IFAP Information Society Observatory

Title: ICTs for the Broader Development of India: An Analysis of the Literature
Author: Geoff Walsham
Pages: 20 pp.
ISSN: 1681-4835
Source: The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, EJISDC (2010) 41, 4, 1-20
Publisher: City University of Hong Kong
Date (published): 06/05/2010
Date (accessed): 28/06/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
India is known around the world for the success of its export-oriented ICT services industry, but this paper asks whether ICTs have been valuable in providing broader development benefits to all Indian citizens. Secondary data from academic articles with a focus on India are used to analyse the contribution of ICTs towards the achievement of specific development goals. The analysis shows that many ICT-based initiatives have taken place over the last decade and some positive effects have resulted. However, the beneficiaries are almost always not the poorest or most disadvantaged groups, it is hard to scale up initiatives to have effects throughout India, and the need for attitudinal and institutional change remains a fundamental problem. It is argued that ICTs should not be seen as ‘silver bullets’ for development but neither are they irrelevant. Rather, they are potentially important contributors towards development in India but only through their integration in wider sociotechnical interventions.

Title: Developing a Knowledge Management Strategy for the Arab World
Authors: Walter Skok, Saad Tahir
Pages: 11 pp.
ISSN: 1681-4835
Source: The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, EJISDC (2010) 41, 7, 1-11
Publisher: City University of Hong Kong
Date (published): 07/05/2010
Date (accessed): 28/06/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to investigate the issue of knowledge sharing and knowledge management (KM) in an Arab context, by identifying the main issues and obstacles which arise as a result of the Arab culture. By using field data from questionnaires given to staff in an Arab firm, the research shows that western based KM practices should be applied cautiously in a non-western setting. The research concluded that the most appropriate overall knowledge strategy to adopt is a hybrid strategy of ‘intellectual asset management’ i.e. where existing company assets are more fully exploited and ‘personal knowledge assert responsibility’ i.e. where individual employees are encouraged to develop and share their skills and knowledge. This blended approach will nurture a culture of knowledge sharing amongst staff, which is often difficult to achieve. The research also demonstrates how the biggest barriers to knowledge sharing in Arab organisations are the people themselves together with their social and cultural beliefs. These results will be useful within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and for other Arab governments and organisations (as well as multinationals who are looking to set up in an Arab country), when trying to formulate KM strategies. This research allows them to understand better the barriers that will prevent successful implementation of KM in an Arab setting. It also provides them with a series of recommendations to help overcome such obstacles, and thus seeks to find active solutions to ensure that the concepts of knowledge management and sharing are not lost in translation.

Title: The Last Quintile (20%): Doing Community Informatics for Social Inclusion in Hong Kong
Author: Michael Gurstein
Source: Gurstein's Community Informatics
Date (published): 17/06/2010
Date (accessed): 27/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Regulators, policy makers, access suppliers in Developed Countries have a considerable pre-occupation with how to bridge “the last mile” i.e. the gap between the common carrier and the end user’s premises. Here in Hong Kong, where I have been for the last few days at a conference, the concern on the part of regulators, policy makers and not incidentally civil society is how to bridge for the “last quintile” – that is the last 20% of individuals in Hong Kong who are not as yet using the Internet.

Title: Digital Natives with a Cause?: A Knowledge Survey and Framework
Authors: Nishant Shah and Sunil Abraham
Pages: 56 pp.
Publisher: Centre for Internet and Society
Date (published): 11/11/2009
Date (accessed): 27/06/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Allthough there is much attention for the potential impact of youth as e-agents of change, there is limited knowledge about the subject and this knowledge is mostly focussed on Western societies. Hivos has partnered with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, to assess the state of knowledge on the intersection between youth, ICT and engagement worldwide and with a specific attention for developing countries. The report Digital Natives with a Cause? charts Digital Native scholarship and practice in order to create a framework that consolidates existing paradigms, and informs further research and intervention within diverse contexts and cultures.

Title: Africa Agriculture Geospatial Week (AAGW) 2010 Roundup
Author: Mary Schneider
Source: ICT-KM
Publisher: CGIAR
Date (published):
Date (accessed): 27/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
The 2nd Africa Agriculture Geospatial Week (AAGW) opened earlier this month in Nairobi with a speech from Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Dr Sally Kosgei. Her thought-provoking address challenged researchers and GIS practitioners to ‘discuss steps towards the development of delivery mechanisms for making geospatial information accessible to poor smallholders in the villages across Sub-Saharan Africa,’ – a timely topic that was already high on the event’s agenda.

