New book highlights public access ICT venues across cultures

New book highlights public access ICT venues across cultures

A component of the Global Impact Study was the The Amy Mahan Research Fellowship Program, led by Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which aimed to deepen the capacity of emerging scholars with the goal of increasing the quality and quantity of research on public access to ICT produced in developing countries. The findings from this work have been compiled into a new book publication, Public access ICT across cultures: Diversifying participation in the network society. The book, edited by Francisco Proenza, is co-published by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and MIT Press and is available online in PDF freely through a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0) license.

Abstract

Public access venues – most often Internet café in cities and state-run rural telecenters – are places where people can use computers and the Internet. This volume offers the first systemic assessment of the impact of shared public access in the developing world, with findings from 10 countries in South America (Argentina, Chile, Peru), Asia (China, India, Malaysia, Thailand), and Africa (Cameroon, Jordan, Rwanda). The book documents the impacts of public access, positive and negative, on individuals, on society and networks, and on women, and examines the policy implications of findings.

More information and link to the book