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Rationale
Authors writing on the relationship between the application of Internet technologies and poverty alleviation have tended to generalise the nature of the technologies available
(note 2).
In doing so they have failed to comprehend that the effect of the Internet is mediated by the appropriateness of the technologies being used.
Kemly Camacho
(note 3)
sets out to look at how access to the Internet - in terms of cost, infrastructure and personnel - has affected the programme activities of NGOs in Central America. But there is little in his methodology regarding the specific experience of NGO users.
This leads Camacho to base his evaluation upon an inductive methodological approach, relying heavily upon economic and cultural theories to assess the impact of the Internet.
The results are sweeping assumptions about the ways in which the mechanics of the Internet "mirror the hegemony of the developed world", since in its current form "the Internet is dominated by proprietary US software, the English language and Western styles of presentation."
Such conclusive arguments have precluded a discussion of the ways in which websites can be improved as a mechanism for transferring information between CSO users globally.
Scott McConnell's paper
(note 4)
is a refreshing exception to this thinking. McConnell attempts to evaluate the impact of the Internet upon African NGOs, by examining the effectiveness with which Internet-equipped NGOs use the technology to assist their unconnected partners.
McConnell confirms that access to the Internet is not an 'On-Off' issue. However, his behavioural approach to the research - looking at the activities of individual knowledge gatekeepers - prevents him from reflecting upon how the effect of the Internet is, in part, contingent upon the nature of the technologies being used.
Few studies have based their conclusions upon an assessment of actual websites as they are used in a real-world environment.
Since the Internet is here to stay, there is clearly a need for websites to be evaluated, so that plans for website design can be improved, to ensure that they meet the requirements of their users.
This must take place before any sensible discussion of the actual or potential impact of the Internet on poverty alleviation can take place.
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