Source: https://www.gappapers.com/2018/06/25/the-neglected-continent-of-is-research-a-research-agenda-for-sub-saharan-africa%E2%88%97/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 20:10:48+00:00

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∗ Detmar Straub was the accepting senior editor for this paper.
analysis might not be so readily accepted as a meaningful contribution. Moreover, while they all do publish a few papers with societal topics, these do not seem to be core.
infrastructure in detail, highlighting their potential for research in ICT issues in SSA. In particular, we examine teledensity as a means of adopting ICT; ICT development; and telemedicine, online education, and e-commerce as socioeconomic applications of the information ecosystem. After these overviews we list suggested research questions that would give important new insight into these areas, and then we follow with implications.
An Information Ecosystem Framework for Sub-Saharan Africa Worldwide ICT investments, currently billed at about $1.2 trillion and expected to rise by 8-10% in the next few years (IDRC, 2002b) are overtaking global economic growth. This is evidence that technological investments are assuming a leading role in the development of global economies. However, harnessing the power of such investments is dependent upon a multitude of interrelated and interacting factors that work together to define the ICT ecosystem. The factors include precursors, mediators, moderators, and outcomes fueled by ICT investments. Based on several models for national ICT (Meso and Duncan, 2000; Wolcott et al., 2001), we present here an ICT ecosystem model for Sub-Saharan Africa that can serve as a high-level research framework (Figure 1).
As mentioned earlier, the ICT ecosystem for SSA is examined as a community of pertinent and cohesive factors within the SSA environment, functioning as a unit. The framework of the ICT ecosystem is developed as a complex relationship including infrastructure investments, infrastructure development, and infrastructure applications that lead to social and economic outcomes, which further affect both infrastructure investments and infrastructure development. In addition to the recursive relationship between the outcomes and infrastructure investments and infrastructure development, the two outcome dimensions (social and economic) are mutually related.
predominance of standalone PC systems with no network or LAN access. Among them, PC users in a workplace might compete for only one or two that are connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network using modems, leading to severe underutilization of the rest. Most SSA countries have only lately understood that application and use of existing ICT is a prerequisite to the diffusion of information. Fidonet in Africa serves as a prime example. Fidonet grew as a bulletin board, “store and forward” system running on PCs using dial-up lines and legacy systems for exchanging email, files, and news briefs. It was from the Fidonet gateway that the South African UNINET-ZA, Worknet/Sangonet evolved as one of the early academic networks using this “low-cost,” “low-tech” approach (Thapisa, 1996). Unfortunately, few such applications have emerged. In an attempt to blindly emulate the west, SSA has capitulated to acquiring technology while lacking the capability to apply technology in solving real problems. IT policies or strategic buying plans that are necessary to relate IT acquisition to socioeconomic benefits are generally non-existent (Odedra et al., 1993). Unable to utilize or mobilize existing infrastructure resources, SSA seems to be caught in a “scarce-knowledge trap” (Thapisa, 1996). As Odedra et al. (1993 p. 28) had rightly remarked, “At present, the most pressing need in SSA is not new systems, but rather the know-how to effectively use what is already there.” However, mobilizing existing resources requires a strategic assessment of their potential benefits. For SSA, such an assessment lies at the core of developing ICT capabilities and escaping the “scarce-knowledge trap.” The proposed information ecosystem framework (Figure 1) addresses that very issue in the context of SSA and other LDCs. The common threads that bind SSA and other LDCs are based on the underutilization of ICT, lack of prudent investments, problematic governance, and failure to develop and apply ICT for socioeconomic growth. This ecosystem for SSA provides a cohesive representation of ICT together with salient socioeconomic consequences The ecosystem framework begins with ICT investments, intended toward the acquisition of infrastructure, mainly in the form of gross national technology budgets. Once capital is committed to ICT, national technology strategies must drive infrastructure adoption; that is, they must determine strategic infrastructure priorities for developmental objectives. Strategic directives set the course for ICT policies that come into play in infrastructure development. In this stage, SSA must rely on the involvement of a critical mass of users as well as development and support personnel for the adopted infrastructure. With the requisite number of users and support and maintenance personnel, SSA must then take measures to diffuse the infrastructure for newer and more innovative applications. In the context of SSA, infrastructure application needs to be directed toward specific socioeconomic objectives. Social development must look toward outcomes such as telemedicine and online education. Similarly, economic development objectives must emphasize objectives such as electronic commerce. These socioeconomic outcomes derived from the application of ICT resources will then affect future investment considerations and future infrastructure development. Furthermore, social and economic outcomes both affect each other. For example, increasing awareness about, and the use of, telemedicine may prompt the growth of ancillary telemedicine industries. Similarly, electronic commerce may help increase access and use of telemedicine and online education by using the Internet as a conduit, thus narrowing the digital divide. The information ecosystem framework sets up a cohesive partnering of investments, development, application, and socioeconomic growth. For SSA, understanding the ecosystem would be a first step toward any concerted socioeconomic initiative. With an ICT ecosystem as a guiding framework for researching the impacts and potential of ICTs in SSA, we now proceed to discuss each of the underlying dimensions of the framework.
