Investigating Technology Readiness of Rural Community: An Analysis of Age Differences

In Malaysia, although the government has promoted technology inclusion of rural area, the consideration of readiness for technology is being neglected. Research effort on technology readiness in Malaysian rural area is low. This research argues that low technology readiness may worsen the disparity of e-inclusion in Malaysia. Hence, this research is performed to provide evidence of the extreme importance of the investigation of readiness to technology implementation before its inception. The aim of the study is to assess the readiness level in Malaysian rural areas according to different age groups. Kampung Tengah, Melaka, Malaysia was chosen as a case study, and a survey study design was adopted. Data from 150 respondents of four different age groups was gathered and being analyzed with Kruskal Wallis Test. The results display significant differences among different age for optimism, innovativeness and insecurity. The results have indicated that there is a need to increase the technology readiness based on different age group, and different age groups require different strategies for e-inclusion initiatives. Further work will be performed in this community to gather technological and ICT requirements to conceptualize the value chain and implementation strategy for the inception of technology. The value chain can be further integrated and enhanced with e-inclusion initiatives towards the implementation of ICT-based initiatives such as e-learning.