Gauravonomics Blog

Welcome back to Gauravonomics Blog! Subscribe to my feed now and you'll never miss a single post!

I gave a talk at NetSquared DC on Tuesday where I talked about social media and digital activism in India, digital initiatives during the 2009 Indian elections, and Vote Report India. I talked about our experience in using Ushahidi for election monitoring and our plans to integrate Swift into Ushahidi. I talked about how eMoksha is trying to become the Sunlight Foundation of India. Finally, I used my 4Cs Social Media Framework to analyze our successes and failures with Vote Report India and even plugged our Vote Report India Version 2.0 application at the NetSquared Microsoft Mobile Challenge for Development.

Here are the slides (PPTX/ PDF/ SlideShare) –

Here is the video of the talk (Vimeo) –

Thank you to Matt and Gabriela for giving me the opportunity to talk to the great NetSquared DC community.

I’ll be giving a talk on Vote Report India at NetSquared DC on Tuesday, May 19th.

Vote Report India is a collaborative citizen-driven election monitoring platform for the 2009 Indian Lok Sabha elections, built on the Ushahidi platform. I’ll talk about the story behind the project, reflect on how well the project has worked, and share some thoughts on the future of the project.

I’ll also talk about how political parties, civil society organizations and corporates are using digital media in the 2009 Indian Lok Sabha elections.

When: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 7:00 PM

Where: Affinity Lab, 2451 18th St, NW 2nd Floor, Washington DC 20009

The NetSquared DC events are free and great food, wine and conversations are (usually) guaranteed. You can RSVP for the event here.

Cross-posted at Vote Report India.

(Cross-posted on my fellowship blog: How International Values Shape Communications Technologies)

I was part of the audience at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York last week when Tim O’ Reilly gave an inspiring keynote on using technology to solve real world problems –

Since then, I have heard many people talk about using technology for doing good in conferences and meetups (Microsoft’s ICT4D Conference, Social Media Club DC, NetSquared DC).

I find it frustrating that people talk about using technology for doing good without any distinctions regarding either the nature of the technology or the purpose for which it is being used. Therefore, I have developed a framework to think about using technology for doing good. I understand that ‘technology’ is a very broad term, and I’m only talking about communications technology here.

It’s probably clear to even a casual observer of this space that there are two separate groups discussing using technology for doing good. The first set of discussions, primarily amongst large aid organizations, converge around ICT4D (or information and communication technology for development). The second set of discussions, primarily amongst smaller non-profits and web 2.0 geeks, are around SM4SC (social media for social change).  Read More