"Research can improve development policies and practices and funders increasingly require evidence of such socioeconomic impact from their investments. This article questions whether information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) research conforms to the requirements for achievin ... g socioeconomic impact. We report on a literature review of the impact of research in international development and a survey of ICT4D researchers who assessed the extent to which they follow practices for achieving socioeconomic impact. The findings suggest that while ICT4D researchers are interested in influencing both practice and policy, they are less inclined toward the activities that would make this happen, especially engaging with users of their research and communicating their findings to a wider audience. Their institutions do not provide incentives for researchers to adopt these practices. ICT4D researchers and their institutions should engage more closely with the users of their research through more and better communications with the public, especially through the use of information and communication technologies." (Abstract) more

"This Framework is organised in the sequence of a logical approach to the design of information systems that are intended to deliver socio-economic benefits via Telecentres for the purpose of community level development and poverty reduction. Telecentres are promoted as an answer to the problems of ... the digital divide, whereby large sections of society do not enjoy access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and are seen to be excluded from the socio-economic benefits that such access brings. By providing shared, community-based access to ICTs, Telecentres help to overcome this disparity. However, this framework for designing Telecentres is based on the understanding that whilst access to ICTs is important, of itself, it is insufficient. Telecentres should be capable of making use of ICTs in a way that delivers tangible benefits to their communities, and are therefore tools for development rather than an end in themselves. The Framework therefore provides a guide for implementing local development with the use of ICTs, in the form of a Telecentre. The audience for this Framework is the institutions or individuals involved in, or contemplating, the setting up of Telecentres. In such a process, the technology is not the objective, the development outcomes are. Accordingly, these are identified at the outset, and then expressed in terms of improved information flows, partnership relationships and choices of technology, which are finally realised through the implementation, operation and ultimately evaluation of the Telecentre." (Introduction, page 4) more