History and habit in the mobilization of ICT resources

Evidence demonstrates that the digital divide is deepening despite strategies mobilized worldwide to reduce it. In disadvantaged communities, beyond training and infrastructural issues, there often lies a range of cultural and historically formed relationships that affect people's adoption of ICTs. This article presents an analysis of local resident's engagement with their council's pilot project to develop a computer facility in their community center. We ask, to what extent can people in poor urban communities, once trained, be expected to volunteer to work on furthering community education and development in ICTs in their local area? Findings indicate four patterns of individual engagement with the computer project: reflexive, utilitarian, distributive, and nonparticipatory. It is argued that local people engaged with the intervention in historically patterned and locally distinctive ways that served immediate personal and pragmatic ends. They did not adopt the long-term strategic goals of the council or university.

An Internet training intervention for people with traumatic brain injury: Barriers and outcomes

Primary objective: To test whether people with cognitive-linguistic impairments following traumatic brain injury could learn to use the Internet using specialized training materials. Research design: Pre-post test design. Methods and procedures: Seven participants were each matched with a volunteer tutor. Basic Internet skills were taught over six lessons using a tutor's manual and a student manual. Instructions used simple text and graphics based on Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5. Students underwent Internet skills assessments and interviews pre- and post-training. Tutors completed a post-training questionnaire. Main outcomes and results: Six of seven participants reached moderate-to-high degrees of independence. Literacy impairment was an expected training barrier; however, cognitive impairments affecting concentration, memory and motivation were more significant. Conclusions: Findings suggest that people with cognitive-linguistic impairments can learn Internet skills using specialized training materials. Participants and their carers also reported positive outcomes beyond the acquisition of Internet skills.

The mirror-ball effect: Investigating channels, messages and participation levels

Journalists have always used equipment which has been generally available in the communities in which they worked. This has been a result both of economy and necessity, since they found they had to connect with their audiences using means that were available to the audience, not just to the sender. Newspapers sold on street corners in the very early media days; SMS and email have become the rule for the early 21st century. This development also admits the possibility of the roles of the communication professional and the community merging during the “public journalism” process, and has become most recently evident in the areas around the Bay of Bengal, struck by the tsunami on December 26, 2004, especially in the Indonesian province of Banda Aceh, and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where tiny portable radios, featuring solar panels and hand-cranked dynamos, have suddenly become part of a vital news media channel. In this article participant-observation and personal interview techniques are used to record and compare many of the digital channels used by news and information senders up to 2005. It also investigates the level of genuine participation which these new technologies have brought to the communications process.

Does ICT promote democracy and economic freedom in Middle East?

This study investigates the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) expansion on economic and social freedom in the Middle East (Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and United Arab Emirates) for the period of 1996 to 2005. This study is unique as it analyzes the effect of institutional resistance (governments’ restrictions) on ICT development, economic freedom and democracy. The results show that institutional resistance poses a significant negative effect on ICT development and democracy. Results also show that ICT expansion in Middle East has not only been effective in bridging the Digital Divide, but that it had a positive impact on promoting civil liberties and economic freedom in a region that is vulnerable to political, social, and global conflicts.

The impact of Foreign Direct Investment and trade openness on ICT expansion: A comparative analysis of Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries

This study investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow and trade openness on the expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the period of 1996 to 2005, in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. The results of regression analyses conducted indicate that while dissimilarities exist among the countries included in this study in terms of their level of socio-economic and political development, factors such as trade openness, education and the growth of GDP had a positive impact on their ICT development. While FDI inflow had positive impact on the expansion of ICTs on Asia-Pacific countries its impact on Middle Eastern countries was not statistically significant. The study results also show that governmental intervention in economic activities has a negative impact on ICT expansion in both regions. In the Middle East, regional conflict imposes additional negative impact on FDI inflow and trade openness and consequently, ICT expansion. The regression results show that those countries that implemented liberalization of their ICT sector were able to not only reduce the digital divide with other developed countries, but also increase their operations in both local and global markets.

The impact of information and communication technology (ICT), education and regulation on economic freedom in Islamic Middle Eastern countries

Our study investigated the impact of ICT expansion on economic freedom in the Middle East (Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen). Our empirical analysis used archival data from 1995 to 2005; it showed that ICT expansion in the Middle East has been effective both in bridging the digital divide and also in promoting economic freedom in a region that was vulnerable to political, social, and global conflict. However, differences between countries, such as the educational attainment of their citizens and institutional resistance to technology acceptance, both enhanced and restricted the relationship between ICT and economic freedom.