Many of the internationally well known manufacturers and suppliers that have set up shop in Africa are notorious for manipulating management and decision- makers into buying their equipment, providing very poor after-sales service, especially maintenance and training, and often providing obsolete technology. Their main concern is in selling “boxes” at inflated prices and not in transferring technology.
Internet connection costs (Figure 2). While average access costs for SSA are approximately $55 for 20 hours per month, access costs in Western Europe and USA average approximately $20 for unlimited monthly use (ITU, 2001).
researchers glean and construct their own research questions on ICT infrastructure adoption and implementation in SSA.
1. How relevant is teledensity—both the traditional measurement based on landlines and a more contemporary perspective based on mobile subscriptions—to understanding the development of ICT infrastructure in SSA today? Most developed countries have built their national data communications networks initially starting with land line voice communications, but does SSA need to go through this stage? Is there a sufficient market for data communications that network investments could be optimized for data rather than voice? Could voice over Internet Protocol (IP) on data-focused networks simultaneously meet SSA’s growing needs for voice and data communications? Could small entrepreneurial ventures featuring wireless or voice over IP bypass the bureaucratic government telecommunication offerings? Particularly interesting are countries such as Gambia and Mauritania where, although per capita GDP is less than US$400 per year, wireless teledensity raises the total teledensity to above 10 citizens per 100 (see Appendix B). It is necessary to explore the reasons why so many poor people so value mobile telephony that they will pay such a large price (relative to their incomes) for them.
2. One ongoing debate on how to expand ICT infrastructure in SSA is whether to focus on the relatively more developed urban areas, or to aim for universal access for the predominantly rural population that may have a greater need for roads and clean drinking water than for telephone lines. While the more developed Northern and Southern regions of Africa might be able to develop teledensity infrastructures that would benefit the average citizen, would this goal be practical for SSA? Although focusing on telephones and related infrastructures for the urban elite of SSA risks widening the “within-country” digital divide (Straub, 2003), would this nonetheless be the most practical long-term approach? Can SSA leverage its existing ICT infrastructure to cope with future endeavors?
3. It is widely believed that privatization of the telecommunications sector will allow for free enterprise and competition. A few SSA countries have started to do this and have experienced some growth since the year of their privatization (UNECA, 1999a). However, considering that most of the new operators are enterprises based in Europe and the United States (ITU, 2001), there is concern whether the execution of privatization policies will benefit SSA in the long run. First, there would need to be research investigating if privatization is even appropriate in the SSA context. It could be that government control would work best in most SSA countries, with the appropriate policies in place. If privatization indeed would be beneficial, what is the optimal balance between government, local private, and foreign private control? How can SSA countries retain the benefits of their privatized telecommunications within their countries in the case of foreign ownership and avoid neo-colonialism?
1. Meso and Duncan (2000) described how different components of a national ICT infrastructure affect socioeconomic development. Using the resource-based view, mapping the relationship between ICT technologies as resource factors will be an important step in identifying the roles, interactions, and outcomes of resource factors in the infrastructure. Moreover, the weights assigned to each resource factor will vary across economies. Understanding the reasoning and implications of the weights can provide a better realization of ICT resource development. What types of services would different ICT perform? Would they be commercial or non-profit? What would it take to implement such technologies and services? How would sponsorship play a role in ICT adoption and development? Does development in SSA need to follow a sponsorship model? Should privatization lead the way or would a hybrid model work? Would there be distinct variances by technology adoption and developmental patterns, or by regions and countries?
