This paper offers a more socially nuanced approach to open data intermediaries using the theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s social model, particularly his species of capital. Secondary data on intermediaries from Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries research was analysed according to a working definition of an open data intermediary presented in this paper, and with a focus on how intermediaries are able to linking agents in an open data supply chain, including to grassroots communities. The study found that open data supply chains may comprise multiple intermediaries and that multiple forms of capital may be required to connect the supply and use of open data. The effectiveness of intermediaries can be attributed to their proximity to data suppliers or users, and proximity can be expressed as a function of the type of capital that an intermediary possesses. However, because no single intermediary necessarily has all the capital available to link effectively to all sources of power in a field, multiple intermediaries with complementary configurations of capital are more likely to connect between power nexuses. This study concludes that consideration needs to be given to the presence of multiple intermediaries in an open data ecosystem, each of whom may possess different forms of capital to enable the use of open data.

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can contribute to community development. Public access venues such as telecentres, public libraries and cybercafes make ICT more broadly available, extending the benefits of ICT to underserved sectors of the population. Development is seen as a process of empowerment of marginalized communities to transform their immediate reality and improve their quality of life. This paper presents a case study of public access venues in the small municipality of Carmen de Bolivar, a small town in Northern Colombia. This municipality has a strong tradition of community organization for social development, and a long history of violence that have shaped its social fabric. The case study assesses the contribution of public access to ICT for community development, capitalizing on the region’s experience with community organization. This study found that the introduction of public access to ICT may not have contributed significantly to community development. Venues that provide public Internet access are mostly used for personal social networking (e.g., Facebook) and to access pornography. To a much smaller degree, public access ICT is also used for homework by schoolchildren and for online banking and government transactions by adults. The absence of community development activities is especially surprising given the relative strength of the community organizations that have worked on communication activities in this region during the last decade. This vacuum may be a consequence of the violence suffered by the inhabitants of the region in its recent history, or of the preference for private access to computers and Internet at home or at work for community development purposes. We conclude that public access to ICT alone does not necessarily contribute to community development, especially if the political environment is not conducive or if there are no strong social organizations in the community.

The aim of the article is to present and discuss the potentials of community informatics for participatory planning and design, as well as for ICT-mediated participation in general. The article is based on a case study of the co-design of a shared yard in Helsinki. The application of ICTs meant that tools such as the local website and the Urban Mediator were used as platforms and media to co-create, share and distribute information concerning the progress of the design of the yard. We argue that CI-assisted participatory planning and design provide a viable perspective and significant contribution to ICT-mediated participation in urban issues.

This paper explores digital technology access and use (computers, Internet and mobile phones) among lower income and disadvantaged groups in Australia. It reports focus group research which identified wide differences in frequency and quality of use, and in skills, confidence and trust. It identifies pathways to digital use (or non-use) related to existing socioeconomic inequities which mean that lack of (or limited) digital access or use creates further barriers to improving the underlying determinants of that use. Technological solutions to the digital divide must therefore be accompanied by a broader digital inclusion approach.

This paper discusses information and communication technology-driven options for local and global communities aimed at supporting rapid responses to public health emergencies. Our examples stem from local groups within the U.S. where recent events are spurring a dynamic response to the problem of communication and community roles in emergency scenarios. Other examples focus on local communities’ impact from international collaboration in philanthropic efforts that are geared towards using ICT for addressing training and education needs in health pandemics, such as HIV/AIDS. We introduce the case of the Infectious Disease Institute treatment and learning Center in Uganda as an example of global and local community coordination for the treatment and prevention of one of the world’s largest pandemic. Our analysis of the local and global community suggests focusing on the management of communication during public health crises to better understand the complexities and variations presented in these communities. Leveraging experiences from media-technology literature findings and emergency-response efforts, we seek to identify tools that enable effective communication among the different stakeholders that work to address public health crises. We argue that the planning and deployment of effective responses in several countries can be supported by the emerging availability of broadband communication networks both in developed and developing nations.

