The coming of age of the personal computer and World Wide Web has made it possible to reach a much wider portion of populations. Technological determinists as well as social activists saw the potential of deploying networked computers to the general citizenry, and internet cafes and telecentres were established. Over the past twenty years only a handful of very poor countries did not get onto this bandwagon. ICTs and Sustainable Solutions for the Digital Divide: Theory and Perspectives focuses on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), which includes any technology...

Many hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted by well meaning philanthropists, aid agencies and governments in projects to deploy ICT solutions in developing contexts. The very long list of public Internet access facilities (telecenters, internet caf s, multi-purpose community centers) that were either closed down, or that never got off the ground in the first place, is very troublesome. Yet, there are some cases that seem to be very effective. ICTs for Global Development and Sustainability: Practice and Applications unites the theoretical underpinnings and scientific methodology of...