Internet review

Citation

Crowston, K. (2001), "Internet review", Information Technology & People, Vol. 14 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp.2001.16114cag.001

Internet review

There are five articles in this issue of Information, Technology & People, but in this column I will briefly touch on only two of them. The first, by Neil C. Ramiller, discusses an oft-told I/S story, "Airline Magazine Syndrome", analyzing it as a narrative. The syndrome is defined in Buzzword Hell in Cyberia from 1996 (http://www.well.com/user/pb/cyb/arc/Cyb.96.07.29.html) and eWeek offers a magazine column on how to survive the syndrome (http://www3.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,1013948-54,00.html).

Probably of more interest to readers is the use of narrative as a research method. The Qualitative Research in IS pages (edited by Michael Myers) offers a page of References on Narrative and Metaphor (http://www2.auckland.ac.nz/msis/isworld/metaphor.htm). The Qualitative Research in IS pages have been mentioned before in this column and should be in the bookmarks of any qualitative researcher. In addition, there is a long guide to the narrative perspective in psychology and allied disciplines (http://maple.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/narpsych.html) from Vincent W. Hevern of the Psychology Department, LeMoyne College, Syracuse, NY. Finally, you may be interested in the PSYCH-NARRATIVE mailing list ([email protected]). To subscribe, send the message "subscribe psych-narrative" to [email protected]. For help contact Andy Lock, [email protected]. This pointer comes from a list of Qualitative Research Email Resources (http://www.ualberta.ca/~jrnorris/forum962.htm), part of "QualPage: resources for qualitative research" (http://www.ualberta.ca/~jrnorris/qual.html).

The second article, by Shirin Madon and Sundeep Sahay, discusses the interaction between global and local networks – of ICT and of exchange – specifically the network of software firms and of the slum dwellers in Bangalore, India. A quick search of the Internet turns up many indications of the growth of the Internet in Bangalore. These include numerous guides to the city, such as "Surfing Bangalore, India – Your Complete Internet City Guide" (http://www.bangalorenet.com/) and "Bangalore Best" (http://www.bangalorebest.com/), and even guides to related Web sites, such as "Indiawebsites.com" (http://www.indiawebsites.com/). Bangalore hosts numerous ISPs, such as "Bangalore Labs: Internet Infrastructure Managers" (http://www.bangalorelabs.com/html/msp/mspindex.html). Even the newspaper, The Times of India Online, has a Bangalore page on the Web (http://www.timesofindia.com/today/pagemban.htm). Interestingly, all of these sites have .com addresses, rather than the .in for India, perhaps suggestive of their global rather than local character.

A major theme in the article is the role of technology parks. The Software Technology Parks of India, an independent society set up by the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, has a Web page describing its activities (http://www.soft.net/). Another article reports an attempt to create Biotechnology parks (http://www.tfci.com/bio/news.htm). Environment Support Group (ESG), which describes itself as an independent not-for-profit voluntary organisation involved in research, training, campaign and advocacy on various issues of public concern, has a site (http://www.altindia.net/esg/) that describes attempts to organize opposition to these technology parks. Finally, there is a short page about the Infosys Foundation (http://www.bangalorebest.com/others/ngowatch.asp), one of the sponsors of the "Bangalore Action Task Force".

Of course, the relation between ICT and development is of wider interest. For example, there is a set of links about use of information technology in Africa (http://www.sun.rhbnc.ac.uk/~uhte018/Resource/afrik-it.htm) and the World Bank has a report on using information for development (http://www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/harnessing/hid1.html). Those interested in this topic will probably know of the work of IFIP Working Group 9.4 on the Social Implications of Computing in Developing Countries (http://www.is.lse.ac.uk/ifipwg94/). This group has its newsletter on the Web (http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/current.htm) and is currently planning a conference for 2002 (coincidentally, to be held in Bangalore) (http://is.lse.ac.uk/ifipwg94/Conference2002/first_call.htm).

As usual, you can avoid having to retype the URLs mentioned in this column by starting from the on-line version at http://crowston.syr.edu/itp/.

Kevin Crowston