[Taxacom] FW: DEVELOPING WORLD TO RECEIVE ACCESS [etc]

[Christine Hine]

Thanks for the allowances :-)

I think it's fair to say that detailed research and evaluation of user needs
and expectations probably is starting to emerge now, but this is happening
subsequent to a lot of effort having been invested in existing
infrastructures. That's not necessarily a criticism. Maybe it was inevitable
that we needed a blanket political momentum towards digitization in order to
create space for these more critical evaluations and nuanced implementations
to take place. One of my major concerns, however, was that we need to take
account of the medium that diverse user populations prefer, and not always
assume that digital solutions are best. That is directed at the authors of
funding initiatives really, as much as those working on the ground. 

In connection with thinking about diverse user needs and the problems of
digital solutions it was very enlightening to be at the fringe events of the
World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. There were some
confrontations between analysts from developed countries arguing, in a
similar style to my critique, that computerization was not a blanket
solution to problems of development. Some representatives from less
developed countries responded that they would rather be provided with
whatever we have and allowed to find for themselves whether that would be
useful or not  (sorry, that's a fairly crude caricature of the positions).
I'm therefore conscious of the politics of setting oneself up to say what
would or would not be useful for others. I'm very drawn to the solution
offered by the Darwin Initiative in the UK, which has tended to focus on
collaborative solutions to knowledge sharing some of which are digital and
some not. It's a hard model to scale up, though. 

Best wishes,

Christine

Christine Hine
Department of Sociology
University of Surrey
Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK
c.hine at surrey.ac.uk
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/christine_hine.htm




> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu 
> [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Roderic Page
> Sent: 08 November 2006 06:41
> To: 'Taxacom'
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] FW: DEVELOPING WORLD TO RECEIVE ACCESS [etc]
> 
> I think one has to make a few allowances -- sociologists 
> don't usually write the way scientists do -- the style of 
> writing and use of language (including jargon) is different.
> 
> What I found interesting is that she questions the assumption 
> that simply by putting stuff online, all our problems will be 
> solved.