ICT, Media, and the Egyptian Revolution

Author(s):  
Ahmed El Gody

The utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Egypt has irrevocably changed the nature of the traditional Egyptian public sphere. The Egyptian online society can be viewed as a multiplicity of networks. These networks have developed, transformed and expanded over time, operating across all areas of life. Nonetheless, in essence they are socio-political and cultural in origin. Network communication changed the way audiences consumed news, with traditional media –especially independent and opposition– starting to utilize ICTs to access online information to develop their media content, in order to escape government control. Several media organizations also started to expand their presence online so that, as well as providing news content, they also provided readers with a ‘space' to interact amongst themselves and with media organizations. Audiences started to provide detailed descriptions of Egyptian street politics, posting multimedia material, generating public interest, and reinforcing citizen power – and, hence, democratic capacity.

2013 ◽  
pp. 1121-1136
Author(s):  
Arturo Di Bella

This article presents an analysis of the presence in, and use of, the web by some forms of digital citizenry in a city of southern Italy: Catania. Its primary aim is to analyze how, also in a weak civil society, information and communication technologies (ICTs) create new opportunities for extending public sphere and for learning new modes of participatory local action for sustainable urban development. The local experiences presented in this research indicate that ICTs can facilitate a redistribution of local social powers, offering infrastructures and tools useful for implementing a continuous process of social interaction, exchange of knowledge and the development of practices, influencing policy processes and planning models.


2011 ◽  
pp. 1742-1752
Author(s):  
Penelope Markellou ◽  
Angeliki Panayiotaki ◽  
Athanasios Tsakalidis

As the Web is growing exponentially, the way of provision governmental information and services has been changed by the newly supplied technological capacities and digital channels. More and more governments all over the world are trying to acquire an electronic profile, in order to offer advanced services to their users (citizens and businesses). Two basic factors have significant contribution to this direction. The first considers the continuous increase of the users’ daily needs (e.g., information searching, certificate requesting). Traditionally, the completion of these tasks implies a lot of valuable time to be lost in the tracking of responsible actor and in the waiting in queues. The second one refers to the ongoing access of the users with the Internet. This new way of communication facilitates the transactions and helps in providing better public services. It is clear that e-government’s successful development and operation demands proper design, which will comprise the basis for its application. Information and communication technologies (ICT) may contribute essentially to this direction, as long as government and users adopt them under the framework of a broader reorganization of the public sector. This adaptation can be implemented gradually in levels, which will enable the unobstructed data flow from/to government and will give the opportunity to citizens and businesses to obtain the highest access to the provided governmental services. Only under these circumstances, this transition will lead to a series of strategic, administrative and operational benefits (NOIE, 2003; OGC, 2003), for example, best coverage of users’ needs, cost and time savings, and so forth. This article is intended to present a level-based approach for the development of e-government services, starting from the lowest one to the highest and more complicated. Following gradually this sequence of technological levels and incorporating with strategy, coordination, and know-how, an organization can realize the vision of e-government, provide reliable online information and services to their users and improve their efficiency and effectiveness.


2008 ◽  
pp. 71-77
Author(s):  
Antonio Cartelli

Every day, information and communication technologies (ICT) are extending their influence on knowing and transmitting knowledge. They act on humankind at different levels: the individual, the society, and the community/organization. The Internet more than other instruments in the past is changing human customs and knowledge strategies mostly due to the online information systems developed during last few years.


Author(s):  
Carmen Alba Pastor

Higher Education institutions have developed online information services and degrees as an echo of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) incidence in all society fields. Equal access to education is a fundamental right; but equal access to higher education for people with disabilities is far from being achieved yet. To this inequality has to be added the difficulty of some groups to participate in the information society, the so called infoexclusion. The short number of students with disabilities in higher education makes evident the presence of barriers for this people to get into this educational level. One of them is the low degree of accessibility to digital services and studies offered by the Universities, something that can be considered a new kind of segregation.


First Monday ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Corbett

This paper explores the hacker work ethic in a case study of Access Space, a free media lab in Sheffield, United Kingdom, which provides free access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). It is suggested that the hacker work ethic allows participants at Access Space to become socially and digitally included in an empowering way. This aspect of ICT culture is explored in the context of social and technological changes from a public sphere perspective (Habermas, 1989). Access Space is described as part of a hacker counter-public sphere that challenges the dominant trend towards the commodification of ICTs by engaging the principles of the hacker work ethic in social practice. With a move towards informationalism as the ideology of the techno-capitalist age (Castells, 1996; Kellner, 1989), adopting the hacker work ethic in wider social practice may promote empowerment, social and digital inclusion, and critical engagement with ICTs and wider society.


