Dear All,
Aparna Moitra, a visiting Postdoc at the Third Space research group of the DGP Lab, will deliver a talk on her research in rural India. You all are cordially invited. Also, please feel free to share this with your students and colleagues.
Details are as follows:
Time: Tuesday, March 3, 2020, 1630 to 1730 hrs Location: Bahen Centre, Room 5187 (DGP Seminar Room), 40 Saint George St.
Title: An Analysis of Community Mobilization Strategies of a Voice-based Community Media Platform in Rural India
Abstract: We define community mobilization as offline activities typically required in ICTD initiatives to train users and drive adoption for the sustained use of ICTs within the community. Community mobilization forms an important but under-discussed component of ICTD initiatives. In this talk, I will present a case study of a voice-based community media platform in rural central India and the experiments it has undergone with multiple community mobilization strategies over a period of five years. We have analyzed different phases of community mobilization and draw insights related to how technology platforms can be appropriated by specific actors to drive their own agendas, how organizational control can be imposed to prevent undesirable appropriation, yet give communities the flexibility to use the platform according to their needs, and how group structures and hybrid financial-social incentives can be created to build sustainable networks that can be replicated and scaled in a standardized manner. We have used the Actor-Network Theory, along with Olson’s Theory of Groups and Incentives to explain our observations. Our methods can be generalized and applied by other ICTD initiatives to evaluate their own community mobilization strategies.
Bio: Aparna Moitra is a Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher with the Third Space group of the DGP Lab at the Department of Computer Science, UofT. She has a PhD from the University of Delhi, India, where she worked on embedding an externally-driven voice-based community media platform among the low-literacy and socially marginalized populations of Rural India. Her talk is based on a paper she published in the Journal of Information Technologies and International Development (ITID) from her PhD work. Post-PhD, her research interests have diversified towards qualitatively investigating the role of technological interventions (such as online feminist movements) and their design in supplementing on-ground social justice ecosystems in case of gender-based violence.
Best Regards, Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto
A gentle reminder that the talk will start at 4:30 pm.
Best Regards, Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto
On Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 9:48 PM Ishtiaque Ahmed ishtiaque@cs.toronto.edu wrote:
Dear All,
Aparna Moitra, a visiting Postdoc at the Third Space research group of the DGP Lab, will deliver a talk on her research in rural India. You all are cordially invited. Also, please feel free to share this with your students and colleagues.
Details are as follows:
Time: Tuesday, March 3, 2020, 1630 to 1730 hrs Location: Bahen Centre, Room 5187 (DGP Seminar Room), 40 Saint George St.
Title: An Analysis of Community Mobilization Strategies of a Voice-based Community Media Platform in Rural India
Abstract: We define community mobilization as offline activities typically required in ICTD initiatives to train users and drive adoption for the sustained use of ICTs within the community. Community mobilization forms an important but under-discussed component of ICTD initiatives. In this talk, I will present a case study of a voice-based community media platform in rural central India and the experiments it has undergone with multiple community mobilization strategies over a period of five years. We have analyzed different phases of community mobilization and draw insights related to how technology platforms can be appropriated by specific actors to drive their own agendas, how organizational control can be imposed to prevent undesirable appropriation, yet give communities the flexibility to use the platform according to their needs, and how group structures and hybrid financial-social incentives can be created to build sustainable networks that can be replicated and scaled in a standardized manner. We have used the Actor-Network Theory, along with Olson’s Theory of Groups and Incentives to explain our observations. Our methods can be generalized and applied by other ICTD initiatives to evaluate their own community mobilization strategies.
Bio: Aparna Moitra is a Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher with the Third Space group of the DGP Lab at the Department of Computer Science, UofT. She has a PhD from the University of Delhi, India, where she worked on embedding an externally-driven voice-based community media platform among the low-literacy and socially marginalized populations of Rural India. Her talk is based on a paper she published in the Journal of Information Technologies and International Development (ITID) from her PhD work. Post-PhD, her research interests have diversified towards qualitatively investigating the role of technological interventions (such as online feminist movements) and their design in supplementing on-ground social justice ecosystems in case of gender-based violence.
Best Regards, Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto
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Ishtiaque Ahmed