Paula Uimonen
Stockholm University, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Faculty Member
Published in Digital Divides: The New Challenges and Opportunities of e-Inclusion, edited by Kim Andreasson. CRC Press. 2015
Research Interests: Digital Divide and ICT4D
The aim of this book is to explore digital media and intercultural interaction at an arts college in Tanzania through innovative forms of ethnographic representation. The book and the series website weave together visual and aural... more
The aim of this book is to explore digital media and intercultural interaction at an arts college in Tanzania through innovative forms of ethnographic representation. The book and the series website weave together visual and aural narratives, interviews and observations, life stories and video documentaries, art performances and productions. It paints a vivid portrayal of everyday life in East Africa's only institute for practical art training, while tracing the rich cultural history of a state that has mixed tribalism, nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and cosmopolitanism in astonishingly creative ways.
While following the anthropological tradition of thick description, Digital Drama employs a more artistic and accessible style of writing. Dramatic, ethnographic details are interspersed with theoretical postulations to explain and make sense of the unfolding narratives. The accompanying website visualizes and sensualizes the stories narrated in the book, unfolding a dramatic world of African dance, music, theater, and digital culture.
While following the anthropological tradition of thick description, Digital Drama employs a more artistic and accessible style of writing. Dramatic, ethnographic details are interspersed with theoretical postulations to explain and make sense of the unfolding narratives. The accompanying website visualizes and sensualizes the stories narrated in the book, unfolding a dramatic world of African dance, music, theater, and digital culture.
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To its pioneers, the Internet is not just a technology but also a culture. This culture is instructive of the social and cultural embeddedness of the Internet. So are the people whose lifestyles are informed by the culture of networking,... more
To its pioneers, the Internet is not just a technology but also a culture. This culture is instructive of the social and cultural embeddedness of the Internet. So are the people whose lifestyles are informed by the culture of networking, the Internet pioneers. These are the social nodes of the internet, individuals who have actively contributed to its expansion around the world. Reflecting the ethos of the culture of networking, their activities are aimed at spreading the internet and the spirit in which it has been developed. Their vision is one of social improvement through global interconnectedness. Their strategy is transnational networking.
At a time when the Internet is becoming ubiquitous in many Western countries, this book focuses on its expansion in developing countries. Based on the visions and experiences of Internet pioneers, it identifies the cultural characteristics of the Internet, the distribution of which represents an instance of global cultural flow. Combining case studies in Southeast Asia with an examination of international activities and discourses, this book is the first to provide a comparative, empirical study of Internet development in the developing world.
At a time when the Internet is becoming ubiquitous in many Western countries, this book focuses on its expansion in developing countries. Based on the visions and experiences of Internet pioneers, it identifies the cultural characteristics of the Internet, the distribution of which represents an instance of global cultural flow. Combining case studies in Southeast Asia with an examination of international activities and discourses, this book is the first to provide a comparative, empirical study of Internet development in the developing world.
Coming of Age in Second Life. An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human : Boellstorff, Tom. 2008.
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Connect to Collect shares the results of the Nordic research project Collecting Social Photo (2017-2020), which has explored the collection of social digital photography in new and innovative ways. The anthology consist of 278 pages well... more
Connect to Collect shares the results of the Nordic research project Collecting Social Photo (2017-2020), which has explored the collection of social digital photography in new and innovative ways. The anthology consist of 278 pages well illustrated with social digital photos. It can also be downloaded from DiVA portal (a Swedish finding tool for research publications and student theses) http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:1429411 Connect to Collect consists of four parts. The first part provides a conceptual framework for social digital photography in relation to the collection of visual cultural heritage. In Chapter 1 Anna Dahlgren reviews current research in the field and frames the implications for collecting social digital photography, by raising questions around ethics, the roles of museums and archives as providers of long-term commitment and open sources, and as providers of context. In Chapter 2 Lisa Ehlin discusses the practices and expressions of images, primarily among younger generations. She discusses the very realness of online social life for digital natives, and how sharing has become a way to see and be seen. In Chapter 3, Paula Uimonen summarises survey results from the research project, framed in a discussion on social media photography and digital cultural heritage. The chapter outlines the holistic approach of the project and insights gained from its innovative efforts in collecting digital visual heritage. The second part presents the 11 case studies carried out by the project team (Elisabeth Boogh, Kajsa Hartig, Bente Jensen, Anni Wallenius). The chapters in this part are categorised into three relevant themes to explore, based on the theory of social