Why we get a better cup in Ireland than all the tea in China

This article by Conor Pope (Irish Times) provides an interesting view on the Irish love of tea and its relatively recent history and in particular how the (then) Irish Free State set about substituting its tea supply chain, away from the London tea market, to sourcing tea directly from suppliers in Rwanda.

At the time Rwanda was a French colony, thus making the international logistics (slightly) less complex given the wartime environment and the relative predominance of British colonial control of much of Africa at the time. 

https://www.irishtimes.com/

The DSA Ireland study group for Information, Technology and Development (ICT4D)

The scope of the DSAI study group for ICT4D is 

The ICT4D study group aims to establish an ICT4D community comprised of academics, researchers, development practitioners and anyone else interested in the field. The aim is to provide a focal point for discussion, learning, debate, collaboration and the sharing and dissemination of research. One of the main benefits of the study group is the bringing together of researchers and practitioners who are working in close geographical proximity on the Island of Ireland. This will allow us to interact more frequently, develop relationships, and benefit from a wider range of activities such as reading groups, workshops, summer schools, and conferences. This is particularly important in the field of ICT4D where researchers and practitioners typically meet only once or twice a year at one of the mainstream ICT4D conferences.

The aim of this study group is to create a strong base for practice and research which should enable members of the group to become more research active. This would include stimulating, facilitating, and providing feedback on new research in the field. The hope is that this research would evolve to a level appropriate for the DSAI working paper series or presentation at the ICT4D stream of the DSAI annual conference. This should also allow us to enhance our responsiveness to research opportunities and funding calls that require stakeholder involvement beyond a single institution, individual, or project.

https://www.dsaireland.org/groups/information-technology-and-development-ict4d-study-group/

Personal Reflection

Personal Reflection

The aim of a personal reflection is to give the student an opportunity to relate a personal understanding of the course. To highlight not just the described learning outcomes but also draw attention to challenges and areas of difficulty. Think of it as a statement of what you determine to be the key learnings and contribution of the course. It can be critical, highlighting gaps etc. Ultimately it is a personal statement of your own (perhaps new or changed) perspective on the subject, new understandings, difficulties, and insights.

Grading criteria:

The Personal Reflection is authentic, critical, supported by evidence and descriptive, conveying your own personal learning insights.

• A single page, approximately 500 words.
• Is it original? Is it your own work? (this is a basic requirement)
• Are the insights and learning described authentic? Does it honestly communicate your personal learning on taking this class?
• Is it critical? Critique isn't a bad thing. It challenges your own and others, even the subject itself. Consider prior understandings, misunderstanding, new knowledge, or changes in understanding?
• Are statements supported with examples? For example, comments or reflections on the homework tasks, the project, themes and subject matter?
• Core concepts? At the very best the reflection offers a compelling account of the significance of some of the key ideas arising in the course.

David Nyaluke seminar on Africa for Entrepreneurs - UCD Proudly Made in Africa Fellow in Business and Development

David Nyaluke - UCD Proudly Made in  Africa Fellow in Business and Development.
David presents a seminar on ``Africa an Emerging Market and Outsourcing''

David Nyaluke seminar on Africa 15/April/2020

The seminar covers broad themes:

• Understanding that Africa is a continent, comprised of 54 countries, with diverse languages and cultures, with colonial histories and affinities with former colonial powers.
• That independence movements and proxy conflict on the continent which held back economic development largely ceased during the 1990s. Since that time there has been a gradual shift from rural to urbanisation and industrialisation.
• African nations have young growing populations of talented people and an increasing desire for modern goods and services.
• Understanding the steps in value-added exports.
• Learning that Africa already has millionaire/billionaire entrepreneurs who are themselves investing back into their communities and promoting startups in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and others.
• Learning about the growing economy, demographics, educational attainment, and commercial opportunities in African countries.
• Finding out that African countries, relative late-comers to digital infrastructure, may benefit from first-mover and more recent technological solutions, by skipping wired and costly physical infrastructure, jumping ahead to wireless, decentralised, more advanced technologies for telecommunications and computing.

The following sequence of videos complement parts of the seminar nicely:

• 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rloG1sGBCKE "Father of M-Pesa Michael Joseph, former Safaricom CEO, talks to CNN's Richard Quest about the future of banking and how Kenya is positioned to lead once again."
• 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9_6G8J6VJg "TEDxVienna - Alexander Oswald - Why Kenyans do it better"
• 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQo4VoLyHe0 "Documentary showing how Safaricom's M-PESA Mobile Money Transfer service is changing lives in Kenya."

Hans Rosling - debunking third-world myths with data (2007)

Hans Rosling (1948 - 2017), a Swedish physician, researcher and academic (Wikipedia), ignited a debate surrounding preconceptions about the state of the world, between what was once thought of as the third-world, developing and western economies.

