The proposed project is an ethnographic study of the talk about information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Bario, Sarawak,

Malaysia, and the role they play in the lives of the local populace. The study focuses on how the residents of the community articulate their opinions about how these technologies have changed their lives, and what they have to say about these changes. The project pays particular attention to how residents talk about the role of ICTs in the transmission of their culture in the form of traditional knowledge, and also to what is said about the role of ICTs in introducing residents to different cultures, and the effects they say it has in their lives. Field research is conducted in the community of Bario, Sarawak, Malaysia for a ten month period, and employs surveys which use questionnaires in conjunction with focus group discussions and video-recorded interviews. The results are designed to record the significance these technologies have had in the lives of the residents of Bario, as well as to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges, barriers and opportunities for using ICTs to promote the transmission of the cultures of indigenous and ethnic minorities between the generations. The research also considers what is said about various types of ICTs, both in general and in relation to each other, particularly in terms of access, cost, usefulness, and the relationship of these things to local culture and its transmission through these media.