Cultivating a research discipline for IT in developing countries (ITDC)

Abstract

Our efforts to increase the deployment of IT among the less advantaged sections of society are sometimes hampered by a variety of inter-related forces. The purpose of this paper is to identify some positive steps that can help cultivate a research discipline for the subject of ITDC. Some of the issues we address are: (1) Can ITDC be conceived as a coherent body of knowledge? (2) What constitutes the discipline of ITDC, and what makes it different from research into the use of IT in developed countries? (3) What are the common elements among the papers that have been presented at this conference which might help us to define the discipline? (4) What can be done now to attract qualified individuals to our cause and to encourage quality research into the pressing issues in ITDC which are at hand? (5) What can be done to foster the development of a cumulative body of research which can be used to advocate the cause of the information poor and to satisfy their need for information? (6) How can we raise the profile of the subject among the international research community in order to accelerate the creation and dissemination of relevant and appropriate knowledge and begin to reduce the "information gap"? (7) How can the international IS research community be persuaded of the value of research into ITDC, such that developed countries can learn valuable lessons too?.