Your Phone Has Internet - Why Are You at a Library PC? Re-imagining Public Access in the Mobile Internet Era

Abstract

Abstract. This study focuses on teenage users of public internet access venues (PAVs) in low-income neighborhoods of Cape Town. It documents their cultivation of detailed ICT repertoires to make the most of available ICTs. It highlights the continuing importance of PAVs as supplements for poorly equipped schools and reveals the incompleteness of any supposed transition to mobileonly internet use. While the mobile internet is opening up opportunities for young people, its current form still conflicts with the easy (global) rhetoric of a closing digital divide and the end of the PAV. We recommend policy and design actions (effecting rules, training, messaging, functionality, and Wi-Fi) to reconfigure PAVs to be more useful "in the age of the mobile internet". Though some actions require support from policymakers, this is fruitful ground for designers and technologists. We identify steps that can be undertaken immediately, rather than waiting for future device convergence or lower tariffs.

A benefits framework for public access ICT4D programmes

“…In this regard, this study demonstrates how qualitative data may be used to identify intangible benefits such as hope, increased choices, changed life, and increased agency. Furthermore, this study confirms the findings of Donner and Walton () that the demand for and usage of PACs is not on the decline, even among the mobile‐Internet‐using teenagers.…”

“…Developed a rural ICT comprehensive evaluation framework to be applied throughout the progression of an ICT4D project Donner and Walton (2013) Highlighted the ongoing importance of public access centres in the era of mobile Internet using interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires. Finds that entrepreneurial initiatives fulfil an increasingly important niche in public ICT access landscape and cybercafés can be an effective way to overcome the shortcomings of telecentre experiences.…”

Harnessing the potential of ICT for collective empowerment amongst the urban underserved communities

“…By contrast, other studies indicate that PAV access may be challenged but still continue to provide benefits different from or complementary to that of mobile phones (Chigona et al, 2011). Still fewer studies engaged with understanding how PAVs may be reimagined and reconfigured to respond to changing media usage patterns in the age of mobile Internet (Donner and Walton, 2013). These studies signal the importance of exploring possibilities to integrate PAV and mobile services for serving needs for information access and production.…”

Beyond “yesterday’s tomorrow”: future-focused mobile interaction design by and for emergent users

“…These ideas remind us, as Donner and Walton [11] do, that while the mobile is an important technology for developing world contexts, users in these regions, as users everywhere, do not want to rely solely on their small screens and restricted input devices all the time.…”

“…Increasingly, developed world users have access to a mobile, tablet, fixed home or work computer, smart TV and wearables. If such an ecosystem of devices is useful and desired in one world, what will be the equivalent in more resource-constrained contexts [11]? In working with emergent users in the workshops reported here, we go beyond simple mobile solutions and innovate coherent, flexible infrastructures.…”