ICTD2010- Let's Bridge Those Divides by Pamela McLean December 7, 2010

I wrote this before ICTD2010 in response to a pre-conference focus paper called - Research needs from a developing world perspective http://dadamac.posterous.com/ictd2010-research-needs-from-a-developing-wor

Let's Bridge Those Divides  

by Pamela McLean (http://www.dadamac.net/about/pam)

Thank you Ineke Busken for writing the introduction - Bridging the Divides. I feel you wrote words that have been on my heart for many years – from soon after I found myself drawn into “working holidays” in rural Nigeria through a Nigerian friend in London. I now work in collaboration with John Dada http://www.dadamac.net/about/john under the name Dadamac. It would be hard for me, outside the academic community, to say what you said so compellingly. I am so glad you said it.( http://www.pre-conferenceictd2010.org/ )

Practitioner seeking researchers

I am a practitioner and I am hoping to find researchers who think as you do. I want to learn from those who are working in the ways you recommend. I also want to encourage people who are looking for better opportunities for collaboration, to enter into dialogue with the people I know – grassroots people who will help them to do research that is meaningful on both sides.

Smart phones aid communication

My contacts are people who, until very recently, were hard to communicate with - but things have changed. At one time I would count myself lucky if an email to one of my contacts turned around in six weeks. Back then it could take someone a whole weekend to travel to a cyber cafe and back. Now we are in contact not only through cyber cafes etc, but also by using smart phones – to access the Internet, attend UK-Africa skype online meetings and so on.

Easier collaboration

This online contact means that the kind of collaboration you talk about is easier to organise than ever before. Thanks to smart phones, the collaboration can be direct from the UK (as well as, or instead of field work). If there is field work, then it can be prepared in detail so that people can arrive in Africa and hit the ground running. Detailed information can be provided when funding proposals are being written, - for example http://dadamac.posterous.com/countdown-to-comic-relief-assessment-meeting There is no longer any need (nor any excuse) for top down projects.

Applying academic brain power

When I was a “newbie practitioner” I used to read reports from academics, and I used to read policy reports. I was hungry for knowledge and insights and models of good practice. After a few years I stopped reading most of them (there are some notable exceptions). I found it distressing to see so much time, and so much money, and so much good brain power invested in things that seemed so disconnected from the grassroots reality that I was getting to know.

Exciting opportunities

I am excited by the opportunities that ICT offers to us all for communication – genuine two way communication – not just “top down”, not just “top down with mechanisms for bottom up” not even “top down that does take some notice of what comes up from the bottom.” No, it offers a complete shift of perspective, a genuine two-way flow of information “across” – back and forth - between equals. It can be genuine social networking equality – researchers collaborating in new ways with the “researched”. However, from the grassroots we recognise that it is easier for grassroots to find the academics than vice versa. With that in mind we set up Dadamac http://dadamac.posterous.com/dadamac-the-internet-enabled-alternative-to-t

to help researchers and developers to make easier connections beyond the the cities, and beyond the elite compounds of the educated and/or the powerful.

Meeting at ICTD2010

I will be running a session (very participative) to explore ways that ICT is affecting the ways that people do their research – and I will be around throughout ICTD2010. I look forward to learning, and collaborating, and I look forward to meeting you Ineke, and people who share your vision.

This can also be found on the ICTD2010 website if you go to http://www.pre-conferenceictd2010.org/ then click the link to ICT4D research stories.

Posted to  Dadamac's Posterous by Pamela McLean

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Email -  pamela.mclean@dadamac.net
Twitter -  @Pamela_McLean and #dadamac

Dadamac - Integrating Education and Development in Africa and Online