Author Archives

20 Nov 2014

Net Neutrality versus Zero-Rate?

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My colleagues and I were interviewed this week about a report on global digital divides, published by McKensey,Inc’s Technology, Media and Telecom Practice, entitled ‘Offline and Falling Behind’. It is a very useful up-date on adoption of the Internet that can help refocus attention on over 4.4 billion people worldwide who are not online – over 60%. The interview was organised by The Media Consortium in San Francisco, enabling us to speak with a handful of reporters about the report. One news story that drew from the interviews was a fascinating article by Mike Ludwig that focuses on the controversy […]
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13 Nov 2014

Directing Interdisciplinary Centers and Programs: 19 November at MSU

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Wednesday, November 19, 8:00am – 11:00am Kellogg Center, Room 105 (Registration at 8:00am; program begins at 8:30am) Facilitator: Deborah DeZure, Assistant Provost for Faculty and Organizational Development, MSU Panelists: Ellen Cushman, Director, Center for Applied Inclusive Teaching and Learning in the Arts and Humanities (CAITLAH) and Professor of Writing Rhetoric, and American Cultures, College of Arts and Letters Bill Dutton, Director, Quello Center and Professor, Media and Information, College of Communication Arts & Sciences Rita Kiki Edozie, Director of African American and African Studies and Professor, International Relations and African Affairs, James Madison College Erik Goodman, Director of the BEACON […]
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12 Nov 2014

The Language of Mobile in Rural Uganda by Ninsiima Daniel

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The exponential diffusion of mobile communication across Uganda, and much of the developing world at large, has led mobile to become a testing ground for various ICT agriculture services delivered. Unfortunately, the majority of these early services usually require farmers to follow a strict syntax in order to register and the information is most often provided exclusively in English. Not surprisingly, a majority of the farmers are not sufficiently literate in English to benefit from these services, which dramatically undermines the effectiveness of these services. Against that background, we developed and field tested a mobile-based platform that enables farmers to […]
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11 Nov 2014

Looking for New Business Models by Avshalom Ginosar

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Thoughts on a VIPP Seminar given by Professor Constantinos Coursaris (November 11, 2014) What device do you use in order to be informed of news? Is it the same machine that you listen to music? Are you willing to pay for your news, or for other digital content? And if yes – how much? Are you aware of the type and amount of advertising that you are exposed to while consuming digital content? Are you watching television while browsing your mobile phone of tablet? I could add many other such questions. However, I think that it is clear enough that […]
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30 Oct 2014

ICT4Detroit: The Role of ICT in Collaboration for Detroit’s Revitalization

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Facing the nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy, the city of Detroit is emerging as a test bed for initiatives aimed at reversing the city’s longstanding decline. These efforts are coming from a range of sources, including federal, state and local governments, major corporations, startups and startup incubators, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, non-profits and citizen-driven community groups. While the depth and dimensions of Detroit’s challenges may be historically unique, so too are the opportunities for revitalization-focused communication, computation and collaboration afforded by today’s information and communication technologies (ICT). The unprecedented nature of both the crisis and the potential power of ICT-enabled responses to […]
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30 Oct 2014

New Research Specialist Joining the Quello Team: Mitch Shapiro

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Mitch Shapiro is joining the Quello Research Squad as a research specialist. He will be working with colleagues on a new project for the Center, an exploration of the role of collaborative networks in the revitalization of Detroit. This work is part of Bill Dutton’s project with the Danish Technical University (DTU) on collaborative network organizations. Mitchell has been a consultant with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, on national broadband access and competitive policy issues, and with broadband mapping projects in Kentucky and Louisiana. He has also worked with Strategic Networks Group and Pulse Broadband; […]
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28 Oct 2014

Digital Media Innovation and the Politics of Regulation by Avshalom Ginosar

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Is there any place for media regulation in the era of the Internet? And if the answer is ‘yes’ – what shape should it have? Is there any partisan political influence on the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), an independent agency? And if ‘yes’ – what sort of influence? Each of these questions stood at the core of two separate seminars that took place today at the Quello Center. The first was a VIPP seminar, conducted by Prof. Steve Wildman and focused on the requirements for new regulation following the tremendous changes in media technologies as well as in media consumption. […]
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26 Oct 2014

The Future of Video Games

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There was an excellent op-ed feature in the NYT today, entitled ‘Can Video Games Survive?‘, by Chris Suellentrop. He is a game critic and completely engaged in the video game culture, but worried about the future of this media. His concerns are based on the ugly rupture that emerged around #gamergate, as one of the more recent examples of threats and mean spirited messages emerging within the gamer community. He is not alone, as illustrated by the Quello Lecture on 15 October by Professor Lisa Nakamura, with which our speaker was able to draw attention to the issues emerging around […]
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17 Oct 2014

Looking Back at the Future of the Field by Avshalom Ginosar

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The headline above was the title of a Quello Center roundtable discussion this afternoon, with the participation of several senior figures of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, chaired by Professor William Dutton. Here are some of my reflections as an outsider – listener: First, pay attention to the fact that the topic is “the future of the field“. Is it clear to everyone what field we are talking about? Obviously, you think of “Communication” as the “field”; however it is not so obvious, and what Communication is, as an academic field, is not so obvious as well. Actually, […]
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16 Oct 2014

ICT4D in Agriculture by Avshalom Ginosar

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Do you have any idea what ICT4DAg is? Well, I have had no idea until I attended a fascinating seminar with Professor Charles Steinfield that focused on his projects in sub-Saharan countries. It was the third Quello/Law School VIPP seminar. So, all of you are familiar with ICT, and ICT4Ag stands for ICT for Development in Agriculture. And in simple words, Prof. Steinfield and his colleagues study the use of new communication technologies and devices – mobile phones in particular – in rural areas in East Africa. However, they do not study merely the social uses; rather, what is more […]
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