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.

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.