Browsing by Author "Belle, Jean-Paul Van"

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Global Diffusion of the InternetXIII:Internet Diffusion in Kenya and ItsDeterminants– A Longitudinal Analysis
(2008) Muganda, Nixon; Belle, Jean-Paul Van; Brown, Irwin
This paper assesses Internet diffusion and its determinants in Kenya using the Global Diffusion of the Internet (GDI) framework. Kenya was selected due to its strategic importance for the economic progress of the great lakes region of Africa. An understanding of Internet diffusion in Kenya provides preliminary insight in to how the process might unfold in Eastern Africa. Theanalysisshowsthatin2008,lessthan10percentofthepopulationaccessedtheInternet,with a majority of users clustered around two major urban centers. There is an indication that across the sectors of education, commerce, health, and public service, the Internet is being embraced, with potential for further diffusion. The underlying national Internet connectivity infrastructure is well established, but skewed in favor of urban centers that have high levels of electricity penetration. Vibrant competition exists between Internet service providers despite a persistent monopoly in national ﬁxedlinetelecommunicationsprovision. A few sophisticated applications of the Internet were found in several sectors. A snap shot of the state of Internet diffusion in Kenya reﬂects, on average, good performance on the various dimensions of the GDI framework. However, this overall picture masks the reality that the majority of the population, mostly in rural areas, lack access to basic amenities such as electricity,and hence infrastructure to support the Internet. The trajectory along which the Internet is diffusing has therefore led to the exclusion of this majority. The critical role that governments in developing countries play needs to be brought to the fore in order to ensure that the Internet diffusion trajectory is not left entirely to the commercial sector. The government’s ability to marshal resources, execute telecommunications regulation, as well as enable change remains pivotal to ensuring inclusive Internet diffusion.
A Proposed Framework for E-Government Knowledge Infrastructures for Africa’s Transition Economies
(2010) Muganda, Nixon O; Belle, Jean-Paul Van
This paper proposes an empirically founded framework for building E-Government knowledge infrastructures in transition economies such as those in Africa. The proposed framework builds on the concepts of nomadic information environments. The f ramework, under the acronym NECE (Nomadic E- Government Co-Evolutionary) framework, caters for th e three levels of government: national, regional and local. At the national level lies the responsib ility of building Flexible Infrastructures. The regi onal level concentrates on the creation of nomadic netwo rks. The local level addresses the fostering of confident communities. The framework recognizes expl icitly the links and dependencies between the various levels. The strength of the framework is its systemic view in recognizing the roles of social, human resources, digital and physical resources requi red for addressing the possible social exclusion resulting from traditional “Western style” E-Govern ment implementations in developing countries. Importantly, e-government should not be conceptualize d primarily as from a technological perspective but as a tool to build of social, human, digital and physical resources in order to empower individuals, communities and whole societies