Cultural Diversity and Participatory Evolution in IS: Global vs. Local Issues

A core issue in communication, culture should thus have considerable weight in IS as communication technologies. We review research documenting the importance of diverse cultural elements – including those identified by Hall and Hofstede – to IS design and usage if these are to be successful. An analysis of emerging participatory approaches facilitated by ICTs, including recent research on community networks and how users from diverse languages and cultures participate differently in Wikipedia, further highlights specific aspects of culture and language essential to successful IS design and implementation. We argue that participatory approaches and user-centric technologies appear to play increasingly important roles in diverse cultures and societies: this suggests IS research should take advantage of both extant and emerging frameworks for analyzing culture, technology, and communication – especially if IS is to continue to play a key role in the cultural (re)evolution ICTs facilitate.