Title: Mobile Internet in South Africa 2010: Study and Framework
Source: Afrinnovator
Date (published): 27/05/2010
Date (accessed): 28/05/2010
Type of information:
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
...
The study has some revealing highlights:
Mobile Internet in SA appears to be driven more by specific apps (MXit, Facebook) rather than browsing from the mobile
A majority of mobile phone users have internet capable devices and apps (such as email clients) but are not using them either due to cost concerns or ignorance...

via http://twitter.com/ictlogist

Title: Measuring the Information Society 2010
Pages: 124 pp.
ISBN: 92-61-13111-5
Publisher: International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Date (published): 26/03/2010
Date (accessed): 17/05/2010
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The latest edition of Measuring the Information Society features the new ITU ICT Development Index (IDI) and the ICT Price Basket - two benchmarking tools to measure the Information Society. The IDI captures the level of advancement of ICTs in 159 countries worldwide and compares progress made between 2002 and 2008. It also measures the global digital divide and examines how it has developed in recent years. The report also features the latest ICT Price Basket, which combines 2009 fixed telephone, mobile cellular and fixed broadband tariffs for 161 economies into one measure and compares these across countries, and over time. The analytical report is complemented by a series of statistical tables providing country-level data for all indicators included in the Index.

(The freely downloadable pdf-version excludes the Annex 4, which features the statistical tables of tariffs used to compute the ICT Price Basket.)

Title: Implementing Healthcare Information in Rural Communities in Sri Lanka: A Novel Approach with Mobile Communication
Author: Indika Perera
Pages: 6 pp.
Source: Health Informatics in Developing Countries, Vol.3 (No.2), 2009
Publisher: University of Otago and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
Date (published): 30/08/2009
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Access to effective and efficient healthcare services without any difficulty is one of the essential parameters to consider for a country’s sustainable development. Though developing countries put much emphasis on improving their healthcare services, the disparity between service consumption of rural communities compared to their urban counterpart is still very visible. The effect is merely due to the disparity in service penetration levels between the urban and rural regions. Sri Lanka is also struggling to improve this scenario with various policy and tactical level approaches, yet there is lot to achieve. Improving healthcare and utility services through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is a prime research area among the scholars today. Like many other developing countries, Sri Lanka also initiated some projects to improve the healthcare sector infrastructure through ICT. This paper describes the need of a novel approach to provide better healthcare service to rural communities in Sri Lanka and details about such project which is at its final stages of development.

Title: Let’s Talk About a Digital Transition Rather than a Digital Divide
Author: Michael Gurstein
Source: Gurstein's Community Informatics
Date (published): 02/04/2010
Date (accessed): 14/04/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
What I mean by a “Digital Transition” in this context is when a country (and this seems to be more or less a national rather than a local matter) shifts over from a pre-digital—largely manual framework of communications, information and logistics management and transaction management—to one that is digitally (generally but not exclusively Internet) based.

Title: Broadband Adoption in Low-Income Communities
Authors: Dharma Dailey, Amelia Bryne, Alison Powell, Joe Karaganis and Jaewon Chung
Pages: 103 pp.
Publisher: Social Science Research Council
Date (published): 01/03/2010
Date (accessed): 23/03/2010
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The social function of the Internet has changed dramatically in recent years. What was, until recently, a supplement to other channels of information and communication has become increasingly a basic requirement of social and economic inclusion. Educational systems, employers, and government agencies at all levels have shifted services online—and are pushing rapidly to do more. Price remains only one factor shaping the fragile equilibrium of home broadband adoption, and library and community organizations fill the gap by providing critical training and support services while under severe economic pressures. Commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to analyze the factors shaping low rates of adoption of home broadband services in low-income and other marginalized communities, this SSRC study is one of the only large-scale qualitative investigations of barriers to adoption in the US and complements FCC survey research on adoption designed to inform the 2010 National Broadband Plan. The study draws on some 170 interviews of non-adopters, community access providers, and other intermediaries conducted across the US in late 2009 and early 2010 and identifies a range of factors that make broadband services hard to acquire and even harder to maintain in such communities.

Title: Developing a Methodology for Costing the Impact of Digital Exclusion
Publisher: University of Oxford for the Oxford Internet Institute
Date (published): March 2010
Date (accessed): 23/03/2010
Type of information:
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
This site presents a Methodology for Costing the Impact of Digital Exclusion, developed for the National Audit Office (NAO) by the LSE Public Policy Group and the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and opens it up for expert deliberation. Please go to the How you can help tab to participate in the deliberation and improve the methodology!

This online consultation was commissioned by the NAO to inform its understanding of the evidence base on the costs and benefits of digitial inclusion activities. Please do not quote or reference the research without the express permission of the NAO. The NAO has yet to decide when and how it will publish the results of this exercise.

BACKGROUND

Recent work by OII has shown that technological forms of exclusion are a reality for significant segments of the population, that different groups experience different types of exclusion, and that for some people they reinforce and deepen existing disadvantages, such as social and economic exclusion.

