Culture and ICT
From Wiki4dev
Does Culture Matter? - a basic article on the importance of Xcultural comm in software.
ICT for Intercultural Dialog Preserving indigenous peoples’ cultural resources by fostering access to ICT, thus contributing to narrowing the digital divide is the aim of new project entitled "ICTs for Intercultural Dialogue: Developing communication capacities of indigenous peoples (ICT4ID)", which UNESCO has recently launched as the direct result of the International Forum on Local Cultural Expression and Communication held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on 3-6 November 2003. Involving ten indigenous communities - the Naga and the Mentowai in the Asia Pacific region, the Pygmies and the Himbas in Africa and the Quechua, Aymara, Kikanantay, Rapa Nui and Mapuche in Latin America - the project aims at fostering the use of ICTs to contribute to revitalizing their identity and at recovering their cultural self worth and dignity. The project is aimed at enabling the management of indigenous cultural resources and the training of stakeholders’ to acquire greater mastery of ICTs, opening up new opportunities for traditional and innovative income generating activities.
Digital radio "is manifesting itself in the form of digital audio broadcasting, online radio, podcasting and mobile radio. The challenge however is that community radio struggles to access advertising and other forms of financing which would allow it to make use of these new technologies."
Rural India is being changed by ICT
Nata Village Blog Nata, in Botswana, is a village of 5000 people. It is heavily afflicted with HIV/AIDS; nearly 50% of all pregnant women in Nata are HIV positive and Nata has over AIDS 400 orphans. Jon Rawlinson (a professional producer and editor as well as a website designer) and Melody Jenkins (a Peace Corps Volunteer is working in Nata as an HIV/AIDS educator and community capacity builder) decided to try and help the people of Nata with this website. The blog might serve as a prototype for the application of blogging to village development. It is perhaps especially interesting in that it provides video streaming content from individual villagers, empowering them to reach an international audience directly.
Zimbabwe not paying the Net bill
Language
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) "have become a hot topic in the field of Internet governance. As the number of non-English speakers on the Internet grows exponentially, the limitations of the Domain Name System have become evident to many. This APDIP e-Note examines how IDNs relate to cultural diversity and the basic human right to communicate in one's own language on the Internet. While the bulk of the content on the Internet has been in English, this is rapidly changing. In China, for example, over 60 million of the nation's 100 million-plus users browse the web only in Chinese, yet top-level domain names remain in Roman script for all users."
