The Internet, Mobile Phones and Globalization
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Past, Present, and Future of Research in the Information Society, 13-15 November 2005, WSIS Phase 2, Tunis, Tunisia
(Meeting Archive)
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For many, it is obvious that the advent of the Internet has
made the production of knowledge a global enterprise, with unlimited
possibilities for communication, collaboration, and data sharing
across international boundaries.
In many places this happened quickly: the rollout of the Internet and mobile phones have
changed the conditions under which interaction takes place. Like many rapid
shifts, it is mostly studied in retrospect, but our project has examined communication in Ghana, Kenya and India since 1994.
But in much of the world, the Internet is merely one
more unfulfilled promise. Most countries in Africa have minimal
connectivity outside of Internet cafes in capital cities. Few
agricultural researchers in West Africa make any regular use of the
Internet--to do so means long distance phone charges to dial the
nearest ISP in order to get a slow connection.
The reds and greens indicating
teledensity on world maps are poor indicators of what is really
happening in the diffusion of technology. One objective of our project
is to assist research and educational institutions to build local
area networks. Our second objective is to understand what's
happening "on the ground" in terms of the diffusion and
use of modern information and communication technologies.
We use a variety of methods-- including ethnography, film, interviews,
and surveys--to follow the diffusion of the Internet. Since
1993 we have followed this process in Ghana, Kenya, and the State
of Kerala in India. In 2003 South Africa was added, followed
by Chile and the Phillipines in 2004.
Poster (400kb PDF)
Brochure (621kb PDF)
Science
& Development Network featured the following article on
the project following the the World Summit on the Information Society.
More
Internet access needed' for science to go global
Project findings reported in The Hindu
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