Carleen Maitland
Associate Professor, College of Information Sciences & Technology, Penn State Univ

Abstract: International multi-level governance, meaning the organizational policies and practices of international organizations, shapes humanitarian organizations’ adoption and use of information and communications technologies (ICTs), with implications for information flows. In this talk, I present a multi-level governance model derived from institutional theories from economics, organization science, and public administration. I present findings from field research testing the model in the context of geographic information system (GIS) use in the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and their network of implementation partners in the West Bank. This particular field office is one of the leading producers of geocoded data in USAID, and as such represents a lead user of  this technology.

Bio: Carleen Maitlandis Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology and co-director of the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State University. Her research and teaching examine the institutional context of humanitarian organizations and its implications for access to and use of information and communication technologies  (ICTs).