Exploring the Impact of Government ICT Initiatives on the Livelihood of Australian Rural Communities

This paper explores the impact of e-learning and e-government initiatives on rural communities in Australia. It discusses some of the initiatives, analyses a number of impact analysis frameworks, and includes the findings from a selected set of initiatives. It is a preliminary analysis of qualitative data discussing the outcomes achieved from the initiatives in terms of social, human, financial and physical captal impact on rural communities

Exploring the impact of government ICT initiatives on the livelihood of Australian rural communities

This paper explores the impact of e-learning and e-government initiatives on rural communities in Australia. It discusses some of the initiatives, analyses a number of impact analysis frameworks, and includes the findings from a selected set of initiatives. It is a preliminary analysis of qualitative data discussing the outcomes achieved from the initiatives in terms of social, human, financial and physical captal impact on rural communities

The impact of ICT use on livelihoods of microenterprises : case of South Africa

This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of impact of using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) on the livelihoods of microenterprises in the developing countries context

Impact Assessment of ICT – enabled Knowledge Sharing Agri-portals in Uttarakhand

It has been argued that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can lead to development in developing countries. With this in mind, developing countries have been rushing to implement ambitious ICT projects in rural areas through the direct-indirect supervision of institutions such as, the World Bank, United Nations (UN) and other donor/local agencies. The main focus of the interventions has been the implementation of these ICT projects, rather than understanding their impacts at the recipient level. This lack of understanding has led to many failures of ICT projects reported in the literature. There is a need to understand impacts of ICT projects in their local context considering the participants‘ perspectives at the micro level. The analytical research design was used to conduct the investigation. Two Agri portals viz. Agropedia and aAQUA were selected by census method. In an all 83 progressive farmers and 55 SAU and KVK scientists and portal managers from IIT, Kanpur and IIT, Bombay were selected as respondents. Interview Schedule, Impact assessment index and opinionnaire were developed to collect data from the farmers. Findings of the study revealed that majority of farmers were middle aged, educated up to Intermediate, with main occupation as farming, general caste, medium family income, with majority of male, had nuclear family and medium family size, KVK as major point of access to internet and information, possess medium level of communication media, high level of agricultural equipment, medium household possession, medium level of social participation, and contact fellow farmers for agricultural information. Television is the most popularly accessed media, majority had low farming experience, medium animal possession, grow 2-3 crops a year, all of them were aware of the Agri-portals‘ existence through KVK scientists, majority of them visited the selected Agri-portals for market information on monthly basis, shared the information provided through both the Agri-portals with neighbors, satisfied with Agri-portals‘ recommendations, gained medium knowledge and utilized to medium extent. Maximum number of farmers opined that uploaded content of Agropedia somewhat and aAQUA content was moderately relevant, with high technical words, moderately useful content, with appropriate readability and had the opinion that internet is the best way to learn new things. Maximum farmers reported somewhat positive changes in income, quality of produce, crop diversification due to Agropedia and aAQUA. Less number of trainings was the most important constraint identified by the farmers. Education, communication media possession and agricultural equipment possession have positive and highly significant relationship with overall knowledge level. Dependent variable, intend to practice the recommendations of aAQUA in future is positively and highly significant with annual income, caste and farming experience. Majority of the scientists and portal managers reported that content on both the Agri-portals were highly relevant, with well organized and attractive home page

A methodological framework for ICT roadmap development for rural areas

The use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) can support sustainable development within societies. ICTs have been supported by governments, private companies, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and individuals. However, technological changes have made most ICT initiatives haphazard due to poor planning. There is no systematic plan on how to deploy services, infrastructure and devices especially in rural areas. For instance, in some cases, computers have been donated to communities in rural areas yet they are not being used, and ICT services have been deployed without the supporting ICT infrastructure. One of the solutions to addressing these ICT challenges is through the use of roadmaps to guide ICT solution implementation. This thesis proposes an ICT roadmap methodological framework to improve ICT roadmap development for rural ICT solutions. A composite methodological approach was employed in this research. This involves the use of qualitative research techniques such as participant observation, design exercises, workshops, focus groups and individual interviews supported by ethnographic studies. The Siyakhula Living Lab in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was used as the case study. Studies were conducted to identify the current state of ICTs in rural areas, the future of ICTs and overview of roadmap developments. Rural users in South Africa, ICT experts in Europe and Africa, government officials and academic institutions were engaged to understand the current ICT planning, developments and needs. The author found that there are variations in individual ICT services required by rural users but, most ICT services in need fall mainly in the areas of health, education, entrepreneurship, agriculture and employment creation for rural people. These services require ICT devices and infrastructure which include computer peripherals, mobile phones, radios, televisions and wireless infrastructure, mobile infrastructure, satellites and broadcasting infrastructure respectively. It was found that the common future ICT projections expected in rural areas include: growth of mobile usage, social networking, increase internet services and localization of services. The roadmap framework is built based on the current state of ICTs, trends in ICTs, future technological projections and the plans currently been initiated in African continent. The ICT roadmap methodological focuses on how roadmaps could accommodate infrastructure, services and ICT devices to reach rural people. This should help rural users to be able to access public services within their respective communities using available ICT devices. ICT stakeholders could use the designed framework to improve the ICT roadmap development process for rural ICT users in Africa