Logo courtesy of ICTD 2012, Georgia Tech

Many of the Global Impact Study research partners will be attending the upcoming ICTD 2012 conference in Atlanta, Georgia March 12-15, 2012. In addition to TASCHA researchers, representatives from our survey implementation teams in Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and the Philippines will attend, as will some of the principal investigators of our in-depth studies. Components of the Global Impact Study will be highlighted in two open sessions and one presentation. We hope that any of you attending ICTD 2012 will consider participating in one or more of the sessions and presentation.

Open session: Want open research? Deep dive into data with the Global Impact Study

Technology and Social Change Group, University of Washington Information School

This session will bring together individuals interested in survey data analysis, for an intensive day of exploring user survey data from the Global Impact Study. As a core component of the project we carried out surveys of public access ICT venue operators, users, and non-users in five countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and the Philippines. The data with accompanying meta-documentation will be made publicly available upon completion of the project.

Session participants will have the opportunity to review and work with the user survey dataset representing approximately 5,000 users. The data cover a wide range of topics including user demographics, usage patterns, and perceived impacts. Opportunities abound for participants to pursue diverse lines of interest.

This session will be facilitated by the project’s management team with support from staff of the University of Washington’s Center for Statistical Consulting.

Open session: Distant fields, common findings? Identifying the challenges and benefits of multi-country qualitative research

Jenna Burrell, UC Berkeley; Janet Kwami, Furman University; Elisa Oreglia, UC Berkeley; Ricardo Ramirez, Independent, Canada; Andy Gordon, University of Washington; Balaji Parthasarathy, IIITB – Bangalore, India

The goal of this workshop is to discuss experiences in multi-country ethnographic/qualitative field work, an area that has been mostly the domain of quantitative studies. We build on the two separate multi-country projects carried out by the organizers, in order to identify what are the advantages and the risks of such research, how to coordinate research questions and hypothesis-making with the need to keep open to discoveries, and what role can this type of research play in the field of ICTD.

The first project is a 3-country (Ghana, Uganda, and China) study employing an ethnographic research to look at the adoption and use of ICT among ‘marginalized populations,’ focusing on market women in Ghana, farmers in rural China, and slum dwellers in Uganda, and comparing their practices and the information processes that exist around their businesses.  The second project combined several qualitative data collection tools, including ethnographies, with country-wide surveys to study ‘infomediaries’ (persons who combine a set of technological resources and coaching to meet users’ information needs and communication capabilities) in Lithuania, Chile, and Bangladesh. It focused on libraries, telecenters, and cybercafés to investigate and generate evidence on the scale, character, and impact of public access to ICT. Part of a larger project entitled Global Impact Study of Public Access to Information & Communication Technology, it investigates the impact of ICT in a number of areas, including communication and leisure, culture and language, education, employment and income, governance, and health.

Presentation: Sharing in public: Working with others in Ghanaian cybercafés

Michael Best, Bence Kollanyi, Sunil Garg, all of Georgia Tech

This paper explores the different ways in which people collaborate and share knowledge in public internet venues, or cybercafés, in Ghana, West Africa. Based on 150 survey interviews conducted in two different cybercafés, one urban and business-oriented and the other peri-urban and family-oriented, the authors find that most cybercafé customers, largely regardless of their demographic, would like to engage in collaborative work in public internet venues and that a large percentage already are. This paper is based on the Collaborative Knowledge Sharing in-depth study of the Global Impact Study.

Contrary to the belief of resource constraints driving shared use, those participants who reported already working together in the cybercafés generally did not cite economic motivations for their collaboration but instead identified enhanced productivity as the main reason. These collaborating respondents also reported performing more instrumental activities in the café and were more likely to have learned critical computing skills there when compared to those who were not already collaborating. Furthermore, they report being more social in their activities at the venue. Finally, the paper notes that collaboration and peer learning is not always planned or made public; voyeuristic forms of knowledge sharing, such as when someone glances at a stranger’s computer screen, are also cited by the survey participants as a learning opportunity in these public venues.

For more information about ICTD 2012, please visit http://ictd2012.org/.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user mlibrarianus

This paper presents various characteristics of public access ICT users. While earlier research suggests that public access ICT users are young, male, and only play games, the Global Impact Study has found that a myriad of user profiles exist. Looking at a variety of variables, from gender to income and education to age, this working paper highlights the diversity found among public access ICT users.

