Professional Documents
Culture Documents
There is now a genuine concern about the "digital divide." But narrowing the divide - publishing a newspaper
in every village, placing a radio and TV in every household, putting a computer in every classroom, and wiring
every building to the Internet - does not automatically solve the problem. The most serious divide is in the
extent and quality of human knowledge and learning.
Access to information and communication technologies – and the ability to adapt those technologies to local
needs – is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity. This article outlines the scope of the problem, how to tackle it,
how to ensure improvements in the lives of the poor and what the international community can do.
12 Measuring up Access
Prepared by Lesley Anne Simmons, Communications Officer, Global Knowledge Partnership Secretariat,
World Bank Institute
This article presents data on the degree to which the people of most countries of the world have access to
the tools and skills of the information age.
16 Rural Access: How Can Connectivity Contribute to Social and Agricultural Development?
Don Richardson, Ph.D.,TeleCommons Development Group
Telecommunication services are important “lubricants” for rural and agricultural development, and while they
are not a development panacea, their contribution can be significant – where they are available.
This article describes community-based low powered FM radio stations, some powered by solar energy, and
how they can be used successfully.
Technology follows the tracks of wealth. Television may be an exception. This article focuses on two cases
from Brazil: Globo Rural and Pequenas Empresas e Grandes Negócios (Small Enterprises and Great Deals).
This article describes a pilot project in Uganda which links via the Internet secondary-level students and
teachers around the world, in order to improve educational opportunities, develop youth employment skills for
st
the 21 Century, and build global awareness and understanding.
This article discusses a subset of the digital divide - a snapshot of a phenomenon that is emerging as an
issue of substance in its own right: the gender divide.
Grassroots public library systems can serve as a powerful mean to promote literacy and a lifelong learning
environment for both children and adults. Examples are provided.
The Internet is now the largest library in the history of the world. This article steers you to Internet sources
that provide the full text of books, reports, journals, and newsletters.
Four summaries of research on the use of electronic documents for information seeking and retrieval.
The author describes a national strategy of easy access to education by anyone at any time and place, and
how Korea National Open University is implementing it.
Open-source is the term used for designated software that is publicly available in source code form, rather
than as final product. This article presents best known examples and outlines rationale, limitations and
potential for developing countries.
53 On the Move
Upcoming Events: Conference, Seminars, Exhibits, Training Courses, etc.
What are the types of wireless technologies and what can mobile phones do?
58 WorthWhileWebs
This article offers a selection of websites that make access to information and knowledge easy.
60 High Speed Internet Access: The Future for the World and the Implications for Developing
Countries
Lawrence Wolff, Inter-American Development Bank
The author summarizes the five options for Internet access, their costs and notes what appears to be most
feasible for developing countries.
A fully Internet enabled home: controlled via the Internet and accessible from anywhere.
The article describes an electronic language for the Internet, which is being developed with the goal of
enabling people from around the world to communicate in their native languages.
GKP is an informal partnership committed to sharing information, experiences and resources, and to
promoting broad access to, and effective use of, knowledge and information.
67 InfoChange
Jody Olsen, InfoChange Foundation
InfoChange is a non-profit organization that helps move forward the goal that everyone should have access
to information through technology, and that, without this access, basic education will remain limited.
YEAR 2000
January/ March/ May/ July/ September November/
February April June August /October December
YEAR 2001
January/ March/ May/ July/ September November/
February April June August /October December
If Not Digital, Then What? development and advanced technologies, developing coun-
tries can leapfrog. The bad news is that this process is not
The thematic focus of this Issue is: Access to Information automatic. On the contrary, unless conscious efforts are
and Knowledge. With the remarkable advancements in in- made, countries are likely to be marginalized. There is an
formation and telecommunication technologies (ICT), there educational emergency for:
is now a genuine concern about the "digital divide", the gap ! A workforce that has the foundation to enhance the
between the ICT "haves" and the ICT "have-nots." There is a quality and efficiency of product development, produc-
good justification for this concern and the figures show it at tion and maintenance, and the flexibility to acquire the
every level. But narrowing the divide - publishing a newspa- new skills required for new jobs; and
per in every village, placing a radio and TV in every house- ! A cadre of highly-trained scientific, technological and
hold, putting a computer in every classroom, and wiring processing personnel, including some with sophisticated
every building to the Internet - does not automatically solve research skills, who can fully understand developments
the problem. The most serious divide is in the extent and in the material, scientific, technological, managerial and
quality of human knowledge and learning. It is not digital; social areas and who can take the lead in their assess-
it is educational. ment, adaptation, and local applications.