photography as well as the practices of the institutions. The themes are: places, practices and events. A central part of the case studies has been to examine the entire process of collecting, from idea and planning to collecting and acquisition, to identify critical points where new methods challenge existing work practices as well as opportunities where online collecting could benefit the museum or archive in a much broader sense than just developing photography collections. The third part presents new collecting interfaces. Chapter 7 discusses the development of a new prototype web app for collecting social digital photography. The web app is open source and can be downloaded from GitHub and is discussed more thoroughly in the next blog post. Chapter 8 explores image recognition as a feature of collecting processes. Arran Rees writes about the experiments made in the project by running images collected in the case studies through three different image recognition services to explore their usefulness in regards to social digital photography collections. The fourth part concludes the anthology and presents a set recommendations and a toolkit for collecting designed to support museums and archives wishing to initiate collecting projects. It is uploaded separetly. http://collectingsocialphoto.nordiskamuseet.se/
Research Interests: Cultural History, Digital Humanities, Photography, Cultural Heritage, Digital Photography, and 15 moreMuseum, Collections Management, Archives, Cultural Memory, Digital Archives, Crowdsourcing, Museums, Digital Images, Photographic Archives, Audiovisual Archives, Image recognition, Fotografi, Kulturarv, Museer, and Anthropologie visuelle
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Published in Digital Divides: The New Challenges and Opportunities of e-Inclusion, edited by Kim Andreasson. CRC Press. 2015
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SummaryThis article explores how women writers in Nigeria and Tanzania use digital media, drawing parallels between infrastructural enablement and literary worldmaking. It argues that female African writers offer insights into the... more
SummaryThis article explores how women writers in Nigeria and Tanzania use digital media, drawing parallels between infrastructural enablement and literary worldmaking. It argues that female African writers offer insights into the embodied practices and cultural imaginaries of digitally mediated creativity, which can shed light on the paradoxical entanglements of infrastructure.
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This paper explores the potential role of the Internet in promoting sustainable and equitable development in Third World countries. Possibilities of using the Internet in a way that will benefit society at large and vulnerable groups in... more
This paper explores the potential role of the Internet in promoting sustainable and equitable development in Third World countries. Possibilities of using the Internet in a way that will benefit society at large and vulnerable groups in particular are analyzed within the wider framework of ...
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This chapter focuses on mobile photography in Tanzania, with an emphasis on the materiality of production and circulation. Shaped by the materiality of the mobile phone, a personal artefact that em ...
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Vad hander med sociala relationer och konstruktionen av mening nar alltfler anvander sig av IKT i sin vardag? I vilken utstrackning paverkar Internetanvandningen vara forestallningar om varlden oc ...
Research Interests: Philosophy and Liber
By invoking Flora Nwapa, this monograph draws attention to Nigerian women writers in world literature, with an emphasis on femininity and spirituality. Flora Nwapa’s Efuru (1966) was the first internationally published novel in English by... more
By invoking Flora Nwapa, this monograph draws attention to Nigerian women writers in world literature, with an emphasis on femininity and spirituality. Flora Nwapa’s Efuru (1966) was the first internationally published novel in English by a female African writer. With the establishment of Tana Press in 1977, Flora Nwapa also became the first female publisher in Africa. Although Flora Nwapa has been recognized as the ‘mother of modern African literature’, she is not sufficiently acknowledged in world literary canons or world literature studies, which is something this monograph aspires to redress, with the help of earlier studies, especially Nigerian scholarship. Drawing on the Efuru@50 celebration in Nigeria in 2016, this book explores the revival of Flora Nwapa’s fame as the pioneer of African women’s literature. Using an ethnographic rather than biographical approach, it captures Flora Nwapa’s literary practice in the context of the Nigerian literary scene and its interlinkages wi...
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This article offers an anthropological reading of the works of Immanuel Kant and Kwame Nkrumah. By doing so it seeks to expose the Eurocentric and racist ontology that lies behind dominant contemporary forms of cosmopolitanism. The... more
This article offers an anthropological reading of the works of Immanuel Kant and Kwame Nkrumah. By doing so it seeks to expose the Eurocentric and racist ontology that lies behind dominant contemporary forms of cosmopolitanism. The article draws attention to the possibility of a more egalitarian vision of the “world as one” that can be derived from the perspective of an African philosophical viewpoint. Rather than regarding African social theory as a subordinate or subaltern mode of apprehending the world, it places African philosophy on a par with European traditions of philosophical thought. By focusing on some of the central tenets of cosmopolitanism, it argues that Nkrumah, by insisting on freedom and equality for all of humanity, had articulated a more genuinely cosmopolitan ontology than any that can be derived from the philosophy of Kant. The article argues that an engagement with critical anthropology enables us to imagine forms of decolonised cosmopolitanism which are genui...
