Summary of proposal

Title
The information culture of the Maldives: an exploratory study of information provision and access in a small island developing state

Abstract
The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between information culture and development and to highlight areas in information provision and access that need to be addressed in the small island developing state of the Maldives. As Gathegi (1990) states “development is related to knowledge. Knowledge is derived from information. Knowledge and, therefore, information are vital to the development efforts of any country” (p. 1). It is therefore, proposed to undertake this study by evaluating the existing information culture in the Maldives and investigating the relevant information initiatives in place and those which are planned for the country. This will be compared with the information needs and information use of the urban community and one rural community to identify the challenges associated with the implementation of information services. The outcomes of the study will be reported and recommendations for further endeavours will be made.

Objectives
The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between information culture and development and to highlight areas in information provision and access that need to be addressed in the Maldives. The research questions for this study therefore are: (1) How effective are the existing and planned information initiatives in place in the Maldives? and (2) What changes are required in the information culture of the country to lead to development?
The specific objectives of this study are to:
1. define and evaluate the present information culture of the Maldives;
2. investigate the relevant information initiatives in place;
3. investigate the relevant information initiatives planned;
4. identify the information needs of the people of the Maldives;
5. identify the challenges associated with the implementation of information services; and
6. draw up recommendations for future direction of information initiatives.




References

Gathegi, J. N. (1990). Policy on the creation of scientific and technological
information in developing countries: the case of agricultural information in
Kenya. PhD Thesis. University of California, Berkeley.

Where I am with the thesis

When I submitted by candidacy proposal my research design involved document analysis, survey questionnaire and interview. These methods were used in a recent similar research by Iqbal (2004).

Did not have too much time to delve into the detail of the methods to get a good grip on what it entailed. For a research masters we get 3 months to submit the candidacy proposal. The candidacy proposal should include the objectives, research question/s, background to the literature, research methods, ethics, facilities & resources required, and of course the reference list.

Quite a considerable amount of time was spent on narrowing down my topic, and finding my little gap in the literature. Well that gap for me is quite huge and I am still not too sure if I am doing the right thing.

Those three months involved a lot of reading, writing, re-writing, more reading, and writing, and scrutiny into what I was proposing to study. It also involved a lot of sleepless nights, plenty of coffee, and foreboding thoughts of impending doom as I thought this whole thing was going to end up in a disaster. Many a times I questioned my decision to go ahead with a research degree.

Most of my effort was placed on the objectives, research questions and the background section. The methodology section and the rest took a back seat. This is proving to be a fatal mistake at this point in my journey. Kerry is having this notion of case study when I cannot understand how it can happen. We are also having an issue with methodology versus methods. Life would have been easier if these have been settled early on. But I guess this is a learning process and in the end things will work out just fine. The first hurdle was the candidacy approval, followed by ethics clearance which went hand-in-hand with the instrument design and all, this was followed by the actual data gathering and now the final and the largest challenge of all is getting it all together and telling my story.

The candidacy application went in smoothly, the detailed literature review again took lots of reading and writing and re-writing, the questionnaire design was time consuming but was enjoyable after all that reading, the actual data collection went alright (even if nerve racking at times), writing up of the methodology chapter was not too hard but it brought major issues in my research design that needs to be considered before I reach the finish line.

With the draft version of introduction (the proposal itself I guess), lit review, situation analysis, and research design (some on the latter half of drafting, and some in their infancy stage) I am now tackling the results chapter. And this is proving to be very challenging. It does not involve too much reading but involves a lot of patience, monotonous routines, and just sheer will to sit in front of the screen and report on all the 60 questions methodologically. It is taking its toll on me.

One semester to go and I guess I need to get things into full gear now.