Introduction

This book presents the findings of ten research teams that worked between 2009 and 2012 across three continents under the auspices of the Amy Mahan Research Fellowship Program to Assess the Impact of Public Access to ICT. It seeks to fill critical gaps in the research literature regarding the impact of public shared access to computers and the Internet. In this introductory chapter, we present the background to the preparation of the book and summarize findings as we overview how the book is organized.