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Can Facebook, Twitter, and mobile phones change the world? Obviously not! But there is something to be said for social networking sites, online news feeds, and mobile communication when it comes to ICT for Development (ICT4D). This paper... more
Can Facebook, Twitter, and mobile phones change the world? Obviously not! But there is something to be said for social networking sites, online news feeds, and mobile communication when it comes to ICT for Development (ICT4D). This paper will identify some key features of social and mobile media and relate these to social and political change, while paying attention to global patterns of digital stratification. Spider-supported projects that aim to use blogs and mobile phones in the fight against corruption in Africa will be used to illustrate and concretize opportunities as well as challenges. Reflections on how a networked organization like Spider can benefit from social media will be combined with a self-critical assessment of some pitfalls involved.
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This chapter explores the use of music and digital media in the Chanjo campaign against corruption in Tanzania, focusing on mediations of agency. Building on Latour (2005), I use the concept mediat ...
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Generally defined as a network of networks, the Internet has had a profound impact on the social organization and cultural meaning of modern society. Since it entered the public domain in the early 1990s, the Internet has grown... more
Generally defined as a network of networks, the Internet has had a profound impact on the social organization and cultural meaning of modern society. Since it entered the public domain in the early 1990s, the Internet has grown exponentially and is now used by one-third of the world population. Anthropologists have studied the Internet from its early social history, especially in non-Western countries. Over time, this research has evolved into the subdiscipline of digital anthropology, which studies the development and use of digital media in different cultural contexts.
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ABSTRACT Imagine 120 students sharing 5 computers, yet feeling that they are part of an interconnected world. This is the social context framing digital learning for African art students, the material limitations and cultural imaginations... more
ABSTRACT Imagine 120 students sharing 5 computers, yet feeling that they are part of an interconnected world. This is the social context framing digital learning for African art students, the material limitations and cultural imaginations of which this chapter is ...
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Seeing your friends in Facebook has become a common means of social interaction, illustrating a visual turn in digital media in general and social media in particular. This article explores visual identity in Facebook, focusing on the use... more
Seeing your friends in Facebook has become a common means of social interaction, illustrating a visual turn in digital media in general and social media in particular. This article explores visual identity in Facebook, focusing on the use of profile photographs in the performance of digitally mediated selfhood. In Facebook, relationships are increasingly communicated through images, thus rendering the interactive reflexivity of performance rather visible. Based on the profile photographs of students at an arts college in Tanzania, the article discusses the construction of cultural identities through visual communication. By visually expressing their selves through profile photographs, users engage in the social construction of reality, crafting their digitally mediated identities in interaction with their online social relations. The online performance of selfhood is analysed in the context of offline social and material realities, to underline cultural aspirations for global inclusion. Building on anthropological readings of performance, the concept of social aesthetic frame is introduced to capture patterns of digital stratification that encompass the online construction of networked selfhood in the peripheries of the global network society. The article builds on anthropological research on digital media and intercultural interaction at a national arts institute in Tanzania, using a combination of digital, sensory and visual research methods.
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This article explores Internet development and use at an Arts College in Tanzania in relation to translocal and transnational linkages. Chuo Cha Sanaa Bagamoyo, or Bagamoyo College of Arts, is the only institute for training of arts... more
This article explores Internet development and use at an Arts College in Tanzania in relation to translocal and transnational linkages. Chuo Cha Sanaa Bagamoyo, or Bagamoyo College of Arts, is the only institute for training of arts professionals in East Africa. The College has ...
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"To its pioneers, the Internet is not just a technology but also a culture. This culture is instructive of the social and cultural embeddedness of the Internet. So are the people whose lifestyles are informed by the culture of... more
"To its pioneers, the Internet is not just a technology but also a culture. This culture is instructive of the social and cultural embeddedness of the Internet. So are the people whose lifestyles are informed by the culture of networking, the Internet pioneers. These are the social nodes of the internet, individuals who have actively contributed to its expansion around the world. Reflecting the ethos of the culture of networking, their activities are aimed at spreading the internet and the spirit in which it has been developed. Their vision is one of social improvement through global interconnectedness. Their strategy is transnational networking. At a time when the Internet is becoming ubiquitous in many Western countries, this book focuses on its expansion in developing countries. Based on the visions and experiences of Internet pioneers, it identifies the cultural characteristics of the Internet, the distribution of which represents an instance of global cultural flow. Combining case studies in Southeast Asia with an examination of international activities and discourses, this book is the first to provide a comparative, empirical study of Internet development in the developing world."
