Track: Internet and Digital Economy
Minitrack: The Diffusion, Impacts, Adoption and Usage of ICTs upon
                   Society

Since the emergence of the 21st century governments around the globe have been striving to offer Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) infrastructures, namely broadband. During the first 4 to 5 years interest was focused upon whether the infrastructure was being provided and focus was on the issue of accessibility. Since then countries and research both from industry and academe have changed their focus as it is now thought that accessibility has been examined, with the emphasis now on how the households and social communities are diffusing, adopting, and using the ICTs and further, consideration of the impacts of ICTs.

The aim of this mini-track will be to offer a global perspective of how ICTs are being diffused, used and adopted within society (households and social communities). Adoption, usage and diffusion studies are prevalent in Information Systems (IS) research and offer an insight into many issues surrounding ‘how’ technologies are being introduced, ‘when’ and ‘how’. By undertaking this research academics, industry and government agencies will learn of how ICTs are being utilised by various groups and communities in society and what measures are being undertaken to have households and the various social communities adopt and use the ICTs with a further consideration of the impacts of the ICTs. Academic research has been focusing upon the diffusion, adoption and usage of broadband since about 2000. If IS conference tracks from prestigious conferences such as ICIS, AMCIS and ECIS are examined, it will be found that these topics are of immense interest. Further, in 2008 this track call was a novel one but achieved a number of successful and interesting submissions. This year we intend to build on that success and achieve even more success for the conference and for researchers, this could offer more innovative strategies and theories of diffusing, adopting and using ICTs that have not been considered before.


Topics and research areas include, but are not limited to:
* The adoption and usage of ICTs, broadband, mobile phones and other
    ICTs within households
* The impacts of ICTs upon households
* The adoption and usage of ICTs upon various social communities (eg.
   Residential neighbourhoods and Internet cafes)
* The impacts of ICTs upon various social communities
* Evaluation the technological and non-technological aspects of the
   adoption and usage of ICTs
* Evaluating the technological and non-technological aspects of the
   impacts of ICTs
* The diffusion, adoption and usage of ICTs within households
* The diffusion, adoption and usage of ICTs within various social
    communities
* Stakeholder theory and the adoption, diffusion and usage of ICTs
* Project management and the diffusion of ICTs
* Project Management and the adoption and usage of ICTs
* Project Management and the impacts of ICTs
* Human Computer Interaction issues related to the adoption, usage and
   impact factors in the context of ICTS


Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Jyoti Choudrie (Primary Contact)
Business School
University of Hertfordshire
DeHavilland Campus, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK
Email: j.choudrie@herts.ac.uk; Jyoti.choudrie@btopenworld.com

Bendik Bygstad
Norwegian School of IT
Norges Informasjonsteknologiske Høgskole, NITH
Schweigaardsgate 14, 0185 Oslo, Norway
Email: bendik.bygstad@nith.no

Chadi Aoun
Department of Accounting and Finance
Division of Economic and Financial Studies
Macquarie University
NSW 2109 – Australia
Email: caoun@efs.mq.edu.au