Civil Society Organizations in Knowledge Society

Author(s):  
Saqib Saeed ◽  
Markus Rohde ◽  
Volker Wulf

The notion of a knowledge society demands equal access of knowledge for every stakeholder in the society. Modern information and communication technologies play a significant role in accessing and storing knowledge, which is a vital enabler for fostering knowledge society paradigm. Voluntary organizations represent an important part of society which differs from traditional business and governmental organizations in terms of structure, working methodologies, and decision making. In this paper the authors investigate the Pakistani civil society sector to analyze the involvement of technology in their work settings. The findings suggest that lack of technological and financial resources hinder voluntary organizations in this region to adopt innovative technological solutions, so there is need for supporting the appropriation of technology in this sector. On the basis of the authors’ findings they propose a research plan to follow for the uplift of Pakistani NGOs and their use of ICTs. This research framework can be extended to NGO sectors of other parts of the world in an effort to generalize the findings worldwide to better support the technology needs of this community.

Author(s):  
Julián G. Casasbuenas

This chapter presents the experience of civil society organizations in Colombia to improve the transparency of the municipalities’ administrations through the project ‘Internet for Accountability’ developed by Colnodo in partnership with Corporation Transparency for Colombia. Within this initiative, a website for municipalities was developed and afterwards improved and expanded by the Territorial e-government Strategy (GELT) and implemented by the Connectivity Agenda of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies. The chapter begins by describing the current situation of the municipalities’ websites and how they have been expanded with the support of the GELT strategy. Subsequently, presents the consultation carried out with the municipalities in order to find out the impact and usage of the websites on citizens’ participation and accountability. Finally, presents the conclusions based on the experience of the organizations involved and the information gathered during the consultation.


2012 ◽  
pp. 969-982
Author(s):  
Julián Casasbuenas G.

This chapter presents the experience of civil society organizations in Colombia to improve the transparency of the municipalities’ administrations through the project ‘Internet for Accountability’ developed by Colnodo in partnership with Corporation Transparency for Colombia. Within this initiative, a website for municipalities was developed and afterwards improved and expanded by the Territorial e-government Strategy (GELT) and implemented by the Connectivity Agenda of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies. The chapter begins by describing the current situation of the municipalities’ websites and how they have been expanded with the support of the GELT strategy. Subsequently, presents the consultation carried out with the municipalities in order to find out the impact and usage of the websites on citizens’ participation and accountability. Finally, presents the conclusions based on the experience of the organizations involved and the information gathered during the consultation.


Author(s):  
Prem Borle ◽  
Kathrin Reichel ◽  
Fiona Niebuhr ◽  
Susanne Voelter-Mahlknecht

The technostress model has introduced different factors to consider when assessing how information and communication technologies impact individuals in different work settings. This systematic review gathers evidence regarding associations between occupational exposure to technostress and health or work outcomes. In addition, we highlight typical methodological constraints of the technostress model. We conducted electronic literature searches in June 2020 (PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo, PsycArticles) and independently screened 321 articles. We report on 21 articles meeting eligibility criteria (working population, technostress exposure, health or work outcome, quantitative design). The most frequently examined techno-stressors, i.e., factors of technostress, were techno-overload and techno-invasion. Techno-stressors were consistently associated with adverse health and work outcomes, apart from a positive impact on work engagement. However, studies may be subject to considerable conceptual overlap between exposure and outcome measures. Future technostress research would benefit from reducing heterogeneity in technostress measures, assessing their external validity and focussing on specific techno-stressors.


2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-53
Author(s):  
Kamil Okyay Sindir

In recent years, the Turkish agricultural sector has had serious problems, such as lower yields, higher input prices, higher production costs and loss of competitiveness in foreign markets, all leading to reductions in both crop and animal production. At the same time, measures such as curtailment of state financial support to farmers and farming businesses, coupled with the increasing costs of production inputs including seeds, fertilizers, sprays, machinery and decreasing crop prices have negatively affected the sector and primarily the farmers. But, besides taking measures affecting structural change, it is also necessary to establish ways of ensuring accurate information exchange between farmers, agri-food industries and institutions for research and development if productivity and improvements in the competitive power of Turkish farmers within foreign and domestic markets are to be assured. The paper outlines the current situation concerning information and communication technologies (ICT) and agriculture in Turkey and the challenges facing the rural sector in striving towards a knowledge society.


