ICTs can reduce communication costs and break down geographical borders. In the developed nations government policies are being established which attempt to ensure that all citizens will get the opportunity to access the effective use of ICTs in order to enable them to participate in the educational, social and economic activities and democratic processes. Developed countries are getting much benefit from the advancement of ICTs. There is digital divide between developed and developing countries. The term digital divide has been applied to the gap that exists in most countries between those with ready access to the tools of ICTs, and those without such access or skills. In other words, it is the gap between the haveâ s and the have notâ s. The digital divide around the world is usually measured through statistical indices such as the number of telephone lines, personal computers, websites and Internet users and their ratio to the total population. This paper reviews the papers on issues related to digital divide that are affecting so many citizen in developing countries especially in Bangladesh and the factors that alienate people from enjoying the benefits of ICTs. The author recommends possible strategies that can be implemented in developing countries to reverse the widening gap of digital divide.

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<p> With the rise of global telecommunications networks, and especially with the worldwide spread of the Internet, the world is considered to be becoming an information society: a society in which social relations are patterned by information, transcending time and space through the use of new information and communications technologies. Much of the popular press and academic literature on the information society focuses on the dichotomy between the technologically-enabled virtual space of information, and the physical space of the material world. </p><p> My examination of Internet infrastructure focuses on the system of interconnections amongst the networks which make up the Internet, which is called the inter-domain routing system. For all that the Internet is spoken of as a singular entity, it is in fact a complex distributed system of over 47,000 interconnected networks spanning the world. It is these interconnections which allow the Internet to appear to be a single entity, and provide the means through which the apparent placelessness of virtual space is produced. I approach the problem of understanding the production of virtual space by examining the mechanisms involved in the maintenance of order within the Internet's inter-domain routing system. </p><p> To examine the mechanisms involved in maintaining order in the inter-domain routing system, I study the technology and practices involved in the interconnection of networks. The technology which enables network interconnection is the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which allows the establishment of network interconnections without any need for centralized oversight. In the absence of centralized oversight, I found that the practices involved in operating BGP rely on coordination and collaboration amongst the technical personnel responsible for managing the interconnection of networks. Coordination and collaboration are enabled amongst the Internet's technical personnel through social relationships of trust, running across corporate and state boundaries. Even though the inter-domain routing system operates without centralized oversight, it does rely on centralized institutional structures for specialized functions, such as standards-setting activity, and the allocation of unique numbering resources required to identify networks in the inter-domain routing system, and to identify computers within networks. </p><p> I argue that order is maintained within the inter-domain routing system through a distributed system of trust relationships, which are anchored by centralized institutional structures. As an arrangement of mechanisms for maintaining order, I consider this to be a governance arrangement, which I term "distributed governance". </p><p> Distributed governance is an unusual, and possibly unique, model of governance. It has three distinguishing features which mark it off from hierarchical and market-based models of governance. First, in its reliance on a distributed system of trust relationships. These are produced and reproduced in the practice of interconnecting networks, and through professional communities of the technical personnel responsible for managing network interconnections. Second, in its centralized institutional structures, which are uniquely organized amongst global governance institutions. None of these centralized institutional structures are formed by international treaty, and all of them are strongly committed to openness and participation. Third, in its operation over the particular technological form of BGP which emphasizes coordination and collaboration. To change the technology of inter-domain routing would be to change the range of governance possibilities for inter-domain routing, modifying the nature of distributed governance itself. </p><p> These distinguishing features are sites of contestation. Although technical personnel do owe allegiance to their professional communities, and to one another through trust relationships, they are also employees of corporations which invest in Internet infrastructure, and citizens of nation states which regulate Internet infrastructure in their territories. Distributed governance is accordingly complicated by market relationships, the interests of nation states, and international relations amongst nation states, just as markets, nation states and international relations are complicated by distributed governance. </p><p> To make sense of distributed governance as a global system, I study its instantiation in professional communities of the Internet's technical personnel, centralized institutional arrangements, and state and market interests across two different regions: North America, which is relatively central to the global Internet, and South Asia, which is relatively peripheral. This provides the opportunity to perform a comparison between these two cases, to understand at once how distributed governance varies under different conditions, and how different articulations of distributed governance are linked into a single global system of governance. </p><p> The range of social possibilities within a society are shaped by the model of governance which provides it with order. To understand the nature of the information society, it is essential to understand the mechanisms of distributed governance. Indeed, I argue that the social values of "freedom" and "democracy" which are often ascribed to the Internet are only made possible through distributed governance. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) </p>

<p> This study focuses on modeling people's perceptions of places and how those perceptions are affected by cultural differences. Cultural background affects the way people feel and recall information. However, it is unclear how cultural background influences individual's perception of geospatial areas such as a town or a city. One way an individual's cultural background varies is with regard to the patterns of one's routine communication. This concept is described by Hall's high- and low-context cultural model (1976). The ways people perceive geospatial places can be characterized in terms of their tendency to rely on specific landmarks or symbolic addresses. In this study, we use an online survey and an online place recognition game to test the hypothesis that high-context individuals will perceive urban places in terms of landmarks rather than symbolic addresses. The results suggest that high- and low-context is not a unified construct. Instead it is a multi-dimensional construct with sub-dimensions where one of those, i.e. one's attitude towards other's communication style, may affect an individual's perception of places.</p>

The popularity of mother blogs is increasingly attracting sponsors looking to market their products to mother blog audiences. This combination of commercial and informational content calls on readers and writers to distinguish between informational content and commercial activity. This thesis examines how mother bloggers integrate sponsored content into their blogs and how both writers and readers interpret the credibility of these posts. The study takes place within a conceptual framework of source and message credibility. Using a qualitative and interpretive approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with readers and writers. Although the results are not generalizable, they suggest determining the credibility of these posts is a social process, informed by participants’ existing knowledge and framed within the community of mother bloggers. The results add to our understanding of credibility perceptions when commercial and informational content comingle and have implications for other online communities that require ongoing information evaluation.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Information Science, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: A, page: 3643. Adviser: Javed Mostafa. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 30, 2008).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0418. Adviser: ChengXiang Zhai. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-94) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Information Science, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-10, Section: A, page: 4119. Adviser: Howard Rosenbaum. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 19, 2008).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2004. / "Publication number AAT 3132679."