Recode (non-profit organization)

Last updated
Recode
Founded1995 (1995)
FounderRodrigo Baggio
Type Non-profit Organization
FocusOvercome the digital divide
Location
Website recode.org.br
Formerly called
Comitê para Democratização da Informática

Recode, formerly the Center for Digital inclusion (CDI), [1] is a nonprofit organization that uses technology to fight poverty and stimulate entrepreneurship. CDI and partners create community centers in low-income, rural, indigenous communities, hospitals, prisons, and psychiatric clinics. These centers work to strengthen low-income communities by providing access to information and communication technologies.

Contents

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a US-based nonprofit organization has defined digital inclusion as follows: Digital Inclusion refers to the activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). This includes 5 elements: 1) affordable, robust broadband internet service; 2) internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user; 3) access to digital literacy training; 4) quality technical support; and 5) applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation and collaboration. [2]

Changed in 2015 to Recode and recode.org.br.

Overview

Rodrigo Baggio founded the Comitê para Democratização da Informática (roughly translated as "Committee for Democracy in Information Technology" in the Portuguese language) in 1995. [3] Its plan was social entrepreneurship to overcome the digital divide. CDI is a network of self-managed and self-sustaining CDI Community Centers throughout Brazil and 13 other countries – monitored and coordinated by their 23 regional offices. [4] Schools are located in low-income communities, indigenous communities, psychiatric clinics, hospitals for mentally and physically disabled, and detention facilities. CDI is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, with operations in the US, Europe and Latin America.

CDI helps disadvantaged groups use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). CDI community centers are technology and learning centers in impoverished communities. Each community center is a partnership with an existing grassroots organization. The community-based organizations provide the infrastructure, and CDI provides free computers and software, implements educational methods, trains instructors and monitors the schools.

Methodology

CDI community centers are self-managed and self-sustainable. Students collectively identify a common challenge facing their community and prepare an action plan to overcome it. Issues can range from sexual abuse, pollution, violence, crime, and drugs, to lack of health care or schools. Students can take the technical skills they’ve learned in class to mobilize their communities, engage in advocacy and awareness campaigns, and work together to solve that specific problem.

Recognition

After a pilot program in two favelas, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public provided initial funding for three years starting in 1996. [5] [6]

The AVINA Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Skoll Foundation, Tech Museum, Unicef and Unesco also provided support. CDI founder Rodrigo Baggio was named by the World Economic Forum as one of “100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow”, by Time magazine as one of the 50 leaders in Latin America that will make a difference in the third millennium, [3] by CNN, Time and Fortune as one of the world’s ten “Principal Voices in Economic Development”. [7] In 2009 he was invited to join the Strategy Council of the UN’s new Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development and the Clinton Global Initiative. [8]

International expansion

CDI opened development offices in New York City (with 501(c)(3) US tax status) in 2007 and London in 2008 (UK Registered Charity), using the same acronym with an English language expansion (Centre for Digital Inclusion or CDI Europe in the UK). [9] With the support of James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank and the Wolfensohn Institute, as of 2011 CDI planned to expand to the Middle East and North Africa, to be followed by India and other parts of Africa.

Since 2010, CDI UK is called CDI Apps For Good. Apps for Good is an acclaimed education movement where young people in schools learn to create apps that can change their world, according to CDI's methodology.

During April- June 2010, CDI Apps for Good ran the first pilot course with nine unemployed young people aged 16–25 at High Trees Development Trust in South London. Apps for Good has grown significantly and now has nearly 655 schools in the UK delivering the courses to more than 100,000 students aged 11 to 18.

Related Research Articles

The digital divide is the unequal access to digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide creates a division and inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information Age in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) have eclipsed manufacturing technologies as the basis for world economies and social connectivity, people without access to the Internet and other ICTs are at a socio-economic disadvantage, for they are unable or less able to find and apply for jobs, shop and sell online, participate democratically, or research and learn.

E-government is the use of technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet, to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offers new opportunities for more direct and convenient citizen access to government and for government provision of services directly to citizens.

The global digital divide describes global disparities, primarily between developed and developing countries, in regards to access to computing and information resources such as the Internet and the opportunities derived from such access. As with a smaller unit of analysis, this gap describes an inequality that exists, referencing a global scale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Community informatics</span>

Community informatics (CI) is an interdisciplinary field that is concerned with using information and communication technology (ICT) to empower members of communities and support their social, cultural, and economic development. Community informatics may contribute to enhancing democracy, supporting the development of social capital, and building well connected communities; moreover, it is probable that such similar actions may let people experience new positive social change. In community informatics, there are several considerations which are the social context, shared values, distinct processes that are taken by members in a community, and social and technical systems. It is formally located as an academic discipline within a variety of academic faculties including information science, information systems, computer science, planning, development studies, and library science among others and draws on insights on community development from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. It is an interdisciplinary approach interested in using ICTs for different forms of community action, as distinct from pure academic study about ICT effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Information and communications technology</span> Extensional term for information technology

Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications and computers, as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage and audiovisual, that enable users to access, store, transmit, understand and manipulate information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Sumaya University for Technology</span>

Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), established in 1991, is a specialized, Non-governmental, Non-profit, Jordanian university, owned by the leading applied research centre in Jordan, the Royal Scientific Society (RSS). PSUT's area of specialization is IT, Communications and Electronics. As a nonprofit institution, PSUT embraces both the public and private sectors, but while akin to public universities in its mission, it is more aligned to the private sector in drive and spirit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telecentre</span> A public place where people can access digital technologies

A telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills. Telecentres exist in almost every country, although they sometimes go by a different names including public internet access center (PIAP), village knowledge center, infocenter, Telecottage, Electronic Village Hall, community technology center (CTC), community multimedia center (CMC), multipurpose community telecentre (MCT), Common/Citizen Service Centre (CSC) and school-based telecentre. While each telecentre is different, their common focus is on the use of digital technologies to support community, economic, educational, and social development—reducing isolation, bridging the digital divide, promoting health issues, creating economic opportunities, and reaching out to youth for example.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gbenga Sesan</span>

'Gbenga Sesan is a social entrepreneur who delivers Information and communications technology to the under served. He has had a career in the application of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) – for individuals, institutions, nation-states, regional entities and the international community.

The VIA pc-1 Initiative is a project of VIA Technologies, established in January 2005, to help bridge the digital divide by developing information and communication technology (ICT) systems to benefit those who currently do not have computers or Internet access.

The Center to Bridge the Digital Divide (CBDD) was a self-sustaining outreach unit of the Washington State University Extension. Founded in 2001, the CBDD was an ICT4D organization committed to assisting under-served populations leverage information communication technologies (ICT) to better their lives and achieve desired goals. Unlike traditional digital divide initiatives, the CBDD's strategic focus was not on gaining access to technology but on helping target communities achieve successful application of ICT.

Information and communication technology in agriculture, also known as e-agriculture, focuses on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. More specifically, e-agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. ICT includes devices, networks, mobiles, services and applications; these range from innovative Internet-era technologies and sensors to other pre-existing aids such as fixed telephones, televisions, radios and satellites. Provisions of standards, norms, methodologies, and tools as well as development of individual and institutional capacities, and policy support are all key components of e-agriculture.

Susan Davis is an author, public speaker, consultant and expert on international development and social entrepreneurship. She is the Chairperson of Solutions Journalism Network, an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University Stern School of Business, a coach to social entrepreneurs and active on many boards and advisory councils.

Chris Underhill is an English social entrepreneur.

Fundación Paraguaya is a leading edge self-sufficient social enterprise founded in Paraguay in 1985 that seeks to develop innovative solutions to poverty and unemployment, and proactively disseminate them throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Egypt)</span>

The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is a government body headquartered in Smart Village Egypt, Giza Governorate, in the Cairo metropolitan area. Established in 1999, the Ministry is responsible for information and communications technology (ICT) issues in the Arab Republic of Egypt including the planning, implementation and operation of government ICT plans and strategies. It is led by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, who is nominated by the Prime Minister and is a member of the cabinet. The current ICT Minister is Amr Talaat who assumed the position on 14 June 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atef Helmy</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Amikom Yogyakarta</span> Higher education institution in Sleman, Indonesia

The University of AMIKOM Yogyakarta is a private IT college in Sleman Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The college was established on December 29, 1992, under the auspices of the Yogyakarta AMIKOM Foundation. It has 2 diploma programs, 13 undergraduate programs, and 1 postgraduate program; all are accredited. The university concentrates on efforts to become the world's leading university in the field of the creative economy based on entrepreneurship. The university currently has more than 11,000 active students, and has more than 3,000 new students every year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CITAD</span>

The Center for Information, Technology, and Development (CITAD) is a Nigeria non-governmental organisation that was established to promote democracy and active citizenship through information and communication technology in addendum with civic empowerment programs. It has its headquarter in Kano and branches in Abuja, Jama'are, Itas, Dutse, Azare, Gombe and Yobe States.

References

  1. ↑ "Center for Digital Inclusion". Skoll. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  2. ↑ "NDIA". 2017. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Participants". Brainstorm Tech program. Forbes. July 21, 2008. p. 12. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Recode - Reprogramar para transformar". RECODE (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  5. ↑ Emily Mitchell; Rachele Kanigel; Elizabeth Lea (February 21, 2000). "Rodrigo Baggio". Time magazine . Archived from the original on December 1, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Rodrigo Baggio Barreto". Fellow biography. Ashoka: Innovators for the Public . Retrieved October 16, 2011.
  7. ↑ "Rodrigo Baggio on CNN Principal Voices". Video. CNN. Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Recognition". CDI blog. 2009. Archived from the original on August 13, 2011. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
  9. ↑ "CDI Europe". Orfficial website. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
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