Dr Thompson addresses some of the opportunities and contradictions presented by ICT4D and considers some emerging ways in which ICT4D researchers may contribute to the field.
The discipline of ICT4D has never appeared more, or less, relevant. On the one hand, technology has become unprecedentedly pervasive, plastic, mobile, and cheap; increasingly based on open standards, emerging, platform-based architectures beckon towards an empowered era of development hubs, mashups, and commercial and social enterprise that increasingly offer those in emerging economies an independent, 'continuous beta' of thought and activity. On the other, it might be said that such positive developments challenge those working in ICT4D, and even 'development' itself, to engage in a new way with people who are increasingly 'doing it for themselves'. In this talk, Thompson addresses some of the opportunities and contradictions presented by this tension, and considers some emerging ways in which ICT4D researchers may contribute to the field.
