ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an understanding of what information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) means, breaking it down into its constituent parts. It defines the whole and parts of ICT4D and outlines specific features of information and communication technology (ICTs) and developing countries. The chapter explains the connection between ICTs and development. It contrasts different development paradigms and categorizes key theories and concepts of relevance to ICT4D. Modernization was a philosophy of development that dominated the third quarter of the twentieth century and thus also the initial years of applying ICTs to development. The "international development agenda" that ICT4D seeks to serve is a rather fuzzy notion that undoubtedly varies between different countries and different development organizations. Three main categories of ICT4D critique can be identified: Technical, Instrumental, and Structural. ICT4D 2.0 is the third in a set of historical phases in the application of ICTs to development.