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In October 2017, the Nordic Museum in Stockholm launched its #metoo collection. The aim was to capture the viral #MeToo campaign that in Sweden has been likened to a (feminist) revolution. Based on archival research, interviews and media... more
In October 2017, the Nordic Museum in Stockholm launched its #metoo collection. The aim was to capture the viral #MeToo campaign that in Sweden has been likened to a (feminist) revolution. Based on archival research, interviews and media analysis, this article explores public submissions to the #metoo collection and analyses the museum’s rationale for collecting what is considered to be difficult cultural heritage. Noting the absence of images in the collection, the article argues that the iconic hashtag #MeToo constitutes an alternative form of digital visuality, here termed hashtag visuality. Hashtag visuality, the article suggests, is an emerging form of visual representation that captures the multimodal logic of social media, blurring distinctions between texts and images. In Sweden, #MeToo hashtag visuality reveals the contradictory prevalence of structural sexism and sexual violence in a country with a national self-image of gender equality and a self-proclaimed feminist government, while affirming feminist agency.
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The world united in unprecedented ways in mourning the global icon Nelson Mandela, an emotionally charged historical event in which digital visuality played an influential role. The memorial service for Nelson Mandela on Tuesday, 10... more
The world united in unprecedented ways in mourning the global icon Nelson Mandela, an emotionally charged historical event in which digital visuality played an influential role. The memorial service for Nelson Mandela on Tuesday, 10 December 2013, gathered dignitaries and celebrities from around the world at the First National Bank Stadium in Johannesburg, to mourn the passing of Madiba and to celebrate his life work. At the Grand Parade in Cape Town, the event was broadcast on large public screens, followed by live music performances and narrowcast interaction with the audience. Building on recent research on public screens during global media events, this article addresses the mediated mourning rituals at the Grand Parade in terms of a sacred drama. Focusing on social relationality, the article discusses how digital visuality mediated a sense of global communitas, thus momentarily overcoming historical frictions between the global north and the global south, while expanding the fame of Madiba. Paying attention to the public display of visual memory objects and the emotional agency of images, it argues that digital visuality mediated social frictions between the living and the dead, while recasting a historical subject as a historical object. The article further discusses how digital visuality mediated cultural frictions of apartheid and xenophobia, through the positioning of Mandela in the pantheon of Pan-African icons, thus underlining the African origin of this global icon. The analysis is based on ethnographic observations and experiences in Cape Town.
http://www.aestheticsandculture.net/index.php/jac/article/view/28178
http://www.aestheticsandculture.net/index.php/jac/article/view/28178
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Focusing on infrastructural malfunctioning, this article discusses the visual materiality and political economy of mobile infrastructure in Africa. Building on the anthropology of infrastructure, it argues that contrary to the oft cited... more
Focusing on infrastructural malfunctioning, this article discusses the visual materiality and political economy of mobile infrastructure in Africa. Building on the anthropology of infrastructure, it argues that contrary to the oft cited notion that infrastructure is invisible until it breaks down, in an African context, systemic breakdowns in infrastructure are taken for granted; they are visibly present, while well functioning infrastructure is visibly absent. The material visibility and malfunctioning of mobile infrastructure are used as departure points for a critical appraisal of what is often celebrated as Africa’s mobile success story. Noting how mobile phones are present in most aspects of daily life, functioning like material extensions of the self, the analysis focuses on neoliberal forms of predatory capitalism that recast citizens as self-regulated consumers while advancing corporate forms of governance. Following the call for theory from the south, malfunctioning mobile infrastructure is contextualized as a state of partial inclusion in the global network society, the structural underpinnings of which is interpreted in terms of Africa’s place-in-the-world in a racialized global hierarchy.
