Use of ICTS for Rural Development

There is plenty of information available in the public domain that covers various aspects of extension and know-how about new methodologies for implementation. However this information is often scattered and presented in complex academic language. Hence practitioners, who often have very limited time and/or may only have basic formal education, find it difficult to make use of this information.

Riflettendo sulle tematiche dell’integrazione tra urbanistica, sviluppo e mobilità, è stato sviluppato il progetto
E-SCAPE il cui titolo sta per ‘Electronic- landSCAPE’, indicando le possibili integrazioni tra il contesto
paesaggistico e territoriale con le nuove tecnologie di comunicazione e informazione. L’idea si esplicita in due
elementi chiave: da una parte, l'utilizzo delle tecnologie informatiche avanzate per l’elaborazione di un servizio
volto a migliorare le pratiche di fruizione del territorio da parte di diversi utenti (abitanti e visitatori) e
dall’altra, la promozione e la valorizzazione territoriale. L’ambito d’interesse è stato individuato nel territorio
compreso tra Torino e Milano, caratterizzato da un forte squilibrio sia materiale (concentrazione
infrastrutturale, effetto ‘tunnel’ creato dalle reti veloci), che immateriale (accesso ai flussi di dati e
d'informazioni concentrati attorno ai due principali poli urbani), provocando un isolamento ed una
emarginazione dei territori intermedi. Il progetto proposto consiste pertanto in un'applicazione per terminali
mobili di comunicazione (smartphone, tablet, ecc.) che utilizza le tecnologie di prossimità per il ribilanciamento
territoriale, attivando e incentivando la fruizione dei luoghi attraverso la promozione delle potenzialità del
territorio. L’idea gravita attorno all’evento catalizzatore dell’ EXPO 2015, per il quale sono attesi milioni di
visitatori, conferendo visibilità a scala internazionale alla Mi-To smart-region.

The development of rural telecommunication services in Iran has been a major and national concern during the past few years. Towards the national planning and in a giant movement, 10 000 centers have been established in rural areas. Because of the novelty of such centers, the authors try to measure the service quality of the rural ICT centers using the SERVQUAL model. The results can be used towards the betterment of the services. Five hypotheses including tangibility, accountability, guarantee, empathy and reliability of service were examined. Twenty four ICT centers were selected in Rasht city as sample. Considering common sense or perception, 63% of the subjects evaluated the quality of services as average. In terms of quality, empathy was ranked as the ideal dimension followed by tangibility, certainties, trust, and guarantee, respectively. However, the least appropriate dimension of quality was given to accountability. In terms of expectation, the highest percentage of individuals, that is, 92% believed that quality of services was important, and believed that among the components of quality indices from the most to the least important items were: reliability, tangibility, accountability, guarantee, and empathy consecutively. This research showed that the SERVQUAL model can be used for determine the quality of services offered by Telecenters in rural areas.

Policy-makers and governments in developing nations can implement more effective policies and frameworks by gaining a better understanding of the factors that support stakeholders and partners to extend the benefits of information communication technology (ICT) to rural communities. The aim of this paper is to answer the framework to follow for extending access to ICT benefits in underserved rural areas of a developing country. It is based on the experience of Nepal's wireless project, where the researcher has worked as a technical team member and social worker for the past number of years. It is conceptually grounded on previous documentation of the Nepal wireless project and local tele-centre operators including end-users and team members who have been involved in the project since its start. Three hundred surveys were carried out among villagers, twenty-five policy-makers were interviewed, three focus groups were used for discussion among end-users, and one formal discussion was held with a professional from an aid agency. This framework will be important for designing future rural ICT projects in Nepal and other similar developing countries. To achieve maximum benefits from the ICT access, parallel incentives should be given to establish small ICT-based business enterprises in rural areas that can become potential users of the modern ICT. This study found that existing infrastructure and human skill is enough to run many small-size businesses to support ICT access in rural areas. From the research it has been identified that available local resources, including human skill, have not been wisely utilised. To see a rapid impact in the rural economy, simultaneous focus should be placed on the utilisation of local resources by sharing ICT infrastructure from national to local level. Local government itself should become the first users of ICT and provide applications for the local people. Frequent revision of national policy related to the use of ICT tools and applications will help upgrade public demand, which will ultimately show the impact in the national economy. Many smallsized businesses -such as tourism, animal husbandry, diary product, small agro farming -should utilise ICT applications and tools. Major initiative must be taken by the government and the government itself should become an ICT user. Local content and localisation is a stronger factor that helps to extend the ICT benefits in rural areas of Nepal.

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights a b s t r a c t Rural ICT centers are the initiative of the third millennium and widen the accessibility horizons of information and Communication Technology among disadvantaged groups of societies, and play a significant role in rural development processes. Adoption of new technology in rural Iran has been the main challenge and focal point of all agricultural extension activities since the modernization era of the 1950s. Consequently the rapidly growing gap between urban and rural economy has reinforced the critical role of ICT in creating an equal society. Identifying the factors which foster adoption of ICT is among the important challenges of alleviating digital divide. ICT centers attract different groups within rural communities and create a forum for unprivileged rural settlers to learn about and to use computer and internet. This paper attempts to identify the factors influencing the adoption of ICT in rural Gharn Abad's ICT center of Golestan Province. The sample included 218 individuals, who were selected by stratified random sampling method. Survey method was used, and data was analyzed by correlation as well as multiple regression techniques. Based on the results, the existence of ICT center itself, with various funding sources, reinforced the adoption regardless of the users' economic status. At the same time, the other factors such as individual, social, the households' informative & communicative, as well as the innovation related factors were found influential. This case study could be used as a sample for planning, establishing, and developing the ICT centers in the other similar situations.

