Since 2015, the Government of India has initiated and championed the effort for transforming the ... more Since 2015, the Government of India has initiated and championed the effort for transforming the country with over 400 million unbanked adults into a cashless economy so that a majority of financial transactions can be carried over mobile devices, the most widely used information and communication technology in the country. However, over 200 million adults earning less than $2 a day have no or little mobile, financial, or information literacy. This short paper reports a newly proposed interdisciplinary, six-step toolkit operationalized using a survey questionnaire, focus group prompts, and hands-on training for developing mobile, financial, and information literacy among the poor in developing countries like India. Implications for public libraries, governments, and the poor in developing countries and beyond are discussed at the end.
Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, 2018
This qualitative inquiry studies the key factors influencing the process of building, growing, an... more This qualitative inquiry studies the key factors influencing the process of building, growing, and sustaining a health information network among new mothers on Facebook, who live in Appalachian Tennessee. Grounded theory analysis of in-depth phone interviews reveal that (i) realizing information needs, (ii) turning to the Internet and social media, (iii) joining the Facebook group, (iv) building a community of practice on the group, (v) information practices of users, and (vi) deriving benefits to meet the information needs, help them build the health information network.
After the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, Folksonomy emerged as one of the most popular user-centri... more After the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, Folksonomy emerged as one of the most popular user-centric information organization techniques in the newly reforming digital world. In the context of the rising popularity of folksonomies, this paper conceptually investigates - how can folksonomies be integrated with other ways of organizing information for building systems that could serve information users better in the future? A set of experimentation ideas of integrating folksonomy with controlled vocabularies, bibliometric maps, thesaurus-based systems, ontologies, and semantic web could inform and catalyze the design and development of folksonomy-based user-centric information organization systems in the future.
This poster analyzes challenges to planning, deploying, and maintaining different types of librar... more This poster analyzes challenges to planning, deploying, and maintaining different types of library services in the cloud. We apply grounded theory principles to analyze 75 articles authored by library administrators, librarians with IT expertise, IT professionals, cybersecurity experts, and business consultants engaged in planning, deploying, and maintaining library services in the cloud. Data analysis reveals that a majority of the past literature reports challenges to implementing Software as a Service (SaaS) in libraries. The seven key areas critical to the successful implementation of SaaS in libraries are related to: (1) data, (2) authentication and privacy of patrons, (3) skills and knowledge of library staff and organizational culture, (4) IT infrastructure, (5) features of services, (6) fixed and operational costs associated with data and technology, and (7) policies and contracts. Data issues like access, storage, ownership, curation, security, confidentiality, loss, migrat...
The e-Government Index (2001) and the e-Government Readiness Index (eGRI) devised in 2003 by the ... more The e-Government Index (2001) and the e-Government Readiness Index (eGRI) devised in 2003 by the United Nations (UN) brought standardization to efforts to rank countries according to their e-government efforts. Rankings was designed to portray emerging patterns of country performance around the world and envisioned as a resource "to shape further consolidation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) programs which contribute to a more participatory public policy model of development for all." The digital government research community, Countries, and other interested parties are looking to the resulting rankings as a relative indicator or e-Government implementation. The Index has been the most useful in understanding the process of creating 'socio-economic opportunities' for all with access, information, and knowledge as preliminary stages. Given the potential impact of these rankings on investment and development decision making both within the home c...
WhatsApp with over a billion users has emerged as one of the most popular communication channels ... more WhatsApp with over a billion users has emerged as one of the most popular communication channels for spreading text, audio, and video messages in a timely manner to thousands of people in developing countries. Its ability to broadcast messages to masses in an instance has a unique significance for and application in social activism. This study investigates the factors influencing the youth’s intention to spread the US message using WhatsApp in Ethiopia. Our preliminary findings suggest that the high cost of accessing the Internet, slow speed of mobile Internet data plan, reluctance of students to forward government messages, and a negative image of students about the United States deter youth in Ethiopia from forwarding the US message over WhatsApp. Study findings will inform US embassies in developing countries for crafting strategies to engage with local youth for virally reaching out to masses using mobile apps like WhatsApp.
While previous research has mostly focused on the “number of mentions” of scientific research on ... more While previous research has mostly focused on the “number of mentions” of scientific research on social media, the current study applies “topic networks” to measure public attention to scientific research on Twitter. Topic networks are the networks of co-occurring author keywords in scholarly publications and networks of co-occurring hashtags in the tweets mentioning those publications. This study investigates which topics in opioid scholarly publications have received public attention on Twitter. Additionally, it investigates whether the topic networks generated from the publications tweeted by all accounts (bot and non-bot accounts) differ from those generated by non-bot accounts. Our analysis is based on a set of opioid publications from 2011 to 2019 and the tweets associated with them. Results indicated that Twitter users have mostly used generic terms to discuss opioid publications, such as “Pain,” “Addiction,” “Analgesics,” “Abuse,” “Overdose,” and “Disorders.” There was a sub...
