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Global Standards and Local Development

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Locally Relevant ICT Research (IDIA 2018)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 933))

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Abstract

Substantial investments are made in ICTs to support socioeconomic growth in developing countries. As a side-effect of this, the public health sectors in developing countries are commonly challenged by the proliferation of multiple and parallel information systems. Investments are made, but not in a coordinated manner. Based on a case study of OpenHIE, a global community of practice supporting the development of ICT standards within health, and the implementation of these standards in Tanzania and The Philippines, we discuss the relation between global standards and local development. We do so by conceptualizing the global standards offered by OpenHIE as fluid standards and standards as composed of a package of the different components necessary to make them globally and locally relevant. Theoretically, we contribute to the standardization literature by applying and expanding the concept of fluid standards within this particular context of global initiatives to reduce fragmentation of health information systems locally in developing countries. We also contribute to the development literature by exemplifying and critically discussing how the fluid nature of standards, and the networked nature of standardization processes, promote local development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Simon Pettersen Nguyen, Petter Nielsen & Johan Ivar Sæbø

Authors
  1. Simon Pettersen Nguyen
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  2. Petter Nielsen
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  3. Johan Ivar Sæbø
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon Pettersen Nguyen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Kirstin Krauss

  2. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Marita Turpin

  3. University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Filistea Naude

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Nguyen, S.P., Nielsen, P., Sæbø, J.I. (2019). Global Standards and Local Development. In: Krauss, K., Turpin, M., Naude, F. (eds) Locally Relevant ICT Research. IDIA 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 933. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11235-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11235-6_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11234-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11235-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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