Information Society, Digital Divide, and E-Governance in Developing Countries

Author(s):  
Sukaina Al-Nasrawi ◽  
Saleem Zoughbi

Author(s):  
Stephen Mutula

The debate about whether the digital divide between Africa and the developed world is narrowing or widening has intensified over the last five years. Some believe that access to technology is positively correlated to economic development and wealth creation, however, since the dawn of the last century, the gap between the rich and the poor within and between developed and developing countries has continued to grow. The protagonists in this debate do not seem to appreciate the notion that the digital divide is not about a single technology, and is driven by a complex set of factors that exist beyond wires. This paper attempts to deconstruct the concept of the digital divide beyond access to PCs, telephones, Internet, cable TV, etc… The authors argue that the phenomenon as currently conceived is misleading and flawed, and so are the indices for its measurement. Suggestions that a new model for mapping the phenomenon is made in order to bridge the divide between developed and developing countries. In deconstructing the digital divide, the authors use the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on Information Society and the indices used to measure e-readiness, information society, digital opportunity, and e-government.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Stephen Mutula

The debate about whether the digital divide between Africa and the developed world is narrowing or widening has intensified over the last five years. Some believe that access to technology is positively correlated to economic development and wealth creation, however, since the dawn of the last century, the gap between the rich and the poor within and between developed and developing countries has continued to grow. The protagonists in this debate do not seem to appreciate the notion that the digital divide is not about a single technology, and is driven by a complex set of factors that exist beyond wires. This paper attempts to deconstruct the concept of the digital divide beyond access to PCs, telephones, Internet, cable TV, etc… The authors argue that the phenomenon as currently conceived is misleading and flawed, and so are the indices for its measurement. Suggestions that a new model for mapping the phenomenon is made in order to bridge the divide between developed and developing countries. In deconstructing the digital divide, the authors use the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on Information Society and the indices used to measure e-readiness, information society, digital opportunity, and e-government.


2012 ◽  
pp. 1343-1357
Author(s):  
Stephen Mutula

The debate about whether the digital divide between Africa and the developed world is narrowing or widening has intensified over the last five years. Some believe that access to technology is positively correlated to economic development and wealth creation, however, since the dawn of the last century, the gap between the rich and the poor within and between developed and developing countries has continued to grow. The protagonists in this debate do not seem to appreciate the notion that the digital divide is not about a single technology, and is driven by a complex set of factors that exist beyond wires. This paper attempts to deconstruct the concept of the digital divide beyond access to PCs, telephones, Internet, cable TV, etc… The authors argue that the phenomenon as currently conceived is misleading and flawed, and so are the indices for its measurement. Suggestions that a new model for mapping the phenomenon is made in order to bridge the divide between developed and developing countries. In deconstructing the digital divide, the authors use the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on Information Society and the indices used to measure e-readiness, information society, digital opportunity, and e-government.


Author(s):  
Anthony Akai Acheampong Otoo ◽  
Li Zhiwen ◽  
Charles Oduro Acheampong Otoo ◽  
Maxwell Opuni Antwi

The clear differences between developing nations and developed nations have posed an enormous problem in trying to design a “one-size-fits-all” theory of Electronic Commerce (EC) adoption. Most prior studies have proposed that generalizing findings of developed countries to the context of developing countries are of worry (Rahayu & Day, 2015; J. Tan, Tyler, & Manica, 2007). Table 1 shows the ICT Development Index (benchmarking tools to monitor information society developments worldwide) of some countries that have hosted the earlier literature on EC International Telecommunications Unions (ITU, 2017). These statistics may well indicate that businesses in developed countries and developing countries vary with regard to information technology and EC context<strong>.</strong> The latest ITU report in 2017 on ICT Development Index, ranks Ghana as the 112th country regarding ICT development in 2016, which shows a slight decline in the ranking compared to 111th in 2015 (the IDI value increased from 3.75 in 2015 to 3.99 in 2016). This may suggest that Ghana does not have appropriate infrastructure for effective e-business compared to countries like Singapore, China and USA.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.E. Dobrinskaya ◽  
◽  
T.S. Martynenko ◽  

2018 ◽  
pp. 38-51
Author(s):  
Aparna Purushothaman ◽  
Lone Dirckinck Holmfeld ◽  
Moly Kuruvilla

Internet literacy is crucial to become information literate and for lifelong learning for today's citizens. However, there is an identified gendered digital divide in Internet usage, as the major proportion of unconnected citizens, especially in the developing economies in asian countries are women. The problems of the gender digital divide are not just limited to connectivity and infrastructural issues, literacy and the cost of access, which are often discussed in the literature. The authors identify some of the second order factors that are often overlooked and arise out of cognitive, psychological and social factors leading to the digital divide. The paper also discusses possible measures that could be taken up to address the second order gender digital divide.


Author(s):  
Gohar Feroz Khan ◽  
Junghoon Moon

Electronic government, or e-Government, is the practice of providing public services to citizens, businesses, and other government agencies where government services can be accessed through the Internet, mobile phone, fax, mail, telephone, and personal visits (MGAHA, 2005). Developing countries, utilizing the late comer advantage, are mimicking trends of paperless governments with the expectations to reap the same benefits enjoyed by developed countries. However, e-Government initiatives have not always been successful in developing countries. According to the study conducted by Heeks (2003), the rate of e-Government success in developing countries was only 15 percent. The authors believe that such failures are mainly due to certain unique social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges faced by e-Government in developing countries. For example, some major issues include digital divide, political instability, and skills-related issues. However, the research dealing with these problems is limited. Therefore, in this chapter, the authors discuss these challenges.


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