ICT Inventory & Survey: A history
ICT Inventory: The Genesis
In 2003-2004, the ICT team, lead by Tony Meyer and supported by Renee Brock, performed an inventory of USAID Mission Activities using ICTs in some significant capacity. The 2003 Inventory Response (PDF) gives a full report of the outcome of that work. The 2003 Fact sheet for WSIS (PDF) also shows USAID's ICT strategy.
The purpose of the inventory was to prepare the May 2004 report (PDF) to Congress on the history and status of the use of ICTs in USAID activities.
May 2004 USAID Report on ICT4D
ICT Inventory Online
In 2005, the ICT team requested that Sonjara support the migration of the database that contained the results of these surveys into a web-based interface. It was also requested that the activities of the DOT-COM Alliance (USAID's ICT4D flagship cooperative agreement project) be incorporated into the ICT Inventory.
Screen Shot of the original ICT Inventory
This web based version of the ICT inventory was launched in 2006 and supported until 2009. It was accessible via links from the USAID.GOV website on ICTs.
ICT Survey
Sonjara, at the request of the USAID ICT Team, performed a desk study undertaken
between January and June 2008, focusing on USAID assistance in the area of
information and communications technology (ICT). The final draft report was submitted to USAID in August, 2008.
Activities include those that focus on the ICT sector
directly to those that utilize ICT as a tool to help further development goals
in various sectors, including health, education, economic growth, democracy and
governance, environment, humanitarian assistance, and peace building.
The total number of activities in the ICT Inventory is over 600; of which 221 activities were included in the ICT Survey. The rest were excluded either due to a lack of detailed data, being outside the period of analysis, or were deemed to focus on internal support of USAID.
Final Days
At the end of 2009, the ICT team requested that the ICT Inventory be taken down from public view. When the contract mechanism that supported the activity ended in 2011, the server that had hosted the ICT Inventory was taken offline. Copies of the ICT inventory were then only available to USAID staff who had a CDROM copy, and to Sonjara Staff.
ICT Inventory Reborn
As discussions at USAID started about open data, historical data sets, and the role of ICTs in development, staff at Sonjara realized that the ICT Inventory would be very useful to ICT4D professionals. Not finding any easy source of funding, Sonjara decided to use its own internal R&D resources to explore bringing the ICT Inventory back to public availability, and use it as a tool to explore open data, especially cross-walking to the IATI standard.
For more information on this project of Sonjara, follow our blog!
Part 1: Overview
Part 2: First few steps in data migration
Part 3: Data Migration Cleanup
Part 4: Classification
Part 5: What is an Activity?
Part 6: IATI Cross-Walk Template
Part 7: Activities, Hierarchies, and Orphans, oh my!
Part 8: Another Comment on Classification: Sectors