Abstract

Based on a survey of public access ICT users in five countries, this working paper outlines some basic characteristics of users – their demographics, history of using ICTs and reasons for using public access ICTs. This preliminary analysis indicates that while a large proportion of public access ICT users are young (40% under 20 years old), male (65%), students (44%), and have at least secondary education (82%), there is a fair amount of diversity in user characteristics. The significance of public access ICTs is demonstrated in the finding that most users’ first contact with computers (50%) and the internet (62%) was in a public access venue, and even those who have access at home patronize venues for other reasons, such as better equipment, faster connections, being with friends, or having access to help from venue staff.

Download

Full report: Public access to ICTs: Sculpting the profile of users

Recommended Citation

Sciadas, G., with Lyons, H., Rothschild, C., & Sey, A. (2012). Public access to ICTs: Sculpting the profile of users. Seattle: Technology & Social Change Group, University of Washington Information School.

Keywords

public access, users, cybercafés, internet cafes, libraries, telecenters, internet, ICT, ICTD

Tyler Davis, PI for the Benefit Cost Analysis in-depth study, describes the three methods:

1. Travel Cost Survey: The travel cost method of conducting benefit cost analysis is a measure of “use value.” Use value is the value that individuals who use a resource place upon that resource. For resources that are not traded in the open market the use value is difficult to estimate because there is no observable price that individuals pay to access the good (for example, the price of access to the internet at a public library). In these cases the researcher must use non-market valuation methods. The travel cost method is a means to estimate the minimum value an individual places on a good or service by observing their travel time and travel cost expended to reach the resource. By estimating the opportunity cost of their time spend in travel to the resource and the transportation costs incurred, we identify the minimum value the individual places on access to the ICT resource. The travel cost method is being implemented in five countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana and the Philippines) through questions in the Global Impact Study’s user survey.
2. Contingent Valuation Survey: For the Benefit Cost Analysis in-depth study in Chile, we are using a contingent valuation (dichotomous choice) survey that relies upon stated preference. We are not measuring a market good so we again rely on non-market valuation methods. For the contingent valuation study we are conducting a random sample of individuals and presenting them with a hypothetical referendum to prevent the reduction of hours of service of a public access ICT venue. The respondent is asked to consider the value they place on the public access venue even if they do not use it themselves. The contingent valuation method captures use value from people who use public access venues, and non-use values by identifying non-users’ willingness to pay for the public to have access to ICT venues. The non-use value is almost always higher than the use value for public goods, as the number of non-users is usually greater than the number of users. This study will complement the travel cost data from the user survey in Chile to present a more complete picture of the value of public access to ICT by presenting both a high and low value of public access ICT benefits. The contingent valuation survey is being implemented in Chile through one of the Global Impact Study’s in-depth studies.
3. Stated Preference Survey: The third study relies upon a survey where individuals are asked to state their willingness to pay to prevent public access ICT venues from closing. This method has greater error than the contingent valuation method, but uses dissonance minimization methods to diminish these sources of error. Methods to reduce error include allowing individuals to share their preferences for payment vehicles, and acknowledging that some services should be provided to everyone. The non-user survey captures only non-use value by definition. We expect the stated willingness to pay to prevent closure of public access venues will result in a higher valuation than the travel cost method because it includes non-use values, which are usually higher than use values. In conjunction with the travel cost study, we will present a range of values for each of the five countries in the Global Impact Study’s non-user survey.

Pursuing three types of benefit cost analysis will allow us to present both use and non-use values for access to information and communication technology, and to show how the values differ across geographic and demographic characteristics. Together these three methods provide a more nuanced view of how individuals value access to ICT, and how that value differs by venue. This nuanced view will inform ICT providers by identifying locations and individuals who place the greatest value on access to ICT and suggest increased efficiencies in choosing between types of venues and locations for siting new venues.

We will share findings as they emerge from the benefit cost analysis components of the Global Impact Study using the costs & benefits tag. As always, we welcome your comments and questions below.

View the poster here.

Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) research seminars offer students an opportunity to gain practical research experience with one of our many projects investigating the design, use, and impact of information and communication technologies in communities facing social and economic challenges.

The Winter 2012 section (held at the University of Washington Information School) — course number INFX 571 C/D — focuses on analysis of data from the Global Impact Study. The Global Impact Study comprises a variety of research activities, including a comprehensive set of surveys of public access venue owners/operators, users, and non-users at more than a thousand public access venues in Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and the Philippines. The result is a rich source of data on demographics, usage needs/behaviors, and services in these countries. The seminar will focus on analysis of the survey data and provide opportunities to participate in different aspects of the project from crunching numbers to reviewing related literature. This is a great opportunity to learn and apply quantitative methods in a real research context with real data. The seminar will be led by George Sciadas (Statistics Canada), Hil Lyons (UW Center for Statistical Consulting), and Araba Sey (TASCHA).

