An annotated list of key on-line sources which focus on how ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) are being used in Latin America.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Sustainable Livelihoods:

http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/ea/AERDD/ICTs.home.htm

Author(s): Clare O'Farrell & Dr Patricia Norrish (AERDD) and Andrew Scott (ITDG)

Date of publication: November 1999

Summary: The follow material relates to a desk based study on new communication technologies and existing information systems of small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs in rural communities. The purpose of the study was to enquire and to illustrate using case study examples:

Whether and how ICTs might further marginalise disadvantaged communities, to determine what could be done to mitigate those adverse effects.

Whether and how modern ICTs can be used to strengthen and develop the information systems of small-scale farmers and small-scale enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries and contribute to poverty reduction.

Strategy for a Distance Learning Network for the Dominican Republic

http://www.sas.cornell.edu/cresp/ecopartners/comp/distnet.htm

Author(s): Jon Katz

Date of publication: November 10 1999

Summary: Few rural Dominican children have the opportunity to continue their education beyond the sixth grade, and there is little likelihood of substantial improvement in the foreseeable future. An extensive distance learning network could bring intermediate and high school level classes to most of these communities. In the near future, the convergence of cellular telephone and internet technologies will make such a network technically and economically practical. This concept paper provides more information, and proposes a pilot project in the region of San Jose de Ocoa

El Limon On Line !

http://www.sas.cornell.edu/cresp/ecopartners/comp/net.htm

Author(s): An EcoPartners Project (http://www.sas.cornell.edu/cresp/ecopartners/)

Summary: On Saturday August 29, El Limon went on line, becoming one of the first isolated rural communities in the Dominican Republic with public Internet access. In this cutting-edge experiment , the community will use the internet to reduce rural isolation, support agricultural change and economic development, and facilitate innovative programs like this summerís Art Week. The Rural Information Technology Institute, which promises to be at the core of El Limonís development, will be designed around the communication possibilities of the internet.

All about the El Limon Project (http://www.sas.cornell.edu/cresp/ecopartners/project.htm)

Update from El Limon (http://www.sas.cornell.edu/cresp/ecopartners/updates/Update.html)

Examples of Applications: ICTs in developing countries

http://www.iicd.org/base/show_article?cat=1&article_id=13&subcat=7

Author(s): Andreas Crede; Robin Mansell (eds.)

Date of publication: August 13 1998

Summary: This fourth booklet contains a series of case studies illustrating the potential role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in development. The cases that are described highlight possible ICT applications in a selected number of sectors. The first booklet discussed on the nature of ICTs and their importance for sustainable development. The second booklet focused on the gaps in the provision of ICTs in developing countries and the opportunities for bridging this gap. A third booklet examined the need to develop a national ICT policy framework.

ICT - Case Studies/ Knowledge Products

http://members.tripod.com/knownetwork/internetinfo-cases.html

Author(s): Part of the KnowNet initiative

Summary: The section is a repository of case studies and knowledge products relating to the use of ICT models in various facets of human development.

On Estimating Telecentre Demand in Mexican Rural Municipios

http://www.idrc.ca/telecentre/evaluation/nn/26_OnE.html

Author(s): Scott S. Robinson (http://www.idrc.ca/telecentre/evaluation/nn/BIOS/RobinsonS_26.HTML) Professor, Departamento de Antropología, Universidad Metropolitana - Iztapalapa, MEXICO

Date of publication: September 28 1999

Summary: The challenge of creating a set of self-sustaining Telecentres in five contiguous rural municipios in Mexico necessarily involves a model for estimating demand for this model of ICT delivery. Given the socio-cultural and political conditions in these small towns and villages a series of issues come to the fore: How do we conceive demand for a service few are even aware of? How does the technology fit or conflict with traditional cultural norms and preferences? Who belong to the different local factions with potential interest in the service? What are the different political dimensions of this problem? What are the ethical responsibilities of the distinct actors involved? These are some of the questions to be addressed synthetically in this short paper.

