Title: Information and Communication Technology Geographies: Strategies for Bridging the Digital Divide
Authors: Melissa R. Gilbert, Michele Masucci
Pages: 187 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-9865387-6-6
Publisher: Praxis (e)Press
Date (published): 13/07/2011
Date (accessed): 11/08/2011
Type of information: research monograph
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"ICT Geographies draws upon 14 years of social action research with poor women in Philadelphia to argue that it is premature to declare the demise of the digital divide. What makes this book unique is that the digital divide is examined from the vantage point of some of the most marginalized people in the U.S. Most of the discussions of the potential for ICTs to catalyze societal benefits is situated within groups of technologically privileged and literate people and focused on the potential for ICTs as a pathway for achieving greater social and economic participation among the poor.

These discussions assume that the framework for ICT and empowerment is the same for mainstream and marginalized groups and therefore the problem of and solution to the digital divide is one of merely increasing access to ICTs and related information.

Drawing on case studies of women organizing for economic justice, seeking to attain employment, and trying to improve their health, the book argues that an understanding of poor women’s frameworks for the use of information and communication technologies necessitates rethinking the policies that seek to address the digital divide. Specifically, we contend that in order to better bridge this divide, policy concerns need to transcend a limited conceptualization based on access to computers and the Internet towards an examination of how ICTs may exacerbate and/or mitigate social, economic, and political disparities in the United States. We further believe that this shift in policy concerns necessitates new institutional arrangements that empower poor people within relevant institutions and decision-making bodies.

Melissa R. Gilbert and Michele Masucci are Associate Professors in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University, USA, where they have engaged in an integrated program of social action research, critical pedagogy, and university-community partnerships to effect social change both inside and outside the academy."

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Title: Knowledge Discovery Empowering Australian Indigenous Communities
Authors: Dianna McClellan, Kerry Tanner
Pages: 15 pp.
ISSN: 1544-7529
Source: Information Technologies & International Development; Volume 7, Number 2, Summer 2011, 31–46
Publisher: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Date (published): 09/06/2011
Date (accessed): 14/07/2011
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"This article explores how Australian Indigenous communities can be empowered through knowledge discovery from institutions with Indigenous cultural collections. It reports on original case study research involving eight diverse Australian cultural institutions with valuable Indigenous cultural heritage collections. The research sought to provide a state of the art review of the role, nature, and organization of these collections, with particular emphasis on provision for digital discovery and access. These cultural institutions have a pivotal role to play in restoring memory of cultural heritage, but face many technological, resourcing, and other challenges in the process."

Title: Mobile Technologies for Social Transformation
Author Editor:Peter Holt
Pages: 20 pp.
Publisher: Nimbus Consulting Ltd
Date (published):11/10/2010
Date (accessed):05/11/2010
Type of information:research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
„Every year US$100s of millions is spent on projects in developing countries that have an ICT element. In addition, mobile networks are spending US$10s of billions on improving their infrastructure and rolling out data coverage. Over 4.5 billion people now have a mobile phone and the highest growth rates are in developing countries1. Even in the poorest communities most people either own or have access to a mobile phone.
Both governments and development agencies have been slow to exploit the unprecedented opportunities presented by ICT. There have, however, been many small scale pilots that have given people access to information via ICT and in most studies this has seen an improvement in wealth within the pilot community. The most well known studies with fishermen saw average profits rise 8%.2 Whilst ICT and more specifically mobile phones are beginning to be used both to provide access to information and for data collection, there is still much more that they could be utilised for.
Many development programmes provide immediate support and training programmes. Health programmes have provided vaccinations, and agricultural schemes have provided best practice training on crop rotation and the use of fertilizers etc. There is, however, a distinct lack of follow on support and continuing input. How do you provide ongoing coaching to farmers to ensure they have fully understood the training advice and are actively implementing the new ideas? How do you mentor individuals with health issues to ensure that they are taking the best care of themselves on a daily basis?
A new technology has crept onto the African scene that has enabled a step change in the way that the poor can access and share information. This concept paper outlines why we believe that Instant Messaging (IM) through services such as Mxit and JamiiX can make a significant difference, not only to the provision and impact of information services, but more importantly to the ongoing coaching and mentoring of individuals and communities. This technology offers benefits in terms of lower cost and greater ease of use, whereby users can enter into a “conversation” with a service provider. It is this ability to establish a relationship through the multiple exchange of texts that distinguishes the system from SMS based information services, and it is relationships that hold the key to translating information into practice and thus lasting transformation.”

