DIFFUSION OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) THROUGH THE RURAL INTERNET CENTRE: THE MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCE

Ainin Sulaiman, Noor Ismawati Jaafar and Rohana Jani
Additional contact information
Ainin Sulaiman: Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Noor Ismawati Jaafar: Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Rohana Jani: Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2010, vol. 07, issue 02, 129-143

Abstract: This paper focuses on examining the ICT diffusion by studying an initiative of the Malaysian government to bridge the digital divide that exists across the country's urban and rural communities. This is achieved through investigating the operation and the experience of a typical Rural Internet Centre. The findings of this study showed that there is keen interest among the community to learn and sharpen their ICT-related skills. The Internet Centre serves to provide an avenue for the realisation of this goal. The study showed that despite some operational snags, the Internet Centre performed well. One of the by-products of the centre was that its activities fostered closer relationships among users; it provided an avenue for disparate community members to interact and share their new skills. Bringing the ICT usage and appreciation to the rural areas was successful. About half of the centre users made weekly visits during which they searched for information on the internet, sent and received e-mail and attended the Internet Centre's regular IT classes. They also saw it as a valuable communication channel and a potential leveller of the technological capability gap.

Keywords: Rural internet centre; ICT diffusion; Malaysia; digital divide; rural community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219877010001878
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:ijitmx:v:07:y:2010:i:02:n:s0219877010001878

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219877010001878

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) is currently edited by H K Tang

More articles in International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().