Abstract

Developing countries have placed information and communication technologies (ICTs) high on their national development agenda. The assumed model has been one in which ICTs are the means to deliver an "information society," which is itself a means to economic and social development. Anthropologists theorize that small, isolated communities with limited local expertise innovate and adopt more sophisticated technologies as a reaction to perceived survival risk and to enable risk-buffering. We view the adoption and evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in remote communities in the developing world as a continuation of this anthropologic process. In our Research-in-Progress paper, we describe how we plan to use Applied Ethnography to produce a more granular understanding of the complex social, cultural and political dynamics that constrain or enable ICT interventions within small remote communities in the developing world. We will add to the body of knowledge by investigating how individual’s attitudes towards technology are influenced by their prior experience of high profile ICT projects such as One Laptop per Child. Our results will inform the discipline and provide avenues for future research.

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