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Generally defined as a network of networks, the Internet has had a profound impact on the social organization and cultural meaning of modern society. Since it entered the public domain in the early 1990s, the Internet has grown... more
Generally defined as a network of networks, the Internet has had a profound impact on the social organization and cultural meaning of modern society. Since it entered the public domain in the early 1990s, the Internet has grown exponentially and is now used by one-third of the world population. Anthropologists have studied the Internet from its early social history, especially in non-Western countries. Over time, this research has evolved into the subdiscipline of digital anthropology, which studies the development and use of digital media in different cultural contexts.
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Information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) evolved as a field of development cooperation in conjunction with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005. Prior to this United Nations summit,... more
Information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) evolved as a field of development cooperation in conjunction with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005. Prior to this United Nations summit, few donors were involved in ICT4D, but as policymakers around the world became involved in the WSIS process, ICT4D emerged as an important aspect of the global development agenda. Donors started to recognize that ICT offered a tool for development, not least for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). After the WSIS interest dwindled among leading donor agencies, but resurfaced as mobile technologies became widespread even in income-poor countries and among poor populations and after the digitally mediated social uprisings of the so-called Arab Spring which highlighted the social and political significance of the internet. New actors are becoming involved including philanthropic organizations, while the ICT4D field continues to explore new working methods like multistakeholder partnerships. Meanwhile, ICT is gradually becoming integrated into development efforts, although global patterns of digital stratification still remain to be overcome. This entry focuses on the roles of donor organizations and their networks
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This chapter explores the use of music and digital media in the Chanjo campaign against corruption in Tanzania, focusing on mediations of agency. Building on Latour (2005), I use the concept mediated agency to refer to a process in which... more
This chapter explores the use of music and digital media in the Chanjo campaign against corruption in Tanzania, focusing on mediations of agency. Building on Latour (2005), I use the concept mediated agency to refer to a process in which different cultural forms (mediators) bring about social transformation (agency). In so doing I recognize the ‘agency of art,’ especially its embeddedness in networks of social relations and its ‘practical mediatory role’ in processes of social change (Gell 1998). Similarly, I appreciate media and other mediators in the broader sense of ‘social mediation,’ with an emphasis on social interaction and exchange (Boyer 2012). Thus, while understanding agency in the sense of transformative action or practice, I build on anthropological theories of mediation, focusing on social processes of intervention and interaction that include but go beyond different forms of media. In this chapter, I will argue that the Chanjo campaign creates a platform that mediates the agency of participants, empowering them to speak up against corruption. The music itself is of course an important form of mediation, but so is the method of delivery, not least the interaction with the audience, as well as the mobility of the campaign. These layers of mediation intersect in different ways, which enforces the process of social and cultural transformation. Through digital mediations and remediations (Bolter and Grusin 1999), especially through social and mobile media, the campaign expands in time and space, thus extending agency beyond the tour itself.
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Seeing your friends in Facebook has become a common means of social interaction, illustrating a visual turn in digital media in general and social media in particular. This article explores visual identity in Facebook, focusing on the use... more
Seeing your friends in Facebook has become a common means of social interaction, illustrating a visual turn in digital media in general and social media in particular. This article explores visual identity in Facebook, focusing on the use of profile photographs in the performance of digitally mediated selfhood. In Facebook, relationships are increasingly communicated through images, thus rendering the interactive reflexivity of performance rather visible. Based on the profile photographs of students at an arts college in Tanzania, the article discusses the construction of cultural identities through visual communication. By visually expressing their selves through profile photographs, users engage in the social construction of reality, crafting their digitally mediated identities in interaction with their online social relations. The online performance of selfhood is analysed in the context of offline social and material realities, to underline cultural aspirations for global inclusion. Building on anthropological readings of performance, the concept of social aesthetic frame is introduced to capture patterns of digital stratification that encompass the online construction of networked selfhood in the peripheries of the global network society. The article builds on anthropological research on digital media and intercultural interaction at a nat
Imagine 120 students sharing 5 computers, yet feeling that they are part of an interconnected world. This is the social context framing digital learning for African art students, the material limitations and cultural imaginations of which... more
Imagine 120 students sharing 5 computers, yet feeling that they are part of an interconnected world. This is the social context framing digital learning for African art students, the material limitations and cultural imaginations of which this chapter is concerned with. Based on extensive ethnographic engagements at TaSUBa, a national institute for arts and culture in Tanzania, this chapter investigates the development of digital media skills. Using the concept of digital learning to cover the acquisition of ICT skills as well as the use of ICT as a learning tool, the analysis spans from early expectations of connectivity to current forms of media engagement. Focusing on the social and cultural aspects of digital learning, the concept hybrid media engagement is introduced to capture the creative ways in which African art students overcome limitations in infrastructure, while exploring new forms of cultural production.
