New Faces of Digital Divide and How to Bridge It

The chapter aims to explore, through the lens of digital divide, the challenges to alleviating socio-economic and intellectual limitations for prosperity of each individual. Cutting-edge research is reviewed to discuss in what way new technologies and access to them really help to develop citizens who are able to contribute in creative and democratic ways to society. While much effort has been done in the past decade to bridge the digital divide by resolving access issues and usage issues, the recent studies seem to indicate that the gap at all levels, nation-wide, community-wide, special groups-wide still exists and even deepens, especially regarding digital inclusion and meeting needs of at-risk population. More systematic research and innovative practical solutions are needed to address all the aspects of digital divide: physical, financial cognitive, content, and political access; also, we have to consider the technological and social resonances of digital technologies in terms of digital literacy and development of critical thinking.

Political Context Elements in Public Policy of Radio Frequency Information Technology and Electromagnetic Fields

There are widespread uses of radio frequency information technology (RADFIT) including applications related to communications, security, big data, military, transportation, space exploration, oceanography, agriculture, medical sciences, and more. Regulation of RADFIT is challenging and controversial as agencies and stakeholders struggle to balance benefits and costs. This powerful and invisible technology has the capacity to achieve breakthrough solutions by utilizing electromagnetic fields to collect, analyze, and transmit data, or to enact stimuli to create interventions for machines or living matter. However, the prevalence of RF base stations and electromagnetic fields has altered the environment and results in unintended absorption by human subjects. The public policy and politics of RADFIT, including the processes for base site installation and acceptable levels of absorption, have come to the forefront of discourse. This chapter discusses the political narratives that dictate public policy stances on the issue, bureaucratic considerations, and the response by communities.

Community Broadband Networks and the Opportunity for E-Government Services

Community broadband networks (CBN) facilitate broadband connectivity in underserved areas in many countries. The lack of broadband connectivity is one of the reasons for the slow diffusion of e-government services in many countries. This chapter explains how CBNs can be enabled by governments to facilitate the delivery of e-government services in underserved areas in the developed and developing countries. The community-based broadband mobilization (CBNM) models are used as explanatory tools.

Bridging Between Cyber Politics and Collective Dynamics of Social Movement

The author argued that the advent of social media summoned the collective dynamics of democracy of the citizens, by the citizens, and for the citizens. Such patterns using social media can readily alter the form of social movements, allowing their mutual interconnection and shaping the enclaves of networked clustering. Social media offer a new paradigm of democracy that encourages engagement and participation in both cyber and actual political actions for ordinary citizens. Nevertheless, little is known about co-occurrence and linkages between cyber and real-world actions by numerous participants. Consequently, this issue should be investigated with open questions related to the following points: 1) social institutional matters related to legitimation crises caused by social movements, 2) co-occurrence and linkages of collective dynamics between cyber and actual political actions, 3) enlargement of participants in social movement, and 4) systemic risks from local to international affairs.

Accessibility in E-Government

Electronic government (e-government) resources and websites are a crucial interface for many citizens; yet, accessibility is an often-overlooked attribute when designing such tools. Poorly designed sites can seriously hinder and cause detrimental effects for users relying on these services. How content is presented and delivered on the web makes an impact on how effective and helpful it is, even more so for users with disabilities. This chapter begins with the standards of digital government content presentation and follows up with a look at the compliance rate, current challenges, and possible avenues of future delivery methods. Discussion includes a look at Section 508 and possible update measures to incorporate new devices. This chapter will explore the current drawbacks of automated compliance and accessibility management and provide perspective on what improvements need to be made to foster proper e-government design.

Women and IT in Lilongwe

The purpose of this chapter was to investigate and describe why women in Malawi and Africa at large are underrepresented in IT despite the widespread availability of IT through cell phones, institutions, and general computer hardware and software. Gender discriminates women in education and world of work. The gender issue is all rooted, promoted, and strengthened in cultural beliefs. Literature reveals that for their part, African women have internalized the so-called inferiority position through their culture and society. Critiques of these beliefs commonly agree that there is need for mental rewiring on gender equity roles. Women need to believe in themselves and shun the positional gender differences that are causing severe imbalances in education and workplaces across Africa. The findings led to the overarching conclusion that African culture is not really changing with the times and it pushes women on the edge. One recommendation will be arrived at; there is need to include to a larger scale gender equity and justice system in education and workplaces across Africa.

Crisis Response and Management

Information technology is critically dependent on a number of technological and human factors. Software engineering processes are multi-sided; they include customer and developer parties. Conceptual misunderstanding by either party often results in the products which do not meet customer's expectations. This misconception of the software product scope usually leads to a crisis of software product delivery. To adequately manage and efficiently respond to this crisis, the authors recommend using software engineering models, methods, techniques, practices, and tools. Software engineering is a discipline which started in the 1960s as a response to the so-called “software crisis”; it combines technical and human-related skills. To manage the crisis, the authors suggest architecture patterns and instantiate them by implementation examples.

Need for Rethinking Modern Urban Planning Strategies Through Integration of ICTs

Recent progress in ICTs have paved the way for innovative services and interactive models and tools. Citizen participation and open innovation have become essential tools for urban planners. These concepts can be implemented through the crowdsourcing model, which is a people-centric approach to solve societal problems using Web 2.0 technologies. This has led to the collection and sharing of geocoded data through GIS. The large amount of data required is one of the drawbacks of GIS. However, collecting such data within short duration at minimum cost has now become possible through the development of web-based surveys coupled with use of DBMS. The effectiveness and importance of these three tools (crowdsourcing, GIS, and DBMS) in modern and future urban planning strategies cannot be undermined. In conclusion, the authors argue that integration of urban policies, modern technologies, and fundamental concepts of engineering will lead to discovery of new solutions to important age-old urban problems.

Climate Change as a Driving Force on Urban Energy Consumption Patterns

Heating degree days (HDD), in cases where temperatures are below 18°C, and cooling degree days (CDD), in cases where temperatures are above 21°C, were used as energy consumption indices. During the last half century, mean annual temperatures have increased, and as a consequence, CDD in the warm season have increased sharply. In the same time slice, HDD even in the cool and cold season have declined steadily. The number of monthly and annual total HDD (mean= 1556) are much higher than CDD (mean=400) in the case study area, and annual total HDD and CDD have a negative correlation (Pearson correlation = - 0.493; p = 0.001). The deceasing rate of HDD is limited and steady (R2= 0.062, p=0.099), but the increasing rate of CDD in the same time slice is sharp (R2=0.427, p=0.813). This shows that energy consumption patterns have increased sharply, and with available projection scenarios, it is projected to increase more rapidly, leading to higher energy costs.

The Networked Effect of Children and Online Digital Technologies

Within the scope of how technology impacts society, three theoretical models—the social shaping of technology (SST), social construction of technology (SCOT), and the actor-network theory (ANT)—are frameworks that help rethink the embeddedness of technology within society, once each is transformed and transformative of the other. More attention will be given to the ANT approach since it solves the technology/society dualisms unresolved by the previous proposals. This is a flexible epistemological possibility that can reach the ambiguity of contemporary life and the remarkable transformations brought by progress that have drastically changed childhood and children's contemporary lives.