DMS Blog Week 12: Identify two ways your profession can help bridge the digital divide.

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The digital divide is defined as being “the differential access to and use of the internet according to gender, income , race and location”(Flew, 2008, p. 26). In the area of information management when looking at organizations and their use of information and communication technologies, the digital divide between companies is mainly created due to location and wealth. In this blog I will identify two ways in which the field of information management may help companies in less developed countries close the social and global digital divide with companies in developed countries, when it comes to computer mediated communication.

The first cause of the digital divide we will discuss, is one that may between the national start up companies in third world countries and national start up companies in developed countries, due to economic differences. According to Pick and Azari (2007) the difference in the socioeconomic status of a country is one of the variables that may lead to a digital divide.

A high initial investment in information technology is almost a survival requirement for start up's in developed countries. This may include investments such as: desktops and laptops for every employee, personal printers, broadband internet access, etc. On the other hand, these investments may be seen as complete inconceivable to start ups in developing countries, who may invest in a few desktop computer to carry out certain work tasks that absolutely require information technologies.

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In a case such like the one's presented above, a professional information manager would be able to step in a carry out an ethnographical research of the companies work behavior and the interlinked work processes. Furthermore documenting the companies communication channels and directions, will lead to the identification of the internal and external information flows of the company. This preliminary study, will lead to the next step which involves designing a collaboration network suited to the companies needs. In the design process of this collaboration network the researcher will be able to take in to account the company's level of engagement and the economic feasability with regard to information technology investment. In other words, an information manager will be able to maximize the benefits of the accessible technology, which is something a lot of companies in developed countries, who have the money to invest still fail to do. (Cases)

In terms of national start up companies one has to take in to account the culture and customer revolving technology. The presence of a technoculture in developing countries will be small pr close to none in comparison to developed countries close to none. Therefore, the question is whether the necessity for technological innovations in for increased computer mediated communication is necessary. The answer, as the world sees it today, is that technology and progress go hand in hand. So yes, technological innovations and the start of a formation of a technology culture is necessary.

Hype is defined as “excessive promotion, exuberant positive (or negative discourse, exaggeration” (Brand, 2010).

This is another area where the profession of information management may come in to question, as a creator of hype in a company. Creating hype can be done in several ways. An information manager would not create the hype the same way as a marketer, who would do it through arousing human emotions or repetition. In a sense, an information manager, can create hype by informing and changing peoples “technological frames” (Orlikowski, 1997, p.3) which are seen as “mental models or frames of references that individuals have about the world, their organization, work, technology, and so on”. Informing companies and people about the benefits of using information technology and computer mediated communication. Additionally providing Knowledge about ways the company may benefit from investing and learning about technology will encourage application and further spread and could possibly lead to a further “diffusion of innovation”(Flew, 2008, p. 207).

Through applying their knowledge in situations such as the previously mentioned, information managers have the power to change the significance of some of the underlying factors that create the digital divide, mainly those of income (seen as economic capabilities), location and education.

References

Brand, J. (2010) The digital divide: Week 12 Digital Media and Society[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from: http://ilearn.bond.edu.au/@@597E95B6E5D9B0B6E87F02602569165B/courses/1/COMN12-302_103/content/_551310_1/DMS12-103.pdf

Flew, T. (2008). New Media: An Introduction (3^rd). Sydney: Oxford University Press.

Pick, J.B., & Azari, R. (2007). Worldwide digital divide: influences of education, workforce, economic, and policy factors on information technology. ACM Digital Library, Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1235019&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=116623887&CFTOKEN=16180121

Orlikowski, W.J. (1992). Learning from notes: organizational issues in groupware implementation. Proceedings of the Cscw'92: proceedings of the conference on computer-supported cooperative work (pp. 362-369). New York: ACM Press

Images 
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