Announcements

In the first paper, Mtega and Msungu determine the role of specific ICTs in agricultural production and agribusiness and assess the effectiveness of commonly used ICTs in the creation and sharing of agricultural knowledge and information services in Tanzania. Findings show that while farmers prefer communication via mobile phones and radio, researchers and extension workers prefer PC-based Internet connections.

In the second paper, Graham and Mann document a potentially highly transformative moment in East Africa’s history: the arrival of underwater fibre-optic broadband communications cables in Mombasa, Kenya. The authors combine “media content analysis” with “findings from interviews with business owners in Kenya’s nascent business process outsourcing (BPO) and software development sectors” as they explore how technological connectivity is marketed and embedded within economic development.

In the third paper, Gomez, Bayo, Reed, Wang and Silva report on their development and implementation of Fearless Cards, a novel way of communicating basic information in an easy-to-use fashion for underserved populations in order to help them “overcome their fears and lack of self-confidence to learn to use computers and the Internet in ways that help them improve their lives”.

In the fourth paper, Bello-Bravo, Olana, Enyadne and Pittendrigh introduce their work undertaken in and around Adama City in Oromia, Ethiopia where they are deploying video-based educational materials for low-literate learners in a partnership arrangements with local, public and private institutions.

In the fifth paper, Muthiah, Prashant, Umadikar and Karthikeyan describe their experiences from an exploratory implementation of a mobile phone-based multimedia agricultural advisory system, which provides agricultural advice to farmers via their mobile phones.

In the sixth paper, Khedo, Suntoo, Elaheebocus and Mocktoolah investigate the impact of online social networks on adolescents in Mauritius. Both negative and positive experiences are reported from the communication processes for which most respondents use social networks.

In the seventh paper, Touray, Salminen and Mursu review the literature on the barriers to and critical success factors associated with ICTs in developing countries, drawing on data published in 1107 articles from 2000-2011 in the top five journals in the field. They then compare their findings with those obtained through their own case study research to identify patterns and opportunities.