Considerable untapped resources are available to foster base-of-thepyramid (BOP) business development, including the intersection of diasporas, information technology, and transnational entrepreneurs who capitalize on both.1 Diasporas represent an enormous fund of human capital. Recent estimates of global economic remittances place them on a par with total ofacial development assistance (estimated at $70 billion per year in 2004, $125 billion in 2005, and $176 billion in 2006) (World Bank, 2004, 2005, 2006). In addition, information technology is affording access to new markets and opportunities for the co-creation of value throughout the developed world. Why not in developing countries? This paper examines one such example. Thamel.com’s business model links the Nepali diaspora with their families and loved ones, while nurturing local businesses and turning a proat. Its unique combination of home market services, remittance services, and business development services demonstrates how diasporas and information technology can change the landscape of BOP opportunities. Thamel.com’s story provides lessons not only for other diaspora entrepreneurs, it also illustrates how many of the common challenges to developing BOP markets can be overcome. Such lessons can provide the fodder for continuing creativity as the global community seeks to generate employment and reduce poverty under the most challenging circumstances. Before describing the case, a brief review of diasporas and key concepts on BOP markets is in order.
{"title":"What does a goat have to do with development? diasporas, it, and the case of thamel.com*","authors":"Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00023","url":null,"abstract":"Considerable untapped resources are available to foster base-of-thepyramid (BOP) business development, including the intersection of diasporas, information technology, and transnational entrepreneurs who capitalize on both.1 Diasporas represent an enormous fund of human capital. Recent estimates of global economic remittances place them on a par with total ofacial development assistance (estimated at $70 billion per year in 2004, $125 billion in 2005, and $176 billion in 2006) (World Bank, 2004, 2005, 2006). In addition, information technology is affording access to new markets and opportunities for the co-creation of value throughout the developed world. Why not in developing countries? This paper examines one such example. Thamel.com’s business model links the Nepali diaspora with their families and loved ones, while nurturing local businesses and turning a proat. Its unique combination of home market services, remittance services, and business development services demonstrates how diasporas and information technology can change the landscape of BOP opportunities. Thamel.com’s story provides lessons not only for other diaspora entrepreneurs, it also illustrates how many of the common challenges to developing BOP markets can be overcome. Such lessons can provide the fodder for continuing creativity as the global community seeks to generate employment and reduce poverty under the most challenging circumstances. Before describing the case, a brief review of diasporas and key concepts on BOP markets is in order.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Internet scamming strategies associated with West Africa typically involve the creation and deployment of fictional narratives depicting political turmoil, corruption, violence, poverty, and personal tragedy set in a variety of African nations. This article examines Internet scammers' complicity in promoting these creatively dramatic, yet stereotyped, representations of Africa and Africans. Their approach exemplifies what de Certeau describes as a “tactic” where scammers manipulate the space of representations produced by hegemonic forces in the West to realize subversive ends. The attempts of Internet scammers highlight the difficulties of creating self-representations that are both authentic and persuasive. Marginalized communities face difficult compromises in their efforts to be heard by those they perceive as powerful. This remains the case, despite new mechanisms of communication, such as the Internet, that make connecting (in a purely mechanical sense) much easier and less expensive.
{"title":"Problematic empowerment: West african internet scams as strategic misrepresentation","authors":"J. Burrell","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00024","url":null,"abstract":"Internet scamming strategies associated with West Africa typically involve the creation and deployment of fictional narratives depicting political turmoil, corruption, violence, poverty, and personal tragedy set in a variety of African nations. This article examines Internet scammers' complicity in promoting these creatively dramatic, yet stereotyped, representations of Africa and Africans. Their approach exemplifies what de Certeau describes as a “tactic” where scammers manipulate the space of representations produced by hegemonic forces in the West to realize subversive ends. The attempts of Internet scammers highlight the difficulties of creating self-representations that are both authentic and persuasive. Marginalized communities face difficult compromises in their efforts to be heard by those they perceive as powerful. This remains the case, despite new mechanisms of communication, such as the Internet, that make connecting (in a purely mechanical sense) much easier and less expensive.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
With this issue, we are thrilled to announce our enhanced online presence with the launch of our newly designed ITID 2.0 Web site. The new Web site, located at www.itidjournal.org, brings together functionalities for browsing, searching and reading papers. It also serves as our online submission system for authors and reviewing system for our peer review team. Before this site upgrade, we had a limited submission management system for authors at the ITID journal Web site while all published material was only available from the MIT Press Web site. Now our single site includes enhanced author and reviewer facilities, as well as improved access to current and back issues for readers.
