Technological blending in the age of the Internet: A developing country perspective

The literature on ICT and development is almost totally disassociated from the earlier, more general work on technology and development. The former, moreover, is almost totally devoid of analytical categories that can bring some order to a vast, descriptive literature. The purpose of this paper, accordingly, is to use one concept from the technology and development literature to highlight and better understand some of the most promising innovations in developing countries. In particular, the paper shows that these examples well reflect the blending of ICT with the traditional technologies of radio and telephone.