This
research undertaken for the Research Into Use (RIU) programme used the
contemporary understanding of communication and innovation in reviewing
the experience of ICTs in putting new knowledge into use in South Asia.
The
findings from this research suggest that ICTs in general have not
contributed effectively to the challenge of putting new knowledge into
use as they are mostly used to support traditional communication tasks —
such as information dissemination and training. This under‐utilisation
of the potential of ICTs could be due to: a lack of appreciation of the
new communication‐ intermediation tasks required for innovation,
underestimation of the roles of intermediaries and their capacities for
innovation and lack of networks needed for communities to make use of
the information provided through ICTs. Although the understanding on
communication, innovation and extension has changed substantially in the
past two decades, there is still a big gap between theory and practice.
This paper contends that this gap needs to be bridged if ICTs are to
effectively contribute to putting new knowledge into use.
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