Addressing data collection challenges in ICT for development projects

This paper equips researchers for addressing a wide range of data collection challenges experienced when interacting with marginalized communities as part of ICT4D projects in developing countries. This secondary research categorizes data collection challenges reported in multiple disciplines, and summarizes the guidance from the past literature to deal with the challenges. The open, axial, and selective coding of data collection challenges reported by the past literature suggests that it is necessary to manage scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, and risks for addressing the data collection challenges. This paper illustrates the ways to manage these seven dimensions using (a) the success stories of data collection in the past, (b) the lessons learned by researchers during data collection as documented by the past literature, and (c) the advice they offer for collection data from marginalized communities in developing countries

Beyond Access to Information: Understanding the Use of Information by Poor Female Mobile Users in Rural India

Digital inclusion research has focused overwhelmingly on access to information. But access to information by itself is of limited value unless the intended beneficiary has the capacity to use it. It is the use of information that delivers the benefits. However, in ICT for development literature, there is little empirical work on the process by which use of information delivers benefits. This study fills the gap by studying information use by poor female mobile phone users in rural India. It identifies six stages in the information use process and models them

Inequalities creating economic barriers to owning mobile phones in India: Factors responsible for the gender digital divide

In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most widely owned information and communication technology (ICT) in the world. This study investigates the factors responsible for the inability of 245 female slum-dwellers in India earning less than $2 a day to own a mobile phone. Open, axial and selective coding of survey responses shows that socio-cultural, economic, demographic, psychological, communication-related, and health related inequalities in the lives of the respondents create eight economic barriers precluding respondents from owning some of the least expensive mobile phones worth$15 or so on installments of $1 a month

Applying information science lens for advancing critical research on IT adoption: Insights from continued usage of mobile phones by poor women in rural India

Critical research on IT adoption dominated by cognitive models grounded in psychology and communication is always in search of new theoretical perspectives to understand, explain, and interpret social issues. Since information plays an important role in IT adoption, this study applies an information science lens to investi-gate the factors affecting the continued usage of mobile phones in rural India. Analysis of interviews with 22 women earning less than a dollar day reveals the influence of social, economic, cognitive, technological, and information-related factors on their continued usage of mobiles. Micro- and meso-level socioeconomic motives and active information-seeking behavior emerge as the most significant factors encouraging respondents to continue using mobiles against several technical and human barriers. The application of information science lens yields three constructs and ten micro-, meso-, and macro-level variables, advancing critical research on IT adoption with the help of a theoretical lens outside of psychology and communication literature

Barriers to Socio-economic Opportunities in Africa: An e-Government Perspective

Various barriers to socio-economic opportunities in Africa are explored though e-Government as a lens of study. Using grounded theory methodology, scholarly literature on e-Government in Africa has been analyzed to model various barriers. The research is expected to serve as a scholarly reference for decision-makers in the private and the public sector organizations, as well as policymakers, for making decisions about design, development and execution of e-Government initiatives in Africa

Proposing an Information Value Chain to Improve Information Services to Disabled Library Patrons Using Assistive Technologies

Information services offered by academic libraries increasingly rely on assistive technologies (AT) to facilitate disabled patrons’ retrieval and use of information for learning and teaching. However, disabled patrons’ access to AT might not always lead to their use, resulting in the underutilization of information services offered by academic libraries. We adopt an inward-looking, service innovation perspective to improve information services for disabled patrons using AT. The open coding of qualitative responses collected from administrators and librarians in 186 academic libraries in public universities in the United States, reveals 10 mechanisms (i.e., modified work practices), which involve searching, compiling, mixing, framing, sharing, or reusing information, and learning from it. Based on this information-centric reorganization of work practices, we propose an “information value chain,” like Porter’s value chain, for improving information services to disabled patrons using AT in academic libraries, which is the major theoretical contribution of our study

Catalytic Innovation in Microfinance for Inclusive Growth: Insights from SKS Microfinance

Microfinance offers a means for reaching the poor who are left out of the formal financial sector. A fundamentally new way is needed to create a scalable and sustainable business model to meet this unmet need – a catalytic innovation. Our study focused on Swayam Krishi Sangam (SKS), an archetype of a catalytic innovator. The insights gained from our three-year longitudinal study led to the proposed framework for a catalytic innovator encompassing five factors: customer focus on the poor and social entrepreneurship for the social mission; operational innovation, information technology and human capital management for scaling and financial sustainability

Managing the “backend” of LIS research projects: A project management perspective

There is very little guidance in library and information science (LIS) literature about how researchers should manage the scope, time, costs, quality, human resources, communications, and risks associated with LIS research projects. To fill this gap, researchers tested the utility of project management principles (PMP) for planning and managing a project designed to enhance the information, digital, and financial literacy of the people earning less than $2 per day in India. The customization of PMP through 29 mechanisms and 60 action items was used to conduct focus groups and in-person surveys with over 150 participants, in their native language, at 10 public libraries. PMP were most helpful for managing risks (13 solutions), communications (11 solutions), and human resources (10 solutions) of the project and treating participants ethically. PMP developed in the West were helpful before, during, and after data collection in the LIS research project in a developing country

Hashtags for Gatekeeping of Information on Social Media

Since the inception of gatekeeping research in the 1940s, most studies on gatekeeping have been human‐centric, treating and studying individuals as gatekeepers, who perform their gatekeeping role using a combination of the following mechanisms: forming communities, and/or broadcasting, discovering‐searching, collecting, organizing, or protecting information. However, the nature of communication channels and how information is produced by and shared with users has fundamentally changed in the last 80 years. One significant change is the growing use of technology‐enabled metadata like hashtags when sharing information on social media. Rarely any study investigates whether hashtags can perform gatekeeping of information and what it means for information gatekeeping. This paper fills in the gap by conducting a content analysis of 77 interdisciplinary studies on hashtags and gatekeeping to confirm how they can implement six gatekeeping mechanisms. This study shows that hashtags expand our understanding of the role of technology solutions in gatekeeping and advance research on hierarchical gatekeeping. The benefits of hashtags for gatekeeping suggest that they act as “information anchors” for online communities, thereby highlighting the utility of information gatekeepers for society