"This unique book presents extensive analysis and discussion from the Pan-Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme covering 56 projects in 18 countries across Asia-Pacific. In addition to inputs from the ICT4D project heads, the book features insights from 6 ICT experts who personally visited these projects fo
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r assessments, as well as the key take-aways from a 3-day Learning Forum bringing all project heads and assessment experts together with donors and sponsors of this ambitious ICT4D initiative. What have been the key contributions of ICTs to development projects in healthcare, education, gender equity, agriculture, environment, disaster management and policy research? How can such ICT4D projects reach sustainability, replicability and scalability? What are the challenges involved in capacity building and execution for such social entrepreneurship projects? And what new horizons open up for these regional initiatives in the future? These are the key questions addressed in this publication. The book also provides valuable insights into the passion, motivation and experience shared readily by the ICT4D practitioners across the region. And on a lighter note, it also captures some of the amusing and humorous anecdotes along the way which make ICT4D such a human adventure at the end of the day! The book also has a companion CD and Web site with a wealth of information for ICT4D practitioners, donors and researchers, including video interviews, assessment surveys, and worksheets." (Back cover)
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"This book brings together some of the most outstanding and novel papers on media and development presented at the AMIC Annual Conferences in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2004. It features over a dozen contributions from around the region, providing a wealth of fresh case studies as well as breaking ne
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w ground in highlighting emerging frontiers of media development discourse in Asia, comparing regional development along multiple dimensions and frameworks and pointing the direction towards further media initiatives at a national level. The papers selected are grouped into three key themes: media and development; new narratives and political discourse; and media impacts and capacity building. Part I addresses macro-level impacts and policies pertaining to media and development in Asia. Part II deals with more direct media issues such as new narratives and emerging forms of political discourse and groupings in Asia. Part III shifts the focus to traditional media impacts on youth and tribal audiences, as well as new media impacts on the education and business sectors. The contributors to this book have highlighted not just an interesting range of media and development issues in Asia, but have also introduced a good variety of media research methods. These include quantitative assessments of media impacts in society, comparative and longitudinal frameworks for evaluating regional ICT competitiveness, structural analyses of political and activist communication systems, in-depth case studies of individual organisations, and broad-based surveys of stakeholders in ICT4D." (Publisher description)
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"This book offers a view of the cultural, family, and interpersonal consequences of mobile communication across the globe. Scholars analyze the effect of mobile communication on all parts of life, from the relationship between literacy and the textual features of mobile phones to the use of ringtone
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s as a form of social exchange, from the “aspirational consumption” of middle-class families in India to the belief in parts of Africa and Asia that mobile phones can communicate with the dead. The contributors explore the ways mobile communication profoundly affects the tempo, structure, and process of daily life around the world. The book discusses the impact of mobile communication on social networks, other communication strategies, traditional forms of social organization, and political activities. It considers how quickly miraculous technologies come to seem ordinary and even necessary; and how ordinary technology comes to seem mysterious and even miraculous. The chapters cut across social issues and geographical regions; they highlight use by the elite and the masses, utilitarian and expressive functions, and political and operational consequences. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate how mobile communication has affected the quality of life in both exotic and humdrum settings, and how it increasingly occupies center stage in people’s lives around the world." (Publisher description)
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"Wireless is the hottest technology and media sector in the world today—and Asia is at the centre of the action. This volume captures the flavour and implications of these fast-paced developments by providing a comprehensive, detailed and insightful look at the wireless scenario in the Asia-Pacifi
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c. It charts the growth of the wireless ecosystem across the region, highlights the valuable lessons learned by the pioneers, and contextualises these themes with developments in other parts of the world including the US and Europe. With contributions from numerous experts in the region, the book includes 16 thematic chapters, 10 book reviews, and profiles of 10 countries—Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, India, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal and Bangladesh." (Publisher description)
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