Logo courtesy of ICTD 2012, Georgia Tech

Many of the Global Impact Study research partners will be attending the upcoming ICTD 2012 conference in Atlanta, Georgia March 12-15, 2012. In addition to TASCHA researchers, representatives from our survey implementation teams in Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and the Philippines will attend, as will some of the principal investigators of our in-depth studies. Components of the Global Impact Study will be highlighted in two open sessions and one presentation. We hope that any of you attending ICTD 2012 will consider participating in one or more of the sessions and presentation.

Open session: Want open research? Deep dive into data with the Global Impact Study

Technology and Social Change Group, University of Washington Information School

This session will bring together individuals interested in survey data analysis, for an intensive day of exploring user survey data from the Global Impact Study. As a core component of the project we carried out surveys of public access ICT venue operators, users, and non-users in five countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and the Philippines. The data with accompanying meta-documentation will be made publicly available upon completion of the project.

Session participants will have the opportunity to review and work with the user survey dataset representing approximately 5,000 users. The data cover a wide range of topics including user demographics, usage patterns, and perceived impacts. Opportunities abound for participants to pursue diverse lines of interest.

This session will be facilitated by the project’s management team with support from staff of the University of Washington’s Center for Statistical Consulting.

Open session: Distant fields, common findings? Identifying the challenges and benefits of multi-country qualitative research

Jenna Burrell, UC Berkeley; Janet Kwami, Furman University; Elisa Oreglia, UC Berkeley; Ricardo Ramirez, Independent, Canada; Andy Gordon, University of Washington; Balaji Parthasarathy, IIITB – Bangalore, India

The goal of this workshop is to discuss experiences in multi-country ethnographic/qualitative field work, an area that has been mostly the domain of quantitative studies. We build on the two separate multi-country projects carried out by the organizers, in order to identify what are the advantages and the risks of such research, how to coordinate research questions and hypothesis-making with the need to keep open to discoveries, and what role can this type of research play in the field of ICTD.

The first project is a 3-country (Ghana, Uganda, and China) study employing an ethnographic research to look at the adoption and use of ICT among ‘marginalized populations,’ focusing on market women in Ghana, farmers in rural China, and slum dwellers in Uganda, and comparing their practices and the information processes that exist around their businesses.  The second project combined several qualitative data collection tools, including ethnographies, with country-wide surveys to study ‘infomediaries’ (persons who combine a set of technological resources and coaching to meet users’ information needs and communication capabilities) in Lithuania, Chile, and Bangladesh. It focused on libraries, telecenters, and cybercafés to investigate and generate evidence on the scale, character, and impact of public access to ICT. Part of a larger project entitled Global Impact Study of Public Access to Information & Communication Technology, it investigates the impact of ICT in a number of areas, including communication and leisure, culture and language, education, employment and income, governance, and health.

Presentation: Sharing in public: Working with others in Ghanaian cybercafés

Michael Best, Bence Kollanyi, Sunil Garg, all of Georgia Tech

This paper explores the different ways in which people collaborate and share knowledge in public internet venues, or cybercafés, in Ghana, West Africa. Based on 150 survey interviews conducted in two different cybercafés, one urban and business-oriented and the other peri-urban and family-oriented, the authors find that most cybercafé customers, largely regardless of their demographic, would like to engage in collaborative work in public internet venues and that a large percentage already are. This paper is based on the Collaborative Knowledge Sharing in-depth study of the Global Impact Study.

Contrary to the belief of resource constraints driving shared use, those participants who reported already working together in the cybercafés generally did not cite economic motivations for their collaboration but instead identified enhanced productivity as the main reason. These collaborating respondents also reported performing more instrumental activities in the café and were more likely to have learned critical computing skills there when compared to those who were not already collaborating. Furthermore, they report being more social in their activities at the venue. Finally, the paper notes that collaboration and peer learning is not always planned or made public; voyeuristic forms of knowledge sharing, such as when someone glances at a stranger’s computer screen, are also cited by the survey participants as a learning opportunity in these public venues.

For more information about ICTD 2012, please visit http://ictd2012.org/.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user mlibrarianus

This paper presents various characteristics of public access ICT users. While earlier research suggests that public access ICT users are young, male, and only play games, the Global Impact Study has found that a myriad of user profiles exist. Looking at a variety of variables, from gender to income and education to age, this working paper highlights the diversity found among public access ICT users.

