The International Network for Postgraduate Students in the Area of ICT4D (IPID), with its regional chapter IPID-Asia, recently conducted a virtual open session in Information Communication Technologies for Development Conference (ICTD 2022) on 27 June 2022 (PT). The hybrid conference was hosted by the University of Washington from 27 – 29 June 2022.
Dr. Alexander Flor, professor at University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), served as one of the speakers in the open session with the theme, Structural Challenges and ICT4D Research in Asia under IPID-Asia Women Forum 2022. This panel aimed to bring an “Asian perspective on institutional and structural challenges to the discussion related to the development of the field of ICT4D” through interactive discussions, with the hopes of generating ideas and solutions to overcome these problems.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Highlighting these lines from T.S. Eliot’s Choruses from The Rock in 1934, he established the idea of structural and functional relationships between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom; and with it, the scientific community’s response. With his presentation titled “ICT4D. A Personal Narrative”, Dr. Flor discussed the roots of ICT4D, the research traditions, and its disciplinal shifts in Development Communication research since 1976. He also presented the different sectors’ need for ICT4D support, as well as its emerging issues. With the establishment of the UPOU Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS), Dr. Flor reaffirms the faculty’s contribution to UPOU as a University of the Future, aiming to contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“One thing that the pandemic has taught us is a total dependence on Information.”
Ending his presentation with the declaration of the Information and Communication manifesto, Dr. Flor emphasized the essential nature of Nature, Information, Knowledge, Communication, and Development, further affirming its promise “to serve as a platform for generating knowledge through research, promoting it through instruction, and applying it through policy formulation and program planning” along with “designing and developing appropriate technologies, solutions, applications, and communications strategies guided by this knowledge.”
Dr. Alexander Flor is currently the Chair of the Doctor of Communication program under the UPOU FICS. He currently holds the One UP Professorial Chair in Knowledge Management (KM4D). His latest book, “Information and Communication Technologies for Development: Global Perspectives, Asian Initiatives”, serves as a comprehensive textbook and teaching reference on information and communication technology for development.
Written by Maine Basan, FICS
Edited by Myra C. Almodiel and Anna Cañas-Llamas
Contributed by the UPOU Faculty of Information and Communication Studies
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