Public water services are still failing rural Tanzanians. Emboldened by advances in information communication technologies, the Ministry of Water has been developing computing, financial and administrative technologies to update and visualise the status of rural water points. This amalgam of technologies marks the emergence of an information infrastructure for rural water governance. The information infrastructure will enable the ministry to " see " the functionality status of all rural water points and to plan and budget for their repair and maintenance. In this paper, we examine three administrative technologies, which aim to standardise the functionality status of water points, and to prescribe how the information flows within the government hierarchy, and who is a legitimate recipient of this information. We analyze qualitative data, collected over a period of four years, in the framework of an interdisciplinary research program, funded by the Netherlands Organisation ...

Public water services are still failing rural Tanzanians. Emboldened by advances in information communication technologies, the Ministry of Water has been developing computing, financial and administrative technologies to update and visualise the status of rural water points. This amalgam of technologies marks the emergence of an information infrastructure for rural water governance. The information infrastructure will enable the ministry to "see" the functionality status of all rural water points and to plan and budget for their repair and maintenance. In this paper, we examine three administrative technologies, which aim to standardise the functionality status of water points, and to prescribe how the information flows within the government hierarchy, and who is a legitimate recipient of this information. We analyze qualitative data, collected over a period of four years, in the framework of an interdisciplinary research program, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research-Science for Global Development (NWO-Wotro). In contrast to other researchers who study how information infrastructure evolves over time, we study what infrastructure evolution reveals about water governance. Our analysis of the practices of participants in rural water governance reveals tensions between formal and informal processes, which affect rural water services negatively.

A promising strategy to promote good governance is harnessing the opportunities provided by the use of mobile phones, widely accessible to most segments of the society, for delivering public information and services and for decision-making by government. This paper investigates the design and implementation of mobile governance (MGOV) strategies for development (MGOV4D). Specifically, it presents an MGOV4D strategy framework to support mobile Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development ( ...

Riflettendo sulle tematiche dell’integrazione tra urbanistica, sviluppo e mobilità, è stato sviluppato il progetto E-SCAPE il cui titolo sta per ‘Electronic- landSCAPE’, indicando le possibili integrazioni tra il contesto paesaggistico e territoriale con le nuove tecnologie di comunicazione e informazione. L’idea si esplicita in due elementi chiave: da una parte, l'utilizzo delle tecnologie informatiche avanzate per l’elaborazione di un servizio volto a migliorare le pratiche di fruizione del territorio da parte di diversi utenti (abitanti e visitatori) e dall’altra, la promozione e la valorizzazione territoriale. L’ambito d’interesse è stato individuato nel territorio compreso tra Torino e Milano, caratterizzato da un forte squilibrio sia materiale (concentrazione infrastrutturale, effetto ‘tunnel’ creato dalle reti veloci), che immateriale (accesso ai flussi di dati e d'informazioni concentrati attorno ai due principali poli urbani), provocando un isolamento ed una emarginazione dei territori intermedi. Il progetto proposto consiste pertanto in un'applicazione per terminali mobili di comunicazione (smartphone, tablet, ecc.) che utilizza le tecnologie di prossimità per il ribilanciamento territoriale, attivando e incentivando la fruizione dei luoghi attraverso la promozione delle potenzialità del territorio. L’idea gravita attorno all’evento catalizzatore dell’ EXPO 2015, per il quale sono attesi milioni di visitatori, conferendo visibilità a scala internazionale alla Mi-To smart-region.

Riflettendo sulle tematiche dell’integrazione tra urbanistica, sviluppo e mobilità, è stato sviluppato il progetto E-SCAPE il cui titolo sta per ‘Electronic- landSCAPE’, indicando le possibili integrazioni tra il contesto paesaggistico e territoriale con le nuove tecnologie di comunicazione e informazione. L’idea si esplicita in due elementi chiave: da una parte, l'utilizzo delle tecnologie informatiche avanzate per l’elaborazione di un servizio volto a migliorare le pratiche di fruizione del territorio da parte di diversi utenti (abitanti e visitatori) e dall’altra, la promozione e la valorizzazione territoriale. L’ambito d’interesse è stato individuato nel territorio compreso tra Torino e Milano, caratterizzato da un forte squilibrio sia materiale (concentrazione infrastrutturale, effetto ‘tunnel’ creato dalle reti veloci), che immateriale (accesso ai flussi di dati e d'informazioni concentrati attorno ai due principali poli urbani), provocando un isolamento ed una emarginazione dei territori intermedi. Il progetto proposto consiste pertanto in un'applicazione per terminali mobili di comunicazione (smartphone, tablet, ecc.) che utilizza le tecnologie di prossimità per il ribilanciamento territoriale, attivando e incentivando la fruizione dei luoghi attraverso la promozione delle potenzialità del territorio. L’idea gravita attorno all’evento catalizzatore dell’ EXPO 2015, per il quale sono attesi milioni di visitatori, conferendo visibilità a scala internazionale alla Mi-To smart-region.