Doctoral Dissertation

THE GLOBAL DIGITAL DIVIDE: EXPLORING THE RELATION BETWEEN CORE NATIONAL COMPUTING AND NATIONAL CAPACITY AND PROGRESS IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT OVER THE LAST DECADE
by Maria F. Trujillo-Mendoza

(all files require adobe acrobat reader) Click here for the full document with minor changes after defense.(All Chapters are included, but appendixes are not included).

Document divided by chapters

  • Abstract
    Title Page
    Acknowledgements
    Table of Contents
    List of Figures
    List of Tables

  • Chapter One - Introduction

  • Chapter Two - Framing the Problem
    The rate of change of digital information technologies
    The perspective from the developing world
  • Chapter Three - Theoretical and practical overview
    Bibliographic Reviews
    Case Studies
    National Policies
    Country comparisons and analytical frameworks
    Empirical Research
    Summary
  • Chapter Four - An analytical framework for the study of the global digital divide and the relation to human development
    The global digital divide and international development
    Theoretical perspectives on the global divide and development
  • Chapter Five - Methodology and Data Sources
    The dependent variable: human development
    Data sources and data reduction methods for independent variables
    National Core Computing and Networking capacity and National Info Tech Infrastructure
    Human Capital and Intellectual Index
    Cultural Indexes
    Control variables
    Missing values and dropped cases
    Other statistical methods
  • Chapter Six - Findings and Discussion
    The development divide
    Core national computing and networking capacity: the core of the digital divide
    More than just the core: national IT-infrastructure
    Human and Intellectual Capital
    Cultural Values
    The whole picture
     Discussion
    Internet and personal computers made a difference especially in progress in human development
    The S-shaped curve
    The role of human and intellectual capital
    The role of cultural values
    The whole picture
  • Chapter Seven - Policy Implications
    Positive feedback loops: solar powered local community telecenters based on wireless communications to solve access, adaptation and creation of local knowledge
    Positive feedback loops: solving access, adaptation and creation of local knowledge using digital libraries
    Positive feedback loops: using non-protected intellectual capital: freeware, shareware and open source software
    Positive feedback loops: underpromising and overdelivering IT projects
  • Chapter Eight - Conclusions and Recommendations for future research

  • Appendices
  • Appendix A - Rogers social model of diffusion of innovations
  • Appendix B - Database pf organizations contacted
  • Appendix C - Database of Journals Reviewed
  • Appendix D - The productivity paradox
  • Appendix E - Defining development
  • Appendix F - Technology transfer
  • Appendix G - Modernization theory of development: findings and discussion on cultural values
  • Appendix H - Human Development Indexes and rates of progress
  • Appendix I - Core-ITP values, Wired Index, IT-infrastructure Index
  • Appendix J - Human and Intellectual Capital Index
  • Appendix K - Items selected from the World Values Survey
  • Appendix L - Cultural Values Indexes
  • Appendix M - Dropped countries for missing values for all dependent variables
  • Appendix N - The IT-infrastructure indexes: an exercise in estimation
  • Appendix O - The population effect: advantages of small urban countries
  • Appendix P - Heteroskedasticity, variable transformations, and models of best fit
  • Appendix Q - Mitra's experiments with minimally invasive education and the "hole in the wall"
  • Appendix R - Scatter plots by development level, region, and country size
  • List of References
  • Biography