Title: 89.1 FM: The Place for Development: Power shifts and participatory spaces in ICTD
Authors: Revi Sterling, Sophia Huyer
ISSN: 1712-4441
Source: The Journal of Community Informatics, Volume 5, Issue 3 (2010)
Date (published): 05/05/2010
Date (accessed): 23/07/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Kamba women in listening range of community radio station Radio Mang’elete have been able to hear themselves on the radio now for four years, providing market information, notification of social events, discussion forums and entertainment in the forms of radio vignettes and plays. These women are not broadcasters in the traditional sense – they provide their insights from their homes, social spaces and areas of work, using a technology system called Advancement through Interactive Radio, or AIR. While AIR was introduced into the target communities four years ago, it continues to enjoy success, as women suggest programming and offer content that enables them to speak out publically. Qualitative and quantitative data from ongoing analysis suggests that participants have experienced increased agency and positive self perception as well as recognition of their input from the larger community. Preliminary indicators demonstrate women are not only choosing to participate in this opportunity for public self-articulation, but are realizing how such articulation can contribute to their empowerment as both individuals and women – roles that have traditionally relegated women to “doubly” marginalized roles.

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: Empowering Haitian women through digital tools
Author: Abby Goldberg
Source: United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI)
Date (published): 08/05/2010
Date (accessed): 10/05/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
We at Digital Democracy received a request from the Protection Officer for Sexual Exploitation and Abuse working on behalf of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who relayed the enormous and immediate need for mechanisms to streamline protection, documentation, and service provisions around gender-based-violence. Her mandate was to create this mechanism and she asked whether we could join an “interagency working session”, meeting with thirteen local women leaders from five different organisations in Port Au Prince, to provide technical expertise at the meeting.

Title: Empowerment in the Context of Community Informatics
Authors: Michael Arnold, Larry Stillman
Pages: 22 pp.
Source: Prato Community CIRN Conference 2009: Empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice
Date (published): 11/12/2009
Date (accessed): 08/04/2010
Type of information: refereed conference paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
In this paper we tackle the theme of the conference head-on through addressing five questions.
1. What is power?
2. What is empowerment?
3. In what ways is it exercised?
4. How does all of this pertain to communities?
5. How does all of this pertain to Community Informatics?

The first three questions are addressed through reference to well known propositions drawn from social theory, and the last two through a content analysis meta-study of the treatment of power and empowerment in the abstracts of papers submitted to the 2009 Prato Community Informatics Conference.
If one assumes that the abstracts submitted to this conference provide a representation of power and empowerment in relation to Community Informatics, one may draw a number of conclusions in relation to the above 5 questions. These conclusions are explicated in the paper.

Title: Empowering Indigenous learners in remote Australian communities
Author: Alison Elliott
Pages: 9 pp.
Source: Prato Community CIRN Conference 2009: Empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice

Date (published): 11/12/2009
Date (accessed): 23/03/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed conference article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Remote schools in predominantly Indigenous (Australian) towns and communities are confronted by staffing challenges unimaginable in urban areas. Ideally, remote schools should be staffed largely by teachers who have strong social and cultural ties to their communities and who want to live and work in them. However, for a range of complex cultural, social and economic reasons, many Indigenous people living in remote Australia who would make excellent teachers are not in the position to participate in mainstream higher education programs to qualify as teachers, nor are they able to participate in regular external studies or ‘open’ learning programs because of limited ICT access and skills and other social and communication challenges. This paper outlines the pedagogical underpinnings of Growing our Own and particularly, ways in which community informatics are used to empower learning. Growing our Own addresses the long standing problem of engaging remote Indigenous learners in higher education, and in the longer term, building sustainable, Indigenous teaching workforces by delivering teacher education in situ in remote Northern Territory communities. Growing Our Own is a partnership between Charles Darwin University and Catholic Education Northern Territory. The program is delivered ‘in-place’ and empowers students by valuing and actively embracing cultural knowledge as it builds relevant ways of knowing and doing ‘schooling’ to meet the graduate professional standards for teacher registration in the Northern Territory. All students are employed as Teacher Assistants.
Growing Our Own employs one-to-one and small group tutoring along with digital technologies to personalise learning, build learning communities, provide access to the wider world of education, teaching and learning and build on students’ cultural knowledges and existing teaching skills. Simultaneously, digital tools are used to support academic staff and co-teachers enrich their understandings of local Indigenous cultures and blend local ways of knowing, being and doing with contemporary “school” knowledge. This ‘two ways’ approach infuses local cultural knowledges across all aspects of the program to empower learning. Its culturally responsive focus values Indigenous educators’ strong sense of cultural identity and learning styles including collaborative work. Importantly, digital technologies are instrumental in scaffolding personalised learning approaches, including assessment, that empower students and the wider community to calibrate personal and local knowledges with mainstream curriculum knowledge and effective teaching strategie

Title: Empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice
Author: Leopoldina Fortunati
Pages: 12 pp.
Source: Prato Community CIRN Conference 2009: Empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice 

Date (published): 25/01/2010
Date (accessed): 23/03/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed conference article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
As the call for papers of this conference emphasizes, ‘there is a widespread expectation that Community Informatics will enhance democracy, develop social capital, build communities, develop economies and empower individuals and groups, and result in many different forms of social change’. While all this might constitute a shared perspective and aspiration, I would like in this keynote to address the notion of empowerment. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the substantial debate on empowering by re-examining some issues of the classical sociological debate on power. Consequently, my hope is to propose some reflections which might help to expand critically the analysis of the notion of empowerment.
The ownership of the means of production and the control over labour are, according to Marx, the most important resources of power. In this century, the explosion in ICT diffusion means that billions of people now directly possess these technologies and directly control access to information. The power to control ICTs gives people the right to decide if to use them, how to use them and to what extent, and finally for which purposes to use them. The technologies of information and communication might therefore be considered as the means of production for immaterial goods such as information, communication, education, entertainment and so on. But, said that, does the use of ICTs directly empower individuals, groups or communities? And if the answer is in the affirmative, in which sense and to what extent?

Title: ICTs for democracy: Information and Communication Technologies for the Enhancement of Democracy - with a Focus on Empowerment
Author: Association for Progressive Communications, APC
Pages: 94 pp.
Publisher: Sida, Department for Empowerment
Date (published): 05/10/2009
Date (accessed): 18/02/2010
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf, 2,07 MB)
Abstract:
This report examines the potential of information an communications technologies (ICTs) for advancing democracy and empowerment, with a special focus on Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Access to and the strategic use of ICTs have been shown to have the potential to help bring about economic development, poverty reduction, and democratisation – including freedom of speech, the free flow of information and the promotion of human rights. Based on signs of current democracy deficits in the case study countries, it is crucial that ICTs be made central to development cooperation and to approaches to advance democracy in the three countries.
...
The report concludes by making a set of recommendations of possible strategies and actions to support democracy efforts in the three countries, though the use of ICTs. Three strategies are proposed as priorities:

Raising awareness and building understanding of (I)the potential of ICTs, particularly in the context of the vast numbers of people who are now able to connect in some way through mobile phones; (II) democratic principles and practice; and (III) the potential of ICTs for advancing democracy.
Institutional strengthening of CSOs, NGOs and media practitioners to engage critically on issues of democracy as well as institutional strengthening of state actors to enhance transparency and good governance.
Strengthening community voice in public debate and decision-making and in maintaining transparency and accountability by government.