2. As we discussed earlier, it is the assemblage and mobilization of infrastructure development resource factors that create infrastructure capabilities. However, are assemblages linear or non-linear? That is, do the pertinent resource factors each have a distinct, cumulative effect (linear), or are they effective only when they interact with each other (non-linear)? For example, infrastructure capabilities are a function of the users of the infrastructure. Using Metcalfe’s law, the value of infrastructure capabilities would be more a square of its user base. The question is, how could the user base be developed? What are the challenges and pitfalls in resource factor mobilization? Interestingly, this requires a better understanding of infrastructure assemblage and investment and resource mobilization. For SSA, infrastructure assemblage must begin with an objective assessment of the region’s needs and then follow with investments in computers, communications, and content delivery modes that can offer value. This requires well- trained and well-experienced purveyors, something relatively lacking in SSA. The question then is, should SSA hire foreign personnel on a turnkey basis to consult on technology needs, infrastructure assemblage, and investments direction? Or will that lead to a biased recommendation? Investigating such intrinsic factor characteristics and infrastructure capability creation processes can provide a more granular assessment of the interplay of multiple entities and events that mobilize and shape investments and enable unique resource combinations.
On successful adoption and development of ICT in SSA, we subsequently examine socioeconomic applications of the installed ICT infrastructure. While socioeconomic applications are varied, the scope of this paper restricts our investigation to applications and outcomes particularly relevant to SSA. This research agenda specifically focuses on telemedicine and online education as social applications, and electronic commerce as an economic application of ICT.
Two of the most important aspects of social infrastructure in any nation are healthcare and education. Without adequate healthcare, population growth rates are stunted and citizens’ quality-of-life is severely curtailed. Any investment in human capital would be limited in its potential, as the citizens would not live long enough to materialize such investments. To cover this area, we consider how telemedicine can use ICT to improve healthcare in SSA. Closely following healthcare, education is critical for developing human capital, which is the most vital resource any society might have. Thus, we consider how online education can take advantage of ICT to provide extended educational opportunities. Finally, once the social infrastructure is established, SSA countries need a self-sustaining economic base so that they will not be forever dependent on foreign aid. Moreover, such a base would provide home-grown resources for further investment in healthcare and education, both ICT-enabled and traditional. To explore this economic dimension, we discuss the possibilities that e-commerce offers to SSA. We address these areas of potential research in the next few sections of the paper. Social Outcome of ICT resources: Is Telemedicine A possible solution to SSA’s medical nightmare?
• In 1998, the International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunications of Mozambique (the country’s main telecommunications operator), and WDS Technologies of Geneva established a telemedicine link based on existing terrestrial and satellite telecommunications systems between the central hospitals of Beira and Maputo in Mozambique (ITU, 1998). The project enables the hospitals to rely on standard low-cost tele-radiology equipment for the transmission and exchange of images and radiographs as well as their visualization.
• The Lille Regional University Hospital and the European Institute of telemedicine in Toulouse partnered with health institutions in Senegal to use videoconferencing for tele- consultations between health professionals (Dlamini, 2001). In-service distance training for health professionals is one of the key components. Training occurs in remote health centers through videoconference systems customized for medical use.
• Having been implemented in 20 countries throughout Africa, HealthNet is the most developed Africa-wide initiative, which aims at improving the practice of telemedicine among health professionals. HealthNet is SATELLIFE’s computer-based telecommunications system that links health care professionals around the world (SATELLIFE, 2001). Using a low earth orbit satellite and phone lines, it provides email access in SSA countries, serving over 10,000 healthcare workers. Where adequate telecommunications links exist, SATELLIFE and other organizations provide higher capacity email and Internet connections, which allow sending email attachments such as image files, permitting a form of low cost telemedicine.
It is noteworthy that in all three cases cited here, there has been considerable contribution— both financial and in terms of personnel— by sponsoring organizations in developed countries. It seems that it is currently premature for the healthcare industry in most SSA countries to fully support independent telemedicine projects. However, the support of local governments and local academic institutions is also crucial (Solomon et al., 2004). Today, many African governments have been fully committed to promoting many different dimensions of health informatics (telemedicine included), resulting in many new projects in various African countries. In 2005, Ethiopia launched various tele-dermatology initiatives, one of which saved the life of a little boy at the Minilik Hospital in Addis-Ababa [personal observation by one of the authors].
health-care services by centralization and coordination of resources (specialists, hardware and software packages).
• The modernization of internal communication in the hospitals could considerably improve the efficiency of health-care delivery. It will be the basis for the introduction of telemedicine services.
• The maternity units in any region could be connected by a telemedicine link to the maternity service in a large regional hospital or to the referral hospital. This will allow remote monitoring of the health of pregnant women, especially those with pathological problems (ITU, 2000).
