From Digital Divide to Effective Use

Much has been talked about the widening ''Digital Divide". Basically, it means that the lack of access to ICT will cause the poor, elderly, and other weaker groups in society to become ever more disenfranchised and lagging behind. The typical recipe proposed by large institutional donor organizations is to wire a country, in large government programmes or through 'free market' forces.

However, increasingly critical voices say that this lack of access is only part, and perhaps not even the most important part of the problem. According to Mike Gurstein (2003), the real issue is effective use, which is the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate ICTs into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals. As he states it:

These issues are not about "access" [...] but rather about how and by whom and under what circumstances, and for what purposes ICTs can and should be used to benefit individuals, communities, and societies as a whole.

To address this issue he proposes that:

...the focus is not simply on one of the possible "tools" for development (access) but rather highlights the entire "development process" including the infrastructure, hardware, software, and social organizational elements that all must be combined for development to occur.

I fully agree with Mike. Of course, access is a sine qua non: without it, everything stops. However, too many community ICT projects are satisfied with just creating technological fixes, because these projects produce fast and tangible results and are more easily managed. Still, the really hard question is often not addressed at all: how to gradually turn this technological potential into a thriving socio-technical system by which a community can accomplish its goals? The highest priority on the community informatics research agenda should not be providing more technologies, but developing innovative methodologies.

References

M. Gurstein (2003). Effective Use: A Community Informatics Strategy Beyond the Digital Divide. First Monday, 8(12).

Comments

[Su]

Here in Brazil we are trying to promote access with autonomy. Telecentros (http://www.telecentros.sp.gov.br/english/) are build with free softwares, the community learns how to use and care, and also has the duty of to keep safe and in the hands of the people.
There are further more initiatives, like this: http://metareciclagem.com.br/wiki/MetaReciclagem
Look the 'face' of the computers.
regards,
Suzana

[anca]

what kind of licence does the picture have_

[Aldo de Moor]

No idea, I saw it on another blog four years ago, which had no reference to the source of this picture. It was common practice then, but others and I have become much more careful about these digital rights issues now. However, I am still struggling to find out about the right form of referencing graphic materials on blogs, which seem to be a grey area. Suggestions welcome. Any manuals for proper referencing? PS I have removed the picture, as I can't find the original source blog anymore.