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance
Citizens' act of spreading of information, also known as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), ena... more Citizens' act of spreading of information, also known as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), enables governments to effectively engage with citizens over information and communication technologies (ICTs). This poster explores the factors that influence the intention of citizens to spread information in mobile communication. Qualitative and quantitative responses collected via an online survey from 97 graduate students at the Central University of Gujarat, India, suggest that: (a) the type of online communication channel available for the message to be forwarded, (b) content of the message, (c) likeability of the message, (d) priority of the activity students are engaged in over the message to be forwarded, and (e) if the message is related to any emergency situation, are the top five factors influencing students' intention to forward messages over their mobile phones. Theoretical and practical implications of this study for effective civic engagement in mobile governance are discussed at the end.
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Researchers' inability to address challenges related to planning, collecting or interpreting ... more Researchers' inability to address challenges related to planning, collecting or interpreting data collected from marginalized communities is one of the main reasons for the failure of projects using information, communication and technologies for the development (ICTD) of marginalized communities. This panel consists of information science experts who have conducted research with marginalized communities like women earning less than a dollar a day in slums in India, farmers, Latino community in the Midwest, racial minorities and visually impaired population. Panelists will share various challenges that they encountered while planning, collecting and interpreting data collected from marginalized communities; they will also provide guidance, advice, lessons learned and tips for addressing the challenges encountered during data collection with marginalized communities in the developing and developed world. This panel will inform information science researchers, who work at the intersection of information technologies and social justice, for better engaging with marginalized communities.
Mobile applications and mobile websites (MAMW) represent information systems that are increasingl... more Mobile applications and mobile websites (MAMW) represent information systems that are increasingly being developed by libraries to better serve their patrons. Due to a lack of in-house IT skills and the knowledge necessary to develop MAMW, a majority of libraries are forced to rely on external IT professionals, who may or may not help libraries meet patron needs but instead may deplete libraries’ scarce financial resources. This paper applies a <em>system analysis and design</em> perspective to analyze the experience and advice shared by librarians and IT professionals engaged in developing MAMW. This paper identifies key steps and precautions to take while developing MAMW for libraries. It also advises library and information science (LIS) graduate programs to equip their students with the specific skills and knowledge needed to develop and implement MAMW.
In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most wide... more In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most widely owned information and communication technology (ICT) in the world. This study investigates the factors responsible for the inability of 245 female slum-dwellers in India earning less than $2 a day to own a mobile phone. Open, axial and selective coding of survey responses shows that socio-cultural, economic, demographic, psychological, communication-related, and health related inequalities in the lives of the respondents create eight economic barriers precluding respondents from owning some of the least expensive mobile phones worth $15 or so on installments of $1 a month.
International Journal of Technology Diffusion, 2015
Critical research on IT adoption dominated by cognitive models grounded in psychology and communi... more Critical research on IT adoption dominated by cognitive models grounded in psychology and communication is always in search of new theoretical perspectives to understand, explain, and interpret social issues. Since information plays an important role in IT adoption, this study applies an information science lens to investigate the factors affecting the continued usage of mobile phones in rural India. Analysis of interviews with 22 women earning less than a dollar day reveals the influence of social, economic, cognitive, technological, and information-related factors on their continued usage of mobiles. Micro- and meso-level socioeconomic motives and active information-seeking behavior emerge as the most significant factors encouraging respondents to continue using mobiles against several technical and human barriers. The application of information science lens yields three constructs and ten micro-, meso-, and macro-level variables, advancing critical research on IT adoption with th...
A large number of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects experience a variety of challenges, especi... more A large number of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects experience a variety of challenges, especially when conducting field research with disadvantaged communities in developing nations. Using cluster analysis, this chapter identifies the six most common factors associated with a majority of ICT4D project challenges, and depicts the inter-relationship between these factors and over 100 distinct challenges reported by existing literature. In addition, based on the secondary analysis of 380 research artifacts in the ICT4D literature, this chapter proposes ways to manage the scope, time, costs, quality, human resources, communication, and risks for addressing ICT4D project challenges. Findings inform researchers of best practices for conducting ICT4D research with disadvantaged communities in developing nations.
