Telemedicine systems adoption in post-conflict contexts: A case study of the role of community through the lens of hospitality in systems engineering

Post-conflict regions are extreme situations which load additional variables onto systems engineering projects. The success of advanced ICT projects in post-conflict regions is mixed and success factors in these regions remain poorly understood. In the immediate aftermath of war rebuilding health and education infrastructure are an essential part of a regions path to recovery. To build a knowledge based society (research-innovation-education), successful implementation of health informatics technologies such as telemedicine can be an essential tool in the process. This paper explores the importance of community in the success of an advanced ICT project in a post conflict setting. The community explored in this paper is defined by the institutional relationships between external actors, internal actors and the technology, driven by personal relationships. The concept of the technology as the guest and the institution as the host (Ciborra, 2002) is also explored in the context of the community. Concepts explored include: hosting technology can redefine the hosts identity, attempts by the host to control the technology can lead to failure, a technologies right to visit but not to stay, and the technology becoming an enemy if it is perceived as hostile (Ciborra, 2007).