The Global Impact Study

Preliminary results from the Collaborative Knowledge-Sharing Study: Busy Internet, Ghana

The Collaborative Knowledge Sharing Study investigates the way that people share knowledge, experience, and technologies among friends and strangers while physically co-present in cybercafés. Preliminary results show that 37% of respondents reported some deeper forms of computer sharing and collaboration with friends, family members, business associates, and even strangers. And a third of those people reported gaining knowledge and learning from the other user as their primary reason for sharing.

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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.

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