The “First” and “Third World” in Africa: Knowledge Access, Challenges and Current Technological Innovations in Africa
The “First” and “Third World” in Africa: Knowledge Access, Challenges and Current Technological Innovations in Africa
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非洲的“第一世界”和“第三世界”：非洲的知识获取、挑战和当前技术创新
DOI：
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Segametsi Molawa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Segametsi Molawa
本文重点关注非洲大陆的数字化。它突显了一些非洲国家在发展和获得信息通信技术（ICT）工具方面兼具“第一”和“第三”世界特征的事实。该研究以南非为案例研究，代表少数享有特权的人，他们是非常富有的“第一世界”，而生活在乡村和城镇的大多数人口代表该国欠发达的贫困地区，有时被称为南非的“第三世界”组成部分。与非洲大陆其他国家一样，欠发达地区由于基础设施薄弱，在获取信息技术方面面临挑战。南非的案例研究因九个省份在获取信息通信技术方面存在明显差异而变得更加复杂。例如，一些省份比其他省份更加农村化，这一因素会对数字化和基础设施的可用性产生影响。目前许多人认为数字化是一个可以最大限度地获取全球知识的过程。大多数国家正在创造传统上以书籍、期刊、专着和许多其他用于保存的格式（例如缩微胶片）的形式共享和传播的知识。这些信息存储在图书馆和档案馆等实体建筑中，这些建筑以知识的管理和传播而自豪。然而，随着现代技术的出现，数字化超越了图书馆和档案馆所呈现的地理鸿沟和实体建筑的僵化，使全球知识变得容易和广泛地可用。数字化还促进以更快、更便宜的方式获取知识和信息，因为如果有适当的基础设施，生产和地理挑战就会受到限制。因此，除了电视、广播和其他ICT工具之外，互联网已成为知识共享的主要工具。尽管数字化正在最大限度地提高获取知识的机会，但由于信息通信技术基础设施薄弱，它正在将“第三世界”、欠发达国家或非洲大陆部分地区排除在获取循环之外。因此，这些欠发达地区对第一届非洲数字图书馆和档案馆国际会议 (ICADLA-1) Molawa 2 互联网的访问受到限制，本文指出了由于缺乏获取全球知识而带来的挑战，审查了现有解决方案并提出了建议，以最大限度地提高访问权限。
This paper focuses on digitization in the African continent. It highlights the fact that some countries in Africa have both the “first” and “third” world characteristics in terms of development and access to information and communication technology (ICT) tools. The study uses South Africa as a case study representing the minority privileged , who are very rich “first world”, compared with the majority population living in rural and urban townships that represents the underdeveloped, poor parts of the country, sometimes referred to as the “third world” component of South Africa. The underdeveloped areas, as in other countries on the African continent, face challenges in accessing information technology as a result of poor infrastructure. The South African case study is further complicated by the apparent divide between the nine provinces in terms of accessing ICTs. For example, some of the provinces are more rural than others and this factor has implications in terms of digitization and availability of infrastructure. Digitization is a process that is currently looked upon by many to bring about maximum access to global knowledge. Most countries are generating knowledge that is traditionally shared and disseminated in the form of books, journals, monographs and many other formats that have been used for preservation, like microfiche. These are stored in physical buildings such as libraries and archives that pride themselves on the management and dissemination of knowledge. With the advent of modern technology, however, digitization transcends the geographical divide and rigidity of a physical building, as presented by a library and archive, by making global knowledge readily and widely available. Digitization also promotes access to knowledge and information in a faster and cheaper way because the production and geographical challenges are limited if the appropriate infrastructure is available. As a result, the Internet has become the primary vehicle in the sharing of knowledge in addition to TV, radio and other ICT tools. Much as digitization is maximizing access to knowledge, it is cutting the “third world”, or underdeveloped countries or parts of the African continent, out of the access loop because of poor ICT infrastructure. Thus these underdeveloped areas have limited access to the First International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives (ICADLA-1) Molawa 2 Internet and this paper identifies challenges posed by lack of access to global knowledge, reviews existing solutions and suggests proposals in order to maximize access.