Diffusion of innovation theorizes on how human beings adopt new communication technology, but it fails to take into account the institutional factors involved in the process. In this study involving new communicational technology use in a small Greek rural village, it is determined that the village cafe, as the central socializing element in the community, plays a powerful role in dissemination of new communicational devices, or what this article conceptualizes as `mediating commons'. Such mediating commons social institutions as the village cafe play a significant role in encouraging the adoption of new communication products; without such a mediating commons in a community, adoption rates may reduce significantly and lead to a spreading digital divide.
Arquilla, J. and D. Ronfeldt (2001) Networks and Netwars. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
2.
Atkin, D.J., L.W. Jeffres and K.A. Neuendorf (1998) `Understanding Internet Adoption as Telecommunications Behavior', Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media42(4): 475-90.
3.
Bankston, C.L., III (1995) `Part II:The Exchange and Diffusion of Innovation:A Review of Major Themes in the Literature', in W.Shrum, C.L. Bankston III and S.D.Voss (eds) Science,Technology and Society in the Third World, pp. 25-36. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
4.
Benson, T. (2004) `Courting the Poor: A Retailer Rises to No. 3 in Brazil', New York Times, 14 July, p. W1.
5.
Boafo, S.T.K. (1991) `Communication Technology and Dependent Development in Sub-Saharan Africa', in G. Sussman and J.A. Lent (eds) Transnational Communications:Wiring the Third World, pp. 103-24. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Close, D.H. (2002) Greece Since 1945. London: Longman.
8.
Cowan, J.K. (1991) `Going Out for Coffee? Contesting the Grounds of Gendered Pleasures in Everyday Sociability', in P. Loizos and E. Papataxiarchis (eds) Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece, pp. 180-202. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
9.
Dalmasso, E. (1998) Petites et grandes villes du baisin Méditerranéen [Small and Large Villages in the Mediterranean Basin). Rome: Ecole Française du Rome.
10.
du Boulay, J. (1974) Portrait of a Greek Mountain Village. Oxford: Clarendon.
11.
European Commission, Greek Representative ( 2003) The Audiovisual Sector of Greece. Athens: European Union.
12.
Eurozone (nd) `Promoting the Eurozone in Western Greece', URL (consulted 16 March 2006 ): http://ru6.cti.gr/broadband/el/index.php
13.
Feliciano, G.M. and J.M. Flavier (1967) `Strategy of Change in the Barrio - a Case of Rural Waste Disposal', in D. Lerner and W. Schramm (eds) Communication and Change in the Developing Countries, pp. 279-88. Honolulu: East-West Center Press.
14.
Fitzgerald, D. (1986) `Exporting American Agriculture: The Rockefeller Foundation in Mexico, 1943-53', Social Studies of Science16(3): 456-83.
15.
Friedl, E. (1962) Vasilika: A Village in Modern Greece. New York : Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
16.
Friedl, E. (1964) `Lagging Emulation: A Post-peasant Phenomenon' , American Anthropologist66(3): 569-86.
17.
Gage, N. (1987) Hellas: A Portrait of Greece. NewYork:Villard Books.
18.
Greek Research and Technology Network (nd) `Nine Points about Broadband Access', URL (consulted 16 March 2006): http://www.broadband.gr/9shmeiaen.php#four
19.
Hagerstrand, T. (1952) The Propagation of Innovation Waves. Lund: Lund Studies in Geography.
20.
Hagerstrand, T. (1967[1953]) Innovations for Loppet ur Korologisk Synpunkt [Innovation Diffusion as a Spatial Process] (trans. A. Pred and G. Haag). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
21.
Halici, N. (2000) `Ottoman Cuisine', in K. Cicek (ed.) The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilization, pp. 93-103. Ankara:Yeni Turkiey.
22.
Halpern, J.M. (1967) The Changing Village Community. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
23.
Harrisson, D., N. Laplante and L. St-Cyr (2001) `Cooperation and Resistance in Work Innovation Networks', Human Relations54(2): 215-55.