(illustration image from Rosling's TED Talk of 2007)

In this TED Talk (2007) Rosling seeks to reveal the relationships between investment in public services, in Aid, GDP, human development factors, trends and linkages over time.  Rosling presents using a set of startling animated data-driven visualisations generated with the then new suite of design tools and data indices gathered under the banner of gapminder.org.

Martin Fowler's ThoughtWorks Technology Radar

For an opinionated guide to technology frontiers, and a deep dive into the technology igniting discussion. Thoughts on market impact and leadership, by technologists for technologists, on the business of software itself, pure and simple.

https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar

"Software@" Sonalake - How we build software

Our next industry guests are from Sonalake: Ciaran Treanor (CTO) and Cormac Ó Foghlú (VP Operations)

They will be talking about how a software services business works, their client engagement models and software development and services as a team sport.

The software@ seminar series provides an insider's perspective on one or more of the following taking place in high-tech firms: software engineering approaches, methods, technology stacks, evolution of architecture, design process, dynamics of deployment, test culture, peer processes etc.

For more on this year's seminar series see http://mis.ucd.ie/news/software-speaker-series-2020

Africapitalism: a conference event, Feb 27, 2020

After a successful workshop last year on 'Place, Belongingness, and International Entrepreneurship in Africa: Impact on Sustainable Development', we are delighted to continue the discussion by hosting a conference on:

Africapitalism

While this conference is mainly targeting students, we would like to invite you to take part, as there will be a mixture of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers who will be engaging with the theme from multiple perspectives, with the aim to better locate Africa within the global business education curricula. For further information and registration please click the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/ucd-africa-business-conference-2020-tickets-92706923905

Best wishes,

David Nyaluke, PhD (Proudly Made in Africa Fellow in Business and Development)
Penelope Muzanenhamo, PhD (Assistant Professor in Business and Society)
Killian Stokes, Entrepreneur, Lecturer in Business and Development (Moyee Coffee, Ireland)

W:proudlymadeinafrica.org

Countries Raked by Attractiveness - Global Services Location Index (A.T. Kearney, 2019)

"

- Globalism is alive and well in information technology outsourcing, business process outsourcing, and voice services

- While India ranks number one, the inclusion of digital resonance metrics shrank its lead and gave advantage to onshore locations such as the United States and United Kingdom

- Automation and cybersecurity are changing the outsourcing landscape...

...The GSLI has traditionally identified locations that can best provide information technology (IT), business process outsourcing (BPO), and voice services based on countries' Financial attractiveness, people skills, availability, and business environment. The 2019 GSLI, however, includes a new digital resonance category to capture the effects of digital transformation, especially automation and cybersecurity, on the global services landscape. 

" (source)

India
China
Malaysia
Indonesia
Vietnam
United States
Thailand
United Kingdom
Brazil
Philippines
Mexico
Estonia
Colombia
Egypt
Germany
Lithuania
Bulgaria
Russia
Peru
Ukraine
Latvia
Chile
United Arab Emirates
Poland
Sri Lanka
Portugal
Canada
Romania
Argentina
Mauritius
Hungary
Bangladesh
Czech Republic
Singapore
Slovakia
Morocco
Pakistan
Panama
Turkey
Uruguay
France
Spain
Kenya
Costa Rica
Ghana
Trinidad and Tobago
Ireland
New Zealand
South Africa
Israel

(from: A.T. Kearney (2019). Digital resonance: The new factor impacting location attractiveness - the 2019 A.T. Kearney global services location index. Technical report, A.T. Kearney. link)

Statistical Analysis, Data Science and Programming 2020

“This class is supported by DataCamp, the most intuitive learning platform for data science. Learn R, Python and SQL the way you learn best through a combination of short expert videos and hands-on-the-keyboard exercises. Take over 100+ courses by expert instructors on topics such as importing data, data visualization or machine learning and learn faster through immediate and personalised feedback on every exercise.”

Our student group is using DataCamp to develop their statistical skills to apply to the Outsourcing and Offshoring class and data science skills for the Machine Learning class in the summer.

DataCamp access is by invitation only via your @ucdconnect.ie email address.

The class page is as follows;

https://www.datacamp.com/enterprise/statistical-analysis-data-science-and-programming-2020/

If you get stuck have a look at the DataCamp Community site, there are a plethora of DataCamp Tutorials for Python, R and more to choose from. Each Tutorial provides accessible and easy-to-understand resources for the topic of your preference.

Reading an article and not sure how to write about it yourself?

- readings, precis, impact, application -

Prompting questions:

• What did I learn from reading this article?
• What was the intention of the authors?
• Who is the audience for the article?
• How could I use the article?

Readings are often difficult to understand or alternatively, to interpret and make sense of. I've often read a paper and said to myself "so what", "it's obvious", "what's the appeal of this stuff?" Sometimes I've been confused, overwhelmed with detail or just don't get the point. I've also read papers that have set off ideas, recalled past experiences, given an outlook that changes something I thought I knew well but now see in a different light.

Writing a precis of a paper turns the whole process back on itself somewhat; I go from being the reader of the paper to being a writer. Writing about a paper demands something of me, not just my impression of the paper and the information contained within, but how I felt about the ideas expressed, how I saw them applied, and reflected on their wider impact.