• Tourists would be encouraged to visit the country and visit remote areas if there is a facility for telemedicine. From all medical emergencies, good and qualified medical attention may be provided with the backup of telemedicine service.
place earth stations, which could be used for such delivery. Past research shows that such African- Foreign alliances can provide the opportunity for African countries to improve on their telecommunications infrastructure such as those needed for the adoption of telemedicine (Mbarika et al., 2002b).
• E-mail has many benefits for poor countries: it is cheap; hardware and software requirements are simple; and the information does not have to be transmitted in real time.
• The deployment of fixed or mobile telecenters are now considered a good solution for bringing telemedicine services to rural areas (ITU, 2000).
1. There is a need to examine overall best practices in the adoption, implementation, and diffusion of telemedicine in SSA. What are some of the enablers of and obstacles to the successful adoption, implementation, and diffusion of telemedicine in SSA? How do these relate to the cultural, social, political, and economic traits of SSA as a whole, and of individual countries in SSA? Are there differences in these countries in the possible successful implementation of telemedicine? What levels of ICT infrastructure are needed for successful implementation of telemedicine?
solutions like e-mail be utilized to bring better healthcare to remote areas of SSA? Can low-cost technologies like e-mail be modified, improved, or redesigned in some way to help bring a relatively high level of healthcare to remote areas of SSA? Will wireless technologies be able to quicken the diffusion of telemedicine in SSA? How can wireless technologies be improved, changed, or modified to be more effectively applied in telemedicine in SSA?
Social Outcome of ICT resources: Is Online Education a Panacea to SSA’s educational dilemma?
Having addressed healthcare, we now turn to education as another important area of social development. The dilemma of low levels of education in SSA dates from the years of colonization, during which the West (Europe and North America) controlled and directed the region’s resources. The primary purpose of the colonial West was not to educate Africans, but to exploit the region’s natural (gold, silver, diamonds, oil, rubber, timber, etc.) and human (cheap or free labor) resources (Amin, 1976; Amin, 1990; Griffiths, 1995; Larrain, 1989; Rodney, 1981). Under colonial rule, access to education in Africa was restricted, as were curricular offerings (Lewis, 1999). African children were prepared for the roles deemed appropriate by those in power. Sons of chiefs had privileged access to schooling, a practice that served both religious and political motives that mainly benefited the colonial West. Such a practice was followed by most African families that gave priority mostly to the education of boys, leaving a large population of girls uneducated so they could later serve the men as childbearing machines and housewives. Prior to independence, few African children attended school beyond the primary level. By 1960, only 25% percent of children of primary school age were in school, compared to twice that level in Latin America and Asia (Lewis, 1999). For several decades, the SSA region has lagged behind other parts of the world at the primary, secondary, and especially post secondary educational levels. At the post-secondary level, there is intense competition for the few available institutions, leaving many otherwise qualified students unable to attend school. In fact, some African countries have only one university, which is state-run. This shortage of higher educational facilities has contributed to a great migration of African students who leave the continent to study and work abroad (especially in Western countries), with no plans to ever return to Africa. This “brain drain” creates a vicious cycle that places African countries even farther behind other countries in terms of socioeconomic development (Wilson and Darmuzey, 2000). HIV/AIDS presents another serious problem for education in SSA. AIDS has taken a toll on primary and secondary school enrollment, and has decreased the pool of qualified teachers. In 1998, more than 1,300 Zambian teachers died of AIDS, a number amounting to two-thirds of the teachers the nation trained that year. The United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) reports that nearly 1,500 Kenyan teachers died in 1999, up from just 10 teachers in 1993 (Crawley, 2000). This has significantly reduced the number of available teachers in SSA countries. Online education offers a possible solution to SSA’s education dilemma. Such education has been making in-roads in many developing countries, including those in SSA. Online education is expected to be particularly relevant in African countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, Congo, and Somalia, which are emerging from prolonged wars and whose work forces lack vital technical skills (USA Today, 1999).
• The African Virtual University (AVU) provides college-level education to Africans (www.avu.org). ICT applications used for the AVU initiative are integrated with satellite technologies to provide educational content to Africans at an affordable cost.
• The Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL) provides education at the secondary school level, as well as basic vocational, professional and management courses for the labor force (SAIDE, 1999).
• The Distance Education Association of Tanzania (DEATA) enrolls more than 18,000 in different higher education programs and courses, as well as special programs for adult learners. The DEATA program also provides free educational opportunities for Burundian refugees1 (SAIDE, 1999).
