Drawing from development: towards unifying theory and development of ICT4D

Within the literature, many authors have argued that the rapid growth of the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) has resulted in an emphasis on the applications rather than on theory. However, it is clear that it is not theories, rather the integration of theory and practice, that is often lacking. To address this gap, the authors begin by exploring some of the popular theoretical approaches to ICT4D with a view to identifying those theories relevant to shared impacts: development, delivery and communication. To unify practice and theory, we offer a framework to directly assess the impact of ICT4D on development.

Growth of entrepreneurial software firms in cities

Despite the prediction of the demise of cities with the advance of new information and communication technologies in the New Economy, the software industry has emerged from cities in the USA, Europe and Asia in the past two decades. This article explores the reasons why cities are centers of software clusters, with reference to Boston, London and Dublin. It is suggested that cities' roles as centres of knowledge flows and creativity are the key determinants of their competitiveness in the knowledge-intensive software industry.

Strengthening citizen agency and accountability through ICT

We investigated the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT, namely mobile phones) in support of citizen agency and its potential in calling authorities to account. We focused on Eastern Africa and we used a mixed methodology, which allowed us to explore the current uses of ICT to strengthen accountability and to forecast the growth of mobile phones' adaption in that region. Evidence from both analyses suggests that there are two main areas where citizen agency and ICT can reinforce each other in bottom–up and horizontal processes: participation and engagement of citizens, and the diffusion of information.

Mobile phones and radios: effects on transactions costs and market participation for households in Northern Ghana

The literature on agricultural markets suggests that transactions costs are the main obstacles preventing households from participating in agricultural markets. We examine the impact of the recent massive penetration of information communication technologies (ICTs), particularly mobile phones and radios, in developing countries to investigate the role of information in economic transactions and participation in food crop markets. To fully capture market participation behaviours, the current theoretical framework on market participation and transactions costs is extended to include those households that sell and buy in the same time period. We correct for endogeneity and selectivity throughout our models. We used a novel dataset of 393 households in northern Ghana with detailed information on market transactions and ICTs usage. Results show that receiving market information via mobile phones has a positive and significant impact on market participation, with a greater impact for households with a surplus of food crops. We find that radios have a larger impact on the quantity traded. This may reflect the nature of mobile phones in reducing searching costs, whereas radios provide an updated and regular flow of information which affects the pattern of crops consumed and sold. We also emphasise that the most significant factor is how ICTs are used, rather than their ownership.

Evaluating e-learning systems: an empirical investigation on students' perception in higher education area

In search of better, traditional learning universities have expanded their ways to deliver knowledge and integrate cost effective e-learning systems. Universities’ use of information and communication technologies has grown tremendously over the last decade. To ensure efficient use of the e-learning system, the Arab Open University (AOU) in Bahrain was the first to use e-learning system there, aimed to evaluate the good and bad practices, detect errors and determine areas for further improvements in usage. This study critically evaluated the students’ perception of the elearning system in Bahrain and recommended changes to improve students’ e-learning usage. Results of the study indicated that, in general, students have favourable perceptions toward using the e-learning system. This study has shown that technology acceptance is the most variable, factor that contributes to students’ perception and satisfaction of the e-learning system.

A survey on wireless body area networks for eHealthcare systems in residential environments

The progress in wearable and implanted health monitoring technologies has strong potential to alter the future of healthcare services by enabling ubiquitous monitoring of patients. A typical health monitoring system consists of a network of wearable or implanted sensors that constantly monitor physiological parameters. Collected data are relayed using existing wireless communication protocols to the base station for additional processing. This article provides researchers with information to compare the existing low-power communication technologies that can potentially support the rapid development and deployment of WBAN systems, and mainly focuses on remote monitoring of elderly or chronically ill patients in residential environments.