We were asked by the National Audit Office to develop a methodology for working out the benefits foregone to citizens, government and the economy through digital exclusion - and the costs of overcoming them. This methodology is presented here.

Title: African Languages in a Digital Age. Challenges and opportunities for indigenous language computing
Author: Don Osborn
Pages: 150 pp.
ISBN: 978-07969-2249-6
Publisher: HSCR Press
Date (published): 2010
Date (accessed): 23/02/2010
Type of information: academic publications
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
With increasing numbers of computers and diffusion of the internet around the world, localisation of the technology and the content it carries into the many languages people speak is becoming an ever more important area for discussion and action. Localisation, simply put, includes translation and cultural adaptation of user interfaces and software applications, as well as the creation and translation of internet content in diverse languages. It is essential in making information and communication technology more accessible to the populations of the poorer countries, increasing its relevance to their lives, needs, and aspirations, and ultimately in bridging the ‘digital divide’.

Localisation is a new and growing field of inquiry. This book identifies issues, concerns, priorities, and lines of research and is intended as a baseline study in defining localisation in Africa and how it is important for development and education in the long term.

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Background

3. Introducing ‘localisation ecology’

4. Linguistic context

5. Technical context 1: physical access

6. Technical context 2: internationalisation

7. African language text, encoding and fonts

8. Keyboards and input systems

9. Defining languages in ICT: tags and locales

10. Internet

11. Software localisation

12. Mobile technology and other specialised applications

13. Achieving sustainable localisation

14. Summary and recommendations

Title: Transformative Impact of ICT: Change stories from rural India
Authors/Editors: Arundhathi, Suchit Nanda and Subbiah Arunachalam
Pages: 31 pp.
ISBN: 978-81-88355-16-7
Source: www.photonicyatra.com
Publisher: Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy (NVA) M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai
Date (published): 19/01/2010
Date (accessed): 29/01/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
ICT is now recognized as a technological tool which can serve as a catalytic intervention in respect of transforming the lives and livelihoods of rural families. The economic and income divides between urban and rural areas can be overcome only by the technological upgradation of rural professions. The present publication provides examples of the transformational role of ICT in a wide range of rural professions. For example, artesenal fishermen going out into the ocean in a catamaran can now carry a cell phone with GPS data on the location of fish shoals and information on wave heights at different distances from the shore line. The Village Knowledge Centre or Gyan Chaupal (VKC) provides information on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and Codex Alimentarius standards of food safety, so that Salmonella and other infections can be avoided.
The present publication contains 12 case studies, which illustrate the transformational role of ICT in villages. I hope the men and women who have mastered the technologies and are applying them in day today life will serve as role models for other rural families. We should convert the small programme started by MSSRF in 1992 into a mass movement, bringing hope and cheer in the lives of the rural poor.

Title: Reaching the Unreached: Community based Village Knowledge Centres & Village Resource Centres
Authors/Editors: Suchit Nanda and Subbiah Arunachalam
Pages: 59 pp.
ISBN: 978-81-88355-15-0
Source: www.photonicyatra.com
Publisher: Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy (NVA) M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai
Date (published): 19/01/2010
Date (accessed): 29/01/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The power of ICT in the field of information, communication and technology empowerment in rural areas is now widely recognized. Reaching the unreached and voicing the voiceless are now achievable objectives in development programmes. To assess whether Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) and Village Resource Centres (VRCs) are really making a difference in the lives and livelihoods of the socially and economically handicapped sections of the rural population, it is essential that continuous monitoring and evaluation, as well as documentation are undertaken.
In this publication guidance is given on the procedure to be adopted for setting up VKCs and VRCs (Village Resource centres which have satellite connection and telecommunication facilities). It was the hope of scientists of MSSRF in the year 2000 that by 2007, all our villages will have Knowledge Centres. The Government of India included Knowledge Connectivity under its Bharat Nirman programme (i.e., New Deal for Rural India), and provided funds for establishing 100,000 common service centres to service rural India. Private sector companies like ITC started expanding its e-chaupal programme.

Title: Measuring digital development for policy-making: Models, stages, characteristics and causes
Author Editor: Ismael Peña-López
Pages: 586 pp.
Publisher: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Date (published): 07/11/2009
Date (accessed): 17/12/2009
Type of information: PhD Thesis
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML and pdf)
Abstract:
With this work, our aim is to analyze how and why the different approaches to model and measure the Information Society have determined what is meant by the concept of access to Information and Communication Technologies and digital development. And, based on this first analysis, work on and propose a 360º digital framework that can serve policy-making while, at the same time, be able to state whether and why governments should seek to foster the development of the Information Society.

Thus, the goal of this research is to identify the relevant factors that promote digital development, to define and describe – on that basis – its different stages and to explain the causes why a particular country might therefore be classified as a digital leader or a laggard and, lastly, answer whether and why governments should foster the Information Society.