The Global Impact Study

by Araba Sey, September 25, 2009

The Amy Mahan Research Fellowship Program

We are happy to announce the launch of the Amy Mahan Research Fellowship Program to Assess the Impact of Public Access to ICT, a capacity-building component of the Global Impact Study named in honor of Amy Mahan, a dear friend and partner. This fellowship will award up to 12 Research Fellowships to teams of emerging scholars from developing countries in Africa and the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

by Michelle Fellows, September 23, 2009

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Do computer games and chat build useful skills?

The Non-instrumental Use of ICT as a Component of General ICT Skill Acquisition Study will explore the benefits library and telecenter users gain from playing computer games, sending email, and chatting. These types of uses — known as "non-instrumental" — are often ignored in studies on public access to ICT. But we suspect that they can help people develop the comfort, skills, and expertise they need to improve their social and economic situations, particularly in the areas of employment and education.

by Michelle Fellows, September 23, 2009

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Benefits of sharing — when public access is the best access

Sharing a computer in a telecenter, cybercafé, or library is the only option for some people — often because they lack the income, skills, or infrastructure at home. But sometimes people prefer sharing computers in public-access venues. The Collaborative Knowledge Sharing Study examines the reasons why. Researchers will visit a dozen public access venues in Ghana — large and small, rural and urban, upscale and relatively modest — to identify when sharing enhances or diminishes a user’s experience as compared to individual or private use.

by Michelle Fellows, September 23, 2009

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Infomediaries: Public access brokers

What is the role of a librarian, cybercafé manager, or telecenter employee? How do people working in public-access venues such as these act as infomediaries — influencing which services people learn, use, and value? The Infomediaries: Brokers of Public Access Study will examine how infomediaries bring people and ICT together, both as service providers (offering advice, training, and content) and mediators (empowering individuals for whom services would otherwise appear unfathomable).

Archive | September, 2009

The Amy Mahan Research Fellowship Program

Do computer games and chat build useful skills?

Benefits of sharing — when public access is the best access

Infomediaries: Public access brokers

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