As one person who did research on the ICT Profile of Hammanskraal Community North of Tswhane (Pretoria), South Africa, I feel that it is true as Ivo Njosa said, that it will take time for the culture in communities to change towards using ICTs. People would rather walk several kilometers to visit a relative and talk face-to-face rather than chatting online. I agree that it is also difficult to get a direct response from the communities when conducting a study; I was lucky because it was the community I grew up in.
It is common knowledge that people would choose not to use ICTs even if they are available. That is evident in government schools where old teachers just don't like the idea of computers in schools, even if they know the importance of technology in education and that is very unfortunate to pupils in rural and township schools. A lot of institutions come up with projects to encourage use of ICTs but somehow ownership by the communities is very small or non-existent, which then keeps the communities away from using the resources. Even today the 'digital divide' is as big as years back (use of mobile phones being an exception). If you are interested in the research paper I have done, email me directly. -- Tshepo Thlaku South Africa cell: +27(0)72 239 9901 tel: +27(0)12 809 0531 "Life best lived is life by design" On 5/11/05, Ivo Njosa wrote: > Many cultures in developing countries, but particularly in Africa, are > so oral that it will take time (transformation of culture basically) to > change things. All these studies will not change this cultural dimension > of the issue or compress the decade or more that it will take to > transform a culture. Worse yet, in these studies, it is so difficult or > even impossible to get sincere answers from respondents. You need to > live among them for years and perhaps start to mimic how they think > within their given environment. (Who has the time to do this). Yes, it > would be helpful if they had the technology and the infrastructure but > that can be done in a day....relatively speaking. ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
