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International Development Informatics Association Conference

IDIA 2018: Locally Relevant ICT Research pp 243–257Cite as

Localize-It: Co-designing a Community-Owned Platform

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 933))

Abstract

One of the most difficult, yet undocumented, aspects of information and communications technologies and development (ICTD) projects is that of establishing partnerships around which researchers’ interventions will develop, be tested and grow. Constraints on timing and funding usually lead to short-term projects, in which benefits are biased towards researchers rather than the partner community. In order to avoid empty and unethical promises and to increase the potential benefit for the community, we consider the process of developing participatory partnerships in ICTD projects. The objective is to make the project community owned, allowing the participants to develop what they value as important. Using the case of a township-based wireless community content sharing network, we describe the potential and some of the challenges with this approach. The paper highlights building blocks, such as ethical behaviour and trust, to avoid recreating the dichotomy between research and practice, and building a constructive collaboration.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, Cape Town, South Africa

    Maria Rosa Lorini, Melissa Densmore, David Johnson, Senka Hadzic & Hafeni Mthoko

  2. Ocean View Community Representative, Ocean View, 4052, Cape Town, South Africa

    Ganief Manuel, Marius Waries & André van Zyl

Authors
  1. Maria Rosa Lorini
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  2. Melissa Densmore
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  3. David Johnson
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  4. Senka Hadzic
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  5. Hafeni Mthoko
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  6. Ganief Manuel
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  7. Marius Waries
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  8. André van Zyl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Rosa Lorini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Kirstin Krauss

  2. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Marita Turpin

  3. University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Filistea Naude

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Lorini, M.R. et al. (2019). Localize-It: Co-designing a Community-Owned Platform. In: Krauss, K., Turpin, M., Naude, F. (eds) Locally Relevant ICT Research. IDIA 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 933. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11235-6_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11235-6_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11234-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11235-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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