Abstract

Based on a survey of public access ICT users in five countries, this working paper outlines some basic characteristics of users – their demographics, history of using ICTs and reasons for using public access ICTs. This preliminary analysis indicates that while a large proportion of public access ICT users are young (40% under 20 years old), male (65%), students (44%), and have at least secondary education (82%), there is a fair amount of diversity in user characteristics. The significance of public access ICTs is demonstrated in the finding that most users’ first contact with computers (50%) and the internet (62%) was in a public access venue, and even those who have access at home patronize venues for other reasons, such as better equipment, faster connections, being with friends, or having access to help from venue staff.

Download

Full report: Public access to ICTs: Sculpting the profile of users

Recommended Citation

Sciadas, G., with Lyons, H., Rothschild, C., & Sey, A. (2012). Public access to ICTs: Sculpting the profile of users. Seattle: Technology & Social Change Group, University of Washington Information School.

Keywords

public access, users, cybercafés, internet cafes, libraries, telecenters, internet, ICT, ICTD

On August 11, the Global Impact Study made public the inventory data through a web application. The database was officially launched to the public with the poster presentation at IFLA 2010.

Features of the inventory database include location, classification, and other descriptive data about public access ICT venues in Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Lithuania, and the Philippines. The database tool allows for various query options through which users can search by country, type of venue, urban or rural public access venues, and more. The inventory data can be viewed as lists, as graphs, and in a map view.

The picture below displays the map view of public access venues in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As a part of our open access research approach, we have developed this site to publicly share the inventory data and to add power to the user viewing experience by providing querying, mapping, and other data visualization tools. In the future, we will also be making available the source code used to create the web application.

To register for access and use the application, visit the site at http://database.globalimpactstudy.org/.

All data in the site are available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike.

If you are wondering how we combined three country research teams (separate continents, different languages), three primary investigators (an additional set of separate countries and time zones), and six hypotheses to come up with common data collection tools… the answer is:  through many iterations and adjustments.

While the fieldwork is currently underway, this brief review will be of interest to scholars who are balancing highly contrasting contexts with a common set of research tools. View the Lessons Report here.

1. Cognitive testing to check for comprehension problems with the survey questions.

2. Field testing to check for potential problems in the entire survey adminstration process (e.g. structure, content, flow and length of the questionnaires) as well as  the actual data collected.

We begin with cognitive testing on a small scale, after which we make revisions to the survey instruments to address issues revealed by the cognitive tests. Next we carry out the field testing with a larger number of locations and respondents.

This strategy enables us to use the results of the cognitive testing to eliminate comprehension of survey questions as a potential major source of delays during field testing. For example, we are likely to get a more accurate estimate of the length of the surveys if interviewers don’t have to spend too much time trying to explain what specific survey questions mean.

Our survey implementation teams have been given detailed guidance in our survey testing guidelines.

Download the Bangladesh inception report.

Led by Ricardo Ramirez, with Balaji Parthasarathy and Andy Gordon, this study asks four main questions:

1. What are the practices, skills, and attitudes exhibited by infomediaries across different types of public access venues (libraries, telecentres, and cybercafes) and job descriptions (formal versus informal)?
2. What outcomes do patrons provide as evidence of a positive experience from using a public access venue (across sectors like health, education, finance, job, democratic engagement)?
3. To what extent do users point at infomediaries’ practices, roles, skills, attitudes as contributors to their positive or negative experiences, outcomes, and motivation to use public access venues (and how do they vary across sectors)?
4. Under what conditions are infomediaries most able to contribute to positive impact in terms of effective use and improved information ecologies?

Through focus groups and semi-structured interviews, the research team will identify specific mechanisms, contexts, and conditions that allow infomediaries to broker the needs of users. Fieldwork in Bangladesh, Chile, and Lithuania will continue through 2011.

The study’s hypotheses:

• The different practices and roles played by infomediaries will influence the impact of public access venues on users. This includes infomediaries’ skills and attitudes, the extent to which their jobs are formalized, the type of venue they work in, and the rules they improvise as gatekeepers.
• The context and type of public access venue where infomediaries perform their work will influence the reach and effectiveness of the services.  The context includes: information ecology, policies, pricing of services, and trust issues across the different types of public access venues.
• The impact of the infomediaries will vary across patrons’ different livelihood priorities, including health, education, finances, jobs, democratic engagement, etc.