News Clippings on ICT and Knowledge Management

http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/internetinfo-news.html

Summary: Part of the KnowNet initiative

Information communication technologies, poverty and empowerment

http://www.imfundo.org/knowledge/skuse.htm

Author(s): Andrew Skuse, Development Communications, Social Development Department, DFID

Date of publication: June 2000

Summary: Some commentators have suggested that the social and geographic distance between certain sections of the world's population is being rendered meaningless by new information communication technologies (ICTs), though is simultaneously creating an 'information excluded' underclass comprised of the world's poor. Arguments that centre on the dissolution of old development dichotomies such and North and South in favour of the 'fast' and 'slow' resound to the language of empowerment and disempowerment. Increasingly, the 'wired' world is being brought together as the global network economy emerges, though it is at a clear cost to the unconnected.

"Partnerships and participation in telecommunications for rural development: exploring what works and why"

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D-UniversalAccess/johan/papers/guelph.doc

Author(s): Johan Ernberg, ITU (http://www.itu.int/ITU-D-UniversalAccess)

Date of publication: October 26 1998

Summary: From a Conference at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada:

The overall objective of the Programme is to develop best-practice, sustainable and replicable models of ways to provide access to modern telecommunication facilities and information services, particularly to people in rural and remote areas. To this end pilot projects are implemented in a number of countries in different regions, at different stages of development and with different geographical, social, economic and cultural conditions.

Experiments in community access to new communication and information technologies in Bogota

http://www.idrc.ca/telecentre/evaluation/nn/09_Exp.html

Author(s): Luis F. Baron, Researcher, Center for Research and Popular Education, CINEP, Bogota, Colombia. For an international working meeting on telecentre evaluation, held at Far Hills, Quebec

Date of publication: September 28 1999.

Summary: For more than a year and a half, working-class districts in Bogota have been the subject of three community experiments with access to new information and communication technologies (ICT). These projects involve the Neighborhood Information Units (UIBs), which represent yet another form of what is known generically as telecenters. These are places where the public can gain access to information and communication technologies: they can function as experiments in rural and urban telephone service, community radio, documentation centers and public libraries, among others.

RadioNet: Community Radio, Telecentres and Local Development

http://www.idrc.ca/telecentre/evaluation/nn/23_Rad.html

Author(s):Emmanuelle Lamoureux, for an international working meeting on telecentre evaluation, held at Far Hills, Quebec

Date of publication: September 28 1999

Summary: With the wave of digital conversion and the massive inroads made by the Internet in the early 1990s, the Latin-American community radio movement, like NGOs and other sectors of society, began to take a closer look at new information and communication technologies (NITCs). Unlike other sectors, community radio has a technical and human infrastructure that makes it possible to screen, process, and rebroadcast information found on the Internet. In other words, it can bring the benefits of NITCs to a huge audience that would otherwise not necessarily have access to them, for economic, technological, linguistic, cultural and other reasons.

Learning Lessons from Telecentres in Latin America and the Caribbean

http://www.idrc.ca/telecentre/evaluation/nn/16_Lea.html

Author(s): Karin Delgadillo, Raúl Borja, ChasquiNet Foundation, Quito, ECUADOR

Summary: This document summarizes contributions on the nature and development status of telecentres in Latin America, gathered through an online consultation process that was organized by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and facilitated by ChasquiNet, Ecuador, in July 1999, and that involved telecentre operators and researchers in new information and communication technologies. This information is expected to serve as the basis for future detailed research on the challenges and opportunities facing telecentres in Latin America and the Caribbean, and on their impact on social and economic development.

A Case Study of Electronic Commerce in Nepal

http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/articles/nepalcase.htm

Author(s):Larry Press, CIS Department, California State University, Seymour Goodman, Departments of International Affairs and Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Tim Kelly, International Telecommunication Union, Michael Minges, International Telecommunication Union

Summary:The authors conducted a study of the state of the Internet and telecommunication in Nepal during January, 2000 (ITU, 2000). Part of our charge was to recommend electronic commerce projects that would generate hard currency and increase social and geographic equity and rural employment. We present background on Nepal, a statement of our charge, ecommerce alternatives and our conclusions.

When Villages go Global

http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/Dangerous-Knowledge.htm

Author(s): Simon Romero (The New York Times)

Date of publication: April 23 2000

Summary: The prospects seemed bright when the Internet was recently introduced in a remote part of the mountainous Cotopoxi region in Ecuador. Under the guidance of aid workers, Quichua-speaking peasants planned to gather crop information and sell their crafts over the Web. Soon, though, it was discovered that some of he men were using the computer to visit pornographic sites.