Speed of Catch-up and Digital Divide: A Study of Three Information Communication Technologies for 44 African Countries

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Sang Chang ◽  
Seongmin Jeon ◽  
Kudzai Shamba
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Catch Up

E-Commerce in Africa: Challenges and Solutions

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Ndonga
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
Significant Barrier ◽  
Ict Infrastructure

Abstract Trade in Africa has the potential to be revolutionized by Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which have led to the development of e-commerce. These technologies have the capacity to boost intra-country and inter-country trade and subsequently promote economic development in African countries. However, many African States are yet to reap the full benefits of e-commerce, as it has not penetrated the continent to the extent experienced by Western countries. The lack of adequate ICT infrastructure, lack of basic ICT knowledge and threat of cybercrimes has created a significant barrier to the adoption and growth of e-commerce in many African countries. This article analyses the persisting digital divide barriers that have inhibited the penetration of e-commerce in Africa and suggests regulatory solutions to resolving them.

Exploring the Notion of ‘Technology as a Public Good’

2013 ◽  
pp. 1472-1488
Author(s):  
Sunnie Lee Watson ◽  
Thalia Mulvihill
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Active Policy ◽  
Research Recommendations

This chapter aims to explore the historical, sociological, and economic factors that engender inequities related to digital technologies in the East Asian educational context. By employing critical social theory perspectives, the chapter discusses and argues for the notion of “Technology as a Public Good” by examining the Chinese, Japanese and Korean societies’ digital divide. This chapter examines how East Asian societies are exhibiting similar yet different problems in providing equitable access to information communication technologies to the less advantaged due to previously existing social structures, and discusses the urgency of addressing these issues. Based on the analysis of the digital divide in the East Asian context, this chapter also proposes and argues for the notion of “technology as a public good” in public and educational policies for information communication technologies. Finally, the chapter invites policymakers, researchers and educators to explore a more active policy approach regarding the digital divide solution, and provides specific future research recommendations for ICT policies and policy implementation in digital divide solutions.

scholarly journals Possible, Probable and Preferable Futures of the Digital Divide

10.28945/2651 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Contemporary Problem ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Technology Strategies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Quantitative Assessments

The digital divide is widely recognized as a contemporary problem between society and technology. Strategies for bridging the digital divide are often informed and guided by quantitative assessments of the deployment of information communication technologies. There are few rigorous qualitative attempts to assess the digital divide from either an ethnographic or a futures-oriented perspective. This paper reports findings from a study that examined the possible, probable and preferable futures of the digital divide from an ethnographic perspective. The contents of this report include background to the problem of the digital divide, a review of literature describing the relationship between society and technology, findings from the data collection, and implications for future strategies to bridge the digital divide.

Exploring the Notion of ‘Technology as a Public Good’

2011 ◽  
pp. 40-57
Author(s):  
Sunnie Lee Watson ◽  
Thalia Mulvihill
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Active Policy ◽  
Research Recommendations

This chapter aims to explore the historical, sociological, and economic factors that engender inequities related to digital technologies in the East Asian educational context. By employing critical social theory perspectives, the chapter discusses and argues for the notion of “Technology as a Public Good” by examining the Chinese, Japanese and Korean societies’ digital divide. This chapter examines how East Asian societies are exhibiting similar yet different problems in providing equitable access to information communication technologies to the less advantaged due to previously existing social structures, and discusses the urgency of addressing these issues. Based on the analysis of the digital divide in the East Asian context, this chapter also proposes and argues for the notion of “technology as a public good” in public and educational policies for information communication technologies. Finally, the chapter invites policymakers, researchers and educators to explore a more active policy approach regarding the digital divide solution, and provides specific future research recommendations for ICT policies and policy implementation in digital divide solutions.

Digital Divide and Social Cleavage: Case Studies of ICT Usage among Peasants in Contemporary China

2011 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 580-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhua Guo ◽  
Peng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Structural Transformation ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
Ict Adoption ◽  
Social Cleavage

AbstractDuring its structural transformation, rural China witnessed the emergence of four types of village: traditional, industrialized, commercial and villages in cities. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), including fixed phones, cell phones, television sets and the internet (with personal computers), are now commonly used in Chinese villages but in ways that differentiate villagers according to variables such as occupation, villager membership and social status. The adoption of ICTs by peasants not only represents but also accelerates growing peasant differentiation; in other words, the function of ICTs could not penetrate the barrier of social structure. Meanwhile, structural transformation in China has been an activator to shaping peasants' diversified ideas about information, and the demand for and usage of ICTs. An analysis of peasants' ICT adoption thus enables us to identify the basic trends and characteristics of social transformation in contemporary China.

