The Need for Community Informatics in Malaysia

The Malaysian government, through many initiatives, has seriously looked into reducing and if possible eliminating, the digital divide that exists between the developed urban and the technologically impoverished rural communities. The e-Bario Project, a successful research showcase of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, is one of the leading examples in Malaysia of such an attempt to bridge the digital gap and to achieve sustainable human development through the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT). According to Harris, Bala, Songan, Khoo and Trang (2001), the World Bank had introduced a systematic approach to the application of ICT to meet the needs and bridge the digital divide of the rural community.