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Michael Best, a computer scientist by training with graduate degrees from the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has become increasingly interested in international development issues. In recent years Best has focused on the impact that information and computer technologies like the Internet have on the economic and social development of countries primarily in Africa and South Asia.
Does the Internet empower communities in central Ghana or the Mekong Delta of Vietnam? asks Best. I look at the broad issues of whether the Internet is useful for economic or social development or whether it exacerbates political divisions for example.
Best came to Georgia Tech in spring 2003 as a Mid-Career Fellow in the new Sam Nunn Security Program, funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. After completing the fellowship, he joined the faculty of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.
As a senior advisor to The Last Mile Initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a global program to expand the access of the rural poor to communications, Best is selecting ten Georgia Tech graduate students from across the campus to be Information Technology for International Development fellows. In fall 2005 he will teach a class for the selected fellows and other interested students, in which the fellows will partner with USAID researchers and practitioners in selected countries, acting as the research arm and external analysts for these projects.
Projects may range from developing new curricula for technical schools and researching best practices on training and business issues, to setting up Internet-access centers in rural communities. Then during the semester break, the fellows will travel overseas and work in the field in countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé, Sri Lanka, Peru, Guatemala, Kyrzykstan, Kazakhstan, and Macedonia.
We hope to develop rich collaborations between the USAID field practitioners and the Georgia Tech student fellows, says Best. If this first year is a success, we anticipate an ongoing program of collaboration between USAID and our students. | 