Author(s):  
Aziz Srai ◽  
Fatima Guerouate ◽  
Hilal Drissi Lahsini

The e-learning study reflects a trend in the integration of information and communication technologies in universities. This trend evokes a new form of teaching and learning and a new form of relationship between students and teachers. In fact, information and communication technologies, such as e-learning, call into question the ways of thinking and the ways of acting of individuals in the representation of learning. This paradigm shift requires introspection and the renewal of skills. In the face of these changes, higher education institutes must develop and make essential the courses that allow students to adapt to the new demands of the labor market. on the other hand, information and communication technologies and computer networks, These objects from daily life, are part of the immediate environment that is both professional, educational and personal of each one. With the massive arrival of personal and accessible digital tools (computers, nomadic equipment such as mobile phones and digital tablets, etc…), multiple online spaces are emerging on the Internet (discussion forums, e-learning platforms, blogs, messaging, chats, social networks like Facebook, online information sharing sites, etc…). E-learning offers features that differentiate it from others media objects such as books or television. e-learning offers quick, even instant, access to a multitude of information sources. They make it possible to store them and facilitate the possibilities of networking between individuals and groups of individuals whatever the time and place. Access to the Internet information network is "universal". You only need to connect to a computer on the network to access almost this entire network. Access is also "simultaneous" because each Internet user exists on the network in the form of information by "his digital presence", by the data that he moves or deposits and the interactions caused. We can also say that access is independent of time and distance since it is a space permanently open to human activity. Developing an e-learning application for each technology requires a lot of human resources and technical knowledge. To solve this problem we propose a development of an e-learning application according to a model-driven architecture approach. This paper is a development of our work in paper [Srai,2020].


Author(s):  
John Burbridge ◽  
Jayoti Das ◽  
Cassandra DiRienzo

Throughout the world, the number of e-government applications enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT) is proliferating. Some of the newer applications allow for interaction between government officials and its citizenry. As a result, the concept of a public sphere and e-democracy is becoming more of a reality. In all of these applications, one would expect that the level of trust within the society would be an important factor in determining the level of adoption. Using cross-country data from 140 countries, this empirical study extends past research by examining the impact of trust on the level of e-government where national diversity is used as a proxy of trust within a nation. The major empirical finding of this research shows that, even after controlling for the level of economic development and other socio-economic factors, trust as measured by ethnic and religious diversity, was a significant factor affecting e-government usage.


Author(s):  
P. Markellou

As the Web is growing exponentially, the way of provision governmental information and services has been changed by the newly supplied technological capacities and digital channels. More and more governments all over the world are trying to acquire an electronic profile, in order to offer advanced services to their users (citizens and businesses). Two basic factors have significant contribution to this direction. The first considers the continuous increase of the users’ daily needs (e.g., information searching, certificate requesting). Traditionally, the completion of these tasks implies a lot of valuable time to be lost in the tracking of responsible actor and in the waiting in queues. The second one refers to the ongoing access of the users with the Internet. This new way of communication facilitates the transactions and helps in providing better public services. It is clear that e-government’s successful development and operation demands proper design, which will comprise the basis for its application. Information and communication technologies (ICT) may contribute essentially to this direction, as long as government and users adopt them under the framework of a broader reorganization of the public sector. This adaptation can be implemented gradually in levels, which will enable the unobstructed data flow from/to government and will give the opportunity to citizens and businesses to obtain the highest access to the provided governmental services. Only under these circumstances, this transition will lead to a series of strategic, administrative and operational benefits (NOIE, 2003; OGC, 2003), for example, best coverage of users’ needs, cost and time savings, and so forth. This article is intended to present a level-based approach for the development of e-government services, starting from the lowest one to the highest and more complicated. Following gradually this sequence of technological levels and incorporating with strategy, coordination, and know-how, an organization can realize the vision of e-government, provide reliable online information and services to their users and improve their efficiency and effectiveness.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petruccione, Francesco ◽  
Gastrow, Michael ◽  
Hadzic, Senka ◽  
Limpitlaw, Justine ◽  
Paul, Babu Sena ◽  
...  

The National Research Foundation (NRF) requested the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), on behalf of South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), to undertake an independent and objective evaluation of potential alternative telecommunication technologies for the areas of the Karoo Central Astronomy Advantage Areas (KCAAA). The study encompasses regulatory, public sphere, and technical dimensions to explore options for maintaining the functionality of the telescope while, at the same time, delivering appropriate connectivity solutions for local communities.The objectives of this study are as follows: 1) Assess the technologies currently being, or planning to be, deployed through existing alternative communications programs managed by SARAO, including whether these technologies are comparable with market available technologies that could feasibly be deployed in the KCAAA; and 2) Assessment of current and future telecommunication technologies that may act as suitable replacement and/or improvement (functional and feasible) for existing detrimental technologies, utilised in the KCAAA. This report provides a critical background into the relationship between the SKA and local communities as it relates to ICTs in the area. Based on this understanding, potential technology solutions are proposed to ensure residents of the KCAAA are still afforded valuable access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) within the parameters of affordability, desirability and feasibility.


Author(s):  
Antonio Cartelli

Every day, information and communication technologies (ICT) are extending their influence on knowing and transmitting knowledge. They act on humankind at different levels: the individual, the society, and the community/organization. The Internet more than other instruments in the past is changing human customs and knowledge strategies mostly due to the online information systems developed during last few years.


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