Online-questionnaire design:establishing guidelines and evaluating existing eupport

As a new medium for questionnaire delivery, the internet has the potential to revolutionise the survey process. Online (web-based) questionnaires provide several advantages over traditional survey methods in terms of cost, speed, appearance, flexibility, functionality, and usability [1, 2]. For instance, delivery is faster, responses are received more quickly, and data collection can be automated or accelerated [1- 3]. Online-questionnaires can also provide many capabilities not found in traditional paper-based questionnaires: they can include pop-up instructions and error messages; they can incorporate links; and it is possible to encode difficult skip patterns making such patterns virtually invisible to respondents. Like many new technologies, however, online-questionnaires face criticism despite their advantages. Typically, such criticisms focus on the vulnerability of online-questionnaires to the four standard survey error types: namely, coverage, non-response, sampling, and measurement errors. Although, like all survey errors, coverage error (“the result of not allowing all members of the survey population to have an equal or nonzero chance of being sampled for participation in a survey” [2, pg. 9]) also affects traditional survey methods, it is currently exacerbated in online-questionnaires as a result of the digital divide. That said, many developed countries have reported substantial increases in computer and internet access and/or are targeting this as part of their immediate infrastructural development [4, 5]. Indicating that familiarity with information technologies is increasing, these trends suggest that coverage error will rapidly diminish to an acceptable level (for the developed world at least) in the near future, and in so doing, positively reinforce the advantages of online-questionnaire delivery. The second error type – the non-response error – occurs when individuals fail to respond to the invitation to participate in a survey or abandon a questionnaire before it is completed. Given today’s societal trend towards self-administration [2] the former is inevitable, irrespective of delivery mechanism. Conversely, non-response as a consequence of questionnaire abandonment can be relatively easily addressed. Unlike traditional questionnaires, the delivery mechanism for online-questionnaires makes estimation of questionnaire length and time required for completion difficult1, thus increasing the likelihood of abandonment. By incorporating a range of features into the design of an online questionnaire, it is possible to facilitate such estimation – and indeed, to provide respondents with context sensitive assistance during the response process – and thereby reduce abandonment while eliciting feelings of accomplishment [6]. For online-questionnaires, sampling error (“the result of attempting to survey only some, and not all, of the units in the survey population” [2, pg. 9]) can arise when all but a small portion of the anticipated respondent set is alienated (and so fails to respond) as a result of, for example, disregard for varying connection speeds, bandwidth limitations, browser configurations, monitors, hardware, and user requirements during the questionnaire design process. Similarly, measurement errors (“the result of poor question wording or questions being presented in such a way that inaccurate or uninterpretable answers are obtained” [2, pg. 11]) will lead to respondents becoming confused and frustrated. Sampling, measurement, and non-response errors are likely to occur when an online-questionnaire is poorly designed. Individuals will answer questions incorrectly, abandon questionnaires, and may ultimately refuse to participate in future surveys; thus, the benefit of online questionnaire delivery will not be fully realized. To prevent errors of this kind2, and their consequences, it is extremely important that practical, comprehensive guidelines exist for the design of online questionnaires. Many design guidelines exist for paper-based questionnaire design (e.g. [7-14]); the same is not true for the design of online questionnaires [2, 15, 16]. The research presented in this paper is a first attempt to address this discrepancy. Section 2 describes the derivation of a comprehensive set of guidelines for the design of online-questionnaires and briefly (given space restrictions) outlines the essence of the guidelines themselves. Although online-questionnaires reduce traditional delivery costs (e.g. paper, mail out, and data entry), set up costs can be high given the need to either adopt and acquire training in questionnaire development software or secure the services of a web developer. Neither approach, however, guarantees a good questionnaire (often because the person designing the questionnaire lacks relevant knowledge in questionnaire design). Drawing on existing software evaluation techniques [17, 18], we assessed the extent to which current questionnaire development applications support our guidelines; Section 3 describes the framework used for the evaluation, and Section 4 discusses our findings. Finally, Section 5 concludes with a discussion of further work.

