Many hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted by well meaning philanthropists, aid agencies and governments in projects to deploy ICT solutions in developing contexts. The very long list of public Internet access facilities (telecenters, internet caf?s, multi-purpose community centers) that were either closed down, or that never got off the ground in the first place, is very troublesome. Yet, there are some cases that seem to be very effective.
ICTs for Global Development and Sustainability: Practice and Applications unites the theoretical underpinnings and scientific methodology of an approach of deploying ICT in marginalized communities to bridge the so-called digital divide. This book contains case studies of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean that demonstrate which approaches work and which do not in deploying public access to information sources.
Topics Covered
•Bringing the Internet to a rural area
•Computers for development in the Andes
•Impact of ICT on rural development and poverty reduction
•Interactive ICTs
•Lessons from a community owned ICT Network
•Leveraging telecenters for sustainable development
•Libraries and knowledge centres
•Rural development through the development and deployment of an ICT communication platform
•Scalable and sustainable health information systems
•Telecenters as gendered spaces