The digital divide is the unequal access to digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide creates a division and inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information Age in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) have eclipsed manufacturing technologies as the basis for world economies and social connectivity, people without access to the Internet and other ICTs are at a socio-economic disadvantage, for they are unable or less able to find and apply for jobs, shop and sell online, participate democratically, or research and learn.
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and sustainability. Pioneering the use of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing countries, APC were often the first providers of Internet in their member countries.
Development communication refers to the use of communication to facilitate social development. Development communication engages stakeholders and policy makers, establishes conducive environments, assesses risks and opportunities and promotes information exchange to create positive social change via sustainable development. Development communication techniques include information dissemination and education, behavior change, social marketing, social mobilization, media advocacy, communication for social change, and community participation.
The global digital divide describes global disparities, primarily between developed and developing countries, in regards to access to computing and information resources such as the Internet and the opportunities derived from such access. As with a smaller unit of analysis, this gap describes an inequality that exists, referencing a global scale.
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.
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications and computers, as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage and audiovisual, that enable users to access, store, transmit, understand and manipulate information.
Internet studies is an interdisciplinary field studying the social, psychological, political, technical, cultural and other dimensions of the Internet and associated information and communication technologies. The human aspects of the Internet are a subject of focus in this field. While that may be facilitated by the underlying technology of the Internet, the focus of study is often less on the technology itself than on the social circumstances that technology creates or influences.
The National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) was established in 2009 as a merger of Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF), Korea Research Foundation (KRF), and Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technology (KICOS). It provides support for research into new theories for the advancement of science, the arts, and the Korean culture in general. The foundation was first established in 1981. Its offices are located in 25 Heolleung-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul and 201 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon.
Merlyna Lim is a scholar studying ICT, particularly on the socio-political shaping of new media in non-Western contexts. She has been appointed a Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Global Network Society in the School of Journalism and Communication Carleton University. Formerly she was a visiting research scholar at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy and a distinguished scholar of technology and public engagement of the School of Social Transformation Justice and Social Inquiry Program and the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University. She previously held a networked public research associate position at the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She received her PhD, with distinction, from University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands, with a dissertation entitled @rchipelago Online: The Internet and Political Activism in Indonesia.
Ernest James Wilson III is an American scholar. Wilson was the Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication, and Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, California from 2007-2017. He stepped down as dean in June 2017 and was succeeded by Willow Bay. Dr. Wilson is the founder of USC Annenberg's Center for Third Space Thinking, which is devoted to research, teaching and executive education on soft skills in the digital age. Through the Center, Dr. Wilson's most recent research focuses on critical workforce competencies and talent and skills development in the 21st Century. As a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, he currently is writing a book on utilizing competencies via the framework of Third Space Thinking.
K M Baharul Islam is presently the Chairperson of Centre of Excellence in Public Policy and Government at Indian Institute of Management Kashipur. He served as the Dean (Academics) during 2019-2021 at the same institute. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland on 18 March 2020. In October 2021, he was invited as a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.
Information and communication technologies for environmental sustainability is a general term referring to the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within the field of environmental sustainability. Information and communication technologies are acting as integrating and enabling technologies for the economy and they profoundly affect our society. Recent changes in ICT use globally have damaged the environment but also have the potential to support environmental sustainability activities, such as the targets set within the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 7 (MDG7) to "ensure environmental sustainability".
Kentaro Toyama is a computer scientist and international development researcher, who works on the relationship of technology and global development. He is the W. K. Kellogg Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information and author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology.
Lee Sang-yun is a South Korean professor. Lee Sang-Yun is one of South Korea's leading marine engineers. With regard to the ferry Sewol sinking disaster which took place on April 16, 2014, Lee addressed that many risk elements caused the accident in stages, namely, unqualified personnel, passing Maengol waterway with the strong current in the fast speed, overloading, the shortage of ship ballast equilibrium water, subsequently, he developed the real time ship-risk monitoring & disaster prevention system and the national integrated disaster prevention system related technology and system for precaution or countermeasure against disasters and applied for the patents thereon and decided to donate them to the government organizations or private companies for the public interest as of May 16, one month after the tragedy. Lee is listed in a high school text book of S.Korea as 'The engineering professor who is engineering our future'.
The use of new media in Ghana like elsewhere is growing. The Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector, which is based on a free market approach, has promoted new media use. Most popular aspects of new media to Ghanaians is the Internet, and its associated mobile and desktop applications for education, health, politics, business, publishing, governance and so on. Also popular is the use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets and computers.
The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) is a public co-educational university spread over four campuses and made up of six schools, ten research centers located at Greenhill in Accra, Ghana. The location of GIMPA, Greenhill, was named by Nicholas T. Clerk who served as the Rector of the Institute from 1977 to 1982. The name, "Greenhill", is a reference to the lush greenery and hilly topography of the main campus, as well as its location in Legon which was historically on the periphery of the Ghanaian capital, Accra. Together with 200 state institutions, GIMPA successfully participated in a Public Sector Reform Programme under the auspices of the World Bank and became a self-financing institution as part of the National Institutional Reform Programme in 2001. It was established as a public university by an Act of Parliament in 2004. The institute was established in 1961 by the Government of Ghana with assistance from the United Nations Special Fund Project and was initially called the Institute of Public Administration, intended as a specialist training graduate school for civil servants in Ghana. Today, GIMPA offers bachelor's, master's and executive master's degree programmes in business administration, entrepreneurship, law, public administration, development management, governance, leadership and technology.
Mobiles for development (M4D), a more specific iteration of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), refers to the use of mobile technologies in global development strategies. Focusing on the fields of international and socioeconomic development and human rights, M4D relies on the theory that increased access to mobile devices acts as an integral cornerstone in the promotion of overall societal development.
Michael L. Best is an American computer scientist and international development specialist and served as founding director of the United Nations University Institute on Computing and Society established in 2015. He is professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he holds a joint appointment with the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing.
Simon Rogerson is lifetime Professor Emeritus in Computer Ethics at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR), De Montfort University. He was the founder and editor for 19 volumes of the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. He has had two careers; first as a technical software developer and then in academia as reformer. He was the founding Director of CCSR, launching it in 1995 at the first ETHICOMP conference which he conceived and co-directed until 2013. He became Europe's first Professor in Computer Ethics in 1998. His most important research focuses on providing rigorously grounded practical tools and guidance to computing practitioners. For his leadership and research achievements in the computer and information ethics interdisciplinary field he was awarded the fifth IFIP-WG9.2 Namur Award in 2000 and the SIGCAS Making a Difference Award in 2005.
