This article tries to apply diffusion of innovation theory on the adoption of telecentres. It brings some overview about the theory and give some interesting insights of how and why a community would start using a telecentre. It starts reasoning that because telecenters are usually implemented in an atmosphere of optmism and urgency, there is not much time for theory, and also that telecenter is an atheorical object of study. Still, it gives a good definition of terms, including telecenters. The author explains that innovations have 3 characteriscts: Relative advantage, indicating the benefits involved with adopting the technology, compatibility, which relates to how relevant i is, and complexity, which is related towards how difficult it is perceived to be. Even though, the article asserts that a telecenter is "an innovation that contains an inventory of innovations". In this sense, the author separates the "hardware" part of the telecenter (physical place and machines) and the "software", which would be the services and sugests that there is an interdependency between them. The article brings interesting insights on Communication of Innovation and explains why there is a tendency that those that are not part of a network will probably keep excluded from it and thus the importance of monitors. Finally, it gives some information about the knowledge hypothesis gap.
Roman, R., 2003. Diffusion of Innovations as a Theoretical Framework for Telecenters. Information Technologies and International Development, 1(2), 53-66.
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