Cinderella or Cyberella: what is the future for women in the knowledge society? Cyberella is fluent in the uses of technology, comfortable using and designing computer technology, and working in virtual spaces. Cinderella works in the basement of the knowledge society with little opportunity to reap its benefits. Promoting women’s empowerment through ICTs is one of the critical development challenges of the 21st century. Nancy Hafkin and Sophia Huyer, acknowledged as leading scholars on gender and information technology, have assembled a stellar group of authors for this collection. Each essay in the collection depicts ways in ICTs provide opportunities for women to improve their incomes, gain awareness of their rights, and improve their own and their families’ well-being. Illustrative case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, show the global possibilities for women’s empowerment through ICTs. Other Contributors: Sonia N. Jorge, Shafika Isaacs, Shoba Arun, Richard Heeks, Sharon Morgan, Maria Garrido, Raul Roman, and Vikas Nath.

From social networking sites to game design, from blogs to game play, and from fan fiction to commercial web sites, Girl Wide Web 2.0 offers a complex portrait of millennial girls online. Grounded in an understanding of the ongoing evolution in computer and internet technology and in the ways in which girls themselves use that technology, the book privileges studies of girls as active producers of computer/Internet content, and incorporates an international/intercultural perspective so as to extend our understanding of girls, the Internet, and the negotiation of identity.

Presents research investigating the notion that information communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to improve the lives of people and contribute to enhancing social conditions in developing countries through such concepts as the Knowledge Society, open education, and e-governance.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are widely heralded as an opportunity for the poor to have greater access to information that can help them escape poverty. ICTs also provide local NGOs that work with the poor access to knowledge that can guide them in implementing better development programs. Such ideas reflect long-held notions about the role of knowledge provision as a tool for development. But as author Tanya Jakimow shows, the consequences of the information age are often unintended and deviate greatly from our image of an interconnected, modern world. Not only do most people remain largely excluded from ICTs, but when they do engage with these technologies, they do so in unforeseen ways. Peddlers of Information shows how local NGOs in rural India are actually using these technologies—particularly the internet—and the implications this has had for development work and ideas about poverty. Jakimow’s critique of dominant views on ICTs and her discussion of class and power relations in Southern organizations is essential reading for development scholars and practitioners.

The Handbook of Research on Information Communication Technology Policy: Trends, Issues and Advancements provides a comprehensive and reliable source of information on current developments in information communication technologies. This source includes ICT policies; a guide on ICT policy formulation, implementation, adoption, monitoring, evaluation and application; and background information for scholars and researchers interested in carrying out research on ICT policies.

The growing presence of discrimination and isolation has caused negative changes to human interactions. With the ubiquity of these practices, there is now an increasingly urgent need to close this divide. Discrimination and Diversity: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications provides a critical look at race, gender, and modern day discrimination and solutions to creating sustainable diversity across numerous contexts and fields. Including innovative studies on anti-discrimination measures, gender discrimination, and tolerance, this multi-volume book is an ideal source for professionals, practitioners, graduate students, academics, and researchers working in equality, as well as managers and those in leadership roles.

This book, in conjunction with the volume CCIS 19, constitutes the refereed proceedings of theFirst World Summit, WSKS 2008, held in Athens, Greece, in September 2008. The 64 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 286 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on social & humanistic computing for the knowledge society; knowledge, learning, education, learning technologies and e-learning for the knowledge society; information technologies for the knowledge society; culture & cultural heritage - technology for culture management - management of tourism and entertainment - tourism networks in the knowledge society; government and democracy for the knowledge society.