Since 2015, the Government of India has initiated and championed the effort for transforming the ... more Since 2015, the Government of India has initiated and championed the effort for transforming the country with over 400 million unbanked adults into a cashless economy so that a majority of financial transactions can be carried over mobile devices, the most widely used information and communication technology in the country. However, over 200 million adults earning less than $2 a day have no or little mobile, financial, or information literacy. This short paper reports a newly proposed interdisciplinary, six-step toolkit operationalized using a survey questionnaire, focus group prompts, and hands-on training for developing mobile, financial, and information literacy among the poor in developing countries like India. Implications for public libraries, governments, and the poor in developing countries and beyond are discussed at the end.
Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, 2018
This qualitative inquiry studies the key factors influencing the process of building, growing, an... more This qualitative inquiry studies the key factors influencing the process of building, growing, and sustaining a health information network among new mothers on Facebook, who live in Appalachian Tennessee. Grounded theory analysis of in-depth phone interviews reveal that (i) realizing information needs, (ii) turning to the Internet and social media, (iii) joining the Facebook group, (iv) building a community of practice on the group, (v) information practices of users, and (vi) deriving benefits to meet the information needs, help them build the health information network.
After the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, Folksonomy emerged as one of the most popular user-centri... more After the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, Folksonomy emerged as one of the most popular user-centric information organization techniques in the newly reforming digital world. In the context of the rising popularity of folksonomies, this paper conceptually investigates - how can folksonomies be integrated with other ways of organizing information for building systems that could serve information users better in the future? A set of experimentation ideas of integrating folksonomy with controlled vocabularies, bibliometric maps, thesaurus-based systems, ontologies, and semantic web could inform and catalyze the design and development of folksonomy-based user-centric information organization systems in the future.
This poster analyzes challenges to planning, deploying, and maintaining different types of librar... more This poster analyzes challenges to planning, deploying, and maintaining different types of library services in the cloud. We apply grounded theory principles to analyze 75 articles authored by library administrators, librarians with IT expertise, IT professionals, cybersecurity experts, and business consultants engaged in planning, deploying, and maintaining library services in the cloud. Data analysis reveals that a majority of the past literature reports challenges to implementing Software as a Service (SaaS) in libraries. The seven key areas critical to the successful implementation of SaaS in libraries are related to: (1) data, (2) authentication and privacy of patrons, (3) skills and knowledge of library staff and organizational culture, (4) IT infrastructure, (5) features of services, (6) fixed and operational costs associated with data and technology, and (7) policies and contracts. Data issues like access, storage, ownership, curation, security, confidentiality, loss, migrat...
The e-Government Index (2001) and the e-Government Readiness Index (eGRI) devised in 2003 by the ... more The e-Government Index (2001) and the e-Government Readiness Index (eGRI) devised in 2003 by the United Nations (UN) brought standardization to efforts to rank countries according to their e-government efforts. Rankings was designed to portray emerging patterns of country performance around the world and envisioned as a resource "to shape further consolidation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) programs which contribute to a more participatory public policy model of development for all." The digital government research community, Countries, and other interested parties are looking to the resulting rankings as a relative indicator or e-Government implementation. The Index has been the most useful in understanding the process of creating 'socio-economic opportunities' for all with access, information, and knowledge as preliminary stages. Given the potential impact of these rankings on investment and development decision making both within the home c...
WhatsApp with over a billion users has emerged as one of the most popular communication channels ... more WhatsApp with over a billion users has emerged as one of the most popular communication channels for spreading text, audio, and video messages in a timely manner to thousands of people in developing countries. Its ability to broadcast messages to masses in an instance has a unique significance for and application in social activism. This study investigates the factors influencing the youth’s intention to spread the US message using WhatsApp in Ethiopia. Our preliminary findings suggest that the high cost of accessing the Internet, slow speed of mobile Internet data plan, reluctance of students to forward government messages, and a negative image of students about the United States deter youth in Ethiopia from forwarding the US message over WhatsApp. Study findings will inform US embassies in developing countries for crafting strategies to engage with local youth for virally reaching out to masses using mobile apps like WhatsApp.
While previous research has mostly focused on the “number of mentions” of scientific research on ... more While previous research has mostly focused on the “number of mentions” of scientific research on social media, the current study applies “topic networks” to measure public attention to scientific research on Twitter. Topic networks are the networks of co-occurring author keywords in scholarly publications and networks of co-occurring hashtags in the tweets mentioning those publications. This study investigates which topics in opioid scholarly publications have received public attention on Twitter. Additionally, it investigates whether the topic networks generated from the publications tweeted by all accounts (bot and non-bot accounts) differ from those generated by non-bot accounts. Our analysis is based on a set of opioid publications from 2011 to 2019 and the tweets associated with them. Results indicated that Twitter users have mostly used generic terms to discuss opioid publications, such as “Pain,” “Addiction,” “Analgesics,” “Abuse,” “Overdose,” and “Disorders.” There was a sub...
