Digital exclusion in later life : a Maltese case-study

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are driving profound changes in the way in which individuals, organizations and governments interact. In particular, the internet has been a major force behind the development towards a more globalized, knowledge-based economy. However, in terms of computer access and internet usage, a digital divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ has long been recognized. One key sector of non-users consists of older persons. For various reasons – including no exposure to computers over their lifetime and in their occupations, income levels, physical disability and access to affordable ICT training – only limited percentages of older people have adequate ICT skills. A growing concern is that older adults who do not engage with ICTs face social disadvantages and exclusion. This article reports upon a qualitative study on older non-users of ICTs, with its key goal being to understand what leads to, and the effects of, digital exclusion in later life. Results found that older persons who never made use of ICTs were significantly delineated by gender and socio-economic status patterns - namely, women (especially housewives, who had never been in paid employment), individuals who worked in blue-collar and working-class occupations, and the long-term unemployed. Data also demonstrated that access was not the main issue at hand, and that the failure of older adults to become digital citizens was the result of a continuum of overlapping barriers. This study provided information highlighting the rationales and motivations underlying individuals’ non-use of computers - namely, believing that they were now ‘too old’ to use new technologies, a lack of relevance or ‘life-fit’ of computers, perceived non-usefulness and difficulty to use, anxiety about computer usage, concern about security and privacy issues, and the facing of disability issues.N/

Taking Prahalad high-tech: the emergence and evolution of global corporate citizenship in the IT industry

In this paper, I analyse the emergence and evolution of e-Inclusion, HP’s flagship global corporate citizenship programme, as a landmark in the history of corporate citizenship in the IT industry. This programme, which existed from 2000 to 2005, was the first explicit attempt by a major high-tech company to operationalise the theories of C.K. Prahalad, by implementing a direct and an indirect bottom-of-the-pyramid (bop) strategy. The first led to the development of pilot programmes that worked directly with the rural poor to test bop products, services and business models and to create new sources of income for project participants. The second strategy saw e-Inclusion establish collaborations with public-sector organisations which until then had been peripheral to HP’s business, but were recognised as vital for e-Inclusion’s operations and HP’s emerging market success. I argue that important lessons can be drawn from this flagship corporate citizenship programme, which can make current IT initiatives more sustainable and meaningful

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience describes the cyber safety issues emerging from a range of technology trends, how different populations are using technologies and the risks they face, and how we can effectively respond to each group’s unique cyber safety needs. Written by the University of Western Sydney for Telstra Corporation Ltd, the report advocates for continuing to move cyber safety from a ‘risk and protection’ framework to one that focuses on building digital resilience, as well as fostering trust and confidence in the online environment. To do this we need to: Address the needs of populations often neglected by current policies and programs – including adults, seniors, parents, and small to medium enterprises Continue to build the digital literacy skills of all populations, because digital literacy strongly influences users’ ability to engage safely online – this is best achieved by a hands-on learning approach Keep risk in perspective – the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand Broaden the focus from awareness-raising to long-term behaviour change. As digital technologies become further integrated into the everyday lives of Australians, users are potentially exposed to greater risks. However, the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand. The challenge, therefore, is to support users to minimise the risks without limiting their digital participation and their capacity to derive the full benefits of connectivity. If Australians are to benefit as either consumers or providers of online services and products in the e-commerce environment, consumer safety and trust need to be improved. Cyber safety needs to be considered against a transforming backdrop of technology trends, products and practices. While the rise of social media has tended to dominate recent debate and developments in cyber safety, particularly in relation to young people, a range of other trends is also shaping how users engage online, the risks they potentially face in the new media landscape, and the strategies used to address them. These trends include the rise of user generated content and content sharing platforms; the uptake of mobile technologies and, in particular, the adoption of smartphones; cloud computing; platform integration and single sign-on mechanisms; and the rise of GPS and location based services

What is Meant by Freedom?

