Technology in everyday life
16 September 2009
IDRC’s publication Living the Information Society in Asia highlights the connection between man and technology and how varied ICT tools and applications have transformed human lives. The collection of selected papers provides fascinating insights to practitioners into the ICTs interventions and interactions in Asia.
Living the Information Society in Asia
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and International Development Research Centre, 2009.
Edited by: Erwin Alampay
Asian societies are in a period of transition, as people learn to live with new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Whether at work, at home, at school, or at large, ICTs are having an impact on day-to-day lives.
- Image credits: UN-APCICT/ Cover page of the report
How can mobile phones help to forge relationships within families that have been separated my migration? How do camera phones threaten personal space? How are cultural identities strengthened in call centres? How is religion being incorporated into the new ICTs?
This book is a collection of selected papers that were presented at the first Living the Information Society conference.
It is intended for scholars interested in further developing research on the interaction of ICT and society. It highlights the wide and diverse issues that emanate from our living in a society that is enmeshed with ICTs: how it changes our relationships, our lifestyles, our work, and how differently people are affected by it.
More than a hundred abstracts were submitted. Eventually, 76 papers were accepted and presented by people that represented more than 20 countries.
The conference itself was attended by more than 200 participants involved in ICT research. The success of the conference, in this regard, indicates how quickly the technological and research landscape is shifting.
A more nuanced explanation, that this publication espouses, is that ICTs are powerful tools, and that ultimately it is the people who use them and the environments in which they are used that decide whether they are a force for helping or hindering the development of communities.
