Information and communication technologies and culturally sensitive systems

This paper discusses the perceptions of Egyptian minority groups in relation to information and communication technologies with which they feel empowered to protect, affirm and communicate about, what they feel to be an oppressed existence, on both local and global dimensions. The research employs qualitative methods and interpretive analysis, to focus on the use of information and communication technologies tools by Egyptian minority groups, in particular, their online platforms and chat rooms, and the related issues associated with these practices and usages. The paper argues that cyberspace is used by specific minority groups in Egypt as a “gateway to freedom” in which it constitutes an ally to establish newly founded cyber identities that provides them with space to exercise their human rights of - freedom of thought, speech and expression. The paper thus examines cyberspace a medium or tool for the carrying out of information exchange without the traditional fear of politics and power. In this way, these minority groups are analysed as the newly conceived human information systems (HIS). In addition, recommendations are made in relation to the implementation of culturally sensitive systems through information and communication technologies. The paper proposes an adaptive and culturally sensitive model of human information systems as well as human information systems development life cycle (HISDLC) to aid in establishing effective processes of information exchange and creation, hence assisting in the emancipation of conflicting parties residing in Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East and globally.