1 Political, Economic, Cultural or Social, Legal & Technological Environmental Analysis

[Mangin]

Facilitating or impeding issues around political, economic, cultural or social, legal and technological environmental analysis

[Mangin]

First Question: What political, economic, cultural/social, legal or technological issues impede the use or adoption of each of the identified categories of low cost information access devices in the developing world? How? How do such impediments differ between rural and urban areas?

[Idris A. Rai]

There are many factors that drive forward technological innovations, the most important ones are enabling technological advances for newly emerging applications. New applications, in turn, drive revenues and provides market presence. Manufacturers are therefore forced to innovate new high end, and thus expensive products to compete in the market. No wonder the old, now low cost devices are obselete.

In my view, this is a major challenge the hinders availability low cost devices despite the fact that they can be used to foster development.

[Jacob B. Odame]

Implementing low-cost information access devices in developing countries really has influences from Economic, social, political and other factors. 'Low Cost' is relative term. This is because low cost devices are still expensive for some people in developing countries who are earning less than US$ 2 a day. The popular OLPC which is now being implemented in Ethiopia and elsewhere is seen as excessive investment by even the citizens themselves. The cost of these laptops exceed the annual income of some of the rural folks in these countries. However what we must all follow is the clear vision that these devices come with contents or are ready to access free contents which is valuable even than the devices themselves and can empower the users. That is the point! To bridge the digital divide between the advanced and the developing, certain hard decisions need to be made once we are all convinced that it will alleviate poverty.

[Mangin]

So, if we want to develop Low Cost Information Access Devices, what are the main issues we have to adress?
It is clear that technological and economic issues are linked; and thus, as there is great economic issues, there is too great technological issues. But how could we solve this? What will be the most apropriate tool in order to foster development giving an access to information? For example, what are the minimum needs of the citizens in terms of access?

Moreover, what are the other issues that we have to deal with (political, cultural/social, legal, environmental,...) if we want to implement such tools in the developping world?

[Cleophas Dzinotyiweyi]

If my inference from this is correct, technology product developers (Manufacturers) are more likely to be attracted towards producing "new high end" products which are expensive than they would produce low cost products because this is what drives their revenues and market share, right? But are low cost information access technologies not even better placed to drive revenues by virtue of their market size? Can the power of numbers (population of the relatively poor > population of the rich) not be leveraged for the benefit of both the poor and the manufacturers? If a purely commercial agenda cannot achieve this fostering of development through application of low cost technologies, is there - perhaps - another way of achieving this objective?

Idris A. Rai said:

There are many factors that drive forward technological innovations, the most important ones are enabling technological advances for newly emerging applications. New applications, in turn, drive revenues and provides market presence. Manufacturers are therefore forced to innovate new high end, and thus expensive products to compete in the market. No wonder the old, now low cost devices are obselete.

In my view, this is a major challenge the hinders availability low cost devices despite the fact that they can be used to foster development.

[Jacob B. Odame]

I agree that technology issues and economic issues are interlaced. We have to spell out the enormous benefits that investment in technology has on developing countries. Once we come to that agreement then we clearly show the options. If developing countries do not have the capital to purchase expensive devices, will low cost ones really help catch up with the advanced? If the answer is 'Yes' to that, then we start implementation first by letting developing country leaders understand and know why they need to invest in ICTs and for that matter low cost devices and their impact on development.

Developing low cost devices need to take into consideration environmental factors. The devices need to be rugged to stand hot and dirt conditions since some rural areas are hot and has infrastructural challenges. Also there should be strong support base for information access devices so that they can be maintained when faults and damages occur. Also we need to think about content for these devices and how they can accommodate local contents that developing nations have.

[Idris A. Rai]

Indeed, the power of number should play a big role. But at the moment we havent seen this to be exploited in practice by manufactures, although there are indicators pointing out acknowledging this fact. Many big companies are busy exploring opportunities in developing worlds, for instance, Google has just opened an office in Uganda, in addition to the other one in neighboring Kenya, Orange has just launched its service in Uganda. I am sure similar indications exist in other parts of developing countries. I am yet however to see a big company such Ericsson, Nokia or HP tuning their focus to low cost technologies or infrastracture.