The Global Impact Study’s approach to communications and knowledge sharing has been evolving since the project started in 2007. Initial efforts focused on building a list of people and organizations who might be interested in the project (or who might act as “knowledge multipliers” — spreading the word for us), laying out our research design, and keeping folks up to date about new studies, early research outputs, and where we are in the process. You can download a current snapshot of the strategy.

Now it’s time to start thinking about how we’re going to package and disseminate findings. Specifically what types of formats and products are useful for donors, decision-makers, practitioners, and other researchers. At first glance, there are three broad categories of outputs, all of which will appeal to different people:

1. “Meta” & Process — Updates about how we’re working, why we made the decisions we did, etc. This content often remains invisible but it’s really important because it captures learning about how to design, implement, and get the most out of a project of this scope. And sharing this stuff is a key to doing open research. [This post falls into this category.]
2. Assets — A lot of good tools, instruments, protocols, and methodologies get created when doing research. Again, important to the “how,” to learning, and to building research capacity. These are practical outputs that can be adapted to conduct future research efforts.
3. Findings — These are the research outputs. They come in two flavors: “raw” (data) and “value added” (articles, reports, presentations) — with analysis and recommendations. This is the new knowledge generated over the last five years. Our goal will be to present this in a way that’s useful — for decision-making, for advocacy, as a basis for more research and learning.

We’re going to stop developing our strategy as a document that gets passed around internally. We’re going to open it up and post it live — in a new “Knowledge Sharing” section on this website. We hope that you’ll take a look and provide us with feedback and suggestions. And, as always, we encourage you to use what we’ve created and build on it.

Stay tuned!

Overview of the talk

The Global Impact Study surveys were designed to collect comparable data on uses and outcomes of public access ICT use in five countries on three continents. This TASCHA Talk will reflect on a range of research design and project management issues encountered during various stages of the survey project.

For more information about this talk and other TASCHA Talks, visit the TASCHA website.

Executive Summary

The Global Impact Study Project-Wide Workshop was held June 28-30, 2011 at the Islandwood Campus  in Bainbridge Island, WA. The workshop had three main objectives within the overarching objective of launching the third and final phase of the Global Impact Study: 1) Sharing among the workshop participants about the various research activities and findings to date, 2) Discovering potential lines of analysis emerging from the data , and 3) Committing to project outputs and communication activities for dissemination. Over the three days, workshop participants discussed their research and findings, received feedback on their work, reviewed the user and venue survey data, discussed areas for analysis and integration of the data from both the surveys and in-depth studies, and considered how the Global Impact Study, both collectively and by individual research partners, can best aggregate and disseminate the findings from this study in final outputs.

The first day of the workshop focused on updates from the in-depth studies. The second day offered an opportunity for participants to learn about the emerging findings and initial analysis of the user and venue survey data. Research implementation teams also gave an overview of country-specific public access landscapes, and all participants were able to delve deeper into the survey data and begin discussions on data integration. As the second day ended, participants began to talk about potential project outputs and dissemination activities, such as an academic book and panels at ICTD 2012. After a presentation on the data integration framework, the third day was composed of smaller working groups: the research implementation teams on country-specific outputs, the PIs on their final report structure and the potential for an academic book, and the survey data analysis working group on survey data cleaning and further analysis. Following these working sessions were additional working sessions with the survey data analysis working group discussing the survey data with the in-depth study PIs, and participants identifying specific upcoming opportunities, such as conferences, for outputs and dissemination.

Download workshop report.

Survey team members working on survey reports; photo courtesy of Melody Clark

We will soon release three reports based on top-level analysis of user and venue survey data from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, and the Philippines. Based on analysis conducted by the survey team, the three reports are as follows:

1. Profile of public access venue users: This report covers high-level findings about who public access venue users are based on the survey data. From the level of ICT skills of users and employment status to age, income, and other socio-economic demographic information, the report provides an overview of  public access venue users.
2. Public access venue uses and services: This report covers the services public access venues offer, such as ICT training and printing. Also described in this report is the accessibility of public access venues and how users make use of these venues. Factors examined in this report include why people use public access venues, the types of information they seek, and what services are most used at venues.
3. Perceived impacts of public access venues: This report covers perceived impacts, direct and indirect, of public access venues. This report includes analysis of how users perceive the impacts of public access venue use, both on them and on the community, in six domains of interest: communication & leisure, culture & language, education, employment & income, governance, and health.

Draft versions of these three reports were presented at the June 2011 workshop to solicit feedback for revisions to the reports. The survey team is currently working on finalizing the reports for review, and once the review is complete, we will post the reports on this website. We anticipate the reports will be posted sometime later this fall.