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This article explores Internet development and use at an Arts College in Tanzania in relation to translocal and transnational linkages. Chuo Cha Sanaa Bagamoyo, or Bagamoyo College of Arts, is the only institute for training of arts... more
This article explores Internet development and use at an Arts College in Tanzania in relation to translocal and transnational linkages. Chuo Cha Sanaa Bagamoyo, or Bagamoyo College of Arts, is the only institute for training of arts professionals in East Africa. The College has a high status on the national art scene and is well known throughout the region and internationally. In this article, the introduction and subsequent use of the Internet is analysed in relation to the social composition and cultural positioning of Chuo Cha Sanaa Bagamoyo. I will argue that the social embeddedness of the Internet represents an intensification of translocal and transnational relations and imageries, while underscoring a sense of locality and national identity.
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Although the correlation between the Internet and globalisation is well recognised, we know relatively little about the social impact of the networked world order. Based on research on Internet growth in developing countries, this article... more
Although the correlation between the Internet and globalisation is well recognised, we know relatively little about the social impact of the networked world order. Based on research on Internet growth in developing countries, this article seeks to identify some of its most salient features and how these influence, and in turn are influenced by, the broader processes of modernisation and globalisation. Through a closer examination of the social and cultural embeddedness of the Internet, the article will discuss how the organisational principle of networks is becoming more prominent in contemporary society, leading to the rise of the networked society. Rather than representing a post-modern social form, the networked society reaffirms some of the most fundamental, and rather contradictory, aspects of modernity, especially the dual processes of globalisation and individualisation. Representing a new medium for communication and interaction, the Internet allows users to establish and maintain social relations on a global scale. Rather than erasing local identities, these 'glocal' interactions have a tendency to enforce a localised sense of belonging. Nonetheless, the boundary-crossing nature of networks also has a tendency to make existing boundaries rather fuzzy and subject to mediated redefinition and re-imagining. This article builds on some of the findings of my recently completed research on the social dynamics of Internet development in developing countries (Uimonen 2001).
This paper explores the potential role of the Internet in promoting sustainable and equitable development in Third World countries. Possibilities of using the Internet in a way that will benefit society at large and vulnerable groups in... more
This paper explores the potential role of the Internet in promoting sustainable and equitable development in Third World countries. Possibilities of using the Internet in a way that will benefit society at large and vulnerable groups in particular are analyzed within the wider framework of actual needs and existing facilities of Third World communities. Among the issues the paper touches upon are the extent to which the Internet is being used and can be adapted to improve education, health, and political processes. The paper assesses the process of social change these initiatives represent and discusses aspects to be considered, including the issues of modern versus traditional communicative practices and the role of language.
The author argues that the Internet can only become a tool for social development if it is applied in a way that addresses the complex challenges of improving the lives of the least-privileged and most-needy millions around the world. Social development here means in improvement in the living standards and general well-being of all members of any given society. Accordingly, if the Internet is to be socially beneficial, it needs to be used for alleviating poverty, improving access to health care and education, conserving and fairly distributing resources, and strengthening participation in decision-making processes. Thus the success of the Internet should be measured less in terms of sheer numbers of connected individuals and more in terms of accessibility and contribution to social progress.
By outlining some of the issues to be considered and analyzing these in a wider global and social context, the author hopes to contribute to dialogue among all involved parties--ranging from Internet users and service providers to decision makers in both public and private sectors--on the issue of social responsibility in the development, application, and usage of the Internet in the Third World.
The author argues that the Internet can only become a tool for social development if it is applied in a way that addresses the complex challenges of improving the lives of the least-privileged and most-needy millions around the world. Social development here means in improvement in the living standards and general well-being of all members of any given society. Accordingly, if the Internet is to be socially beneficial, it needs to be used for alleviating poverty, improving access to health care and education, conserving and fairly distributing resources, and strengthening participation in decision-making processes. Thus the success of the Internet should be measured less in terms of sheer numbers of connected individuals and more in terms of accessibility and contribution to social progress.
By outlining some of the issues to be considered and analyzing these in a wider global and social context, the author hopes to contribute to dialogue among all involved parties--ranging from Internet users and service providers to decision makers in both public and private sectors--on the issue of social responsibility in the development, application, and usage of the Internet in the Third World.