A question I have been asking myself, would any big PC manufacturer invest in 100$ laptop kind of project / a laptop per child?. Hard to know --

[Jacob B. Odame]

I like the last question that Dr, Rai just asked. However, I believe since this project is EU sponsored one and targeted to how European Manufacturers can produce to suit developing markets...we hope to see them gearing towards manufacturing of low-cost devices. My concern is that we should be convinced that low-cost information access devices can give us better if not best in terms of catching up with the advanced.

[Mangin]

If we talk about comercial issues, I think that the example of North Countries could answer a little bit. Nowadays, all the manufacturers are developping low cost information access devices for the North Market (see Asus, etc.).
Yet, it is sure that it is an issue we have to take into account.
Regarding the discussion maybe we should focus some discussions on close aspect.

For example, what are the political issues existing?

[Ebenezer Malcolm]

Hi Folks,
Thanks for your interesting contributions. I am currently writing a paper "Digital Divide' with emphasis on urban vrs. rural areas. Some of the arguments i raised focused on political or legal frameworks. It is very important to note that in developing countries, even though there are policies that intend to provide telecommunication and service infrastructure, there is lack of political will on the part of governments to provide the facilities. In a nutshell, there are gaps between the policy framework and actual provisions of infrastructural services. Apart from private sector involvement, the onus fall on these governments to provide these services.
I also think when we talk about "low cost" ITs, We should also be mindful of how these technologies are compatible to those in other parts of the world. There are cheap IT gadgets in the the system that do not conform to required standards, hence inoperable. The quality control mechanism also need to be enforced to flush out sub standard equipment.

[Jacob B. Odame]

Talking about political issues in the implementation of low-cost ICT infrastructure and granting access to information access devices, i believe most developing countries are gradually understanding the need to invest in ICTs. Some have drawn up national ICT policies. What is required now is the creation of very well-informed technical teams that will provide advice on the implementations. I agree with Ebenezer Malcolm that low-cost ICTs should not mean substandard ICT devices. A strong technical team can control and ensure high standards of these devices that will be imported into developing markets.

So, from my point of view, politicians are beginning to understand that to get their economies geared towards the information highway to achieve knowledge-based economies, they need to invest in ICTs, however some guidelines and expert advice to government on low-cost devices needs to be in place first. They probably have to be convinced that low-cost information access devices can produce high-end results.

Another key political issue concerns the money. Probably there are other issues that governments would like to address with national resources...anyone wants to comment on this???

Thanks.

[j Tim Denny]

A pleasure to see this discussion going about here... I would love to comment on all the other great questions but see the issue is now on political...

Sadly so the realm of political, which I can assume we mean government and governmental policies at least in most part... remains a terrible hindrance in most parts of the world.

Jacob rightfully so talks about ICt policy... this is a very important issue... but if we go a few steps deeper... if the leadership of a country does not support free trade within its boundaries because they make businesses hard to set up (I recently read a report that showed that in some countries getting a business license can take up to 42 steps and 8 months) then what good is an ICT policy that cannot be enacted as nobody can conduct business on ICT... surely we can come up with many more similar threats to ICT deployment... how about free access to radio waves... in many countries wifi is illegal... in some wifi is illegal only outdoors ... but don;t you think that making modern information services illegal is a sure way to reduce implementation?

how about access to internet... I heard that in some countries they charge $1000/year just to have a satellite dish... and there are probably many more silly fees tacked on that leave the public helpless in the face of government restrictions on technology. why do they restrict technology... do they restrict all other aspects of life equally or is technology just one of those sectors... sort of like illegal recreational drugs that is seen as an evil thus it must be abated? I really do not know... but my guess is that technology is a fun sector for government to use for corrupt practices. Where else can you make funny money ... Everyone ants communications and they are going to pay whatever you demand... unlike food where if the prices goes so high we can plant our own garden...

how about the fundamental element of ICT... electricity... when governments are not working for the people to come up with solutions to provide rural and remote areas with a viable form of electricity we can expect a prolonged adoption of ICT. Every country needs a pro-rural energy policy... that is what invigorates development in all sectors... take it away and look what you have...

Ok my 2 cents before hitting the bed... nearly 3am here in Thailand..

cheers