Reviewing the views of ICT in development

Abstract

The role of information and communication technology (ICT) in national development is argued to depend on how ICT is viewed. Building on Orlikowski and lacono's classification of IT views we proposed in an earlier work that ICT can be conceptualized as: tool (means to achieve something), computational (the machine), ensemble (part of socio-economic context) and enabler (what ICT enables). We presented this as a hierarchy where the higher you go from the tool to the proxy view, the stronger ICT influences national development. In using our framework to evaluate ICT for development (ICT4D) projects, we realize that the notion of a hierarchy is untenable. Here, we argue that the relationship between ensemble and enabler views is complex as they do not share the same ontology. We propose that the enabler view addresses the impact while the ensemble view addresses the implementation of ICT in a development context. An ensemble view is an influencing factor, arguably the most critical, in achieving an enabler view. We use secondary data from published studies to illustrate and provide support for our thesis. Based on our analysis, we propose a revision of our ICT4D framework. How stakeholders conceptualize ICT4D is critical for its success and its sustainability. Our work is an attempt to provide much needed conceptual clarity in the ICT4D field.