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Helping others use information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, can be beneficial for individuals and communities. In urban refugee communities, displaced and living far from home, collective behaviors with mobile phones can generate a sense of belonging. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for these offline behaviors to generate a sense of community among urban refugees.

Using quantitative evidence, the authors examined the relationship between collective behaviors, such as sharing or helping with a mobile phone, and sense of community. The authors analyzed survey data collected from urban refugees in Rwanda via multiple regression to test hypotheses related to the impact of collective behaviors on sense of community, as well as the mediating role of ICT self-efficacy and gender.

The findings suggest that collective behaviors with mobile phones have a positive relationship with sense of community, driven primarily by providing assistance as compared to sharing. ICT self-efficacy was positively related to sense of community. However, collective behaviors' impacts differed by gender, suggesting that social dynamics influence this relationship.

While the extant literature highlights the various roles of mobile phones in refugees' lives, less is known about the social aspects of use and its potential to help overcome isolation by fostering a sense of community. The authors extend this literature to a novel context (urban refugees in the Global South), testing a model that incorporates other factors that may play a role (e.g. self-efficacy and gender). These findings are valuable to urban refugees, due to difficulties in re-building a sense of community and increased ICT access.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of information and communication technology (ICT) on real estate agency transactions with a view to determine its influence on the performance of estate agents.

A research approach in which questionnaire was administered to elicit relevant information from 220 practicing Estate Surveyors and Valuers surveyed in the course of the study. Data collected were analysed using mean ranking, relative influence index and analysis of variance.

The results showed that the use of ICT impacted positively on real estate agency transactions by promoting company’s brand thereby increasing the level of patronage. Consequently, the increased level of patronage signifies an increase in the level of income of the agents.

The study was limited to social media applications otherwise referred to as ICT, which are used in real estate agency transactions. Further study on other ICT media and their effects on more areas of real estate practice in the developing economy may be required.

This paper is one of the few works on the impact of ICT on real estate agency transactions with particular reference to the social media networking especially in an emerging economy. Most of the previous studies conducted on ICT and real estate focussed only on internet use with respect to real estate agents and practices.

Although communication is of vital importance in construction projects, the construction industry is confronted with great communication difficulties and an ineffective use of information and communication technology (ICT) systems. In this study, the objective is to analyse obstacles and preconditions for an effective use of ICT by focusing on characteristics of interorganizational communication in construction projects. Interorganizational communication and ICT are studied by elaborating on these phenomena from the perspective of two paradigms – the traditional functionalist and the radical humanist – and theories representative for these paradigms – the agency theory and Habermas’ critical social theory. By using the method of metatriangulation, it is shown that in addition to the functionalist perspective, the critical social theory of Habermas is an appropriate theory for analysing obstacles and preconditions for an effective interorganizational communication and use of ICT. Based on this analysis, a critical research agenda on communication and ICT in construction is formulated. It is concluded that this type of research will lead to a more articulated view on the alignment between ICT applications and communication in construction projects and will show new directions for ICT development in the future.

Computing ethics represents a long established, yet rapidly evolving, discipline that grows in complexity and scope on a near-daily basis. Therefore, to help understand some of that scope it is essential to incorporate a range of perspectives, from a range of stakeholders, on current and emerging ethical challenges associated with computer technology. This study aims to achieve this by using, a three-pronged, stakeholder analysis of Computer Science academics, ICT industry professionals, and citizen groups was undertaken to explore what they consider to be crucial computing ethics concerns. The overlap between these stakeholder groups are explored, as well as whether their concerns are reflected in the existing literature.

Data collection was performed using focus groups, and the data was analysed using a thematic analysis. The data was also analysed to determine if there were overlaps between the literature and the stakeholders’ concerns and attitudes towards computing ethics.

The results of the focus group analysis show a mixture of overlapping concerns between the different groups, as well as some concerns that are unique to each of the specific groups. All groups stressed the importance of data as a key topic in computing ethics. This includes concerns around the accuracy, completeness and representativeness of data sets used to develop computing applications. Academics were concerned with the best ways to teach computing ethics to university students. Industry professionals believed that a lack of diversity in software teams resulted in important questions not being asked during design and development. Citizens discussed at length the negative and unexpected impacts of social media applications. These are all topics that have gained broad coverage in the literature.

