In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, like the earthquake in Haiti, the need to communicate is immense. From the search for loved ones, to coordination of humanitarian relief, to simple messages of "I'm alive," between family members.

In fact, Secretary Clinton mentioned the three highest proprieties for the US government efforts will be communications, electricity, and transportation.

But much of the telecom infrastructure in and around Port-au-Prince was severely damaged or destroyed by the earthquake. And the resulting information vacuum is hampering vital emergency relief operations and recovery efforts.

Into this gap, several ICT solutions are arriving:

• Ushahidi's crisis mapping is identifying places of need
• The Inventorisation Wiki and Sahana are coordinating relief efforts online
• Inveneo will be bringing Internet connectivity to local NGOs

Establishing networks like these are a cornerstone of good disaster relief, and will support additional ICT infrastructure and facilitate long-term ICT capacity building and reconstruction. Yet the task is not easy.

Just to send two staff and equipment, Inveneo worked through the weekend to prepare:

Learn more about Inveneo's response, by subscribing to their RSS, Twitter, or Facebook feeds.

Often governments have the idea that that can increase the competitiveness of their country by investing in the ICT industry as an export sector. They are enamored by the success of Silicon Valley in creating wealth and want to have their own Google Guys to brag about.

ICT for teachers

Sometimes this hope becomes hubris, but we all need to keep realistic about the impact of ICT on a country's economy. ICT is usually best and enabler of other industries, not a viable export industry in itself.

In the Technical Brief When Should the ICT Sector be a Target for Private Sector Competitiveness Work?, USAID goes into detail on why.

Mainly, countries are looking to increase employment, but the high skills required for competitive ICT development cannot be created quickly. Then, ICT as a sector is not a large employer when compared with industries like tourism or agriculture. Last but not least, technology investments can actually reduce employment at the enterprise level - firms can do more with less given the technological inputs.

But ICT can have a large catalytic effect on economic growth - they enhance productivity and innovation in other industries, making them more competitive. In fact, USAID recommends that:

Economic growth projects try to leverage this catalytic effect [of ICT] with a variety of activities that are different from activities that focus on growth of a country’s ICT sector itself. These catalytic activities should be aimed at helping to increase the chances businesses can recognize and implement ways to use ICT to boost their competitiveness and increasing access to affordable telecommunications services and devices to use them.

So rather than looking to replicate Silicon Valley, governments should use the tools of ICT to increase the efficiencies in other industries. Like ensuring Internet marketing by the tourism industry or promoting better crop management through push voice mail for farmers. Its in this use of ICT, as an enabler of other industries, that countries will see the greatest ICT impact.

The 12th annual AfricaCom Congress & Exhibition is the continent's
one and only MUST attend telecoms event.  This year offers you a
programme packed with inspirational conference sessions delivered by 50% MORE CxO level speakers, networking with 3,500+ telecoms players and a 220+ stand exhibition for you to discover new telecoms products and build profitable partnerships. Learn more here:

http://africa.comworldseries.com/home

As part of the Educational Technology Debate on expanding the role of women in ICT, I interviewed Kristin Peterson, co-founder and CEO of Inveneo.

I wanted to know how she was motivated to make a difference in the ICT field and how we might learn from her example to inspire girls and women in the developing world to use ICT in their chosen careers.

Interestingly enough, technology was not Kristin's first career. Watch the video to learn more:

Note that Krisitin listed the importance of parents & mentors in formulating her desire to make a difference using ICT. My favorite was her early mentor source: TV. Through this often maligned ICT, Kristin saw powerful women role modes to emulate and give her inspiration.

Back before there was One Laptop Per Child and the netbooks it spawned, we had to hunt for information on ICT projects. Finding low-cost devices or the initiatives behind them was a challenge only solved by infoDev's comprehensive Quick Guide to low-cost computing devices for the developing world.

From the beginning, we were proud to have the Inveneo Computing Station listed on the Quick Guide. Yet times have changed since it was first published. Inveneo has new products and other companies now have low-cost computing devices as well. So its time to help infoDev update their Quick Guide.

Using this handy form, submit the low-cost devices that you know about. You can even re-tweet the survey using this handy, short snippet:

Help update @infoDev's Quick Guide to low-cost ICT devices - please RT and add your favorite hardware today! http://bit.ly/ict_device_survey

.