E-Governance for Socio Economic Welfare

In this chapter, the author has discussed India's first rainbow e-governance project encompassing the “ICTs, e-governance, rural development and access to the basic administrative services” aspects in India's hinterland and one of the most backward regions. The paper argues for the “socio economic welfare” stance of the ICTs and the resultants benefits thereof. The present study investigates the socio-economic aspect of community e-governance project named Gyandoot in remote villages of Madhya Pradesh. Out of 18 services offered by Gyandoot, people fully utilized only 3 services (land records, exam results and addressing public grievances) which lead to the considerable fulfillment of target audience's needs (felt needs and expected needs) and improvement in their work efficiency by high scores on convenience, satisfaction, time, cost, reliability and overall benefits factors and a reduction in the time and money for government service delivery. However, Gyandoot could not fare impressively well on spurt in employment and economic activity fronts thus leading to only moderate gains. Only 17% of the Gyandoot's potential could be utilized and 39% was used moderately. Rest 44% could not be utilized at all due to less demand of services. ‘Optimism in IT hardware' and ‘development of entrepreneurial attitude' were the most noticeable aspects of economic activity generated. The study also posits a few very important questions on the sustainability, interoperability and hierarchical issues relating to the project.

Mobile Phone Revolution and its Dimensional Social and Economic Impacts in Nigeria's Context

The emergence of mobile phone telecommunication in the last thirteen years in Nigeria has greatly revolutionized the dynamics of information exchange and usage by group of individuals in the country. Unlike the past years before 2001 whereby physical contacts and/or letter writing were the major means of interaction between individuals that are farther apart on geospatial dimension, spatial interaction is now the order of the day as a result of institutionalisation of the mobile telephony services in the country. By virtue of the telecom sector deregulation in 2001 and competition for dominance by the four major mobile phone network providers in the country, namely Airtel, MTN, Globacom and Etisalat, as much as 162, 719, 517 lines were actively connected in the country with a teledensity of 94.4 as at July 2014. Based on this, exploitation of the communication tools by Nigerian has effected a transformed social and economic condition of the country in terms of attraction of investors into the telecom sector, generation of income for the Nigerian Government, creation of employment opportunities, ease of business and financial transactions as economic impacts. The social impacts of the mobile phone revolution in the country include facilitation of prompt interactive linkages and exchange of information, entertainment and social networking. Other forms of impacts include its influence on educational and health services in the country. Despite the transformation impact of the mobile phone revolution in the country, exploitation of the communication tool for social vices by unscrupulous individuals was too obvious to be underplayed. The negative impacts arising from nefarious acts-mediated mobile phone usage include loss of hard earned income by unsuspecting individuals to swindlers, road accidents as a result of usage of phone while on the wheel and provision of deceptive information by one person to the other while on phone. This notwithstanding, the telecom sector has proven to be of great value to most Nigerian's as it enabled them to readily interact with one another, facilitate business and financial transactions thereby enhancing their social and economic wellbeing.

Societal and Economical Impact on Citizens through Innovations Using Open Government Data

This chapter analyzes the impact that an open data policy can have on the citizens of India. Especially in a scenario where government accountability and transparency has become the buzzword for good governance and further look at whether the availability of open data can become an agent for socio-economic change in India. What kind of change it can bring to India which has its own complexities when it comes to socio economic issues and whether the steps taken by the government are up to the mark to address these complexities through data sharing. In order to understand the changes which may occur for the good or the bad, the chapter looks at specific examples where the open data platform have been utilized in India and what impact they have had on the Indian society and how the citizens have responded to it.

Impact of ICT on Innovation

The innovation process in SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) is complex and in comparison with large firms the causal relationships between promoting factors and innovation have yet not been sufficiently clarified. This chapter attempts to analyze the innovation process using Structural Equation Modeling, in particular focusing on the role of ICT. Seven hypotheses are demonstrated by two models. The results obtained are as follows: (i) top management participation and employee motivation in the innovation process enhance the effect of introducing ICT; (ii) the effect of ICT use raises innovation capability, in particular the ability to connect with external linkages; (iii) ICT use, innovation capability and external linkages enhance innovation activity; and (iv) the effect of ICT use and innovation capability promote innovation directly.

