Wan Rozaini Sheik Osman

A Conceptual Model for Psychological Empowerment of Telecentre Users

The Information and Communication Technologies usage among rural communities can be promoted through community telecentres. To date, there is a lack of adequate knowledge in terms of civic participation and empowerment that are related to ICT programs evaluations. This paper proposes a conceptual model for evaluating psychological empowerment of telecentres users based on review of literature. The Zimmerman’s constructs of empowerment theory that include intrapersonal, interactional and behavioural components form the basis of the model. Researchers in the area can used this model to examine the relationship among the components of psychological empowerment for different populations and settings, and create an avenue for understanding individual users of telecentre projects.

A Conflict between Professional vs. Domestic Life? Understanding the Use of ICT in Teleworking for Balance in Work and Family Units

The advancement of information and communication technologies such as personal computers, the Internet and mobile phones has enabled people to work any time and anywhere. Teleworking, the practice of setting up home offices for employees with appropriate resources for computing and communication, is one example of this new flexibility. Teleworking brings new challenges as well as benefits, and a variety of studies have examined the impact of teleworking in terms of costs and benefits. A major attraction for teleworkers is the control it allows them over the way they structure their work and lives. However, the intrusion of work into the home blurs the boundaries between work and home life and may result in conflict between work and family. This work-family conflict is a direct result of the mutual incompatibility between the demands of work and family roles (Akdere, 2006). The aim of this research is to study the work-family balance of Malaysian teleworkers by exploring the nature of interactions between work and family activities, in order to get a better understanding of the experience of teleworkers in balancing their work and family life. This study will use the work-family border theory (Clark, 2000) to describe the phenomenon, and to explain how individuals manage and negotiate the work and family spheres and the borders between them in order to attain balance.

Investigating the Readiness of Broadband Continuous Usage among Rural Dwellers in the Northern Region of Malaysia

Broadband is simply described as the transmission capacity that is faster than primary rate Integrated Services Digital Network at 1.5 or 2.0 megabits per second. Efforts have been made by the government of Malaysia to ensure that broadband should be seen as basic need and not a luxury. However, the internet users at the remote and rural areas in the world lack behind in using broadband which is always caused by lack of technology and economic factors, while the rural areas especially in the northern region of Malaysia are not excluded. This research investigated the readiness of rural dwellers in the northern region of Malaysia towards continuous usage of broadband by using a quantitative survey technique. The total numbers of 200 questionnaires were distributed to secondary school students that are residing in the rural areas of northern region of Malaysia. The results show that the rural dwellers are readily prepared for broadband continuous usage in their localization whenever they are sensitized towards it.

G2G interaction among local agencies in developing countries based on diffusion of innovations theory

Technological advancement has allowed governments to meet the demands of its citizens electronically. Electronic government (e-Government) facilitates accurate and fast transactions and delivery of services and information to businesses, citizens, and government agencies. Moreover, e-Government helps enhance democracy. Agencies interact with one another electronically through the e-Government, which enhances efficiency. e-Government utilizes information and communication technology to provide the public access to various services. Leaders and information technology executives in the public sector have recognized the importance of sharing inter-organizational information to improve the efficiency of government agencies. Therefore, this study takes the diffusion of innovations theory as context to identify the most important factor affecting the electronic interaction between local agencies in developing countries.

Evaluation of broadband PLC technology over Malaysia's indoor power line network

Power Line Communication (PLC) is a potential infrastructure for Information and communication Technology (ICT) services provision. PLC is a technology that utilizes electrical power lines for high speed transmission of data, video, voice, et cetera. In an indoor environment, PLC can provide solutions for small offices and homes that have poor wireless coverage and provide high throughput and an inexpensive and easy-to-install Ethernet connection over powerlines. In this paper, we construct a real experiment to examine the performance of power line network adapters produced by the HomePlug AV standard using the Iperf tool. In addition, we explore commercially available equipment in an actual working environment. The impact of possible noise sources accrued from electrical appliances (chargers, AC Adapters, Fridge) and plug in conditions that the producer has not recommended have been examined simultaneously with data throughput analysis.

