ICTworks

Sensors promise rapid insights into development programs. Exciting and quickly evolving technologies are expanding the range of what can be measured, while the precision, accuracy and frequency of measurement are continually...

We have all worked with Microsoft Excel, but few of us really know its power to meet a wide range of data analysis and visualization needs. Used correctly, we can beautifully visualize M&E results in Excel. That’s...

Threat models can make ICT4D more secure and safe to use. In computer science, “threat modeling” is the approach of playing through attacks and hacks ahead of time. Being alert to digital risks can help prevent data...

In reaction to Friday’s tragedy in Paris, Facebook activated its Safety Check feature for the first time for a man-made disaster. While I am excited about Facebook’s expanded use of the feature, and do not want...

Imagine if your young child attended a school that did not have books, electricity, or the Internet. What educational opportunities would he or she be denied? Throughout the developing world, millions of schoolchildren lack...

Youth are adopting new technology faster and smarter than the general population. We know this anecdotally and witness it in our daily lives as we interact with youth in our communities. But what does this mean for development,...

In this era of big data and real-time data sharing, projects and organizations are increasingly trying to organize their analytics with dashboards that share key insights at a glance. At the 2015 MERL Tech conference, we...

The “Data Minimalism – How to Collect Less and Learn More” session at the MERLtech conference taught us how to collect less data. More importantly, it taught us how to ask fewer questions to get the right, meaningful...

While the rapid development of information and other technologies has brought the world closer together, it has also contributed to highlighting some of the glaring differences between first and third world countries over...