{"title":"Announcing itid 2.0","authors":"F. Bar, M. Best","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00021","url":null,"abstract":"With this issue, we are thrilled to announce our enhanced online presence with the launch of our newly designed ITID 2.0 Web site. The new Web site, located at www.itidjournal.org, brings together functionalities for browsing, searching and reading papers. It also serves as our online submission system for authors and reviewing system for our peer review team. Before this site upgrade, we had a limited submission management system for authors at the ITID journal Web site while all published material was only available from the MIT Press Web site. Now our single site includes enhanced author and reviewer facilities, as well as improved access to current and back issues for readers.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We have examined longitudinally an ICT for a development project in rural India, closely watching activities and surveying users at as many as 100 Internet facilities in more than 50 different villages. The Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) project in Tamil Nadu, India, enjoyed many successes, including palpable---albeit localized---social and economic development impacts as well as the incubation of an---albeit inconsistently---celebrated ICT for a development start-up company (n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd.). Ultimately, however, the SARI project did not sustain itself. In the particular outcomes reported here, we follow the prospects of 36 private telecenters which were opened at various times between November 2001 and February 2004. By May 2005, 32 of these 36 telecenters had closed. However, in the same time period, most of 42 telecenters in the same area that were opened and run by a local NGO continued to function. We provide a comparative analysis between these two groups of facilities. We find that the best explanation for variation in a kiosk lifespan was their level of satisfaction with n-Logue Communications. Moreover, those sites that did express satisfaction with their institutional and technical support were in service for, on average, an additional year compared with dissatisfied sites. In addition to technical and operational support issues, we find that the lack of long-term financial viability was a major reason for the closure of the private telecenters. Financial sustainability was not realized by many centers; indeed, 85% of the operators interviewed cited finances as a major cause for their closure. Finally, telecenters that were owned by individuals with prior training in computers, or that had a separate trained operator, remained operational for a longer period.
{"title":"Sustainability failures of rural telecenters: Challenges from the sustainable access in rural india (sari) project","authors":"M. Best, Rajendra T. Kumar","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00025","url":null,"abstract":"We have examined longitudinally an ICT for a development project in rural India, closely watching activities and surveying users at as many as 100 Internet facilities in more than 50 different villages. The Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) project in Tamil Nadu, India, enjoyed many successes, including palpable---albeit localized---social and economic development impacts as well as the incubation of an---albeit inconsistently---celebrated ICT for a development start-up company (n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd.). Ultimately, however, the SARI project did not sustain itself. In the particular outcomes reported here, we follow the prospects of 36 private telecenters which were opened at various times between November 2001 and February 2004. By May 2005, 32 of these 36 telecenters had closed. However, in the same time period, most of 42 telecenters in the same area that were opened and run by a local NGO continued to function. We provide a comparative analysis between these two groups of facilities. We find that the best explanation for variation in a kiosk lifespan was their level of satisfaction with n-Logue Communications. Moreover, those sites that did express satisfaction with their institutional and technical support were in service for, on average, an additional year compared with dissatisfied sites. In addition to technical and operational support issues, we find that the lack of long-term financial viability was a major reason for the closure of the private telecenters. Financial sustainability was not realized by many centers; indeed, 85% of the operators interviewed cited finances as a major cause for their closure. Finally, telecenters that were owned by individuals with prior training in computers, or that had a separate trained operator, remained operational for a longer period.