Social media are becoming significant channels for information dissemination and communication around the world today. Internet and social media users run into hundred thousands daily; with young people constituting a large percentage. With the internet technology, social media, which consists of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, MySpace, have made the communication […]
2015 • Africa • communication • culture • internet • social media • western valuesIndigenous Australians and ICTs (blog post)
Blurb: “I think I have witnessed both the empowering and disempowering aspects of ICTs enough to have developed a significant amount of skepticism toward the technology and especially the unnerving tendency of people to use it to amplify our pre-existing conditions rather than solve any problems. I guess I am […]
2012 • Australia • colonization / colonialism • culture • ICTs • indigenous communities • skepticism • western valuesLocally Situated Digital Representation of Indigenous Knowledge: Co-constructing a new digital reality in rural Africa
Digital re-presentation of indigenous knowledge remains an absurdity as long as we fail to deconstruct the prevalent design paradigm and techniques continuously re-framing technology within a western epistemology. This paper discusses key challenges in attempts of co-constructing a digital representation based on experiences from a longitudinal community-centred research project in […]
2012 • Africa • design • digital • indigenous / traditional knowledge • representation • situated • western valuesQuestioning 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 valuesBarefoot Expert: The Interface of Computerized Knowledge Systems and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
It may seem a strange match–AI and crop irrigation or AI and the Serengeti lions but researchers in Artificial Intelligence envision expert systems as a new technology for capturing the knowledge and reasoning process of experts in agriculture, wildlife management, and many other fields. These computer programs have a relevance […]
1993 • artificial intelligence • expert systems • indigenous / traditional knowledge • western valuesCultural Imperialism & Pedagogical Possibilities Emerging from Youth Encounters w/ Internet in Africa
Abstract Many academic and popular writers have warned that the internet could be another form of cultural imperialism used by corporate-led western powers to force feed western values and worldviews to the rest of the world, similar to how Western education was imposed on Africa after colonisation. These ongoing arguments […]
2008 • Africa • colonization / colonialism • education • ICTs • pedagogy • western values • youthCultural 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 valuesNegotiating Community Resistance
“Esdunèna keh kudoge dahkwandēʼ tedètsʼet. Neni dahtsʼadi netʼē dahkwandē tsʼèn keniden. Dahtsʼadi etʼē dahkwandēʼ. Dahkwandēʼ niʼushdèn shį̀. Dahkwandēʼ tsʼèn keniden. Dahkwandēʼ tsʼèn keniden.” [“To all my children, we are losing our language. You are our future leaders; you must learn our language. It is the root and heart of our […]
2008 • authority • community resistance • elder • FirstVoices • ICT4D • indigenous communities • Nyoongar • revitalization • Tagish • Tlingit • western values