On Tuesday the 3rd of March we went to Stayokay in Amsterdam for
a meeting with Soenke Zehle who, amongst others, founded the
‘incommunicado’ project along with our thesis advisor Geert
Lovink. It proved to be a valuable meeting in which Soenke
guided us in thinking critically about the term ICT4D and
provided us with a theoretical approach on deconstructing the
significance and use of the term ICT4D. ICT4D (Information and
Communication Technologies for Development) is a term being used
increasingly in defining the interdisciplinary research field
which is concerned, according to Wikipedia, with overcoming the
barriers of the digital divide. “It is an emerging field within
the discourse and agenda of organizations working to support
development efforts as well as within the development agendas of
developing countries and development-oriented organizations in
developing countries” [Source]. But what does ICT4D actually
imply? And how can we critically assess the use of it? We
started with writing down what we