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Supras Briefing Notes

Contains drafts, memos, notes and pre-publication papers. The series consist of output prepared by Supras and/or its staff and consultants in connection with the activities Supras is involved in, typically in the form of drafts or spin-off ideas and thoughts. Items are added as and when they are prepared, and are numbered consecutively. All output is available for downloading.



No. 1 – ICT and development: east is east and West is west and the twain may yet meet
Authors and date: Lars T. Soeftestad and Maung K. Sein, January 2003.
Content: Presents critical views on the prevalent conception of how ICT should be used in a developmental context. As a case study the process of preparing an ICT strategy in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is presented. [access]
Context: (1) Presented, with the title "ICT and development: east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet?", at the conference "Social implications of computers in developing countries", organized by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP)'s Working Group 9.4, Bangalore, India, 29-31 May 2002, (2) Published in Proceedings of the Seventh International Working Conference of the International Federation for Information Processing, Working Group 9.4,, Bangalore, India, 29-31 May 2002, pp. 234-45. Bangalore, India & London, UK: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore & Commonwealth Secretariat, 2002, (3) In connection with publishing the paper in an edited collection of papers (see below) it was revised, including with a revised title "ICT and development: east is east and west is west and the twain may yet meet", and published as Preprint, no. 12, 2002, Kristiansand, Norway, Agder University College, (4) After further revisions, published as the present Supras Briefing Note, (5) After further revisions published in: Krishna, S. and S. Madon, eds., The digital challenge, Information technology in the development context, pp. 63-82, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2003, and (6) Reprinted, with a revised title "ICT and development: east is east and west is west and the twain may yet meet. On the process of implementing an ICT-strategy in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)", in: Kariyawasam, Rohan, ed. The WTO, intellectual property, e-commerce and the internet, vol. II, Part "Developing countries, the new economy and the WTO," 2009, pp. ?-?, Cheltenham, UK: Edgar Elgar.
No. 2 – Social Geographic Information System (SGIS): Integrating GIS and participatory mapping
Author and date: Lars T. Soeftestad, April 2007.
Content: Presents a model and approach for how to integrate Geographic Information System (GIS), understood as a computer system capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing and displaying geographically-referenced information, on the one hand, with local-level data identified and collected by local people using some type of survey approach, on the other hand. [access]
Context: Early draft for paper presented at the ESRI’s International User Conference, San Diego, California, United States, 18-22 June 2007.
No. 3 – Small-scale fisheries, networking and Web 2.0
Author and date: Lars T. Soeftestad, January 2009.
Content: A proposal for how to utilize select Web 2.0 tools towards preparing, organization and follow-up of the FAO and World Bank sponsored conference “Securing sustainable small-scale fisheries. Brings together responsible fisheries and social development”, October 2008. [to be made available]
No. 4– Information and communication technology in rural areas
Author and date: Lars T. Soeftestad, February 2011.
Content: This Note address the social, cultural and institutional implications of a proposed massive high-speed broadband (HSB) development project throughout Europe, including Eastern Europa. The overall argument focuses partly on the project implementation itself and the ability of local people to cope and adjust, and partly on issues related to the what, why and how's (as seen from the point of view of local people), of suddenly having access to HSB. [access]
Context: Separate output of contributions to a discussion on a LinkedIn group in January 2011.