This paper presents an insight into an initiative that intends to empower women through Information and Communication Technologies. It describes the implementation and fallouts of a practical training initiative where NGOs and local women organizations cooperate jointly to develop, upgrade and enhance women' qualifications and perception in ICT with the aim of improving their lives in economic and social context. The paper reflects on direct and indirect impacts of the initiative that targeted hundreds of women in the Palestinian rural regions. The research team traced the trainees' reactions and behaviors through qualitative and quantitative tools such as focus group meetings, interviews with stakeholders, questionnaires, surveys, and observations of on-going activities. The initiative exerted considerable efforts to endorse social and economic empowerment and develop entrepreneurial capabilities among women attendees. Significant percentage of the surveyed women felt that they gained some level of empowerment and confidence through mastering the basic ICT competences, and believed that ICT is helpful in improving their livelihood. However, there were few solid evidences of the transformative potential of ICT that is sought out of such initiatives. ICT has some impact on women personalities, on the way they perceive themselves in their families and societies. However, to attain full benefits of ICT, the initiative make-up should be reengineered. A shift in training paradigm should occur towards employing these powerful tools towards empowerment in economic, social and community development prospects, which will at the end leverage women to active players in their own lives.

The ‘organizational divide’ is generally considered to be the lack of capability of community organizations to adopt and effectively utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Although the need of building ICTs capability of Australian community organizations has been emphasized in recent years, the gender dimension has been mostly overlooked. This paper responds to this gap and explores the trend of ICTs adoption, or the lack of it, amongst Environmental Community Organizations (ECOs) in Western Australia with a gender lens. The preliminary findings from a survey of 81 ECOs indicated that benefits, barriers and capabilities associated with ICTs adoption significantly differed according to gender of the leader. Drawing on the findings, the paper discusses why gender matters in overcoming organizational divide and makes pragmatic recommendations.

In this article we explore the development of MyKnet.org, a loosely structured system of personal homepages that was established by indigenous communities in the region of Northern Ontario, Canada in 2000. Individuals from over 50 remote First Nations across Northern Ontario have made this free of charge, free of advertisements, locally-driven online social environment their virtual home. MyKnet.org currently comprises over 25,000 active homepages and strongly reflects the demographic and geographic profile of Northern Ontario. It is thus youth-based and built around the communities’ need to maintain social ties across great distances. We draw upon encounters with a range of MyKnet.org’s developers and long time users to explore how this community-developed and community-controlled form of communication reflects life in the remote First Nations. Our focus is on the importance of locality: MyKnet.org’s development was contingent on K-Net, a regional indigenous computerization movement to bring broadband communications to remote First Nations. MyKnet.org is explicitly community-driven and not-for-profit, thus playing an important role in inter- and intra-community interaction in a region that has lacked basic telecommunications infrastructure well into the millennium.

This study presents the case study of an innovative program designed to use ICT to meet the educational needs of disadvantaged young people in Cape Town communities in South Africa. This study illustrates the methods and experiences of Ikamva Lisezandleni Zethu, a youth organization that harnesses the potential of ICT for educational, youth and community development in South Africa. The case highlights the best practices of social entrepreneurship with less financial and technological resources within the context an African society. The major challenges facing the young organization are highlighted and its successes are also identified. The activities of the Ikamva youth organization reveal that, South Africa and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) need effective multilateral initiatives to meet their educational aspiration as well as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Rather, ICTs, if properly and innovatively applied by the public and the civil society groups, has the potential to improve the quality of and expand access to secondary education in Africa.

A Community Learning Centre (CLC) is an innovative model of delivering health care and health information based firmly on the idea of community engagement. It has two interrelated components: 1) a community-based facility with Internet-linked computers accessible to all community members; and 2) community developed web-based resources relevant to community defined needs and priorities. This article describes a pilot CLC implementation in a remote British Columbia First Nations community. A CLC supports the acquisition of health information as well as research and technology skills by facilitating access to, and uptake of, relevant resources developed by and for community members.