The Infomediaries study’s findings will be helpful to governments, donors, and investors involved in policy debates about the merits of public access venues. For the library community, the findings will provide insights into staff attributes, training, motivation, working conditions, and support needs.

Browse infomediaries updates »

Country Research Teams collected data on several public access venues, looking at user groups and activities, venue characteristics, and the roles venues play in each community. This data provides a snapshot of regional information ecologies — community networks of trusted information sources. It will be used to refine the Global Impact Study’s research design, and will be helpful in formulating research questions and hypotheses.

Each of the three Country Research Teams conducted individual interviews, group interviews, and non-participant observation at six to nine public access venues — including public libraries, cybercafes, and telecenters in rural and urban locations. What follows here are a few highlights.

Inconsistent usage trends

Usage trends for venues providing public access to ICT are not consistent across countries. In recent years, Bangladesh saw a growing number of users, most prominently among telecenters, while Lithuania experienced declines, due in part to rising home computers purchases. Staff in Lithuania, however, reported that the range of users — by age, occupation, and social status — has simultaneously grown. All three research teams, including the team in Chile, found that the user base in telecenters and libraries tends to be more diverse than in commercially-oriented cybercafes.

Public access venues often fulfill social functions

In Lithuania, where the majority of users have Internet access at home or school, supplemental access in telecenters and public libraries is often for social purposes. Older users may appreciate having a public space for communication and exchange. Children may visit public access venues to play games or work on homework together. In such instances, the benefits of public access may be measured by the benefits of public use as opposed to private use.

In Chile, researchers noted differences in users’ perceptions between the roles of community-oriented and commercially-oriented venues. Community-oriented venues are perceived to be in contact with the community, local mass media, churches, adults and youngsters associations — serving their information, communication, and leisure needs. Commercially oriented venues are perceived as a service provider that does not building bridges within the community.

In Bangladesh, free Internet services and a wider offering of activities in libraries and telecenters build bonds, strengthen values, and create awareness about social issues. Pilot findings show that low-income users make up one-half of telecenter users and one-third of library users, in contrast to one-sixth of cybercafe users.

The social function of community-oriented libraries and telecenters may be more pronounced in rural settings or in communities with clear geographic and socio-economic boundaries. Chile’s Country Research Team found that

People living in these communities have shared feeling of belonging and therefore, public access venues also are perceived as part of this community. (Users refer to the venue as “our” venue). Commercially-oriented venues located in areas without defined socio-demographic boundaries, for example “downtown of the city”, even if they are immersed in a community, declare themselves as providing a service. (Users refer to the venue as “the” venue.)

Similarly, rural residents in Lithuania using the Internet in public access venues are reportedly more likely to perceive themselves as local community members and be more active in community activities.

Two Bangladeshi women and their mobile phone repair shop in Kathalia, Narsinghi district

A few months ago, these two Bangladeshi women opened a mobile phone repair shop in the small village of Kathalia, Narsinghi district, a two-hour drive north of Dhaka. They are among the 22 women who graduated from a training workshop on cell phone servicing and information technology in January 2008. Another woman has also set up shop in a nearby village, while the remaining 19 repair phones in their homes, advertising their services with a sign on the road.

This was the first time such training was offered. Funding came from the Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), and the Kathalia Sukher Disha Community Resource Centre organized the three-week course. Participants were selected from nearby villages (one per village). The goal was to provide poor women with skills that would allow them to make a living as technicians. Upon graduation, each received a basic toolkit, worth about Tk. 1,000 ($15), including a set of screwdrivers, small pliers, soldering iron and solder, a cleaning brush, a Chinese-made multitester (Sunwa YX-360TR), and a Bengla/English collection of mobile phones diagrams covering the handsets most commonly found in rural Bangladesh.

The pair decided to become business partners and rented a storefront in Kathalia for Tk. 3,000 ($45) for the whole year. They work in the shop eight hours a day, five days a week. In addition to phone repairs, they also use their mobile to sell phone calls to villagers. Altogether since starting five months ago, they have earned on average Tk. 1,500 ($23) per month, most of it from repairs. They say most phones can be fixed by opening and cleaning them, but they can also test individual components, order and install a replacement when needed.

They hope to expand their business soon by offering additional services. First, they plan to provide flexi load — Grameen’s instant recharge for pre-paid phones. They would also like to sell mobile accessories. They looked into becoming participants in the Grameen Village Phone Program, but found the start-up cost too high and decided against it.