Ulrike Rivett, Professor at Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town

About

Information for Community Services (iCOMMS) is a research team within the Department of Information Systems at the University of Cape Town. Formed in 2011, the team's interdisciplinary group of researchers focus on understanding the use, application and impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in developing countries. Whilst ICTs have been advertised to offer great potential to improve the lifestyle of many, the iCOMMS Team works on analysing this in the context of under-resourced communities.

Governments rely on relevant and timeous information to deliver services, while citizens need accurate information to hold governments accountable for the services delivered. In short, better information leads to better decisions.

The iCOMMS Team is dedicated to developing context-relevant tools that support governments and their citizens, and decision-makers, to collect the information they require to deliver better services and to monitor policy implementations. The aims of the team are to identify, help develop, and implement low-cost and sustainable tools appropriate to rural communities in areas of:

• Improving water quality, health care and conservation.
• Supporting rural communities to access information.
• Promoting the use of open source software for the development of mobile applications.
• Attracting funding for and promoting studies in the field of ICT4D.

As an impartial research team, iCOMMS holds no vested interest in any of these technologies. It is uniquely positioned to experiment with various technologies, recommend the most appropriate options to governments and local authorities, and to facilitate between various stakeholders.

The iCOMMS Team is led by Professor Ulrike Rivett and is comprised of multi-disciplined researchers who are truly dedicated to their fields of interest. The team sets out to invoke positive change within the communities they reach out to. This is achieved through the implementation of various projects within the ICT4D sector, utilising open source technologies, mobile phones, apps, and other tools that assist in the acquisition and interpretation of large scale data-sets.

Information

• Email: ulrike.rivett@uct.ac.za
• Website: http://www.icomms.uct.ac.za
• Location: Cape Town, South Africa
• X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/RivettUlrike

Industry experience

Education: PhD

Seniority: Manager, Director, Professor

Years of experience: 10 to 20 years

Work experience

• Professor

  Research and Teaching in the fields of ICT4D, Information Systems, mobile apps

  Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town

   - Present

• Department of Civil Engineering

  Associate Professor

  University of Cape Town

  2002  - 2015

Taxonomy

• Research
• IT
• Human Rights
• Water Supply
• Governance & Planning
• Managed Mobility
• Mobile Apps
• Mobile Devices
• academic conferences