Rethinking “Development” in the Age of Social Media

Leslie ChanUniversity of Toronto Scarborough

Peace and Conflict Conference 2012University of Torontohttp://peaceandconflict.ca/rootsandlegacies/

“ What has Wikipedia got to do with the 49 percent of the population of Congo that lacks sustainable access to improve water resources?”

Yochai Benkler (2006) The Wealth of Network

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wealth_of_networks/Chapter_9%2C_section_2

http://one.laptop.org/stories

“Today’s technology can empower civil society, including the diaspora, to collaborate and support the development process. This collaboration is about shifting the emphasis from organizations to people, and empowering them to solve their own problems and develop their own solutions using maps.”

World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region Obiageli Ezekwesili,

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/01/world-bank-and-google-join-forces-to.html

http://afrographique.tumblr.com/post/7087562485/infographic-depicting-smart-and-dumb-mobile

http://www.esoko.com

Patents granted (2002)

http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=167

http://phandroid.com/2012/01/24/infographic-the-patent-wars-web/

PIPA (Protect IP Act)

Research Works Act

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/16/academic-publishers-enemies-science

The World of Journal Publishing According to Thomson’s ISI Science Citation Index

Data from 2002http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=205

http://thomsonreuters.com/

http://ke.thomsonreuters.com/#/index.html

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“ What has Wikipedia got to do with the 49 percent of the population of Congo that lacks sustainable access to improve water resources?”

Yochai Benkler (2006) The Wealth of Network

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wealth_of_networks/Chapter_9%2C_section_2

Commons based peer productionOpenCollaborativeNon-proprietary

• High entry cost• Turing raw materials

into goods• Firms and

Corporation• Vertical organization• Centralized decision

making• Standardization

• Relatively low entry cost

• Knowledge as raw material

• Distributed production• Horizontal organization• Flexible decision

making• Customization

Industrial Information Economy

Networked Information Economy

http://www.ushahidi.com/

http://kenya.ushahidi.com/

“In the 17th century, imperial cartographers had an advantage over local communities. They could see the big picture. In the 21st century, the tables have turned: local communities can make the biggest on the ground difference. Crowdsourced citizen cartographers can help make it happen.” (Caroline Anstey)

Here’s another version: “In the 21st century, for-profit companies like Google Inc have an

advantage over local communities. They can use big license restrictions. With the Google-Bank partnership, Google can use local communities to collect information for free and make the biggest profit. Crowdsourced citizen cartographers can help make it happen.” (Ushahidi)

http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2012/01/25/google-inc-world-bank-empowering-citizen-cartographers/

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Google_Map_Maker

http://www.openaccessmap.org

http://www.medknow.com/