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Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole.
Community informatics (CI) is an interdisciplinary field that is concerned with using information and communication technology (ICT) to empower members of communities and support their social, cultural, and economic development. Community informatics may contribute to enhancing democracy, supporting the development of social capital, and building well connected communities; moreover, it is probable that such similar actions may let people experience new positive social change. In community informatics, there are several considerations which are the social context, shared values, distinct processes that are taken by members in a community, and social and technical systems. It is formally located as an academic discipline within a variety of academic faculties including information science, information systems, computer science, planning, development studies, and library science among others and draws on insights on community development from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. It is an interdisciplinary approach interested in using ICTs for different forms of community action, as distinct from pure academic study about ICT effects.
A telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills. Telecentres exist in almost every country, although they sometimes go by a different names including public internet access center (PIAP), village knowledge center, infocenter, Telecottage, Electronic Village Hall, community technology center (CTC), community multimedia center (CMC), multipurpose community telecentre (MCT), Common/Citizen Service Centre (CSC) and school-based telecentre. While each telecentre is different, their common focus is on the use of digital technologies to support community, economic, educational, and social development—reducing isolation, bridging the digital divide, promoting health issues, creating economic opportunities, and reaching out to youth for example.
The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement is a self-governance movement in Sri Lanka, which provides comprehensive development and conflict resolution programs to villages. It is also the largest indigenous organization working in reconstruction from the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Founded in 1958 by A. T. Ariyaratne when he took “forty high school students and twelve teachers from Nalanda College Colombo on “an educational experiment” to an outcaste village, Kathaluwa, and helped the villagers fix it up.
Sri Lankabhimanya Ahangamage Tudor Ariyaratne is the founder and president of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka. He was nominated to the Constitutional Council as a civil representative on 10 September 2015. He received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1991.
Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme was an initiative of UNDP and "aims to promote the development and application of information and communication technologies for sustainable human development". Its sphere of work was the Asia-Pacific region. APDIP was based within the UN premises in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
BytesForAll is a South Asian initiative to focus on how information technology and the internet can help in taking up social development issues. It is one of the oldest ICT4D networks in South Asia. It was launched at a time when ICT4D was yet to become a buzz-word on the development circuit, and was still largely unnoticed for its potential.
The Center to Bridge the Digital Divide (CBDD) was a self-sustaining outreach unit of the Washington State University Extension. Founded in 2001, the CBDD was an ICT4D organization committed to assisting under-served populations leverage information communication technologies (ICT) to better their lives and achieve desired goals. Unlike traditional digital divide initiatives, the CBDD's strategic focus was not on gaining access to technology but on helping target communities achieve successful application of ICT.
Information and communication technology in agriculture, also known as e-agriculture, focuses on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. More specifically, e-agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. ICT includes devices, networks, mobiles, services and applications; these range from innovative Internet-era technologies and sensors to other pre-existing aids such as fixed telephones, televisions, radios and satellites. Provisions of standards, norms, methodologies, and tools as well as development of individual and institutional capacities, and policy support are all key components of e-agriculture.
Vidya Jyothi V. K. Samaranayake, MBCS, MCS(SL), FNASSL, MIEEE (Sinhala:වී.කේ.සමරනායක) pioneered computing & IT development industry and usage in Sri Lanka and thus considered as the "Father of Information Technology" in Sri Lanka. He was a Professor of Computer Science and former Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. Prof Samaranayake played a major role in the development of IT and IT related education in Sri Lanka. He was at the time of his death the chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka and was the founding and former director of the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC).
Sinhala language software for computers have been present since the late 1980s but no standard character representation system was put in place which resulted in proprietary character representation systems and fonts. In the wake of this CINTEC introduced Sinhala within the UNICODE standard. ICTA concluded the work started by CINTEC for approving and standardizing Sinhala Unicode in Sri Lanka.
Nenasala is a telecentre project by the Government of Sri Lanka. Developed under the e-Sri Lanka Initiative which is implemented by the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka. Communication centers are being built by the government in rural areas to help fight poverty, develop culture and commerce, and sustain peace. There are currently 751 such centers in the country, with the most recent being established in the Kuliyapitiya Technical college. However the number of e-Nenasala centers was expected to extend up to 1000 centers by the end of the year 2010.
The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) is the lead agency in Sri Lanka for implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) initiatives by the Government of Sri Lanka. It was established to develop the economy of Sri Lanka through ICT. To this end, it works to improve both the technological capacity of the country, such as building infrastructure, and the readiness of its people, through education and human resources. It is also active in developing regulations around the use of technology and disseminating information worldwide about Sri Lankan ICT. Its current Chairman is Jayantha de Silva.
Shanthi Sena or Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena Sandasaya is a country wide Sri Lankan youth force consisting of over 100,000 youth dedicated to peace building and community development.
The Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) is an evaluation methodology that integrates a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communications technologies (ICTs) for social change. It is an evaluation tool for determining whether ICTs are really improving or worsening women’s lives and gender relations, as well as for promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.
The Asia-Pacific Telecentre Network (APTN) is a collaborative initiative of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) and telecentre.org. The APTN Secretariat is hosted at ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). APTN is dedicated to promote innovation and knowledge sharing amongst telecentres in the Asia-Pacific region where telecentres are growing exponentially each year. APTN is working towards creating a platform of networks of telecentres, to share experiences on issues of their interest and to cooperate on the development of solutions for common problems of the telecentres themselves in order to empower poor and disadvantaged communities with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Asia Pacific Region. In other words, APTN will serve as the focal network or the knowledge hub for communication and information technology in the Asia Pacific region.
The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is the government body responsible for information and communications technology (ICT) issues in the Arab Republic of Egypt. Established in 1999, MCIT is responsible for the planning, implementation and operation of government ICT plans and strategies. MCIT is led by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, who is nominated by the Prime Minister and is a member of the cabinet. The current ICT Minister is Amr Talaat who assumed the position on 14 June 2018. MCIT is headquartered in Smart Village Egypt, in 6th of October, Giza Governorate, in the Cairo metropolitan area.
Poverty in Sri Lanka is 4% Sri Lanka's life expectancy and literacy rate are nearly on par with those of developed countries, and even top the rankings for the South Asia region. While all these indicate that Sri Lanka should be experiencing a high standard of living, until recently it has only ranked in the medium category of the Human Development Index (HDI). This is despite the fact that Sri Lanka has been experiencing moderate growth in its GDP averaging 5.5 per annum between 2006 and 2009. One of the reasons is due to its relatively low GDP per capital;. The Sri Lankan government has been successful in reducing poverty from 15.2% on 2006 to 8.9% in 2010, urban poverty was reduced from 6.7 to 5.3% while rural poverty was reduced from 15.7 to 9.5%, and the nation has made significant progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.
The digital divide in Malaysia refers to the gap between people who have access to certain technologies within the country of Malaysia. The presence of the digital divide is due to several factors that include age, location, and wealth, all of which can contribute to the gap in availability of information communication technology (ICT). Malaysia is not a fully developed country, which has led some researchers to express concern that the limited access to ICT may cause the country to fall even further behind in the progress of worldwide technology if this issue is not addressed and mended.