Comunicar ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (35) ◽  
pp. 159-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Baelo-Álvarez ◽  
Isabel Cantón-Mayo

This paper explores the uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the universities of Castilla y León. We believe that the integration of ICT in the universities is essential for the development of a university system in line with the requirements of the knowledge society. This piece of work must be placed within a research that has analyzed the use of ICT in higher education in the universities of Castilla y León. In our view, the uses of ICT in higher education are one of the main key indicators for its level of integration. With this research, whose goals relate to ascertaining the level of integration of ICT in the universities of Castilla y León, we seek to identify the factors that influence the use-avoidance of ICT by the professors, and to describe the uses that they do of ICT in the development of their profession (teaching and research).For this reason, we have conducted an ex-postfacto research with a descriptive and improvement-seeking motivation. Even though the results of this research highlight the widespread use of ICTs within the universities, they also point out that this use is superficial and indicate a lack of actual integration of ICT in the universities of Castilla y León. El presente trabajo se enmarca dentro de una investigación que ha analizado la utilización que se hacen de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) en la educación superior en los centros universitarios de Castilla y León. Bajo nuestra perspectiva los usos de las TIC por parte del docente se conforman como un indicador esencial para conocer el grado de integración que éstas tienen dentro de las universidades. De esta forma los objetivos principales de la presente investigación se encuentran en relación con la indagación sobre el nivel de integración de las TIC existente en los centros universitarios de Castilla y León, tratando de identificar los elementos que influyen tanto en la utilización, como en el no uso de las TIC por parte del docente universitario, para posteriormente hacer un descripción sobre los usos a los que el profesorado destina las TIC en el desarrollo de su actividad profesional, tanto en el ámbito docente, como en el investigador. Para ello se ha llevado a cabo una investigación ex-postfacto, con una orientación descriptiva y de búsqueda de la mejora, cuyos resultados inciden en una generalización en la utilización de las TIC dentro de la educación superior de Castilla y León, aunque se ha de señalar que esta utilización se encuentra referida a unos usos superficiales de las TIC, lo que denota una falta de integración real de las TIC en las universidades de Castilla y León.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mammar Belagra ◽  
Belkacem Draoui

The purpose of this research was to study the impact of project-based learning and information and communication technologies on students’ motivation. Two second-year classes in electrical engineering at the University Tahri Mohamed in Béchar, Algeria, were involved in the study. The experiment compared the level to which one class of students mastered goals without the use of information and communication technologies, to the mastery achieved by a second class which participated in a tutorial that has a technological tool built into the project-based approach. The subject of power electronics was chosen for this study because of its different knowledge, which is strongly represented in difficult learning contents for students. A questionnaire about motivation was used to collect data within an experimental research plan. After three months of conducting the study, the results demonstrated that the integration of the tutorial with the project-based approach is likely to increase students’ motivation to learn and to master the subject of power electronics.


Author(s):  
Rolf H. Weber

The tremendous developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) over the last 20 years have substantially changed communication practices across the world. The Internet and mobile phones help to open new horizons for connections between people, leading to a global network for the sharing of information and ideas. In this new environment, human rights need to have a place, and traditional notions related to mass media need to be adapted to the needs of civil society. Freedom of expression has become much more individualistic, with information exchanges no longer relying on the traditional intermediaries (mass media) but on the exchange of ideas on social networking and other platforms. Civil society participation in the information world requires the necessary infrastructure however. And since states have an obligation to see to it that human rights are realized in practice, this may mean the facilitation of private investments to improve the ICT infrastructure. In this context, ICT policies favoring human rights must encompass a right to development.


2013 ◽  
pp. 196-212
Author(s):  
Antonio Cartelli

Today, life is more complex and difficult due to uncertainties in society. Liquid life (Bauman, 2006) is frenetic, rapidly changing and highly influenced from information and communication technologies, and forces subjects to adapt to group behavior avoiding exclusion. Human beings are experimenting with the digital age and the pervasiveness of computers and IT/ICT equipment, which are influencing learning and knowledge construction. This raises questions in regard to a privileged role for digital competences in the knowledge society, whether or not there is a framework for digital competence assessment, and possible hints, suggestions, experiments, protocols, or curricula helping teachers in hitting this target with students. This paper answers these questions, describing the evolution of psycho-pedagogical paradigms and their comparisons. A framework for digital competence assessment is proposed and teaching activities are suggested. A proposal of a teaching-learning process called OTS (Open Teaching Process) is also presented.


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