International IT implementation projects: policy and cultural considerations

Information technology has become a crucial component for economic and educational development. While in recent years an increasing number of people have gained access to information technology, the latest research indicates that a digital divide remains. Although researchers have moved past the belief that providing access will be the only step required to equalize populations' engagement with information technology, there is still very limited understanding of what factors are truly operative in maintaining the digital divide. What these studies increasingly show, however, is that culture and public policy are elements that contribute to a persistent digital divide. This presentation focuses on a case study of IT adoption in order to illustrate the importance of generating a more complex understanding of how culture and policy can influence usage. The region examined as part of this presentation is Central Asia, with a particular focus on Uzbekistan. Based on ethnographic and interview data, the presentation discusses early Internet adoption and usage patterns in Uzbekistan in order to illustrate that the uses to which diverse populations put technology is dependent on the interaction between cultural elements and public policies in place. Uzbekistan is an excellent test bed for such questions because of its early stage of Internet development and its relative isolation from Western cultural elements.