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance
Citizens' act of spreading of information, also known as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), ena... more Citizens' act of spreading of information, also known as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), enables governments to effectively engage with citizens over information and communication technologies (ICTs). This poster explores the factors that influence the intention of citizens to spread information in mobile communication. Qualitative and quantitative responses collected via an online survey from 97 graduate students at the Central University of Gujarat, India, suggest that: (a) the type of online communication channel available for the message to be forwarded, (b) content of the message, (c) likeability of the message, (d) priority of the activity students are engaged in over the message to be forwarded, and (e) if the message is related to any emergency situation, are the top five factors influencing students' intention to forward messages over their mobile phones. Theoretical and practical implications of this study for effective civic engagement in mobile governance are discussed at the end.
Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Researchers' inability to address challenges related to planning, collecting or interpreting ... more Researchers' inability to address challenges related to planning, collecting or interpreting data collected from marginalized communities is one of the main reasons for the failure of projects using information, communication and technologies for the development (ICTD) of marginalized communities. This panel consists of information science experts who have conducted research with marginalized communities like women earning less than a dollar a day in slums in India, farmers, Latino community in the Midwest, racial minorities and visually impaired population. Panelists will share various challenges that they encountered while planning, collecting and interpreting data collected from marginalized communities; they will also provide guidance, advice, lessons learned and tips for addressing the challenges encountered during data collection with marginalized communities in the developing and developed world. This panel will inform information science researchers, who work at the intersection of information technologies and social justice, for better engaging with marginalized communities.
Mobile applications and mobile websites (MAMW) represent information systems that are increasingl... more Mobile applications and mobile websites (MAMW) represent information systems that are increasingly being developed by libraries to better serve their patrons. Due to a lack of in-house IT skills and the knowledge necessary to develop MAMW, a majority of libraries are forced to rely on external IT professionals, who may or may not help libraries meet patron needs but instead may deplete libraries’ scarce financial resources. This paper applies a <em>system analysis and design</em> perspective to analyze the experience and advice shared by librarians and IT professionals engaged in developing MAMW. This paper identifies key steps and precautions to take while developing MAMW for libraries. It also advises library and information science (LIS) graduate programs to equip their students with the specific skills and knowledge needed to develop and implement MAMW.
In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most wide... more In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most widely owned information and communication technology (ICT) in the world. This study investigates the factors responsible for the inability of 245 female slum-dwellers in India earning less than $2 a day to own a mobile phone. Open, axial and selective coding of survey responses shows that socio-cultural, economic, demographic, psychological, communication-related, and health related inequalities in the lives of the respondents create eight economic barriers precluding respondents from owning some of the least expensive mobile phones worth $15 or so on installments of $1 a month.
International Journal of Technology Diffusion, 2015
Critical research on IT adoption dominated by cognitive models grounded in psychology and communi... more Critical research on IT adoption dominated by cognitive models grounded in psychology and communication is always in search of new theoretical perspectives to understand, explain, and interpret social issues. Since information plays an important role in IT adoption, this study applies an information science lens to investigate the factors affecting the continued usage of mobile phones in rural India. Analysis of interviews with 22 women earning less than a dollar day reveals the influence of social, economic, cognitive, technological, and information-related factors on their continued usage of mobiles. Micro- and meso-level socioeconomic motives and active information-seeking behavior emerge as the most significant factors encouraging respondents to continue using mobiles against several technical and human barriers. The application of information science lens yields three constructs and ten micro-, meso-, and macro-level variables, advancing critical research on IT adoption with th...
A large number of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects experience a variety of challenges, especi... more A large number of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects experience a variety of challenges, especially when conducting field research with disadvantaged communities in developing nations. Using cluster analysis, this chapter identifies the six most common factors associated with a majority of ICT4D project challenges, and depicts the inter-relationship between these factors and over 100 distinct challenges reported by existing literature. In addition, based on the secondary analysis of 380 research artifacts in the ICT4D literature, this chapter proposes ways to manage the scope, time, costs, quality, human resources, communication, and risks for addressing ICT4D project challenges. Findings inform researchers of best practices for conducting ICT4D research with disadvantaged communities in developing nations.
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