Oplæg,

1. Introduction to FAIR and our projects
By Nis & Benjamin
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2. Who are we?
● FAIR Allocation of Infotech Resources
● Started in 2008
● Small NGO based in Copenhagen
● Workshop + Office + Warehouse
● Our goal is to combine a humanitarian goal of
reducing the digital divide with a environmental goal
of reusing ICT
● A pilot project in Malawi running for ~1 year
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3. Who we work with
● Company partners and private memberships
● Danish government
● Danida & Projektrådgivningen
● NGOs and schools
● NICE from Malawi (National Initiative for Civic
Education)
● Secondary Schools in Malawi
● REACT, Copenhagen / Sierra Leone
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4. Humanitarian goal: The digital divide
●
Unequal access to ICT: information & communication,
knowledge production & sharing, organizational efficiency &
economy
●
ICT in Malawi (2008)
●
12% has a mobile phone, 0.2 % has a computer, 2.1 % has access
to internet
●
ICT4D: Information and communication technologies for
development
●
Education, health, democracy, enterprise
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5. Internet users Malawi Vs The
World
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6. Environmental goal: Reuse ICT
● Tons of wasted equipment (DK: 400.000+
computers)
● Consumerism, company strategies and policies
● 60% of EU E-waste is processed in EU – the rest??
● Average use: 3 years
● In developing world: Up to 10 years
● Ratio between production and consumption phase:
~80% of emissions come from production!
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9. Malawi
●
Population: 15+ mio. (123 pr km2)
●
GDP per capita: $322 => top 5 least developed
country
●
Challenges
●
Economic crisis, AIDS, Malaria, hunger, political
instability, corruption, gender inequality
●
Peaceful, free press, free primary and secondary
school, good universities, never had war
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14. Computer Centers in Malawi
●
4 secondary schools + 1 district council
●
Each center has 30-50 computers
●
Used by host school and remote schools
●
Reaches out to ~4000 students, ~200 teachers and
community
●
Computer & Democracy clubs and IT-courses
for local community
●
Sustainability and learning environment
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16. Technology in the centers
●
Server + LAN + Printer + Projector
●
Edubuntu (Linux) + 30000 programs and
packages
●
Full offline Wikipedia
●
Khan Academy
●
Digital Library + Video library
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18. Why do Master with FAIR?
●
Interested in technologies and development
●
Not the usual master thesis partner
●
A relevant and ongoing case from a grass-root
perspective
●
Your ideas, not pre-determined categories,
titles and subjects
●
Access to a network of partners in Denmark
and Malawi
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19. What could a Master with FAIR
be?
●
How can IT induce development?
●
Reduce poverty, increase democracy, secure human rights?
●
Technology transfers across multiple boundaries
●
Geographical, cultural, environmental, political etc.
●
Corporate Social Responsibility strategies
●
Transferring innovation processes
●
Open source software in development?
●
IT and learning environments
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20. An example: a Master with FAIR
● Information studies: a sociology of technologies
● Technologies in development
● From modernization to partnerships
● An ethnography from the perspective of FAIR
● The computer as a socio-technical object
● Studying the configurations in practice
● In Denmark and Malawi
● Change context, change technologies
● Change technologies, change context
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21. The end
Thank you for listening!
www.fairdanmark.dk
nis@fairdanmark.dk
benjamin@fairdanmark.dk
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