Community Informatics colleague Ajit Maru, in a posting on the Community Informatics Research elist suggests some disturbing questions concerning the relationship between “Information Access” and “effective use” and its possible links to the rising food crisis globally.
The app culture is one of individuals and individualized approaches. Apps enable and empower the individual as a consumer, as a communicator, as an information handler. However, many of the major issues in a developing world (and other) environment are not ones that lend themselves readily to individualized responses or individual solution. Issues involving citizenship and particularly the rights and responsibilities of citizens including political behaviours and governance, human rights, land rights, water rights and so on are often highly political and highly contentious with huge financial interests involved and where individuals no matter how empowered they may be matter for little against entrenched political power and financial strength.
Perhaps more important this suggests that even in a context where there is almost universal cell phone access this is not sufficient to bring about the Digital Transition which is necessary to begin to achieve the broader systemic benefits of digital and Internet access and use and ultimately to overcome was has been termed the Digital Divide which is currently dividing both societies within themselves and the world at large between digitally enabled countries and those that have not as yet realized these benefits.
So what do we miss if we don’t have the internet?
This isn’t a trick question. I’m currently in Sri Lanka, a country which has had a long and interesting history of telecentres/community technology initiatives (they call them Nenasalas).
July 25, 2011
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