Information Technology Access: Cybercafe Diffusion in Sub-Saharan Africa

Mbarika, Victor; Kah, Muhammadou M. O.; Samake, Kibily; Sumrall, Jeffrey

doi:10.1109/mts.2007.906677

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Whereas a novel's peritext traditionally indicates what a writer or editor deems necessary for a reader to understand, the fact that the reader alone is left to detect and decipher hypertextual clues in Verre Cassé renders the necessity of and access to such information problematic. According to Mbarika et al ( 2004) 26 , the Internet (and cyber cafés in particular) has become a source for social, political, educational and economic activity in the Sub-Saharan region. That said, the regulars of Le Crédit a voyagé are…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

User-Friendliness and Virtual Reality A Hypertextual Reading of Alain Mabanckou’s Verre Cassé

Herbeck

2011

fixxion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Je suis conscient et plus que convaincu que c'est en partant du 'local' qu'on atteint le monde, l'universel. 11 Set in a seedy Congolese bar seemingly far removed from the ever-present influences of globalization (aside perhaps from the occasional copy of Paris-Match), Alain Mabanckou's Verre Cassé (2005) 2 does not have a single foot-or endnote. In fact, the novel has no such peritext 3 whatsoever aside from its title and two short inter-titles that serve to identify the two parts of the work as premiers feuillets and derniers feuillets.However, this absence of peritext is not in the least surprising given that the novel does not contain any lexical, idiomatic or vernacular terms specific to the region that might confuse or otherwise disorient the reader. Rather, what is shocking is the novel's syntax. Rivaling the syntactic dexterity of Perec and Proust, the eponymous protagonist's long-winded narrative (presented in the form of a notebook that recounts the exploits and hardships of his fellow patrons at Le Crédit a voyagé) amounts to nearly 250 pages without recourse to a single punctuation mark aside from commas and quotations marks. What is even more shocking (and clearly a testament to Mabanckou's talent as a wordsmith) is that, rather than being impeded by Verre Cassé's stream-ofconsciousness prose, readers soon find themselves swept up in the current of the narrative agent's ingenuity, carried along in seemingly effortless fashion to the novel's "conclusion" (which, of course, lacks final punctuation) 4 . 2Whereas the orality conveyed by Verre Cassé's unconventional syntax may be interpreted as a harkening back to Africa's fading griot traditions 5 , I propose to examine Mabanckou's novel along quite different lines; namely, as a cautionary 21st-century tale. Considering each surreptitiously embedded intertext in Mabanckou's novel as a potential hyperlink, I will argue that these hidden titles proffer information and evenUser-Friendliness and Virtual Reality A Hypertextual Reading of Alain Mabanck...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

User-Friendliness and Virtual Reality A Hypertextual Reading of Alain Mabanckou’s Verre Cassé

Herbeck

2011

fixxion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Regional differences in stakeholders' perspectives on strategies to overcome teledensity limitations: An exploratory comparison of selected Latin American and Sub‐Saharan African countries

Meso¹,

Kaba²,

Mbarika³

et al. 2008

J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prior research has identified specific factors that hinder growth of teledensity in developing countries and specific strategies used to overcome such limitations both in Latin America and in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior research also has reported on the perceptions that telecommunications stakeholders have on how various strategies can inform and assist in the enhancement of teledensity in each of the two continental regions. This study fills a gap in the literature by investigating similarities and differences in the telecommunication stakeholders' perspectives of specific strategies used to address teledensity limitations in Latin America as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa. Independent samples of survey participants (Latin America's and Sub-Saharan Africa's telecommunications stakeholders) analyzed the strategies. Using appropriate statistical procedures, we examined these stakeholders' perceptions to find areas of commonality and difference in their respective perspectives on the effectiveness of selected strategies. Qualitative comments to support the stakeholders' responses are reported, together with future research implications. IntroductionTeledensity is defined as the number of telephone lines for every 100 inhabitants and is a leading measure of the telecommunications infrastructures within a country [International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 2007; McCoy & Mbarika, Received January 16, 2008; revised July 3, 2008; accepted July 3, 2008 © 2008 ASIS&T • Published online 14 August 2008 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/asi.20940 2005; Philip, 1988]. Telecommunication infrastructures provide the base for important applications on the Internet, such as online education, and e-commerce while promoting resource mobilization through increased participation of the labor force in a country's economic activities (Ayo, Ekong, Tolulope, & Ayodele, 2007;Dutta, 2001;Heeks, 2002;Ho, Kauffman, & Liang, 2007;Madon, 2000;Travica, 2002;Wolcott, Press, McHenry, Goodman, & Foster 2001). The telecommunication infrastructure is the core backbone upon which a region can implement and develop information-age services such as e-commerce, m-commerce, telemedicine, and e-government. The telecommunication infrastructure can enable vast numbers of users to access telephone and Internetbased communication services such as e-mail, Web browsing, instant messaging, and text messaging, among others. Adequate communications infrastructure can empower citizens to access the global resource pools of knowledge regarding information on finances and markets that let them effectively engage in capacity building, income generation, and skills-acquisition activities beneficial to the local communities to which they belong (Heeks, 2002;Jhunjhunwala, 2003;Madon, 2000;Madden & Savage, 2000;M'Sene, 2007;Straub, Loch, & Hill, 2001). Enhanced teledensity can provide the means by which many more citizens can become actively involved in the governance process and contribute effectively to governance issues of the day...

show abstract