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A growing number of policy makers and development practitioners appreciate that the ICT revolution is opening up new sources of growth and offering new opportunities to solve long-standing development problems as well as transforming industries and services so fundamentally that it is changing the competitive advantages of countries. ICT is driving a technological revolution that is sweeping entire economies and transforming institutions, learning processes, and innovation systems. Yet, current research, education and development assistance practice have primarily focused on separate elements of this transformation. Much of the documented failures of ICT applications in e-government, e-business, e-education or rural development are traced to fragmented approaches that missed key enablers or operated within the current silos of the ICT paradigm. Also, several past contributions to Forum have lamented the lack of an integrated view of ICT4D research as a part of the larger puzzle of development (for example, Raiti, 2006). Others (Wilson, 2005) suggested ways scholars may enhance dialogue with thoughtful practitioners in ICT4D by framing ICT issues in broader contexts, and by understanding the dynamics of ICT as a process. In response, I would like to advance the framework of e-development as a holistic approach to leveraging ICT for development (ICT4D)—by pursuing mutually reinforcing ICT-enabled initiatives at the national or regional level. It is about creating an information society or knowledge economy “ecosystem”—an integrated approach that deanes a vision, coordinates the work of stakeholders, and maps the connections to shape the relationships among diverse players. Accordingly, ICT4D is deaned most holistically in order to facilitate a way of systematically thinking about ICT as an enabler of development, of strategically managing integrated ICT4D programs, of tapping synergies among interdependent elements of ICT, and of communicating to a broad community of practice.
{"title":"Why a holistic e-development framework?","authors":"Nagy K. Hanna","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00022","url":null,"abstract":"A growing number of policy makers and development practitioners appreciate that the ICT revolution is opening up new sources of growth and offering new opportunities to solve long-standing development problems as well as transforming industries and services so fundamentally that it is changing the competitive advantages of countries. ICT is driving a technological revolution that is sweeping entire economies and transforming institutions, learning processes, and innovation systems. Yet, current research, education and development assistance practice have primarily focused on separate elements of this transformation. Much of the documented failures of ICT applications in e-government, e-business, e-education or rural development are traced to fragmented approaches that missed key enablers or operated within the current silos of the ICT paradigm. Also, several past contributions to Forum have lamented the lack of an integrated view of ICT4D research as a part of the larger puzzle of development (for example, Raiti, 2006). Others (Wilson, 2005) suggested ways scholars may enhance dialogue with thoughtful practitioners in ICT4D by framing ICT issues in broader contexts, and by understanding the dynamics of ICT as a process. In response, I would like to advance the framework of e-development as a holistic approach to leveraging ICT for development (ICT4D)—by pursuing mutually reinforcing ICT-enabled initiatives at the national or regional level. It is about creating an information society or knowledge economy “ecosystem”—an integrated approach that deanes a vision, coordinates the work of stakeholders, and maps the connections to shape the relationships among diverse players. Accordingly, ICT4D is deaned most holistically in order to facilitate a way of systematically thinking about ICT as an enabler of development, of strategically managing integrated ICT4D programs, of tapping synergies among interdependent elements of ICT, and of communicating to a broad community of practice.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article serves as a critique of an ICT in education reform in the nation of Cambodia. Although an ICT in education policy was adopted by the Cambodian Ministry of Education, tangible, quantifiable, and measured progress of this reform has, to date, been limited in nature. Hence, to understand the limitations of this reform, the author uses Kingdon's multiple streams model to investigate streams of policy, problems, and politics. This model allowed the author to explore existing data, events, and experiences in a robust manner. The current research is an analysis of policy papers, government documents, IGO briefs, personal experiences, and other nations' experiences with similar ICT in education reform movements. It was determined that failure to fully address the political stream has caused stress on the adoption process of this reform and has, in effect, slowed its progress.
