This interpretive case study discusses the implications of an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention in a remote village located in the northern Peruvian Andes. An integrated sensitizing framework, bringing together human capital, social capital, and institution theories in the presence of ICT, is used for this exploratory research. Using grounded theory method as a vehicle for the analysis of the stories of two villagers, this article describes how the ICT deployment enabled two people to act as key connectors between their village and the outside world. The paper then discusses implications of these individual stories for the actual and potential consequences of ICT interventions in rural areas in developing countries. C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
While the case for information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development is largely accepted, it should be remembered that ICTs carry embedded in them sets of cultural assumptions. Efforts to close the digital divide are insufficient if those efforts remain oblivious to the cultural dominance of English language content available on the Internet. This paper discusses how the proliferation of the Internet has resulted in a cultural homogenisation via the lingua franca of the Internet, English. It then discusses the case of Latin American Internet portals to illustrate how local content provision on the Internet can be successful in attracting a local audience.
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