Title: Digital Library Adoption and the Technology Acceptance Model: A Cross-Country Analysis
Authors: Jade Miller, Otto Khera
Pages: 19 pp.
ISSN: 1681-4835
Source: The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, (2010) 40, 6
Publisher: www.ejisdc.org
Date (published): 06/02/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
In this article, we examine, through the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), some of the features that inform user acceptance of a digital library system implementation at agricultural universities in two developing countries: Kenya and Peru. This is a study not only examining factors contributing to adoption of this offline digital library, but also a cross-site comparison, meant to examine the functionality in the developing world of a theoretical model developed in and based on conditions in the developed world. As we unravel predictors of technological acceptance of a digital library implementation in the developing world, we simultaneously investigate a broader question: not just questions regarding improved research in the developing world, but on it as well.
We analyze data from both sites on overall measures of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (two constructs of the TAM), and on individual measures making up the overall measures. We found the TAM to work well in describing factors that affect usage of digital libraries in developing countries, with perceived usefulness as the main predictor of intent to use this system (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library, or TEEAL), and with relevance as the major constituent driver of perceived usefulness. Overall, we also found particular predictors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use that are consistent across cultures (relevance, trust, and ease of access), while other constructs (social norm, domain knowledge, visibility, and self-efficacy) demonstrated predictive power in only one setting. While post-hoc analyses gave several clues as to drivers of these differences, this study cannot definitively address what causes differences in predictive power between sites. What is clear, however, is that application of the TAM to IT implementation in developing countries must be guided more by the specificities of local circumstances than by the performance of the TAM in highly-developed countries.

Title: Local Voices Enhance Knowledge Uptake: Sharing Local Content in Local Voices
Authors: David John Grimshaw, Lawrence D Gudza
Pages: 12 pp.
ISSN: 1681-4835
Source: The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, (2010) 40, 3
Publisher: www.ejisdc.org
Date (published): 26/02/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
New ICTs can provide new opportunities for knowledge sharing and uptake, but may also reinforce existing power hierarchies and exclusionary practices. This paper explores ways in which the balance of power may be redressed via the use of local voices producing local content in a way which respects local choices and where the intervention is shown to enhance livelihoods.
Practical Action has put people first for over forty years. How can people truly be put first when introducing a new information and communications technology such as “podcasting”? A brief review of the background to a podcasting project in Zimbabwe, leads on to a discussion of the development problems being addressed, the choice of technology, the outcomes evaluated and a discussion of implications for policy and practice.
Many ICT projects face the challenge of sharing information with people who have little experience of ICTs, low levels of literacy, little time or money, and highly contextualized knowledge and language requirements. Observations in Peru (Talyarkhan et al 2005) became the inspiration for innovative work in Zimbabwe which provides the main evidence discussed in this paper in relation to creating enhanced livelihood opportunities for people living in remote rural areas.
The paper discusses the proposition that the use of technologies accessible via voice and local languages support knowledge sharing and minimize impact on power relations in the community. A framework is suggested which shows how the balance of power relates to both the choice of media and the choice of technology. The final section of the paper explores the policy and practice implications of the findings and concludes that hand held voice devices can make a substantial contribution to improved livelihoods in remote rural areas.

Title: Economic Development and Inclusion through Local Broadband Access Networks
Editor: Jaime García Alba
Authors: Stefano Migliorisi, Alessandra Balletti, Karl Edwards, Roberto Donà, David Mendoza, Ugo Silva Dias, Miguel Collado di Franco, Luis Deza
Pages: 145 pp.
Publisher: Multilateral Investment Fund, Inter-American Development Bank
Date (published): August 2009
Date (accessed): 28/08/2009
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML, PDF)
Abstract:
The theme of the study is the recent experience of community-based initiatives driven by municipal governments, community organizations, local entrepreneurs associations, NGOs that have deployed sustainable local broadband connectivity services. This report provides a detailed mapping of best practice for the implementation of sustainable local broadband access networks and an analysis of the situation in Brazil, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Peru.

Title: Living Cultural Storybases: Using Technology to Preserve Cultural Diversity
Author: Worldchanging Team
Source: Worldchanging.com
Publisher: Worldchanging
Date published: 09/07/2009
Date accessed: 11/07/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Indigenous peoples are 4 percent of the world’s population, but half of humanity’s cultures. Yet they are the poorest and most disenfranchised. One language dies every 10 days; within 50 years over half the world’s languages will be gone. Cultural diversity is disappearing much faster than plant or animal diversity. We face a cataclysmic loss of millennia of wisdom and knowledge whilst threatened by megacity monocultures, economies of scale, environmental destruction and greed...
Storytelling transmits the essence of any culture, encapsulating deeper beliefs, values and identity, inspiring ways of behaving and believing. ‘Living Cultural Storybases’ helps minority communities build evolving digital repositories in their own language of their cultural narratives and knowledge, i.e. ‘Storybases’

See also:
Living Cultural Storybases

Title: Remoteness, Exclusion and Telecentres in Mountain Regions: Analysing ICT-Based "Information Chains" in Pazos, Peru
Author: Richard Heeks and Laura León Kanashiro
Pages: 28 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-905469-05-5
Series Manchester Centre for Development Informatics Working Paper 38
Publisher: Institute for Development Policy and Management, SED, University of Manchester
Date published: 2009
Date accessed: 17/06/2009
Type of information: research publications
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf, MS Word)
Abstract:
Communities in developing country mountain areas, in part due to their remoteness, find themselves excluded from social, political and economic systems; and excluded from access to resources. This paper researches the impact on remoteness and exclusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs). It utilises two models – the resource movement framework, and "information chains" – to analyse a telecentre in one district of mountainous Huancavelica, Peru's poorest region, set in the high Andes.

It finds ICTs enabling new and positive resource flows for the two key user groups: teenaged school students and young farmers. These help to maintain social networks. They also support information searches that have improved agricultural practice where other information chain resources have been available. But non-use and ineffective use of the telecentre are found where information chain resources are lacking. ICTs have some impact on intangible elements of remoteness. In this particular example, they also offer access to some previously-excluded resources. But they have not really addressed the systemic exclusions faced by mountain communities. And they so far appear to be a technology of inequality; favouring those residents who begin with better resource endowments.

The paper concludes by offering some recommendations for mountain ICT project practice.

See also:
Educator's guide to student questions for this paper.