Re: [GKD] Integrating Western and Traditional Information Systems
In response to the fascinating thread as below: Stuart Hawthorne wrote: The literature covering the implemention of Western designed information systems in developing countries frequently attests to the difficulty of matching the world view of the local community with the way knowledge is represented in the system. This difficulty arises because the local perspective is, or is historically derived from, a community-centered approach to information sharing. It is holistic and essentially deductive. This contrasts with the inductive, segmented nature of Western information systems. While there is much descriptive comment on the problems this mismatch causes, little attention has been given to identifying the operational differences at the analytical level John Lawrence wrote: Particularly interesting is the effort to understand the differences in perceptual organization, and therefore knowledge 'management' at the most fundamental levels. Can I ask, have you considered the implications for possible education system applications, and e-learning approaches? The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London is running an MA and PhD research programme on the Anthropology of Media, aimed at precisely these sorts of issues. I am enrolled on this programm for entry 2003, and having read the course materials I can vouch for its relevance. http://www2.soas.ac.uk/AnthSoc/MACourses/maanthmed.html A programme I have no direct experience of but one that seems very interesting is one at the Institute of Learning Technologies, Columbia University. They seem to be doing in-depth research on the implications of ICT for education. As an educator (Well a TEFL teacher at least) and someone in this discussion, I can say that the integration of these two areas of inquiry in a field setting is probably key to development as capacity building. http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/about/index.html Does anyone know of any programmes or institutions similar to these two? Perhaps we should start a training and resources links site for our particular field of interest, do any already exist? Daniel Taghioff ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/
Re: [GKD] Integrating Western and Traditional Information Systems
This gets at the heart of development efforts to match western infotechnologies and local social and cultural processes. Particularly interesting is the effort to understand the differences in perceptual organization, and therefore knowledge 'management' at the most fundamental levels. Can I ask, have you considered the implications for possible education system applications, and e-learning approaches? Stuart Hawthorne wrote: The literature covering the implemention of Western designed information systems in developing countries frequently attests to the difficulty of matching the world view of the local community with the way knowledge is represented in the system. This difficulty arises because the local perspective is, or is historically derived from, a community-centered approach to information sharing. It is holistic and essentially deductive. This contrasts with the inductive, segmented nature of Western information systems. While there is much descriptive comment on the problems this mismatch causes, little attention has been given to identifying the operational differences at the analytical level. Our view is that if we can identify the actual processes that occur in the community-based information processing system, we may be able to develop information systems better suited to the user in the traditional community. This will provide the means for the traditional user to access indexed information under his own familiar perspective and facilitate access by the traditional user to Western datastores. Given our backgrounds, our interest lies largely with the traditional Melanesian community but have a strong suspicion that there are general principles that apply to all community-based (historically oral) information systems employing distributed storage. For example, given system requirements, it seems determination of relevance has to occur at a different, probably later, time in the retrieval process than it does in Western systems. The anecdotal evidence points in this direction at least. We would very much like to make contact with anyone working in this area or to learn of any related research we may consult. ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/