Promoting Transparency and Strengthening Public Trust in Government through Information Communication Technologies?

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank L. K. Ohemeng ◽  
Kwaku Ofosu-Adarkwa
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Remarkable Progress

This paper attempts to examine Ghana's quest to use ICT as a tool to enhance transparency and build public trust in government. The questions the paper attempts to answer are: what are the main challenges confronting the government's e-governance initiative as a tool to ensure transparency and citizens' trust in the public sector? What steps are being taken to address these challenges? We argue that while Ghana seems to have made remarkable progress in this endeavour, it still faces a number of significant obstacles, which must be addressed if the objectives of its e-governance project are to be fully realized. Key challenges include infrastructure development for the growth of ICT, the huge gap in access to ICT (or what may be described as the digital divide), and the change in organizational culture to enhance easy accessibility to public documents.

Families, Cultural Resources and the Digital Divide: ICTs and Educational (dis)Advantage

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Angus ◽  
Ilana Snyder ◽  
Wendy Sutherland-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Gain Access

By concentrating on cases of family engagement with information communication technologies at a very local level, this paper tries to illustrate that issues related to ‘access’ and social disadvantage require extremely sophisticated and textured accounts of the multiple ways in which interrelated critical elements and various social, economic and cultural dimensions of disadvantage come into play in different contexts. Indeed, to draw a simple dichotomy between the technology haves and have-nots in local settings is not particularly generative. It may be the case that, even when people from disadvantaged backgrounds manage to gain access to technology, they remain relatively disadvantaged.

scholarly journals Influence of Digital Divide and Experience on Nigerian University Students’ Attitude Towards the Use of Information Communication Technologies for Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-102
Author(s):  
Olori Abiola Lateef
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Nigerian University

Recent studies have shown that factors influencing technology use include, but are not limited to, accessibility and availability. Several studies in developed countries revealed that digital division and experience significantly influence students’ attitude towards ICT utilization. However, there is lack of empirical evidence to show that such variables do influence ICT utilization by Nigerian students. This study examined the influence of digital divide and experience on Nigerian university students’ utilization of information communication technologies. Two research hypotheses were formulated for the study. A self-constructed and validated twenty-five- item instrument was used to gather information from one thousand and five hundred randomly selected respondents in three public universities in Ogun State, southwestern Nigeria, while t-test statistical method was used to analyze the data collected. Findings revealed that there is a significant difference in the perception of digital native and digital immigrant students in attitude towards ICT utilization (t = 3.25, p<0.05). The findings of this study also showed that there is no significant difference in the perception of digitally experienced and less experienced students in attitude towards ICT utilization(t = 1.16, p>0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that postgraduate students in Nigerian universities should be further encouraged not to allow age to influence their perception towards ICT utilization negatively. Also, Nigerian Government should subsidize the cost of ICT devices in order to make them affordable to all students.

Engendering communication: a perspective on ICT access and usage in Africa

Info ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Milek ◽  
Christoph Stork ◽  
Alison Gillwald
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Understanding ◽  
Education And Employment

PurposeInformation communication technologies (ICTs) are widely seen as having the potential to contribute positively to economic growth and development and to improve the livelihoods and quality of life of individuals and households and yet access to ICTs and usage of them remains highly inequitable. This paper aims to identify areas of inequality in access to ICTs between men and women in Africa.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the Research ICT Africa (RIA) household and individual ICT survey conducted in 17 African countries between 2007/2008 the paper provides an empirical basis for assessing gender dimensions of ICT access and usage. Additionally, focus group studies were conducted in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda to gain a greater qualitative understanding of access to and usage of ICTs from a gender perspective.FindingsAlthough the results confirmed in many countries the widely held belief that men have greater access to ICTs than women in some instances more women than men owned mobile phones such as in South Africa and Mozambique. In Cameroon women were found to have greater knowledge of the internet than their male counterparts. Most significantly perhaps is the finding that when women have similar income, education and employment status they have comparable access to ICTs as their male counterparts. However, as women generally do not have the same access to those core factors that enhance ICT access and usage, their access to ICT is generally lower.Originality/valueThe quantitative as well as focus group results of this study confirm gender differences in access to ICTs, raising important questions about the points of policy intervention to redress such imbalances.

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