{"title":"Ict in education reform in cambodia: Problems, politics, and policies impacting implementation","authors":"J. Richardson","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00027","url":null,"abstract":"This article serves as a critique of an ICT in education reform in the nation of Cambodia. Although an ICT in education policy was adopted by the Cambodian Ministry of Education, tangible, quantifiable, and measured progress of this reform has, to date, been limited in nature. Hence, to understand the limitations of this reform, the author uses Kingdon's multiple streams model to investigate streams of policy, problems, and politics. This model allowed the author to explore existing data, events, and experiences in a robust manner. The current research is an analysis of policy papers, government documents, IGO briefs, personal experiences, and other nations' experiences with similar ICT in education reform movements. It was determined that failure to fully address the political stream has caused stress on the adoption process of this reform and has, in effect, slowed its progress.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Informational challenges---absence, uncertainty, asymmetry---shape the working of markets and commerce in many developing countries. For developing country micro-enterprises, which form the bulk of all enterprises worldwide, these challenges shape the characteristics of their supply chains. They reduce the chances that business and trade will emerge. They keep supply chains localised and intermediated. They make trade within those supply chains slow, costly, and risky. Mobile telephony may provide an opportunity to address the informational challenges and, hence, to alter the characteristics of trade within micro-enterprise supply chains. However, mobile telephony has only recently penetrated. This paper, therefore, presents one of the first case studies of the impact of mobile telephony on the numerically-dominant form of enterprise, based around a case study of the cloth-weaving sector in Nigeria. It finds that there are ways in which costs and risks are being reduced and time is saved, often by substitution of journeys. But it also finds a continuing need for journeys and physical meetings due to issues of trust, design intensity, physical inspection and exchange, and interaction complexity. As a result, there are few signs of the de-localisation or disintermediation predicted by some commentators. An economising effect of mobile phones on supply chain processes may therefore co-exist with the entrenchment of supply chain structures and a growing “competitive divide” between those with and without access to telephony.
{"title":"The impact of mobile telephony on developing country micro-enterprise: A nigerian case study","authors":"A. Jagun, Richard Heeks, J. Whalley","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00026","url":null,"abstract":"Informational challenges---absence, uncertainty, asymmetry---shape the working of markets and commerce in many developing countries. For developing country micro-enterprises, which form the bulk of all enterprises worldwide, these challenges shape the characteristics of their supply chains. They reduce the chances that business and trade will emerge. They keep supply chains localised and intermediated. They make trade within those supply chains slow, costly, and risky. \u0000 \u0000Mobile telephony may provide an opportunity to address the informational challenges and, hence, to alter the characteristics of trade within micro-enterprise supply chains. However, mobile telephony has only recently penetrated. This paper, therefore, presents one of the first case studies of the impact of mobile telephony on the numerically-dominant form of enterprise, based around a case study of the cloth-weaving sector in Nigeria. \u0000 \u0000It finds that there are ways in which costs and risks are being reduced and time is saved, often by substitution of journeys. But it also finds a continuing need for journeys and physical meetings due to issues of trust, design intensity, physical inspection and exchange, and interaction complexity. As a result, there are few signs of the de-localisation or disintermediation predicted by some commentators. An economising effect of mobile phones on supply chain processes may therefore co-exist with the entrenchment of supply chain structures and a growing “competitive divide” between those with and without access to telephony.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Construction of rural telecenters has been recently promoted by Chinese government officials as an innovative way to solve the problem of underdevelopment in rural areas. To address questions on the project's effectiveness and manageability, this article attempts to do a case study on the United Nations Development Programme--Ministry of Science and Technology (UNDP--MoST) telecenter project by analyzing the deliberative nature of its institutional framework. Such an analysis seems to indicate the coexistence of a collaborative network-building effort and a continuity of traditional institutional hierarchy, division, and lack of public deliberation. Although policy innovations should be celebrated, further efforts should be taken to promote the complexity of the framework and enable further participatory deliberation in the project policy-making process.