Measuring virtual learning environment success from the teacher’s perspective: Scale development and validation

This paper reports on the development of an instrument designed to measure the VLE success (VLES) amongst teachers. The items for VLES instrument were constructed in several steps including items’ face validation, content validation and reliability analysis. Forty-five final items have been produced after the analyses, with the deletion of 33 initial items. This validated VLES scale will be useful for future researchers in developing and testing VLE models or theories while at the same time will provide the tool for VLE stakeholders to evaluate the implementation from the teachers’ point of view.

Rural small and medium enterprise: Information and communication technology as panacea

Though, there are variations in the definitions of small and medium enterprises but it can be generally accepted as business activities that employ the services of 150 or fewer people in its activities and attributed with no link to the public limited company. Among the challenges facing the prospect of small and medium enterprise in the rural areas is the lack of integrating information and communication technology skills or strategies into their practice. Therefore, this paper engages the exploration of previous literatures in finding the benefits of information and communication technology to the rural small and medium enterprise.

Modeling of Broadband over In-Door Power Line Network in Malaysia

Malaysia is considered the eighth Asian country out of the top 15 countries in household broadband penetration at 34.5%. Users in rural areas who cannot receive Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or cable modem services. In addition, owing to the high cost of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure deployment in the rural areas, delay in broadband services is being experienced. Therefore, the Power Lines Communication (PLC) technology could have the potential to provide a broadband access through the entire electricity grid. Broadband PLC uses power lines as a high-speed digital transmission channel. This paper investigates low voltage Channel Transfer Function (CTF) of PLC technology for the purpose of data transmission regarding Malaysia electrical cable specification by using Matlab-Simulink simulation tool. Since that could help Malaysia licensable activities to provide Broadband PLC service out of harm’s way of other data communication networks.

Rural internet centre (RIC) as catalysts for building knowledge-based society - the case of northern states of Malaysia

The creation of Rural Internet Centre (RIC) by the Malaysian government was to provide opportunity and to empower the rural communities in Malaysia. The RIC provides IT skills training and knowledge acquisition programs to the rural community in Malaysia, including women, the elderly, and children. RIC was launched in March 2000 with two centers: Sungai Ayer Tawar in Selangor and Kanowit in Sarawak. By 2006, 42 RICs have been implemented in thirteen states in the country (KTAK, 2006). The Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC), Malaysia Post Berhad and Maju Sedunia Digital (MSD) are responsible for the project. The Malaysian government aim to set up 240 centres by the year 2010 which will eventually reaching an estimated 2.8 million members of the rural communities. The management of the centres operations and activities are given to the local communities. This creates opportunities to the locals to be employed and also provide the chance for acquisition of IT related skills and qualifications. This paper aims at providing an overview over the current RICs implementation with respect to supporting Malaysia governments aspiration towards building the knowledge-based society by the year 2020. RICs could function as the catalyst to achieve this objective. The initial findings on RICs current situations in Northern of Malaysia show that the centres can be further enhanced in order to function as desired.

Telecommuting in Malaysian government offices

The Government of Malaysia is working hard to bring the country into a developed and industrialized country by the 2020.To support this development, the government agencies collaborating with non-government agencies increasingly involve in numbers of high technology projects, which must be supported by committed and dedicated service-based civil servants, IT and non-IT professionals.Government-based agencies and institutions, however, are having problems to retain their employees for different reasons; family matters, working distance, unattractive salary and environmental aspects.To solve this problem, the Government should give an opportunity for the employees to work away from offices and to work for more than one employer.In this sense, telecommuting shall become a solution for civil servants in service-based industry and among IT professionals. Employees can work at home or at a remote centre through the use and support of high and reliable ICT infrastructure.The success of telecommuting programs especially in Malaysian environment is depending on numbers of criteria and sub-criteria.This study identified the criteria as rules, regulation and policies, infrastructure, finance, selection, training, environment and benefits.