Identifying the particular contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to specific development goals has proven to be extremely difficult. This paper argues that instead of trying to make ICTs fit with a linear conceptualisation of impacts and an often economistic view of development, the field of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) should be used as a prime example of a development process which has to be analysed in a systemic and holistic way. Amartya Sen's capability approach offers a way of thinking about development not as economic growth, but as individual freedom. The Choice Framework is presented as a way of operationalising this approach and visualising the elements of a systemic conceptualisation of the development process. An individual case study, related to telecentres in rural Chile, is used to demonstrate the way the Choice Framework can be applied as a guide to a systemic and holistic analysis. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BackgroundConcerns over online health information–seeking behavior point to the potential harm incorrect, incomplete, or biased information may cause. However, systematic reviews of health information have found few examples of documented harm that can be directly attributed to poor quality information found online.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to improve our understanding of the quality and quality characteristics of information found in online discussion forum websites so that their likely value as a peer-to-peer health information–sharing platform could be assessed.MethodsA total of 25 health discussion threads were selected across 3 websites (Reddit, Mumsnet, and Patient) covering 3 health conditions (human immunodeficiency virus [HIV], diabetes, and chickenpox). Assessors were asked to rate information found in the discussion threads according to 5 criteria: accuracy, completeness, how sensible the replies were, how they thought the questioner would act, and how useful they thought the questioner would find the replies.ResultsIn all, 78 fully completed assessments were returned by 17 individuals (8 were qualified medical doctors, 9 were not). When the ratings awarded in the assessments were analyzed, 25 of the assessments placed the discussion threads in the highest possible score band rating them between 5 and 10 overall, 38 rated them between 11 and 15, 12 rated them between 16 and 20, and 3 placed the discussion thread they assessed in the lowest rating band (21-25). This suggests that health threads on Internet discussion forum websites are more likely than not (by a factor of 4:1) to contain information of high or reasonably high quality. Extremely poor information is rare; the lowest available assessment rating was awarded only 11 times out of a possible 353, whereas the highest was awarded 54 times. Only 3 of 78 fully completed assessments rated a discussion thread in the lowest possible overall band of 21 to 25, whereas 25 of 78 rated it in the highest of 5 to 10. Quality assessments differed depending on the health condition (chickenpox appeared 17 times in the 20 lowest-rated threads, HIV twice, and diabetes once). Although assessors tended to agree on which discussion threads contained good quality information, what constituted poor quality information appeared to be more subjective.ConclusionsMost of the information assessed in this study was considered by qualified medical doctors and nonmedically qualified respondents to be of reasonably good quality. Although a small amount of information was assessed as poor, not all respondents agreed that the original questioner would have been led to act inappropriately based on the information presented. This suggests that discussion forum websites may be a useful platform through which people can ask health-related questions and receive answers of acceptable quality.

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Amartya Sen's capability approach has become increasingly popular in development studies. This paper identifies controllability and operationalisability as two key stumbling blocks which prevent the capability approach from being used even more widely in development practice. It discusses the origins and application of the Choice Framework, a conceptual tool designed to help operationalise the approach. The framework can be used to deconstruct embedded ideologies and analyse the appropriateness of development goals, to map development as a systemic process, and to plan interventions which can result in increased freedom of choice for people. Three examples of the application of the Choice Framework in the field of information and communication for development (ICT4D) are given. The three technologies which are examined, telecentres (Infocentros), Chilecompra and Fair Tracing, can be placed at different places of a determinism continuum, some reducing the spectrum of choices a user has. The paper argues that while frameworks such as the Choice Framework can be developed further to increase the operationalisability of the capability approach, it is up to development funders to accept the fact that people's choices are never fully predictable and thus Sen's 'development as freedom' will inevitably be a dynamic and open-ended process.

a b s t r a c tThis paper presents the first findings of an ongoing multi-national research project between universities in Brazil, Chile and the UK funded by the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The Choices project seeks to analyse contextual understandings and practices of ethical consumption in Chile and Brazil. In a further step, it explores how ethical consumption and public procurement can be associated and used to foster sustainable development. The paper presents the outcomes of the first stage of the project, an extensive literature review considering the developing trends towards "ethical", "sustainable", "responsible" and "conscious" consumption in both countries. Chile and Brazil are former developing countries, and although they both now have growing ethical consumption movements, we argue that these are shaped by the specificities of each country's political, economic and institutional trajectories. In one case, Chile, ethical consumption has arisen from market forces, with lead actors being companies, consultancies and citizen and consumer organizations. Brazil, on the other hand, provides also a very interesting case for studying how ethical consumption is embedded in another Latin American context: it has a larger state sector and a domestic market size to give the state, and thus the consecutive centre-left governments, great regulatory power, since it can control firms' access to this market. Both cases showed the increasing role of corporate social responsibility discourses and practices interfacing with concepts of ethical consumption. As a consequence, the paper identifies a risk of firstly, "greenwash" and "whitewash" by large companies and secondly, of having small producers struggling to market their products.