DISCUS : end-to-end network design for ubiquitous high speed broadband services

Fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) has been long sought as the ultimate solution to satisfy the demand for broadband access in the foreseeable future, and offer distance-independent data rate within access network reach. However, currently deployed FTTP networks have in most cases only replaced the transmission medium, without improving the overall architecture, resulting in deployments that are only cost efficient in densely populated areas (effectively increasing the digital divide). In addition, the large potential increase in access capacity cannot be matched by a similar increase in core capacity at competitive cost, effectively moving the bottleneck from access to core. DISCUS is a European Integrated Project that, building on optical-centric solutions such as Long-Reach Passive Optical access and flat optical core, aims to deliver a cost-effective architecture for ubiquitous broadband services. One of the key features of the project is the end-to-end approach, which promises to deliver a complete network design and a conclusive analysis of its economic viability. © 2013 IEEE.

Participatory research with older adults with AMD:co-designing a SMART diet diary app

The global population of people aged 60 years and older is growing rapidly. In the UK, there are currently around 10 million people aged 65 and over, and the number is projected to rise by 50% in the next 20 years (RNIB, 2013). While ongoing advances in information technology (IT) are undoubtedly increasing the scope for IT to enhance and support older adults' daily living, the digital divide between older and younger adults - 43% of people below the age of 55 own and use a smartphone, compared to only 3% of people aged 65 and over (AgeUK, 2013) - raises concerns about the suitability of technological solutions for older adults, especially for older adults with impairments. Evidence suggests that sympathetic design of mobile technology does render it useful and acceptable to older adults: the key issue is, however, how best to achieve such sympathetic design when working with impaired older adults. We report here on a case study in order to outline the practicalities and highlight the benefits of participatory research for the design of sympathetic technology for (and importantly with) older adults with impairments.

A longitudinal evaluation of the acceptability and impact of a diet diary app for older adults with age-related macular degeneration

Ongoing advances in technology are increasing the scope for enhancing and supporting older adults’ daily living. The digital divide between older and younger adults raises concerns, however, about the suitability of technological solutions for older adults, especially for those with impairments. Taking older adults with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) as a case study, we used user-centred and participatory design approaches to develop an assistive mobile app for self-monitoring their intake of food [12,13]. In this paper we report on findings of a longitudinal field evaluation of our app that was conducted to investigate how it was received and adopted by older adults with AMD and its impact on their lives. Demonstrating the benefit of applying inclusive design methods for technology for older adults, our findings reveal how the use of the app raises participants’ awareness and facilitates self-monitoring of diet, encourages positive (diet) behaviour change, and encourages learning.

Co-designing a SMART diet diary application with older adults with AMD

The global population of people aged 60 years and older is growing rapidly. In the UK, there are currently around 10 million people aged 65 and over, and the number is projected to rise by 50% in the next 20 years (RNIB, 2013). While ongoing advances in information technology (IT) are undoubtedly increasing the scope for IT to enhance and support older adults’ daily living, the digital divide between older and younger adults – 43% of people below the age of 55 own and use a smartphone, compared to only 3% of people aged 65 and over (AgeUK, 2013) – raises concerns about the suitability of technological solutions for older adults, especially for older adults with impairments. Evidence suggests that sympathetic design of mobile technology does render it useful and acceptable to older adults: the key issue is, however, how best to achieve such sympathetic design when working with impaired older adults. We report here on a case study in order to outline the practicalities and highlight the benefits of participatory research for the design of sympathetic technology for (and importantly with) older adults with impairments.

Utilizing ICT to prevent loneliness and social isolation of the elderly. A literature review

