At the heart of Project Management are time, cost and performance by utilizing the available resources. When analysing the Global Competitiveness index for 2012-2013 it becomes clear that in South Africa labour efficiency is far below what it should be, ranked 113th out of 144. In the same report Business Sophistication is ranked 38th out of 144. It becomes clear that performance, time and cost at the heart of Project Management are hampered by the low labour efficiency. The adoption of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the Construction Project Management Environment will raise productivity and will increase the quality and speed of work, financial controls, communication, and access to common data. The effect will be improved communication, an increase in the speed of data transmission, cost savings and fewer occurrences in miscommunication. The study has been done to set a framework of how ITC can be managed and implemented in the South African Construction Project Management Environment. These enablers and disablers of ICT in Construction Project Management should be determined. The current rate of ICT adoption is verified and the future trends in ICT are researched, characteristics common to quality information should also be verified. The study determined that the future developments in ITC will be profound and if applied correctly, Project Management through the means of communication will be affected positively. In the empirical study the characteristics of quality information, the disablers and also the enablers were investigated taking into account the current rate of ICT adoption in the South African Construction Management Environment. The framework used in the study proposed and confirmed how ITC can be managed and implemented in the South African Construction Project Management Environment. It is set out in the following steps: Firstly: By determining the common characteristics of quality information, namely accuracy, completeness, consistency, uniqueness, and timeliness. The implementation of ITC in the Construction Project Management Environment can be controlled. Secondly: Disablers of ICT adoption in project management exist, namely economic factors (reduction in employment, rising cost, and limited trade), social factors (digital divide, security and lack of education), and other factors (legal, environmental and cognitive). These factors should be managed. Thirdly: Enablers of ICT adoption in project management exist, namely relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trial ability and observe ability. These enablers must be focused on and exploited where possible. Fourthly: Determine the current rate of ICT adoption in Construction Project Management. This was done and it is clear that the digital divide has been crossed by South African Project Managers and that they will embrace future developments in ICT in general. Finally: Future trends in ICT for the next five to ten years pertaining to Project Management should be analysed and new trends with possible advantages for Project Management must be investigated on a constant basis to see what will be advantageous. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Our study has explored how university students at the Technical University of Mombasa, TUM, in Kenya consume news. The aim of the research has been to get a snapshot picture of what the consumption look like in a time and context when the development of Internet Communication Technology, ICT, has increased rapidly in a short period of time. Our empiric data has been collected through three different methods. First we approached the area of the Technical University of Mombasa with an ethnographic method. Then we went on with an in-depth interview with one of our key informants before handing out a survey to collect quantitative data to analyse. Through theoretical framework rooted in the theories of Digital divide and New media we interpreted our data to be able to answer our research questions. The results show that the use of the smartphone is widely spread in order to consume news among students of TUM. Money is still a big obstacle for the majority of the students in our population in how they can access news through technical devices. The gap between those who can afford and those who fight with financial issues is still large. Our study confirms that the gap in the digital divide is still big but we could read signs telling us that the gap maybe is about to shrink.

The Internet and the proliferation of other digital technologies have facilitated the emergence of electronic or e-government across the world since the early 1990s. The Internet has now evolved into Web 2.0, which provides greater opportunities and platforms for interaction and collaboration than in the past. Governments using Web 2.0 in their e-government strategies are now moving towards Gov 2.0, a model of government based on increased interaction and collaboration with citizens and other policy actors. This has required a corresponding evolution in the conception of citizenship in democratic countries. While the Citizen 2.0 model is still relatively new, emerging a couple of years ago, it promotes new expectations of how citizens will engage in the political process. This raises concerns about the barriers facing citizens today in the adoption of this new model of citizenship. Bringing together the literature about e-government, democratic citizenship and adult literacy, this thesis explores the difficulties in realizing Citizen 2.0 model. Using discourse analysis to identify the various discourses in each literature, this thesis argues that the challenges in the adoption of the Citizen 2.0 model in democratic societies, and particularly in Canada, exist partially because current adult literacy rates and their impact on political knowledge and participation, as well as technological barriers in leveraging Web 2.0 for political purposes. These challenges carry significant implications for the realization of the Citizen 2.0 model, but also for the successful implementation of Gov 2.0. / Graduate

A tremendous disparity exists between the few countries with expansive access to information and communications technologies, and the many others still lacking the basic infrastructure and unable to participate in the information age. / While the current trade regime under the Basic Telecommunications Agreement, which forms part of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, offers many opportunities for developing countries, its potential for bridging the digital divide through increased flows of FDI is likely to benefit only those countries with large, lucrative markets. Global market failures would result in deepening the digital divide facing the poorest of the developing countries. Unable to come under the new liberalization paradigm, these countries are likely to be left even further behind. / A legal approach to bridging the digital divide requires going beyond the current trade regime and engaging in a new regime-building exercise. Drawing upon the domestic universal service concept, this thesis calls for a global universal service and access (GUSA) regime. Such a regime entails a new form of international cooperation that harnesses all available resources and includes the recasting of international accounting rates and a revitalization of official development assistance. It also involves institutional reform and reconfiguration through the creation of a new international financial institution, a Global Universal Service Fund (GUSF) as well as the strengthening of the role of the ITU as the custodian of the GUSA regime. / The GUSF would be an independently managed, politically balanced and internationally accountable institution. Because of its flexibility and its mandate to supplement market mechanisms and respond to global market failures, the fund would go a long way towards subsidizing network build out programs in the poorest developing countries, and ensuring widespread connectivity. The proposal is legally defensible under human rights law as well as trade and telecommunications laws, is economically justified under the global public goods doctrine, and technologically feasible given current capacity to connect the world and create the global village.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. (Human Rights))--Mahidol University, 2006. / LICL has E-Thesis 0018 ; please contact computer services.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 11, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-195).

