Christopher Foster
Email: christopher.foster@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
MEng (Hons) Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Imperial College London.
MSc ICT for Development, IDPM, Manchester University.
Understanding locally emergent ICT micro-enterprises in the South.
Aim - To understand locally emergent Southern micro-enterprises, that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) as their principal source of revenue generation (e.g. mobile phone ecosystems, gaming & internet cafés, film and music production & distribution sectors etc). To suggest ways that such enterprises can be better integrated into development thinking.
Supervisors: Richard Heeks and Richard Duncombe.
Research interests
ICTs and development, informal learning in developing countries, software design and implementation.
Foster, C. G & Heeks, R. (2011) Employment and the Mobile Sector in Developing Countries, Background Paper for UNCTAD Information Economy Report 2011, UNCTAD, Geneva
Foster, C. G. (2011) ICTs and Informal Learning in Developing Countries, Development Informatics Working Paper 46, IDPM, University of Manchester, UK
http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/di/di_wp46.htm
Foster, C. G. (2010) Analysing ICT Micro-Enterprises using Activity Theory: The Case of Mobile Regulation in India, Proceedings of IPID Postgraduate Strand at ICTD 2010, pp. 24-30
http://kau.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:425814
Foster, C. G. & Heeks, R. (2010) Researching ICT Micro-enterprise in Developing Countries: Themes, Wider Concepts and Future Directions, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 43, 7, pp. 1-20
http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdc/article/view/695
Foster, C. G. & Heeks, R. (2010) A Model for Understanding ICT Micro-Enterprise in Developing Countries, Background Paper for UNCTAD Information Economy Report 2010, UNCTAD, Geneva