Title: What we can learn from farmers about ICT4D and trust
Author: Christian Kreutz
Source: crisscrossed
Date (published): 25/06/2010
Date (accessed): 27/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:"
There is often that notion that once you have access to the Internet or to other information and communication technologies (ICT), the whole world of information lies rights at your feet, so you only need to pick the best of it. But in contrary, it can become incredibly time consuming to verify information and to make yourself a trusted source. In the field of ICT4D, this issue is particularly important. In many cases people do not have years of experience working with ICTs and have actually learnt them just the auto-didactic way – using the Internet for their own benefit. Let’s take the case of farmers in rural areas of Africa.

Farmers in developing countries
The other day I had an interesting conversation with a colleague, who has been working already for decades in the rural development and agriculture field around the world. We talked about the potentials for ICT in agriculture and in specific farmers. One of the major challenges is neither access nor literacy, but simply trust. Why should a farmer trust an information coming from somewhere as an SMS? Farmers make careful elaborations, before they change certain practices. Information from a website can help, but at the end of the day what counts is the advice of trusted colleagues. So, we have to realize that information through ICTs often have only a small impact.

Title: A consultative, development-focussed Copyright Review (South Africa)
Date (published): May 2010
Date (accessed): 20/06/2010
Type of information: petition
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
The National Consumer Forum (NCF) and The African Commons Project (TACP), two registered Section 21 companies operating within South Africa, on behalf of South African consumers hereby request the Minister to urgently consider a consultative, transparent review of the current Copyright Act.

The Act, initially drafted more than 32 years ago, should be reviewed in light of the digital innovations that have occurred within the last three decades which have dramatically altered the way we create, share, distribute and use information materials and cultural products.

Title: Frustrations with One Laptop Per Child Initiative
Author: Sam Lanfranco
Source: OLPC News
Date (published): 18/06/2010
Date (accessed): 20/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
I have been working in the ICT area since the late 1970's - hence my userID of "lanfran" from back when email names were unix restricted to less than 8 characters. I am a big supporter of (proper) ICT4DEV, yet it was clear from the start that the OLPC strategy was flawed.

There were questions and issues raised when the project was first proposed, and those questions and issues are still being raised. OLPC has never felt it necessary to address the criticisms other than paint a rosy picture of what (maybe) could be done if OLPC could actually saturate developing countries with its computer.

Title: Children with home computers likely to have lower test scores, study finds
Source: ScienceDaily
Date (published): 18/06/2010
Date (accessed): 19/06/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Around the country and throughout the world, politicians and education activists have sought to eliminate the "digital divide" by guaranteeing universal access to home computers, and in some cases to high-speed Internet service.

However, according to a new study by scholars at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, these efforts would actually widen the achievement gap in math and reading scores. Students in grades five through eight, particularly those from disadvantaged families, tend to post lower scores once these technologies arrive in their home.

...The sample size was large -- numbering more than 150,000 individual students. The data allowed researchers to compare the same children's reading and math scores before and after they acquired a home computer, and to compare those scores to those of peers who had a home computer by fifth grade and to test scores of students who never acquire a home computer. The negative effects on reading and math scores were "modest but significant," they found.

Download the report: Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement
Jacob L. Vigdor, Helen F. Ladd
NBER Working Paper No. 16078
Issued in June 2010
pdf file

Title: Location, location, location: Geographic techies explore ways of navigating a better future
Author: Susan MacMillan
Source: ILRI News
Publisher: International Livestock Research Institute
Date (published): 16/06/2010
Date (accessed): 18/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
A group of some 80 international and developing-country experts in the use of geographical information systems (GIS), remote sensing and other high-tech tools developed in the field of what was once innocently called ‘geography’ met in Nairobi last week (8–12 June 2010) to see if they couldn’t, by working together better, speed work to reduce world poverty, hunger and environmental degradation. (Oddly, this gathering of people all about ‘location’ tend to use a forest of acronyms — GIS, ArcGIA, CSI, ESRI, ICT-KM, AGCommons, CIARD, CGMap – in which the casual visitor is likely to get lost.)

The participants at this meeting, called the ‘Africa Agricultural GIS Week’, aimed to find ways to offer more cohesive support to the international community that is working to help communities and nations climb out of poverty through sustainable agriculture.