Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo

From an anthropological viewpoint, “accessibility” is not so much a technological and design project as it is a cultural construction, a cognitive schema through which graphic designers and technologists imagine audiences and create appropriate graphic designs that will be “accessible” to that audie...

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Main Authors: Peterson, M. A., Panović, Ivan
Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84999
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42060
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-849992020-03-07T12:10:38Z Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo Peterson, M. A. Panović, Ivan School of Humanities and Social Sciences From an anthropological viewpoint, “accessibility” is not so much a technological and design project as it is a cultural construction, a cognitive schema through which graphic designers and technologists imagine audiences and create appropriate graphic designs that will be “accessible” to that audience. The ethnographer's task is the specification of key actors, institutions and discourses active in the making and remaking of accessibility in a given context. In this article, we examine how Egyptian Web producers at the turn of millennium (1999–2001) sought to design Web portals that would allow the “typical” Egyptian to easily access the World Wide Web. We argue, first, that Egyptian Web producers are deeply influenced by national and international discourses that frame IT as a national mission for socioeconomic development. Second, we found that in the absence of clear definitions of the Web audience, Web producers imagined a “typical” Egyptian that contradicted their own experiences of users of the Web. Finally, we found that Egyptian Web producers largely borrowed pre-existing models, using design elements to “inflect” their sites with an Egyptian motif. However, the conceptual models of access and related design strategies created by Egyptian Web producers were out of touch with Egyptian social realities, contributing to a collapse of most Web portal projects. 2017-01-24T04:52:30Z 2019-12-06T15:55:11Z 2017-01-24T04:52:30Z 2019-12-06T15:55:11Z 2004 Journal Article Peterson, M. A. & Panovic, I. (2004). Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 10(2), 199-219. 1361-4568 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84999 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42060 10.1080/13614560512331325991 en New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia © 2004 Taylor & Francis
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
description From an anthropological viewpoint, “accessibility” is not so much a technological and design project as it is a cultural construction, a cognitive schema through which graphic designers and technologists imagine audiences and create appropriate graphic designs that will be “accessible” to that audience. The ethnographer's task is the specification of key actors, institutions and discourses active in the making and remaking of accessibility in a given context. In this article, we examine how Egyptian Web producers at the turn of millennium (1999–2001) sought to design Web portals that would allow the “typical” Egyptian to easily access the World Wide Web. We argue, first, that Egyptian Web producers are deeply influenced by national and international discourses that frame IT as a national mission for socioeconomic development. Second, we found that in the absence of clear definitions of the Web audience, Web producers imagined a “typical” Egyptian that contradicted their own experiences of users of the Web. Finally, we found that Egyptian Web producers largely borrowed pre-existing models, using design elements to “inflect” their sites with an Egyptian motif. However, the conceptual models of access and related design strategies created by Egyptian Web producers were out of touch with Egyptian social realities, contributing to a collapse of most Web portal projects.
author2 School of Humanities and Social Sciences
author_facet School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Peterson, M. A.
Panović, Ivan
format Article
author Peterson, M. A.
Panović, Ivan
spellingShingle Peterson, M. A.
Panović, Ivan
Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo
author_sort Peterson, M. A.
title Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo
title_short Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo
title_full Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo
title_fullStr Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo
title_full_unstemmed Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo
title_sort accessing egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-cairo
publishDate 2017
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84999
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42060
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