• In Ghana, Hewlett Packard (HP) is sponsoring a consortium of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to create the “HP Digital Village.” Using HP technologies and solutions and DSL lines from Ghana Telecom, 50 resource centers will be linked nationwide for cost-effective workforce creation through virtual education opportunities (Cobbinah, 2003).
It is encouraging to see that many of these online education initiatives are home-grown and locally-maintained with little, if any, support from foreign aid. This model provides opportunities for SSA to develop an independently-minded workforce that is sensitive to the region’s unique needs.
1 The Burundian refugees were victims of the civil wars in the mid-90s.
education to help understand and implement online education in SSA? What levels of ICT infrastructure and technologies are appropriate for SSA, and do these levels differ from more developed countries? For example, are basic technologies like old computer systems such as 486 PCs adequate to serve the markets in SSA? A very important question is how to bring equipment to the masses while thwarting its theft and destruction.
2. How can online education such as African Virtual University (AVU), the Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCOGOL), and the Distance Education Association of Tanzania (DEATA) be leveraged and further developed? How can the successes, failures, and needs of these education initiatives inform us about the enormous task of educating the masses in SSA? Can these types of initiatives be improved and implemented on an even wider scale throughout SSA? What world and regional agencies are best equipped to help or become directly involved in online education in SSA?
Economic Outcome of ICT resources: Is Electronic commerce A vital link for SSA’s economic development?
1. Transportation. Only 12.3% of the roads in SSA are paved (World Bank, 2001), which restricts the delivery of physical goods.
2. Delivery. Public postal systems are not secure and expensive courier services discourage e-commerce based on physical delivery. Moreover, these delivery services reach very few of the non-urban citizens who make up 66% of the population (World Bank, 2001).
3. Telecommunications. SSA countries face several problems: a huge gap between supply and demand; a strong distribution imbalance favoring urban over rural areas; poor quality of service; a long waiting time for new service; and peak traffic demands that exceed network capacity (Mbarika, 2001). Although efforts by the International Development Research Centre are underway for grassroots development of telecommunications infrastructure, the imbalance still remains—largely due to inherent socioeconomic complexities and problems (Adam, 1996).
4. Software Industry. The “lost continent of the information technologies” has fewer computers and lower ICT expenditure per capita than any geographically comparable region (Mursu et al., 1999; Odedra et al., 1993 p. 25). Similarly, there are few schools with computer science programs to develop an indigenous base of software developers.
5. E-payment. Credit cards are not widely used because of low standards of living and rampant fraud. Checks and money orders are an option, though these extend transaction time.
6. Consumer E-commerce Culture. Africa’s open-air market culture is at odds with the virtual shopping culture of e-commerce. Moreover, SSA consumers are not widely comfortable with computers or e-mail, which is necessary for the requisite trust to engage in e-commerce. While business people and workers in government, healthcare and education are increasingly using e-mail, the average buying consumer does not yet use e-mail.
• Tourism has always been very popular in SSA, and the Internet has provided a cost- effective means for travel agencies to reach international audiences easily. A directory of African travel sites, such as at <http://www.africaonline.com/cgi-bin/odp/index.cgi?/ Regional/Africa/Travel_and_Tourism/>, attests to the proliferation of such sites.
• An important aspect of e-business in SSA is carried out by the simple use of e-mail for communications and the Web for obtaining information to launch, improve, and market traditional businesses. For example, the past few years have seen an increase in West African individuals starting businesses in heliciculture (raising snails) and apiculture (raising bees) because of the widespread Internet information on techniques, methodologies, and how to obtain the necessary equipment. These have capitalized on the region’s climate to help people take advantage of the resources they have.
• As more SSA businesses launch websites, one profitable sector is the Web services industry that creates and maintains these websites. There are many Web developers based in Africa who create websites for local and foreign companies, sometimes including e-business and e-marketing consulting. Examples are found at <http://www.italconcepts.com>, <sohne.net>, and <http://www.whitesys.net>.
• Most e-business websites are limited to catalogues of products and services, with little interactivity. An exception is Net Shoppe <http://www.netshoppeonline.com>, a distributor for HP products in Accra, which provides online ordering, including a shopping cart. However, because of the infancy of the e-payment infrastructure in Ghana, payments are handled through traditional means, such as invoicing, COD, and local pick-up. This model takes advantage of the efficiencies of order processing without introducing payment delays, particularly for repeat customers who already have established accounts.
A large number of other e-commerce sites in SSA are listed at http://www.webgh.com. While this site is limited to Ghanaian sites, it gives a comprehensive view of the range of what is currently being done in an SSA country. E-commerce as an economic application of national ICT resources is the last dimension of the ICT ecosystem we described.