A Design Framework for Evolving a Citizen-Centric Information Society

Typically, designers of ICT based initiatives tend to consider the emerging trends of information and communication technology (ICT) as the starting point for designing an e-initiative rather than first inculcating a clarity on what services are to be delivered by such e-initiatives. ‘Technology first' or ‘Citizens First' is a conflict all designers have been confronted with, especially in the wake of all technology trends infesting the world now. To resolve this dichotomy, the present study proposes a citizen-centric framework, christened by author as G2C2G framework, which advocates combining technology in equal measures with the respective ‘socio-cultural issues' of the local populace.

The Making of the Information Society

Unlike the decisive occupations which facilitated the unambiguous naming of the agricultural and industrial societies, the present one which is tagged with an array of groupings—Post-Industrial, Service, Knowledge, Post-modern, Wired/Networked, Artificial, so on and so forth—can hardly ever be viewed from the perspective of a single occupation. With technology in the forefront working as the driver of information and knowledge, it supports and causes the rampant changes in the provinces of economy, occupation, spatial relations, and culture. And, together they signify the arrival of the ‘Information Society'. The obvious shift of a considerable population from the landed labour to industrial labour to knowledge workers marks the transitional phase of the society from agriculture to manufacturing to knowledge society. Hence, this chapter proposes that the dominant phase of a society is not to be visualised as an independent system that is divorced from the other two, but to be understood as an extension of its past.

Contingency Factors Impacting the Rural Information and Communication Technology Hubs

A thorough glance of the ICT and development researches reveal that the qualitative studies reasonably depend on the grounded theory as it is obtained from the phenomenon unlike the study begins with the theory and proves it. Most of the researches concentrated on the adoption of technology, receptiveness of the target audience, organizational structure of the project agencies and of course, the impact of intervention. Fewer researches have been done to gauge the factors affecting the positive or negative impact of the technology. None of the above stated theories were relevant except meta-theoretical perspectives of ICT and society. The authors propose a chapter discusses the contingency factors which affect the positive or negative impact of the rural Information and Communication Technology hubs in India by analyzing the researches which were published after the year 2000. It shall be specifically dealing with the researches which are based on primary data. Thus it could reflect the challenges the Indian rural ICT initiatives face.

The Potential of Social Media as a Communication Tool in Rural Community Development

This chapter analyses the social media site Facebook as a communication tool in rural community development. The analysis was focused on the Facebook page of one rural community in Ireland. The research was conducted using a mixed method approach, using Facebook insights, key informant interviews, and questionnaires. The evolution of the Facebook page was documented. The study presents the attitudes towards the Facebook page of users and non-Facebook users. The findings indicate that friends of the community Facebook page believe it plays a vital role in their community forging debate, discussion and higher levels of participation. The non-Facebook users have made the conscious decision not to engage with Facebook, but nonetheless are aware of Facebook and on occasion, kept informed indirectly from sources close to them. Overall the research presented in this chapter illustrates that Facebook can be an effective communication tool in community development even in rural areas.

The Empirical Analysis of Cloud Computing Services among the Hungarian Enterprises

Innovation capability has increasingly been searched by the ICT sector in cloud computing applications recently. This chapter describes the economic potentials of cloud computing and explores the characteristics of its usage among Hungarian enterprises. Although enterprises are aware of the basic concept of cloud computing, they have concerns about its application mainly due to data security issues and the lack of education. The chance of using cloud computing services is mainly facilitated by the creation of easier application and consultation would positively affect their usage. According to microenterprises and corporations, faster information flow and remote access are the key benefits of cloud usage. In the case of small-sized enterprises, the two main advantages are easier system recoverability and a higher level of mobility in case of a system breakdown. For the medium-sized enterprises, remote access and greater data security were the key benefits of using cloud computing services in 2014.

The Current State of Dialogue in South African Universities

The current state of dialogue within certain South African universities was explored, and if and how dialogue can be used to address the issues of transformation and the lack of social cohesiveness. The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in facilitating or inhibiting open conversations was examined. Through qualitative analysis of surveys administered to staff and students at universities, the researchers identified that power disparity, and the slow pace of transformation were prevalent and needed to be addressed. University management generally practice open conversations, and students and staff were willing to participate. Organisational structures were not conducive for open conversations. The ICT infrastructure used had no significant role to play, while Social Network Systems (SNSs) were perceived as enablers of open conversations. This chapter contributes to the existing body of knowledge about change management, and presents open conversations as a means of driving and realising organisational change.