24.
Hart, L.K. (1992) Time, Religion, and Social Experience in Rural Greece. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
25.
Herzfeld, M. (1985) The Poetics of Manhood. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
26.
Infosoc Magazine (2005) `The Observatory's Study Shows Recovery of the Information and TelecommunicationsEnterprises', URL (consulted 7 April 2008): http://www.infosoc.gr/infosoc/en-UK/specialreports/observatory_research/default.htm
27.
Katz, E. and P.F. Lazarsfeld (1955) Personal Influence:The Part Played by People in the Flow of Communications. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
28.
Kottak, C.P. (1983) Assault on Paradise. New York : Random House.
29.
Kottak, C.P. (1996) Mirror for Humanity. New York : McGraw-Hill.
30.
Ktpae (nd) `Greek Information Laws', URL (consulted 16 March 2006): http://www.ktpae.gr/fek.php
31.
Lazarsfeld, P.F., B. Berelson and H. Gaudet (1944) The People's Choice: How the Voter Makes up His Mind in a Presidential Election. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce.
32.
Legg, K.R. and J.M. Roberts (1997) Modern Greece: A Civilization on the Periphery . Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
33.
Madan,V. (2002) `Introduction', in V.Madan (ed.) The Village in India, pp. 1-26. New Delhi : Oxford University Press.
34.
Managing Authority of Operational Program ( 2006a) `OPIS 5', URL (consulted 16 March 2006): http://en.infosoc.gr/content/downloads/Opisch5EN.pdf
35.
Managing Authority of Operational Program ( 2006b) `Strategy', URL (consulted 16 March 2006): http://en.infosoc.gr/content/downloads/strategy_en.pdf
36.
Menzel, H. (1971) `Quasi-Mass Communication: A Neglected Area', Public Opinion Quarterly35(3): 406-9.
37.
Miniwatts Marketing Group (2008) `Internet World Stats', URL (consulted 3 April 2008): http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
38.
Opinion S.A. (2005) `Study on Measuring eEurope Indicators in Greece: Report on the Research Findings among Individuals - Households', Observatory for the Greek Information Society, URL (consulted January 2006): http://www.observatory.gr/page/default.asp?la=2&id=4
39.
OTE Museum of Telecommunications (2003) Catalogue. Athens: OTE Museum of Telecommunications.
40.
Papataxiarchis, E. (1991) `Friends of the Heart: Male Commensal Solidarity, Gender and Kinship in Aegean Greece', in P. Loizos and E. Papataxiarchis (eds) Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece, pp. 156-79. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
41.
Rogers, E.M. (1995) Diffusion of Innovations. New York : The Free Press.
42.
Salzman, P. (1996) `The Electronic Trojan Horse: Television in the Globalization of Para-modern Cultures', paper presented at the plenary session Societies, Evolution and Globalization, 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Mexico City, July 28-5 August.
43.
Sanders, I.T. (1962) Rainbow in the Rock:The People of Rural Greece . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
44.
Special Secretariat for Digital Planning of the Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance (2005) `Information Society in Greece, Operational Program IS', URL (consulted 16 March 2006): http://www.infosoc.gr/infosoc/el-GR/epktp/piousendiaferei/
45.
Spinthourakis, M. (2002) `Greeks, Italians Hold Dubious Honor as EU's Television Fanatics, Athens News Agency, 26 July, URL (consulted 26 July): http://www.anampa.gr
46.
Thomsen, S.R., J.D. Straubhaar and D.M. Bolyard (1998) `Ethnomethodology and the Study of Online Communities: Exploring the Cyber Streets', Internet Research and Information for Social Scientists (IRISS) Conference, Bristol, 25-27 March, URL (consulted September 2004): http://www.sosig.ac.uk/iriss/papers/paper32.htm
47.
Tsaousis,Y. (1990) Encyclopedia of Euboea: Volume A. Athens: Vasilopoulos Publishing.