Orientador: Ricardo Cesar Gonçalves Sant'Ana / Banca: Maria Cláudia Cabrini Gracio / Banca: Ângela Maria Grossi de Carvalho / Banca: Hernando Rojas Hernandez / Banca: Michel Jean Jacques Menou / Resumo: como metarelato deste momento histórico, resgata elementos do iluminismo Europeu da era industrial e do Fordismo Norte-americano, que combinados com o protagonismo da TI e através de uma série de conotações e mitificações, têm afiançado uma ordem neocapitalista cujo centro são os EUA. Essa ordem, descrita pela Teoria de Centro - Periferia mantém e aumenta o fenômeno de dependência dos países em desenvolvimento por meio de mecanismos econômicos, tecnológicos e também discursivos, que funcionam dentro de uma visão de Poder Suave ou Soft Power. A Exclusão Digital é um destes discursos, que por meio de legitimar a inclusão passiva e acrítica de todos os territórios dentro da estrutura digitalizada, espalha formas de Colonialismo Eletrônico. Esta pesquisa procurou evidência empírica desse processo na construção acadêmica dos discursos sobre Exclusão Digital e, para isso, analisou uma amostra da literatura mais citadas deste campo, na língua inglesa, como representante dos países "Centro", e espanhola e portuguesa como representantes das academias da "Periferia". Utiliza-se a Análise de Domínio como metodologia, incluindo quatro tipos de estudo: Estudo de Literatura e Fontes, Histórico, Bibliométrico e Crítico Epistemológico. A amostra documentária foi coletada usando Google Acadêmico. Este trabalho está fundamentado na perspectiva da Teoria Crítica, da Desconstrução e Teoria Fundamentada (Grounded Theory) a partir de um olhar sistêmico, ecológico e de complexidade. Os resultados da pesquisa mostraram grandes diferenças de produção e citação entre as três comunidades, sendo os EUA geradores de mais de 70% da produção e citação do domínio. A comunidade anglófona tem a sua literatura dominada por grandes corporações na publicação, o que limita o livre acesso a estes ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research aims to study the Digital Divide as part of the discourse from the meta-narratives emerged in the XXI century, which form part of the construction of globalization, supported in information technology (IT) and computer networks. The Information Society as a meta-narrative from this historic moment, rescued elements belonging to the European Enlightenment at the industrial age and the American Fordism, that combined with the role of IT and through a series of connotations and mythifications, bailed the neo-capitalist order whose center is the US. This order, as described by the Center-Periphery Theory, maintains and increases the dependency phenomenon in developing countries, by means of economic, technological and discursive mechanisms that work within a vision of Soft Power. The Digital Divide is one of these discourses, that helps legitimizing the passive and uncritical inclusion of all territories within the digital structure, spreading forms of Electronic Colonialism. This research looked for empirical evidence of this process in the academic construction of narratives about the Digital Divide, by examining a sample of the most cited literature of the field in English, as a representative of the "Center" countries, and Spanish and Portuguese as representatives of the academies from the "Periphery". We used Domain Analysis as methodology, including four types of study: Study of Literature and Sources, Historical, Bibliometric and a Critical & Epistemological study. The document sample was collected using Google Scholar. This work applies the perspective of Critical Theory and Grounded Theory from a systemic, ecological and complexity perspective. The results showed large differences of production and citation between the three communities, with the USA retaining more than 70% of production and citation. The Anglophone ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Resumen: Esta investigación tiene por objetivo estudiar la Brecha Digital como parte del discurso de los metarrelatos surgidos en el siglo XXI, y que forman parte de la construcción del proceso de globalización apoyado en tecnología de la información (TI) y redes informáticas. La Sociedade da Informação como metarrelato de este momento histórico, rescata elementos de la ilustración europea de la era industrial y el fordismo norteamericano, lo que combinado con el papel de las TI y a través de una serie de connotaciones y mitificaciones, ha afianzado un orden neo-capitalista cuyo centro es los EUA. Este orden, descrito por la Teoría de Centro - Periferia, mantiene y aumenta el fenómeno de dependencia en los países en desarrollo, por medio de mecanismos económicos, tecnológicos y discursivos que trabajan dentro de una perspectiva de Poder Suave (Soft Power). La brecha digital es uno de esos discursos, que por medio de legitimar la inclusión pasiva y acrítica de todos los territorios dentro de la estructura digital, difunde formas de colonialismo electrónico. Esta investigación buscó evidencia empírica de este proceso en la construcción académica de narrativas sobre Brecha Digital, y para ello examinó una muestra de la literatura más citada de este campo, en el idioma inglés, como representante de los países "centro", y en español y portugués, como representantes de las academias de la "Periferia". Se usó el Análisis de Dominio como metodología, incluyendo cuatro tipos de estudio: estudio Literatura y fuentes, Histórico, Bibliométrico y estudio Crítico-Epistemológico. La muestra documental se recogió usando Google Académico. Este trabajo aplica la perspectiva de Teoría Crítica y Teoría Fundamentada (Grounded Theory) a partir de una visión sistémica, ecológica y de complejidad. Los resultados de la ... (Resumen completo clicar acceso eletrônico abajo) / Doutor