Are information and communication technologies (ICT) such as computers, mobile phones, radio, TV, video and the Internet effective instruments to empower people, reduce poverty and improve lives? Or are ICT just deepening already existing inequalities and divisions in the world? In this book, key innovators, leading CEOs, top-level government leaders […]
2004 • challenges • ICT4D • ICTs • mobile • toolkitICTs for Development: Empowerment or Exploitation?
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can empower people. They unlock a world of super-fast, globalised communications and decentralised information networks. Once people can access and use the technology, their lives will be improved. According to a recent study of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects in Africa, access to communications technologies […]
2004 • Africa • empower • exploitation • ICT4D • ICTs • poverty reductionIndigenous Knowledge: Local Pathways to Global Development
The cases presented here demonstrate how communities and local practitioners use indigenous knowledge systems and practices to help increase their crop yields, educate their children, reduce suffering from HIV/AIDS, decrease infant and maternal mortality, heal the impact of conflict, learn from each other, and empower themselves. The cases also suggest […]
2004 • indigenous / traditional knowledge • knowledge systems • millennium development goals • technologyQuestioning the Obvious? Ethical and Cultural Dimensions of CMC and ICTs
As late as 1998, U.S. citizens constituted the significant majority of Internet users (84%: GVU 1998). Given this demographic dominance, it is not surprising that U.S.-specific visions also dominated both popular discourse and English-language scholarship regarding computer-mediated communication (CMC). Such dominance, of course, goes hand-in-hand with ethnocentrism – and so […]
2004 • communication • computer-mediated communication • ICTs • indigenous communities • western valuesThe Digital Divide Dilemma: Preserving Native American Culture While Increasing Access
Introduction “[I]nformation is power. The development of a Navajo Nation information infrastructure is a historic event that holds many possibilities.” A comparison of the access to technology on Native American reservations with urban American settings reveals a great divide. For example, only 39% of Native Americans living in rural areas […]
2004 • culture | preservation • digital divide • ICTs • Native American • reservation • ruralThe Foundation for Indigenous ICT in Ethiopia
Abstract Ethiopia’s standards body, the Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia, has legalized the nation’s first character set standard. The highly anticipated standard, ES 781:2002, sets the foundation that future computer, software, and electronic communication standards of Ethiopia will be built upon. With “Ethiocode” now at hand, Ethiopia is braced […]
2004 • Ethiopia • ICTs • localization • orthography • UnicodeFragile memories: Indigenous knowledge and development
Abstract This paper examines the nature of knowledge with particular reference to so-called “indigenous knowledge” and its treatment within development interventions. It highlights some of the theoretical arguments and different sides of the debate concerning hierarchies of knowledge with development narratives and discourse. Much indigenous knowledge is contained in oral […]
2004 • development • development discourse • indigenous / traditional knowledge • knowledge systems • oral traditionFracturing the Skeleton of Principle: Australian Law, Aboriginal Law, and Digital Technology
Aboriginal people in Australia today are constructing extremely diverse cultures. Increasingly, these cultures involve some aspect of digital technologies – videos, DVDs, CDs, digital photos, audiofiles etc. This paper is part of a wider project looking at how emerging Aboriginal digital environments are affecting the intergenerational transmission of traditional culture. […]
2004 • aboriginal • digital environments • impact of | ICTs • traditional culture • transmissionWords, Ontologies and Aboriginal databases
This paper tells of a group of people working in the increasingly digitised context of teaching and researching Aboriginal languages and cultures in a university context, and in remote Aboriginal communities. The first phase involved the development of digital archives with CDs and a website for university teaching purposes. The […]
2004 • aboriginal • database • indigenous communities • knowledge systems • ontologies • ruralIKRMNA: Making Collective Memories with Computers
This post contains abstracts and links to a selection of papers written about Indigenous Knowledge and Resource Management in Northern Australia (IKRMNA). From their website: IKRMNA was a three year 2003-2006 ARC Linkage Project to support and develop Indigenous databases that maintain and enhance the strength of local languages, cultures […]
2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • aboriginal • archive • Australia • database • design • IKRMNA • indigenous / traditional knowledge • knowledge systems • representation • TAMI • YolnguIndigenous Knowledge & Resource Management in Northern Australia (IKRMNA)
Indigenous Knowledge and Resource Management in Northern Australia (IKRMNA) was a three year 2003-2006 ARC Linkage Project to support and develop Indigenous databases that maintain and enhance the strength of local languages, cultures and environments in Northern Australia. The project was coordinated through the School of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems […]
2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • aboriginal • archive • Australia • database • design • IKRMNA • indigenous / traditional knowledge • knowledge systems • representation • TAMI • YolnguCultural Issues in the Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies by Indigenous Australians
Abstract This paper investigates cultural issues concerning Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Indigenous Australians. Firstly, it examines whether the low adoption of ICTs by Indigenous Australians derives from a rejection of Western values embodied in the technology. A review of the existing literature shows no evidence for this. Instead, […]
2004 • Australia • community resistance • culture • ICTs • indigenous communities • western culture • western valuesDiscourse, ‘Development’ & the ‘Digital Divide’: ICT & the World Bank
Abstract Information and communication technology(ies) (ICT) is tipped to play an increasingly enabling role in the inclusion and exclusion of groups from participation in the discourse of ‘development’, with material consequences. In affecting how ‘development’ is framed, discussed and practised, the conception and use of such technologies itself thus becomes […]
2004 • development • development discourse • digital divide • discursive analysis • ICTs • World Bank