Abstract
Shared models access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), e.g. telecenters and cyber cafes, have been considered as one means to reduce the digital divide. Cyber cafes in particular have proliferated in some locales yet not in others with apparently similar characteristics. This paper questions the prevailing emphasis on the “cyber” characteristics of access, e.g. computing and interne access as is currently known, and attempts to refocus the conversation by considering computing and access in the context of the “café”, e.g. as public life in the sense of Habermas. This analysis is based on extant literature and direct ethnographic research in several public places in six countries. We offer design perspectives based on a reflection of “third places” as inspiration for appropriate innovation in the provision of computing and communications.
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Salvador, T., Sherry, J.W., Urrutia, A.E. (2003). Less Cyber, More Café. In: Korpela, M., Montealegre, R., Poulymenakou, A. (eds) Organizational Information Systems in the Context of Globalization. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 126. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35695-2_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35695-2_20
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