In 2000 the United Nations announced the Millennium Development Goals, a set of development targets and objectives to reduce poverty and improve health, education, and the environment. These goals are set to be completed by 2015. The system of United Nations organizations is currently formulating a new set of development goals for beyond 2015. To create a more participatory process, the International Telecommunication Union uses an online platform to crowdsource the ideas and comments of youth around the world. The ITU requested the assistance of the TID lab to provide interpretation and textual analysis of the youth's priorities based on the crowdsourced data. We are developing new visualizations and analysis of this unique dataset. This analysis will help inform the post-2015 UN development agenda.
The Technologies and International Development Lab at Georgia Tech researches the practice, the promise, and the peril of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social, economic, and political development. We study the risks and rewards of ICT systems for people and communities particularly within Africa and Asia. We explore issues of rights and justice in a digital age. And we examine new forms for inclusive innovation and social entrepreneurship enhanced through digital systems.
The T+ID Lab is an interdisciplinary community bringing together computer and social scientists with design and policy specialists. We collaborate directly with stakeholders outside of the Lab to critique technologies, invent new ones, and research how and why (or why not) ICTs can serve as a tool to empower, enrich, and interconnect.
