(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008)
Best, Michael L.; Thakur, Dhanaraj
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the telecommunications policy
process in immediate post-conflict countries and how that process differs from traditional settings.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors consider the case of Liberia, a country that recently
emerged from a protracted civil war. The authors focus on the Liberian Telecommunications Act of 2007
and the processes through which this act came about by applying a modified research framework. This
framework identifies several factors in the literature that are posited to influence the policymaking
process in developing countries. The authors also include other factors based on previous studies in
post-conflict countries. The aim is to test the usefulness of this framework using the 2007 act. The
authors apply it through the use of interviews with key actors in the government, industry, and
international agencies. This was supplemented by secondary data from published reports and other
sources.
Findings – From the framework the authors identify the main factors influencing the telecoms policy
making process in Liberia such as a weak and nascent institutional environment, intra-governmental
competition, limited human and technical resources, the supportive (especially initially) role of the
international actors such as the World Bank, and the dominance of elite groups in decision-making. The
authors then make suggestions on overcoming some of existing challenges to the sector.
Originality/value – This paper looks at the intersection of research in telecommunications policy, policy
processes and post-conflict countries, an area in which there is currently very little work. The results
indicate that several dimensions of the framework are germane to the post-conflict case and that some
of these observations are also relevant to the future development of telecommunications in these
countries.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004)
Sin, Mark; Escobedo, Marco; Best, Michael L.
User directory services, such as a database service
cataloging people in a company or community, are
important components today to many online applications.
Furthermore, the design of computer applications and
interfaces that are appropriate to currently marginalized
communities, such as those in rural and poor areas of the
developing world, has become an increasingly important
research area. We have developed and tested a novel user
directory service made specifically for rural communities
and for users with low written and computer literacy. Our
system supports a new interface design that allows users to
perfirm directory searches for people across a number of
dimensions without requiring written literacy nor
keyboarding skills. This user directory service was tested
in a rural community of the Dominican Republic. Initial
results suggest that the general user interface and
iconography was effective in supporting users with a
range of written literacy and computer skills. However,
results show that the Boolean query mechanism. as
implemented, is difficult to master.