1. What kinds of physical, economic, and socio-political infrastructure are needed for the establishment of viable e-commerce in SSA? Most research in e-commerce is set in the context of developed countries, though there is an increasing amount of e-commerce research specifically focused on developing countries (Darley, 2001; Dutta, 1997; Mbarika, 2001; Mbarika et al., 2002b; Montealegre, 1996; Montealegre, 1998; Montealegre, 2001; Travica, 2002; Wolcott et al., 2001). However, SSA is a significantly different cultural region from even North Africa, its geographically closest socioeconomic region. What principles of e-commerce are universally applicable across world regions, and what principles are highly specific to the local socioeconomic conditions? What policies should governments and non-governmental organizations focus on to establish an environmental context amenable to e-commerce in SSA?
2. A related question concerns the geographic scope of e-commerce research frameworks. A framework like that of Zwass (1996) tries to be general, but is actually framed for developed countries. Travica’s (2002) framework targets developing countries in general, though it was created for a study of Costa Rica. To what extent are existing or new e-commerce frameworks universally applicable? What aspects need to be tailored for developing countries? Can developing countries all be lumped together as if they are homogenous? Perhaps an empirical taxonomy of e-commerce infrastructures with the country as the unit of analysis could yield valuable insights into the most pertinent criteria to consider for international e-commerce.
3. E-commerce in SSA will be based on the foundation of traditional commerce in SSA. The examples of current e-commerce practice we gave are all in the context of traditional contemporary SSA commerce. We expect that, to some extent, e-commerce would be able to extend the traditional practice of commerce in SSA, but that it would also provide some disruptive new models of commerce that fit in the area’s socioeconomic context. Although disruptive, some of these new models should prove economically beneficial to the entrepreneurs who adopt them (otherwise they will be phased out). What are the e-commerce practices that would be extensions of traditional SSA commercial practices, and what are the beneficial disruptive policies? Related to this theme, what factors have contributed to the success of the existing e-commerce applications in SSA, and what can new projects learn from them?
on global information technology management, as well as the emergence of textbooks that address global ICT issues. In fact, most introductory IS textbooks have at least one chapter that addresses global ICT issues. Understanding ICT diffusion issues in SSA will add to the richness of such books and courses. More so, with global competition for the sale of goods and services, many companies that were once nationally- or locally-based are now becoming multinationals. IS graduates therefore have many opportunities to work for such companies. Many Western- based multinational companies have a significant presence in the SSA region. In addition, the European Union (Heyn, 2001), the US Department of State (Fisher-Thompson, 2002), and the U.S. Congress (Lobe, 2003) have concluded that Africa is a current and potentially great trading partner for European and U.S. goods and services. It is therefore of paramount importance to incorporate this region in courses covering global ICT issues.
Information and communication technologies can help us turn this potential into concrete opportunities that will help the poor work their way out of poverty. It is not, of course, a magic formula that is going to solve all the problems, but it is a powerful tool for economic growth and poverty eradication, which can facilitate the integration of African countries into the global market.
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Victor W. Mbarika is on faculty in the College of Business at Southern University. He holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from the U.S. International University, M.S. in MIS from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Ph.D. in MIS from Auburn University. His research on information and communications technology diffusion in developing countries and on multimedia learning has been published (or are forthcoming) in 22 academic journals, four book chapters, and over 45 national and international conferences publications proceedings. Dr. Mbarika is Founder of the Cameroon Computer and Network Center (CCNC). He is a member of the AIS, IEEE, and IRMA.
Chitu Okoli is an assistant professor in management information systems at the John Molson School of Business of Concordia University, Montréal. He obtained a PhD in information systems and decision sciences from Louisiana State University in 2003. He researches applications of the Internet in developing countries, open source software and encyclopedias, and strategically using the Internet for competitive advantage. He teaches business data communications and website development.
Terry Anthony Byrd is Professor of MIS in the Department of Management at the College of Business, Auburn University. He holds a BSEE from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Ph.D in MIS from the University of South Carolina. His research has appeared in MIS Quarterly, JMIS, Decision Sciences, OMEGA, Interfaces and other leading journals. His current research interests include healthcare informatics and electronic commerce.
Pratim Datta is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at Washington State University. He received his PHD and MS in Information Systems and Decision Sciences from Louisiana State University. His current research interests include IT Infrastructure development and IT enabled performance in global organizations and economies.
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