Written comments on a reading need to be succinct (if you go past a page then perhaps you should be writing a new paper?), and impact-full. Get to the point, don't just summarise, criticise! Refer to other works in a meaningful way (counter examples, supporting examples), and reflect on the bigger picture. If there are implications for practitioners and practice then state them, particularly if they are personal, affecting you.

When criticising a paper you should always attempt to be fair. Criticise it on its terms, not because it doesn't address certain areas that you think are more important; there may be good reasons for a paper's omissions: limited space, out of scope, irrelevance.

Finally, keep to the limits, word counts shouldn't be treated as "targets". If you can say less then say less; less is often more. It takes time to distill your comments and the result is often unexpected, but often in good ways.

Pointers

• Pick out some aspect of interest from the paper
• Comment on it (there are no wrong answers, it's just an opinion)
• Link it back to design processes.
• And consider linking your argument with pertinent external readings.

Try not go off on a tangent or indulge yourself in a flight of fancy. But if the paper sets off your creative side then explain your logic:

"The reading included a discussion of X which made me consider Y (not in the reading) because...".

Relate it back to the course; to continue:

"...but both X & Y are pertinent to Z which we have seen is a fundamental to the work of analysis, design and development"

The following rubric (a protocol or procedure) on assessing a written work may also be useful...
Audience: Who is the reading directed at? Is a question formulated, is it interesting and clearly put? Did the author clearly explain the purpose of the article?
Structure: Are the thoughts/arguments connected? Is there a logic to the presentation of ideas? Is theory utilised? If so is it treated critically or uncritically (just applied)? Do the authors anticipate and respond to counter-arguments?
Style of evidence: Does the work offer conjecture and possibilities based on the literature? Does the work offer empirical matter? Are assumptions stated? Is a philosophical foundation indicated?
Validity: How is the work positioned such that we understand how to test the extent of its claims, justification, rigour.
Rhetoric: Is the article persuasive? Are the findings, discussion and conclusions convincing? Does the work present implications and impacts? Are there behavioural, managerial, organisational consequences?


Further reading (about reading...no irony in that is there?)

• R. Subramanyam. Art of reading a journal article: Methodically and effectively. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology : JOMFP, 17(1):65–70, Jan-Apr 2013. (link)
• E. Pain. How to (seriously) read a scientific paper. Science, March 2016. Available online at http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/03/how-seriously-read-scientific-paper (Accessed: 29 November 2017). (link)
• A. Ruben. How to read a scientific paper. Science, January 2016. Available online at http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/01/how-read-scientific-paper (Accessed: 29 November 2017).

DataCamp for data science (R/Python and others)

We encouraged students to use DataCamp last year to develop their statistical skills for the Outsourcing and Offshoring class and data science skills for the Machine Learning class.

We were delighted with the feedback and also the results. DataCamp allowed novice R/Python users to improve their understanding and ability using these technologies. It was like giving students a boost of mental vitamins for technology! Really really useful.

Term-Paper presentation peer-assessment...

Consider using the following criteria for peer-assessing the presentation.

Criteria 1: Motivation

0 = Unclear what drove this research or why it may be important.
1 = Motivation: You can clearly identify 'why' they studied this particular problem and 'why' it may be important.
2 = Clear motivation, plus they clearly identified the problems(s) by initial analysis and/or presented extant knowledge, current hypotheses, and identified gaps in knowledge.

Critera 2: Data

0 = Unclear what research data was gathered or why what was done is relevant.
1 = Data through discovery: They have shown that they have independently researched the problem area(s)
2 = Discovery is evident AND the research data gathered convincingly addresses the problem area, that is, the kind of data gathered is likely to yield insights that may address the problem area.

Criteria 3: Analysis

0 = Unclear how findings or recommendations were arrived at.
1 = Findings are analysed cogently and convincingly; convincing arguments for arriving at findings.
2 = Findings AND responses developed in context of prior knowledge. Synthesis built on findings – clearly addresses the problem(s) and integrates learning from others.

Criteria 4: Engagement/Impact

0 = Very difficult to comprehend, understand, read, hear, etc. I would not watch this presentation again.
1 = A competent presentation, well organised with suitable and meaningful appropriate content.
2 = A really excellent and convincing presentation that conveys clear messages, for example effectively using images, dialogue, humour, shock etc. I would watch it again and encourage others to watch it.

---

Alternative presentation assessment rubric 

Threshold requirement: Originality and own work; Others' ideas graphics and quotes properly cited, acknowledged and referenced (No Plagarism!).
Equal weighting applied to the following:

1. Argument demonstrates analytical skills. I was convinced by the evidence and the argument.
2. Message and conclusions give evidence of reflective thinking and deep engagement with an advanced research topic. I received a clear convincing take-away message.
3. Overall impression: Is piece competent and polished? Has producer showcased their domain knowledge and professionalism.