**5.4. Knowledge building: ICT and the Ñuu Savi people**

**5.3. Digital commerce strategy for the use of technology in minorities**

tion network, mainly focused on three objectives:

channel of the financial institution (e.g., cash withdrawal).

payment of services (**Figure 2**).

and money by payment of transportation.

of products.

10 Indigenous People

The Mixtec communities have adopted the strategy of digital commerce through the Qiubo Network [23]. This strategy is aimed at small merchants ("local grocery stores and miscellaneous") and is implemented by the union of three companies: the largest bakery company in the Mexican Republic, "Grupo Bimbo," the telecommunications company "Blue Label Telecoms," and "Better than Cash," which have set out to break the barrier of natural resistance that small business owners (microentrepreneurs) have to approach for the use of technologies. This collaborative action greatly benefits localities marginalized by geographical issues.

Through the Qiubo Network, the massive distribution of point-of-sale terminals (**Figure 2**) was started among the more than 700,000 small businesses that make up the Bimbo distribu-

**1.** Implement terminals that allow transactions involving the purchase of air time and

**2.** With the support of commercial partners such as Visa and Bancomex, banking is offered from the point-of-sale terminal, i.e., to carry out financial operations as well as the payment

**3.** Operate correspondent transactions, i.e., stores (micro-businesses) become a distribution

The sense and importance of the use of Qiubo Network technology is to meet community needs, notably for the payment of the digital television service (suppliers VeTV and Sky) and for the purchase of air time for the mobile phone. Otherwise, the community could obtain the service at a high cost in time (2 hours and 30 minutes of distance to the nearest population)

With the purchase of air time for the mobile phone, they gain access to social networks, textual and voice communication, entertainment applications, music in digital format, among other applications, provided by the Internet. Therefore, the use of ICT through mobile technology is promoted as an appropriation by members of the Mixtec culture and not as an imposed

**Figure 2.** Qiubo Network (Bimbo and Blue Label). Source: http://www.redqiubo.com/en/index.php.

Through action-participatory research, it is observed that the acceptance behavior of the technology by the ethnolinguistic minority Ñuu Savi group contributes to the development of its personality; at the same time, it enhances self-esteem and facilitates the construction of knowledge, skills, and technological skills. This statement is based on the framework of the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and the Theory of the Diffusion and Adoption of Technological Innovations (TDyATI). In other words, the behavior of the ethnic group in the process of accepting ICT is conceived from a complex set of interactions between the environment and individual ethnic traits and situational factors [25].

In this sense, it is relevant to the attitude of the Mixtec children and adolescents, who learn by imitating the actions of the adult and the environment that surrounds them in terms of the use of technology (**Figure 3**). In the process of constructing their knowledge, they present a behavior that is mainly derived from two sources: the first one is given by the interaction with the environment of the big cities, which the Mixtecos experience in their short periods of migration (from 2 to 6 months). The second source has its origin in personal subjective factors,

**Figure 3.** Social Learning (father-daughter).

to maintain a communication with the dominant social environment, which mainly motivates young members of the ethnic group to make use of ICT through Internet applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, among others.

The construction of knowledge is based on a vicarious learning, in this respect, reaffirms the position of Bandura [25], noting that the group of children and adolescents has the capacity for attention and retention, which leads to social learning in an immediate, unconscious and without the need for a process of practice and knowledge development. The theory gives importance to the symbolic and vicarious learning processes (observational or imitation). Thus, considering that Mixtec language is one of the main symbols of the culture of the ethnic group, the use of ICT through mobile technology acquires relevance in the process of communication of the Mixtecos. The cultural development of the Ñuu Savi people, originated by technological influence, is manifested by holding dialogues in their native language (Mixteco), through the mobile phone as an instrument of communication. It should be emphasized that the Mixteco language is tonal; therefore, the ease of sending voice messages strengthens the preservation of the language. For text messages in their native language, there is still a barrier, mainly for two reasons: for the few Mixtecos with knowledge of the morphosyntax of their language, not having technological tools that facilitate writing complicates the development of their texts; and in the most common case, the writing of their own language is unknown.

In this way, the use of the technological devices modifies the behavior of the ethnic group, their vision of the world, the time allocated for the use of the physical space which is now shared with the cyberspace on the Internet. Today, when people carry out their work, but they carry their cell phones and hearing aids all the time. The factor of the communication without geographical barriers (mobile technology) constitutes the essence of their daily lives (**Figure 4**). For this reason, its sociocultural system is influenced by affecting its behavior, its way of being, the way of thinking, and of seeing things.

**Figure 4.** Police in wireless-mediated communication from CLC.
