No abstract

Research can improve development policies and practices and funders increasingly require evidence of such socioeconomic impact from their investments. This article questions whether information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) research conforms to the requirements for achieving socioeconomic impact. We report on a literature review of the impact of research in international development and a survey of ICT4D researchers who assessed the extent to which they follow practices for achieving socioeconomic impact. The findings suggest that while ICT4D researchers are interested in influencing both practice and policy, they are less inclined toward the activities that would make this happen, especially engaging with users of their research and communicating their findings to a wider audience. Their institutions do not provide incentives for researchers to adopt these practices. ICT4D researchers and their institutions should engage more closely with the users of their research through more and better communications with the public, especially through the use of information and communication technologies.

No abstract

Success with End-U ser Computing (EUC) is dependen t on the voluntary behaviour of individuals, which is regulated by their attitudes. Even where proven opportunities exist for bene® cial deployment of EUC, adverse attitudes can inhibit use. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse survey data relating to the processes by which individuals form their attitudes towards computers. The results provide support for hypothesized in¯uences on attitudes from personality, product involvement, task characteristics, and com puter anxiety. Additional analyses reveal the eOE ects of dem ographic factors. Attitudes towards com puters provide a potentially more enduring measure of EUC success than do previous measures. Mechanism s for promoting positive attitudes towards computers are critical for full appreciation of the bene® ts of EUC.

This chapter highlights the near absence of research into the nonacademic impact of ICT4D research within the ICT4D literature. It draws on studies in international development to review the literature on the impact of research on development policy and practice and reflects on the implications for ICT4D research. Noting the cultural and professional differences between researchers and practitioners as well as their differing perspectives of impact, it goes on to describe the dominant themes in the literature. ICT4D research is characterised as lacking in certain respects, which would tend to inhibit its capacity for policy impact, but having overcome these, further adjustments to research conduct and culture are implied for such impact to emerge. Consequential recommendations include revised incentive structures for academic institutions as well as closer engagement between researchers and practitioners.

The global digital divide threatens to exclude millions of people from the potential benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), especially computers and the Internet. Many of these people live in rural, isolated and remote places of developing countries and are unlikely to be able to afford the cost of owning their own computers. However, NGOs, international aid agencies and governments are becoming increasingly aware of the potential that ICTs offer for rural development and poverty reduction and are creating more opportunities for providing wider access to them. This paper looks at how ICTs have contributed to the social development of a rural indigenous ethnic community. It focuses on the benefits of ICTs in recording and passing on their unique culture and traditions, something that is of considerable importance to the community. The research builds an understanding of the nature of cultural transmission within an indigenous community in East Malaysia and demonstrates how ICTs can bridge the digital divide by accentuating the importance of family, friends and other social interactions within a community in strengthening the processes of cultural transmission. Based on the findings, suggestions are offered for reinforcing social processes of cultural transmission with ICTs, in the form of a virtual museum and a community radio station. AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank Dr. Sheila Aikman for her support and guidance for the research and writing of this paper as well as Mr John Tarawe and his assistants in Bario for organising their stay to conduct the research, and especially the research participants, the children and young people of Bario, for consenting to and taking part in the interviews.

This article describes an action-research pilot project to provide opportunities for the remote Kelabit community in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable human development. The project aims to establish a telecentre as a place for the community to use ICTs. Although many in the community have heard about computers, they have not seen or used them. In Phase 1 of this project, a team of University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) researchers were involved in the collection of base-line data to provide a socio-economic profile of the community, to establish existing patterns of communication and computer awareness and finally to determine the current attitudes towards computers in Bario's secondary school (SMK Bario). Findings indicate that due to Bario's relative isolation, community members cited their relatives to be the main source of information and face-to-face communication as the major channel of communication, and that a majority of school teachers had a positive attitude towards using ICTs. Recommendations for future directions in promoting the utilization of ICTs to lead to the establishment of a telecentre are discussed.

B y R o b e r t M . D a v i s o n , D o u g l a s R . V o g e l , a n d R o g e r W . H a r r i s 62