Aidnography

While I checked the #isoj ( International S ymposium on Online Journal ism ) and #ijf15 ( International Journal ism Festival ) hashtags from time to time over the weekend for some interesting, inspiring conference live tweeting on issues around journalism, UK Sun columnist Katie Hopkins unleashed a vicious attack on journalism by sharing her views on the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean in a way that even for British tabloid newspapers marks a new low. I am trying to stay as distant and unspecific as possible, because otherwise my anger would simply take over – and Katie Hopkins would bag another easy win. I actually do not want to focus on the actual piece in question, the responses that she anticipated or the question whether an online campaign to remove her from her post is at all meaningful – the digital, viral spinning machine responds in the usual ways, e.g. Guardian ’s Zoe Williams claiming that ‘we can fight her by refusing to stay silent’. But the damage is already done a

Hi all, Every link review has a different balance and this week has equally packed Development, Digital Lives & Academia parts! Sending TOMS shoes to Africa is still a flawed project, more critical thinking on big data 4 development, critical reflections on humanitarian critique, the 'on behalf of' industry & Geneva as aid capital in decline (?); a range of new, free ebooks, reports and papers; Digital Lives with facebook's power & potential to censor, digital storytelling & the hype around incubators (spoiler alert: they are probably delivering less than assumed); finally in Academia we look at the decline of Masters degrees, post-colonial development thinker Frantz Fanon and predatory journals which are probably more of nuisance rather than a danger to scientific publishing! Enjoy! New from aidnography Are NGO & civil society regulations the development version of 20th century copyright laws? Current developments in Canada, the UK, the USA and els

In a comment a while ago I compared traditional, large development organizations to the music industry, suggesting that they risk of becoming the equivalent of CDs in the digital age if they do not embrace digital innovations. But current developments in Canada, the UK, the USA and elsewhere suggest that something more serious is happening and that governments seem to rely on outdated, 20th century rules, legislation and understandings of ‘civil society’ that can have a serious impact on global development organizations and their capacities to embrace innovation and new global challenges. In Canada , a group of NGOs and Think Tanks recently wrote an open letter to the government : The "public good" letter was initiated by Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray. It asks all political parties to sign on to "new legal and policy direction that enhances and protects the ability of registered charities to participate in public policy debates," without fearin

Hi all, Welcome back from the Easter break that most of you enjoyed in one way or another! There are quite a lot of Development news items this week starting with Oxfam's relocation to Nairobi, locally embedded disaster preparedness in Vanuatu, over-paid & over-used consultants, Unilever as a philanthropic player, journalism about 'poor people', the almost impossible task of impactful volunteering with children and Canada's emerging fight against outdated NGO legislation. Our digital lives uncovers why Stanford students turn down 150.000 Dollar jobs so they can look for meaningful engagements-so probably the development industry will be flooded by Ivy league graduates soon?! In Academia , reflections on the 'gender carnival' in post-war Afghanistan, (not) visiting 'the field' & the latest academic outsourcing technologies courtesy of Warwick University. Enjoy! New from aidnography Honor Among Thieves (book review) I find it difficult to ju

As more and more great reviews come in for J.’s latest installment of his aid work(er) romance novel, I am pleased to share some of my reflections on J.'s Honor Among Thieves . Since I have followed and reviewed the writing evolution of J. in his first two novels ( Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit & Disastrous Passion ) I found HAT a very good transition from more traditional notions of ‘the field’ to an established development ‘Aidland’. Cambodia, the country, people and politics, makes an enticing, but also very sobering backdrop to the book ’s main story line : While creating a project for a 500,000 Dollar corporate donation, Mary-Anne shuttles between the country office in Phnom Penh and the World Aid Corps’ headquarters in Washington, D.C., becoming more and more entangled in office politics, donor realities and contemporary aid discourses. A general sense of tiredness with the aid industry About half-way through the book I made a note that the book is definitel

Hi all, The last week was just crazy and we essentially skipped one iteration of your favorite link review. But I enjoyed the debates around my reflections on development volunteering and the rise of a new precariat... So before we break for Easter (if you celebrate) let's catch up with some good readings! From a critical CBC volunteering documentary to essential aid life hacks, Nepal's ever failing development, UNICEF's Twitter secrets, the lure of charity porn and an academic essay on 'Bankspeak', the language and discourse of World Bank report language, there is breadth and depth in the development news section! In Digital Lives we have a guidelines for immersive media projects, an Instagram project that challenges community guidelines and censorship and why Twitter maps should be approached with caution. Last not least, Academia looks at peer review fraud once again and academic book reviews. Enjoy! New from aidnography The professionalization of development vo