In 1955, in a neglected article in the Harvard Law Review entitled Freedom—A Suggested Analysis, Lon L. Fuller provided a framework for the basic definition of freedom. More importantly, he tendered a question about the conditions of a free society: “How can the freedom of human beings be affected or advanced by social arrangements, that is, by laws, customs, institutions, or other forms of social order that can be changed or preserved by purposive human actions?” This is the critical question this Article addresses through constructing a comprehensive definition by first, considering etymology and then establishing the various modalities in which freedom operates. These modalities include the space defined by the rule of law and various antithetical non-rule-of-law states, the role of democracy and representative government in disparate levels of society, the importance of rights as trumps on power, and the challenges posed by social justice. Finally, Fuller’s question raises the issue of “laws, customs, institutions [and] other forms of social order,” all of which luminaries such as John Stuart Mill saw as unfortunate, but necessary, evils when considering freedom. Rather than necessary evils, this article will consider the productive role ascribed to law and institutions by Scott Shapiro, who views law as a form of social planning that effectuates choices, thus enhancing freedom

Youth Activism and Public Space in Egypt

Examines youth activists' use of virtual and physical public spaces before, during, and after the January 25 Revolution. Profiles three organizations and analyzes the power and limitations of social media to spur civic action, as well as the role of art

Net neutrality discourses: comparing advocacy and regulatory arguments in the United States and the United Kingdom

Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this has been occurring in the United States around efforts to introduce "Net neutrality" regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has not developed in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe. We develop a comparative analysis of U.S. and UK Net neutrality debates with an eye toward identifying the arguments for and against regulation, how those arguments differ between the countries, and what the implications of those differences are for the Internet. Drawing on mass media, advocacy, and regulatory discourses, we find that local regulatory precedents as well as cultural factors contribute to both agenda setting and framing of Net neutrality. The differences between national discourses provide a way to understand both the structural differences between regulatory cultures and the substantive differences between policy interpretations, both of which must be reconciled for the Internet to continue to thrive as a global medium

Incorporated citizens: multinational high-tech companies and the BoP

In this article, I examine HP’s e-Inclusion program and its implementation in India to show how the high-tech industry’s efforts to alleviate poverty profitably are guided by C. K. Prahalad’s ideas about the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP), and are framed as digital corporate citizenship activities. While the BoP highlights the importance of new markets for high-tech companies, the discourse of digital corporate citizenship creates an enabling environment in which transnational high-tech companies can gain political access to new consumers at the BoP. The resulting digital corporate citizenship/BoP nexus leads to the extension of governments’ bureaucratic reach and the formation of electronic entrepreneurs

Communication, Literacy and Citizenship: a conceptual orientation in a portuguese children’s television thematic channel, K SIC

This paper highlights the consequential nature of communication, literacy and citizenship and the meta-pattern that connects everything together – the ecology of the human spirit. It argues that, just like human communication, literacy is consequential in nature for humankind. Through each of our different worlds of experience and processes of communication, we manifest both of these human conditions and co-construct everyday practices that engender a plurality of effects. Literacy is a concept common to all humankind. Thus, it forms an indivisible whole with communication. This viewpoint is at odds with that which confines literacy to being understood as the acquisition of certain competences. It is arguable that, just like communication, the human condition of literacy needs to be both encouraged and developed. We suggest here that the idea of borders in literacy should be questioned. The work of Gregory Bateson on the ecology of the human spirit – an imminent characteristic of the human species that is based on the physiological structure of the living being and is in permanent interaction and reconnection with both the biosphere and our ways of seeing the world – supports the viewpoint put forward here. From the communication mediatised by a children’s television channel, from SIC K and from the results of studies carried out into children’s use of television we draw the examples that shall illustrate the theoretical approach taken here. They also underpin two premises of an ongoing project. Firstly, television is part of the solution in that it encourages and develops communication-literacy- citizenship-education-connectivity. Secondly, human rights form a shared platform from which to orient the use of Technologies and define connection strategies for the active participation of the children

Net neutrality discourses: comparing advocacy and regulatory arguments in the United States and the United Kingdom

Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this has been occurring in the United States around efforts to introduce "Net neutrality" regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has not developed in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe. We develop a comparative analysis of U.S. and UK Net neutrality debates with an eye toward identifying the arguments for and against regulation, how those arguments differ between the countries, and what the implications of those differences are for the Internet. Drawing on mass media, advocacy, and regulatory discourses, we find that local regulatory precedents as well as cultural factors contribute to both agenda setting and framing of Net neutrality. The differences between national discourses provide a way to understand both the structural differences between regulatory cultures and the substantive differences between policy interpretations, both of which must be reconciled for the Internet to continue to thrive as a global medium