In recent years, the impact of ICT on society and the environment at large has grown tremendously. From this fast-paced growth, a myriad of ethical concerns have arisen. The analysis aims to shed light on what a diverse group of stakeholders consider the most important social impacts of technology and whether these concerns are reflected in the literature on computing ethics. The outcomes of this analysis will form the basis for new teaching content that will be developed in future to help illuminate and address these concerns.

The multi-stakeholder analysis provides individual and differing perspectives on the issues related to the rapidly evolving discipline of computing ethics.

Given the increasingly significant investments in high‐speed broadband (HSB) internationally and the heightened rhetoric surrounding its benefits, the purpose of this paper is to assess the social impact of HSB.

Based on a case study concerning HSB delivered in the ambit of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN), the study contributes a conceptual framework to evaluate the social impact of HSB initiatives.

The authors found that key sectors, including education, health and community development, should be critically assessed across pertinent dimensions in evaluating the social impact of HSB.

The framework provided in this study is significant as it can be used strategically by managers and policy makers in both leveraging HSB opportunities in key sectors and monitoring the performance of such initiatives.

The research extends the technology adoption literature by contributing a framework that moves beyond the individual and organizational levels of technology adoption towards the wider sectoral level; and second, attempts to examine post‐adoption impact of technology.

This paper aims to focus on the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in preparation for and management of human and/or nature induced disasters.

Drawing from the phenomenal growth of ICTs, initiatives aimed at disaster management, stakeholder theory, prior research and the successful development and implementation of 9-1-1 (emergency telephone service of the USA), this paper explores ICTs in the context of human and/or nature induced disasters.

This paper discusses a new ICT for mitigating disaster management, scans, using stakeholder theory, relevant initiatives and prior research to identify the stakeholders relevant for successful preparation for and management of disasters, and draws from the 9-1-1 example to discuss how ICTs can be successfully developed and adopted.

There are opportunities for researchers to develop ICTs that can make countries, developing and developed, more efficient and effective in their preparation for and management of nature and human induced disasters. In addition, researchers can investigate the role of stakeholders in facilitating the adoption of new ICTs developed for disaster management. Researchers could also help public policy in designing the most efficient and effective programs for the adoption of new ICTs.

As an example of new ICTs that can potentially mitigate the effect of disasters, this paper discusses the E711 text-message mobile phone service (named “I am OK”) and provides a description of how this protocol operates and can be implemented. There are tremendous opportunities to develop new ICTs in the context of disaster management.

This paper argues that ICTs such as E711 can have a major impact on all countries in general and poor and developing nations in particular. Specifically, in the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) markets, developing ICTs for BOP market in the context of managing human and nature induced disasters and ensuring the diffusion of such ICT innovations is both critical and challenging.

This paper discusses the role and importance of ICTs in disaster management, identifies relevant stakeholders, discusses how ICTs can be diffused and implemented and calls on and hopes to provide an impetus to research on ICTs that can aid in the preparation for and the management of disasters.

The purpose of this paper is to address the place of computer/ICT ethics in the global ICT society driven by knowledge economy.

The paper focuses on three main issues: the evolution of the name of the leading technology of our times and, accordingly, the evolution of the name of the society in which this technology plays the leading role; some ethical dilemmas that the global ICT society will need to solve; global ICT ethics and the knowledge economy.

The paper suggests that global ICT ethics should be an ethics focusing on the dynamics of the relationship between the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick worldwide – and it should explore the ethical problems from the point of view of both parties involved. That way, Global ICT Ethics can have a truly communicative character, and it can become an ethics that will be both a co‐creator and also a result of a democratic processes.

This paper should interest anyone concerned with ICT and globalization.

This paper examines the potential uses of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to create a new, multi‐faceted phase of globalization. It goes beyond traditional explanations of ICTs and globalization, which concentrate on the cultural imperialism of mass communications or technology management. It is argued here that the “any‐to‐any” architecture of the Internet creates a hugely unstable political landscape, in which social, economic and political alliances become both more global and more local, but always more specialized. The paper concludes by asking how states might choose to strike a balance between the benefits to individual freedom brought about by the Internet and the diminished intermediary role for state, religious and other national cultural institutions.