Many survey respondents report that they have home access, but continue to use public access venues to communicate with their parents who are working abroad due to better connection speeds, other services (e.g., printing), and being able to see their friends. However, only a small number of parents working abroad use cybercafes or other public access venues, relying on their own computers and internet connections or those of their employers.

Home internet users report having more knowledge of the lives of their parents who are working abroad than those who solely use public access venues. Many of those without access at home report they are able to use public access venues at least once a month, and in between venue use, most rely on mobile phones to communicate with their family members. Those who use internet at public access venues have a higher budget for communications than those who just use mobile phones.

Almost half of the parents of users surveyed work in the Middle East, and the majority are domestic workers or working in construction.

Stay tuned for more emerging findings for this study, as well as other in-depth studies and survey results. Follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our RSS feed, and sign up for our newsletter.

More information on the Interpersonal Communications in-depth study.

This workshop is significant in the Global Impact Study timeline, as it launched the next phase of our study – data analysis and integration. The majority of the workshop was devoted to sharing and discussing the emerging findings from each of the research activities. This revealed patterns and insights that will inform the integrated analysis effort over the coming year, culminating in the study’s final report, journal articles, policy briefs, practitioner tools and other outputs. Along the way we will be disseminating early reports, beginning with three working papers later this summer summarizing top-line results from the surveys.

We also began to identify opportunities, such as conferences and stakeholder convenings, to engage with communities that will be interested in the study’s findings.  We will announce these venues as they are confirmed.

A full workshop report will be released later this month.

Led by Angelina Totolo and Jacobus Christiaan Renken of the University of Botswana, this study seeks to answer the research questions below, also exploring is there is a difference in the impacts along gender lines, on rural/urban dwellers, or in people who live in places endowed with natural capital like mining, tourism, or agriculture.

1. Do public access ICTs and services located in libraries have an impact of reducing vulnerability of its users by enhancing education? If so, how do these public access ICTs and services impact the education of its users?
2. Do public access ICTs and services located in libraries have an impact of reducing vulnerability of its users by increasing employability? If so, how do these public access ICTs and services impact their employability?
3. Do public access ICTs and services located in libraries have an impact of reducing vulnerability by instigating income generating strategies? If so, what income generating strategies emanated from the use of these public ICTs and services?

This study uses a variety of research methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative, the indicators will be investigated through surveys, interviews, and focus groups at public access venues. Findings from this study may inform both government and private sectors about the benefits of using ICTs. The study may also provide evidence for all the sponsors of ICTs in Botswana in terms of whether there was a return on the ICT investment that was made in relation to development, poverty alleviation, and improved skills.

Download the entire proposal for this in-depth study.

In the pre-conference event, Jonathan described the ongoing research in South Africa to highlight some environmental and contextual factors which may influence success and scope of future Social Media for Development (SM4D) initiatives.  Most of the conversations of the pre-conference event focused on the problem of how to approach social media inside the “traditional” Information & Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) paradigms.  When the same channels can be used for information search and social support, for commerce and for entertainment, for information diffusion and for non-hierarchical spontaneous organization, can traditional approaches to ICT4D keep pace?

These questions which are central to the Mobile internet study of the Global Impact Study, so Jonathan and Marion‘s preliminary interviews and engagements with teenagers in Cape Town were a helpful contribution to this overall discussion.

Download the full Notes on the interplay of mobile and fixed internet use by low-income teens in Cape Town paper.

We plan for three main phases of analysis. The first phase was recently completed and culminated in a preliminary summary of the user survey data from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile and the Philippines, which was used as the basis for the survey data analysis workshop held on April 18-19.  The second phase of analysis aims to produce three basic descriptive reports on the profile of public access ICT users, services provided and usage of public access ICT venues, and perceived impacts of using public access ICTs. The third phase will comprise more complex analyses as well as blending of data from the user, venue and non-user surveys.

Survey data analysis workshop; photo courtesy of Melody Clark

In our workshop on data integration, we developed a data integration framework, demonstrating how we will tie together the data and findings from all of our research activities. The framework will provide an analytical lens for interpreting our data and conceptualizing the impacts of public access ICTs. We also identified the main objectives for a project-wide data integration workshop which we will hold at the end of June 2011. The June workshop will bring together our research partners to share findings from their in-depth studies and local country contexts, review data from all components of the project research, and identify streams of analysis and themes for our research reports.

We would like to thank Francois Bar, Mike Crandall, Hil Lyons and Yuan Chiam from the Center for Statistical Consulting, and George Sciadas, as well as Andy Gordon and Beth Kolko for their invaluable insights and participation during last week’s workshops. Thanks also to all our research partners for your updates and reports, which were valuable inputs for the workshops.