logs or “blogs”), reach huge audiences on a daily basis before, during, or after conflict. As primary information sources in a democracy, these news outlets affect not only society’s impression of what news and issues should receive attention, but also the perception of this information. Given the great role that the media plays in shaping public opinion, it merits careful discussion." (Abstract)
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"Topics covered include the ongoing linguistic processes, controversies, and implications of language modernization; the functions of South Asian languages within the legal system, media, cinema, and religion; language conflicts and politics, and Sanskrit and its
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long traditions of study and teaching. Language in South Asia is an accessible interdisciplinary book for students and scholars in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language planning and South Asian studies." (Publisher description)
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"This report explores the rapid growth of investigative journalism overseas and suggests ways to best support and professionalize its practice in developing and democratizing countries. Among its findings:
• A substantial investment into investigative journalism programs can have significant posit
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ive impact in a wide range of countries, including those in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. Such funding will be most effective if long-term and integrated into broader initiatives that include legal reform and freedom of information.
• Nonprofit investigative reporting centers have proved to be viable organizations that can provide unique training and reporting, while serving as models of excellence that help to professionalize the local journalism community.
• The centers are part of an expanding global network of training institutes, reporting organizations, journalism associations, grant-making groups, and online networks that have great potential to effect change. Different programs will be appropriate for different regions and markets.
• Commercially based training, even in the West, plays little role in furthering investigative journalism, leaving nonprofit organizations to take the lead. Although university-based training has potential, it appears limited in scope outside the United States and Western Europe.
• Because of its emphasis on longer-term, high-impact journalism, investigative reporting projects can be difficult to evaluate. Training and reporting projects aimed at creating a culture of investigative journalism should be evaluated based on their quality and impact, not broad numbers of people trained and stories produced." (Executive summary)
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