The Global Impact Study

François Bar

François Bar is Associate Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He is a steering committee member of the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication. His research and teaching focus on the social and economic impacts of information technologies, with a specific concentration on telecommunication policy, user-driven innovation and technology appropriation. His most recent work examines the impact of information technology for development, in places ranging from East Africa to Latin America. His work has been published in books of collected studies, in policy reports, and in such journals as Information Technologies and International Development, Communications & Strategies, Telecommunications Policy, The Information Society, Media, Culture & Society, Organization Science, Infrastructure Economics and Policy, Communications & Strategies, Réseaux, and the International Journal of Technology Management. He is co-Editor in Chief of Information Technologies and International Development (ITID).

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Research Design: Assessing impact from four complementary angles

February 11, 2010

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Although our basic approach remains the same, we're learning along the way and our thinking is evolving. This post summarizes the updates in our research design, articulated around four basic components: (1) Inventory and surveys that provide a big-picture view, (2) Focused studies of specific mechanisms through which public access impacts livelihoods, (3) An assessment of indirect and aggregated impacts, (4) A look at alternatives and complements to public access, focusing on mobile phones.

Remembering Amy

August 19, 2009

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Amy Mahan served on the Global Impact Study's Research Working Group since the project's inception a year and a half ago. She made key contributions to the conception and design of our research effort, helped shape its focus, hypotheses and methodology. Amy left us on March 5th, 2009, at age 47. She worked with us until the end and left suddenly, taking many of her friends and colleagues by surprise.

Public access innovations: Phone repair in Bangladesh

August 17, 2009

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A few months ago, these two Bangladeshi women opened a mobile phone repair shop in the small village of Kathalia, Narsinghi district, a two-hour drive north of Dhaka. They are among the 22 women who graduated from a training workshop on cell phone servicing and information technology in January 2008. Another woman has also set up shop in a nearby village, while the remaining 19 repair phones in their homes, advertising their services with a sign on the road.

François Bar

Research Design: Assessing impact from four complementary angles

Remembering Amy

Public access innovations: Phone repair in Bangladesh

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