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Community-Level Access Divides: A Refugee Camp Case Study

Authors:

Elizabeth Belding,

Brian Tomaszewski,

Carleen MaitlandAuthors Info & Claims

ICTD '16: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development

Article No.: 25, Pages 1 - 11

https://doi.org/10.1145/2909609.2909668

Published: 03 June 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Despite the appearance of uniform availability of mobile services, in many locales granular network analyses reveal the persistence of physical access divides. It stands to reason these divides, similar to those at larger scales, are also reflections of community-level social and economic divides.

In this research, we examine community-level physical access divides in the context of a Syrian refugee camp. The investigation combines detailed network and organizational analyses to characterize the divides and identify factors influencing their creation and potential solutions. Our findings show that even in the limited confines of a refugee camp, coverage patterns and bandwidth availability differ significantly both within and between the networks of three mobile cellular carriers. These patterns, together with the overall configuration of network infrastructure, demonstrate three community level divides: an inter-carrier congestion divide, a spatial distribution divide, and an inter-network divide. We identify a number of linkages between these divides and the social, organizational and humanitarian context of the camp. Building on these analyses, we provide recommendations to ameliorate these divides for both residents and camp management.

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Cited By

Talhouk RMontague KGhattas HAraujo-Soares VAhmad BBalaam M(2022)Refugee Food Insecurity & Technology: Surfacing Experiences of Adaptation, Navigation, Negotiation and SharingComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)10.1007/s10606-022-09423-w31:2(341-372)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-022-09423-w
Johnson MLiang JLin MSinganamalla SHeimerl K(2021)Whale Watching in Inland Indonesia: Analyzing a Small, Remote, Internet-Based Community Cellular NetworkProceedings of the Web Conference 202110.1145/3442381.3449996(1483-1494)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442381.3449996
Talhouk RColes-Kemp LJensen RBalaam MGarbett AGhattas HAraujo-Soares VAhmad BMontague K(2020)Food Aid TechnologyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34152054:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3415205
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Community-Level Access Divides: A Refugee Camp Case Study
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cover image ACM Other conferences

ICTD '16: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development

June 2016

427 pages

ISBN:9781450343060

DOI:10.1145/2909609

Conference Chair:
Kentaro Toyama
University of Michigan

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Google Inc.
Microsoft: Microsoft
University of Michigan: University of Michigan

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 03 June 2016

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National Science Foundation

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ICTD '16

ICTD '16: Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development

June 3 - 6, 2016

MI, Ann Arbor, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 22 of 116 submissions, 19%

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Cited By

Talhouk RMontague KGhattas HAraujo-Soares VAhmad BBalaam M(2022)Refugee Food Insecurity & Technology: Surfacing Experiences of Adaptation, Navigation, Negotiation and SharingComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)10.1007/s10606-022-09423-w31:2(341-372)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-022-09423-w
Johnson MLiang JLin MSinganamalla SHeimerl K(2021)Whale Watching in Inland Indonesia: Analyzing a Small, Remote, Internet-Based Community Cellular NetworkProceedings of the Web Conference 202110.1145/3442381.3449996(1483-1494)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442381.3449996
Talhouk RColes-Kemp LJensen RBalaam MGarbett AGhattas HAraujo-Soares VAhmad BMontague K(2020)Food Aid TechnologyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34152054:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3415205
Jensen RColes-Kemp LTalhouk RBernhaupt RMueller FVerweij DAndres JMcGrenere JCockburn AAvellino IGoguey ABjørn PZhao SSamson BKocielnik R(2020)When the Civic Turn turns Digital: Designing Safe and Secure Refugee ResettlementProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376245(1-14)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3313831.3376245
Schoemaker EBaslan DPon BDell N(2020)Identity at the margins: data justice and refugee experiences with digital identity systems in Lebanon, Jordan, and UgandaInformation Technology for Development10.1080/02681102.2020.178582627:1(13-36)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2020.1785826
Shoemaker EKristinsdottir GAhuja TBaslan DPon BCurrion PGumisizira PDell NChen JMankoff JGomes C(2019)Identity at the marginsProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies10.1145/3314344.3332486(206-217)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3314344.3332486
Patil AChandwani RSingh PKumar NVeeraraghavan R(2019)The role of ICTs in refugee livesProceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development10.1145/3287098.3287144(1-6)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3287098.3287144
Schmitt PIland DZheleva MBelding E(2019)Third-Party Cellular Congestion Detection and AugmentationIEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing10.1109/TMC.2018.282703118:1(221-234)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/TMC.2018.2827031
Brown SHussain FMasoumifar A(2019)Refugees and ICTs: Identifying the Key Trends and Gaps in Peer-Reviewed ScholarshipInformation and Communication Technologies for Development. Strengthening Southern-Driven Cooperation as a Catalyst for ICT4D10.1007/978-3-030-18400-1_56(687-697)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2019
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Lalenis KYapicioglou BIvanova-Radovanova P(2019)Cyberpark, a New Medium of Human Associations, a Component of Urban ResilienceCyberParks – The Interface Between People, Places and Technology10.1007/978-3-030-13417-4_16(196-208)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2019
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