[Sigiii-l] Fwd: June 2013 issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries (IFIP WG9.4 Newsletter)

[Michel Menou]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	June 2013 issue of Information Technology in Developing 
Countries (IFIP WG9.4 Newsletter)
Date: 	Fri, 5 Jul 2013 17:30:10 +0530
From: 	ifipnewsletter <ifipnewsletter at iimahd.ernet.in>
To: 	<micheljmenou at gmail.com>



Warm Greetings

Dear Subscriber,

Warm Greetings! The June 2013 issue of '/Information Technology in 
Developing Countries/' is now available at: 
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/current.htm

The current issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries 
carries seven articles and two conference announcements.

The first article "ICTD Research Ethics: Is it about Right?" by John M. 
Traxler is based on the author's work with early career researchers in 
the fields of ICTD and mobile learning, specifically those at the 
intersection of these two emergent disciplines, or what is sometimes 
called mobile learning for development. The study originally provided an 
overview of issues that are important to but not core to their work, for 
example institutional ethics procedures, and also so raised wider 
concerns about research interventions using ICT in international 
development. The article discusses the implicit ethical issues in ICTD 
research arising out of the inadequacy of current ethical assumptions 
and practices in universities in the West and the North when working in 
the South with ICT.

This is followed by a Malaysian perspective on Online Consumer Health 
authored by Anushia Inthiran, Saadat M. Alhashmi and Pervaiz K. Ahmed. 
The article is based on the results of a small scale survey conducted by 
the authors in order to develop an understanding of online consumer 
health information searching in Malaysia. The study concludes that 
though urban Malaysians definitely search for health information online, 
most use their health condition as a pre-cursor to performing a health 
search. Therefore, the Malaysian government and the Ministry of Health 
need to conduct awareness and out-reach programmes to encourage 
Malaysians to perform health searches for general knowledge, which will 
help them to take preventive approaches towards general healthcare and 
well being, allow for better patient-doctor relationship, and allow 
consumers to take proactive steps to better understand their health 
condition.

The next article discusses the results of a usability evaluation of the 
"National E-Government Portal of India" by Sandeep Kaur. The author uses 
a detailed descriptive qualitative analysis of the portal to highlight 
key web design principles that heuristically exemplify the usability of 
a portal. Findings of this research have the potential to help the 
developers of the site to make it more user-friendly. C. Krishnan's 
article on "E-Governance in Local Governance: The Case of Kerala" 
discusses some of the outcomes of ICT based services through Panchayati 
Raj Institutions in the state of Kerala in India. The study focuses on 
the extent of e-Governance implementation in some such institutions, and 
brings forth the views of the citizens and administrators on effectively 
delivering e-services. Based on the learning from the study, the author 
has suggested a few ways to strengthen e-Governance at the local level 
to ensure better delivery of government services to citizens, for 
improved interactions with business and industry, for citizen 
empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government 
management.

In his article "ICT in Schools, and the Curious Case of Learning 
Theories", Utpal Mallik states that learning is perhaps the least 
understood educational process, and focuses on the ongoing debate 
between the proponents of the two irreconcilable learning theories, 
namely behaviourism and constructivism, and the re-surfacing of this 
debate in the context of the new information technology and its possible 
role in education. "Mobile Technology: Why Now?" by Terry Freedman 
highlights the importance of time and timing in introducing new 
technology or innovations into education. The article discusses the 
advantages, particularly spontaneity, offered by mobile technology over 
fixed technology like computers in labs.

The last article "e-Governance: The Need to Redefine Government--Citizen 
Relationship" by Bhupendra Badgaiyan discusses the need to move beyond 
electronic governance and consider augmenting it through another kind of 
e-governance i.e. enlightened governance, where the government is more 
citizen-centric and citizens feel empowered and proud of the government 
and its structure and are not apathetic or antagonistic towards it. The 
author feels that it is time that efforts are made to dismantle the 
archaic attitudes and hangover of the past, and though the on-going 
effort under India's National e-Governance Plan is a step in the right 
direction, there is a need to evolve phase two of this governance 
improvement programme wherein participatory governance takes precedence 
and citizens are empowered through judicious use of modern technologies 
like mobile phones and social media.

Upcoming conferences include eINDIA 2013 to be held in Hyderabad, India 
from July 23 to 24, 2013, and the 1st International Conference on 
Information and Communication Technologies for Disaster Management at 
Algiers, Algeria from March 24 to 25, 2014.

We hope you will find this issue interesting and we look forward to 
receiving your feedback on the same. We welcome your contributions for 
the forthcoming issue of the IFIP WG 9.4 Newsletter. Interested 
contributors are requested to refer to the guidelines for authors 
available at: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/guidelines.htm  or 
may mail us at: ifipnewsletter at iimahd.ernet.in 
<mailto:ifipnewsletter at iimahd.ernet.in>

The June 2013 issue can be directly accessed at: 
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/jun2013/jun2013.htm. A downloadable 
PDF version of this issue is also available on our website (URL: 
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/jun2013/jun2013.pdf) to ease access 
and facilitate printing.

With Best Regards,

Editorial Team, IFIP WG 9.4 Newsletter.

Centre for Electronic Governance,

Indian Institute of Management,

Ahmedabad - 380 015, India

Phone: +91 79 6632 4128

URL: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/wg.htm



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