The second volume in the SIRCA book series investigates the impact of information society initiatives by extending the boundaries of academic research into the realm of practice. Global in scope, it includes contributions and research projects from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The international scholarly community has taken a variety of approaches to question the impact of information society initiatives on populations in the Global South. This book addresses two aspects- Impact of research: How is the research on ICTs in the Global South playing a role in creating an information society? (e.g. policy formulation, media coverage, implementation in practice) and Research on impact: What is the evidence for the impact of ICTs on society? (i.e. the objectives of socio-economic development). This volume brings together a multiplicity of voices and approaches from social scientific research to produce an engaging volume for a variety of stakeholders including academics, researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and those in the business and civil sectors of society.

Information and communication technologies have long promised to provide quality education, improve healthcare, allow open government, and solve environmental issues. To realize this potential and influence policy-making and programme design, the Singapore Internet Research Center, supported by the IDRC, created an innovative research capacity-building programme, SIRCA.

Theoretical and empirical analyses of whether open innovations in international development instrumentally advantages poor and marginalized populations. Over the last ten years, open innovations--the sharing of information without access restrictions or cost--have emerged within international development. But do these practices instrumentally advantage poor and marginalized populations? This book examines whether, for whom, and under what circumstances the free, networked, public sharing of information and communication resources contributes (or not) towards a process of positive social transformation. The contributors offer both theoretical and empirical analyses that cover a broad range of applications, emphasizing the underlying aspects of open innovations that are shared across contexts and domains.