{"title":"The institutional framework of the united nations development programme--ministry of science and technology (undp--most) telecenter project in rural china","authors":"Chun-Wang Zhang","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00016","url":null,"abstract":"Construction of rural telecenters has been recently promoted by Chinese government officials as an innovative way to solve the problem of underdevelopment in rural areas. To address questions on the project's effectiveness and manageability, this article attempts to do a case study on the United Nations Development Programme--Ministry of Science and Technology (UNDP--MoST) telecenter project by analyzing the deliberative nature of its institutional framework. Such an analysis seems to indicate the coexistence of a collaborative network-building effort and a continuity of traditional institutional hierarchy, division, and lack of public deliberation. Although policy innovations should be celebrated, further efforts should be taken to promote the complexity of the framework and enable further participatory deliberation in the project policy-making process.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In general, studies of the adoption of communal computing facilities (CCFs) such as telecenters tend to be atheoretical. In this article, we use Rogers' diffusion of innovations (DoI) theory as a framework. As the number and variety of CCFs has increased, so has the number of research studies on CCFs. However, most of the studies are presented in isolation without using any theoretical framework. The use of frameworks would help to bring structure and rigor to the research in this field. This study analyses data from our existing articles on CCFs to see how well DoI would explain the adoption of CCFs operating among the urban poor in Cape Town, South Africa. The article considers all the five perceived attributes of innovation, channels of communication, social system in which the innovation is diffusing, and consequences of innovation. The article notes that DoI explains most of the adoption pattern of CCFs: All the five attributes of innovations influence adoption according to DoI. As a consequence, the article notes that the introduction of CCFs has consequences not only for the community but also for the institution hosting the CCF.
{"title":"Using diffusion of innovations framework to explain communal computing facilities adoption among the urban poor","authors":"W. Chigona, P. Licker","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00017","url":null,"abstract":"In general, studies of the adoption of communal computing facilities (CCFs) such as telecenters tend to be atheoretical. In this article, we use Rogers' diffusion of innovations (DoI) theory as a framework. As the number and variety of CCFs has increased, so has the number of research studies on CCFs. However, most of the studies are presented in isolation without using any theoretical framework. The use of frameworks would help to bring structure and rigor to the research in this field. This study analyses data from our existing articles on CCFs to see how well DoI would explain the adoption of CCFs operating among the urban poor in Cape Town, South Africa. The article considers all the five perceived attributes of innovation, channels of communication, social system in which the innovation is diffusing, and consequences of innovation. The article notes that DoI explains most of the adoption pattern of CCFs: All the five attributes of innovations influence adoption according to DoI. As a consequence, the article notes that the introduction of CCFs has consequences not only for the community but also for the institution hosting the CCF.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This case study of a telecenter in Cali, Colombia examines the impacts of Internet access and use on local social equity. It proceeds with a livelihoods analysis of the neighborhoods surrounding the telecenter combined with an analysis of how telecenter users and other local residents are using the Internet and other ICTs. The study found that the telecenter was not improving local social equity through its services: its users were demographically similar to other Internet users and used the Internet primarily to further their formal employment options. Implications for the broader telecenter and ICT for development literature are discussed.
{"title":"The impact of the internet on local social equity: A study of a telecenter in aguablanca, colombia","authors":"S. Parkinson, Al Lauzon","doi":"10.1162/ITID.2008.00015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/ITID.2008.00015","url":null,"abstract":"This case study of a telecenter in Cali, Colombia examines the impacts of Internet access and use on local social equity. It proceeds with a livelihoods analysis of the neighborhoods surrounding the telecenter combined with an analysis of how telecenter users and other local residents are using the Internet and other ICTs. The study found that the telecenter was not improving local social equity through its services: its users were demographically similar to other Internet users and used the Internet primarily to further their formal employment options. Implications for the broader telecenter and ICT for development literature are discussed.","PeriodicalId":45625,"journal":{"name":"Information Technologies & International Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64557049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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