Ageing of the population is a worldwide phenomenon. Numerous ICT-based solutions have been developed for elderly care but mainly connected to the physiological and nursing aspects in services for the elderly. Social work is a profession that should pay attention to the comprehensive wellbeing and social needs of the elderly. Many people experience loneliness and depression in their old age, either as a result of living alone or due to a lack of close family ties and reduced connections with their culture of origin, which results in an inability to participate actively in community activities (Singh & Misra, 2009). Participation in society would enhance the quality of life. With the development of information technology, the use of technology in social work practice has risen dramatically. The aim of this literature review is to map out the state of the art of knowledge about the usage of ICT in elderly care and to figure out research-based knowledge about the usability of ICT for the prevention of loneliness and social isolation of elderly people. The data for the current research comes from the core collection of the Web of Science and the data searching was performed using Boolean? The searching resulted in 216 published English articles. After going through the topics and abstracts, 34 articles were selected for the data analysis that is based on a multi approach framework. The analysis of the research approach is categorized according to some aspects of using ICT by older adults from the adoption of ICT to the impact of usage, and the social services for them. This literature review focused on the function of communication by excluding the applications that mainly relate to physical nursing. The results show that the so-called ‘digital divide’ still exists, but the older adults have the willingness to learn and utilise ICT in daily life, especially for communication. The data shows that the usage of ICT can prevent the loneliness and social isolation of older adults, and they are eager for technical support in using ICT. The results of data analysis on theoretical frames and concepts show that this research field applies different theoretical frames from various scientific fields, while a social work approach is lacking. However, a synergic frame of applied theories will be suggested from the perspective of social work.

Redefinición de las TIC en el museo: del discurso invasivo al inclusivo

Las TIC son inseparables de la museografía in situ e imprescindibles en la museografía en red fija y móvil. En demasiados casos se han instalado prótesis tecnológicas para barnizar de modernidad el espacio cultural, olvidando que la tecnología debe estar al servicio de los contenidos de manera que resulte invisible y perfectamente imbricada con la museografía tradicional. Las interfaces móviles pueden fusionar museo in situ y en red y acompañar a las personas más allá del espacio físico. Esa fusión debe partir de una base de datos narrativa y abierta a obras materiales e inmateriales de otros museos de manera que no se trasladen las limitaciones del museo físico al virtual. En el museo in situ tienen sentido las instalaciones hipermedia inmersivas que faciliten experiencias culturales innovadoras. La interactividad (relaciones virtuales) debe convivir con la interacción (relaciones físicas y personales) y estar al servicio de todas las personas, partiendo de que todas, todos tenemos limitaciones. Trabajar interdisciplinarmente ayuda a comprender mejor el museo para ponerlo al servicio de las personas.

The activity of the feminist online publications: challenges for the transmission of the feminist culture in Spain

Traditionally, big media corporations have contributed to hiding the women’s movement itself, as well as its main claims and topics of discussion (Marx, Myra y Hess, 1995; Rhode, 1995; Mendes, 2011). This has led the feminist movement to develop its own media generally print publications, usually, with a very specialized character and reduced audience. This is similar to what has occurred with quality main stream media, asthese publications have had to adapt themselves to a new communicatiion context, because of the financial crisis and  technological evolution. Feminist media has found in the Internet an excellent opportunity to access citizens and communicate their messages. , In view of this scene of change and renovation,  this article offers the results of a qualitative analysis focused on the experiences of four feminist online media sites edited in Spain: Pikaramagazine.com, Proyecto-kahlo.com, Mujeresenred.net and Laindependent.cat. Besides exploring the characteristics and content of these sites, the article pays attention to the virality of their contents spread through Facebook and Twitter. The onclusion estimates their social impact, insofar as they symbolize the specialization, diversification and dialogue promoted by the Web.

Infoincluir Cidadãos 50+ o contributo formativo da USALBI - Universidade Sénior de Castelo Branco

Pretende-se fazer uma abordagem sumária ao processo de envelhecimento global, com particular destaque para EU-27 e Portugal. Neste âmbito, é abordada a problemática da infoexclusão dos cidadãos 50+ e as suas consequências para este grupo de cidadãos que os impedem de exercer linha adequada cidadania e uma consequente inclusão social. Para o efeito, é apresentado o contributo da ISALBI (Universidade Sénior de Castelo Branco) na formação de cidadãos 50+ para a utilização das TIC de forma a que possam adquirir competências digitais. Neste sentido, são apresentados dados estatísticos relativos à formação efetuada relativamente ao número de participantes, aos conteúdos oferecidos, bem como a investigação já realizada. Acresce afirmar que a USALBI tem constituído desde a sua fundação (há 10 anos) uma oportunidade para que os cidadãos 50+ tenham vindo a ter a possibilidade de adquirirem competências digitais associadas às disciplinas de TIC e de Cidadania Digital de forma a reduzir o «gap digital» tão caraterístico dos cidadãos mais idosos.