It is necessary but not sufficient to provide avenues to infor- The globalization of the economy and its concomitant de-
mation and knowledge. What is more important is to em- mands on the workforce requires a shift to an education that
power people with appropriate educational, cognitive and enhances the ability of learners to access, assess, adopt and
behavioral skills and tools to: apply knowledge, to think independently, exercise appropri-
! access the information avenues efficiently, effectively ate judgment and collaborate with others to make sense of
and wisely; new situations. The objective of education is no longer sim-
! acquire knowledge and internalize it; ply to convey a body of knowledge, but to teach how to
! apply knowledge to better understand the changing learn, problem-solve and synthesize the old with the new. It
world, to develop their capabilities, to live and work in is worth noting, also, that the emerging economy will no
dignity, to participate in development, to improve the longer be centrally created and controlled by governments.
quality of their lives, and to make informed decisions; This environment, which will be dominated by private sector
and and not government jobs, will place a premium on creativity,
! upgrade their knowledge continuously and systemati- initiative and entrepreneurship.
cally.
Access Anytime Anywhere
The Digital Divide … An Educational Emergency
The above demands require two changes in our educational
Advancements in ICT have revolutionized the world econ- behavior. Firstly, the need for continuous access to informa-
omy. Information can now be collected, analyzed and com- tion and knowledge makes learning life-long, and the tradi-
municated with increasing speed through dramatic innova- tionally neat distinction between learning and work unreal.
tions in information technology, rapid international commu- Education thus becomes a continuum, with no marked be-
nication and transportation capacity, and massive technologi- ginning and end. Secondly, the process of learning cannot be
cal connections across national boundaries. Any service that confined to the traditional classroom. The architecture of
can be digitized and transmitted can be produced and sold education services and the allocation of resources have to be
anywhere. Together, with economic developments, these planned accordingly. No longer should countries view for-
advancements are producing a new worldwide economy that mal educational institutions as the sole educators, or the only
is global, high speed, knowledge driven, disciplinarian, and institutions worthy of financial investment. Other channels,
competitive. Countries have to meet the competitiveness from interactive radio to educational television to offerings
challenge in terms of agility, networking and learning, and to of virtual schooling over the Internet, or Intranet, to commu-
arrange production to achieve quality, productivity and flexi- nity learning centers, to training schemes, will have to be
bility. The good news is that, with the potential of human figured into the equation.
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Technologies: A Window for Transforming the crystal ball of the future? Does the past have no
Higher Education Jan/Feb 2000 credence? If so why study history?
Thank you for your article. I would refer you to a book by Thank you again for the article,
Lewis J Perleman titled "Schools Out" for his view of the JIM SUMNER
future of all levels of education. Right or wrong, I think he is United States
on to something. If the educational system doesn't do it
someone else will out of nothing but the desire to survive.
I read your abstract in the TechKnowLogia online Journal. I
I recall listening to a salesman of "programmed texts" 40 would agree with a lot of what you said. The problem for a
years ago. All the faculty was present. The conversation lot of rural people is one of costs. One being the low density
afterwards took the same paths you mentioned for the of people. This makes it difficult to bring broadband over
electronic technology. We are going to lose our jobs, etc. I wireline (copper or fiber) at an attractive price. Governments
think I was the only one who experimented with the are asking for the business case first. When it can be done
programmed texts in the school. The resistance is certainly then the local content is lost because of the need to centralize
there. and save staffing costs to offset high bandwidth. Where the
rural areas can show savings they are often marginalized by
I recall one of the best math classes I ever had was one in the institutions or politely rebuffed by endless committees.
which there was no teacher except Mallory who authored a Satellite can bring content to large amounts but it is
text in Algebra 1. I attended a small high school with about 8 impractical to do realtime classes over satellite. One way to
people enrolled in the class. The teacher/principal simply do this is by radio with a return audio feed or a lower
assigned us all the problems in the book and returned to his bandwidth two way audio on dedicated links. Another way is
office to principal. My success in the class was attested to to move faculty into the field and have them teach and
when I transferred to another larger school in another town, mentor from the field. This forces faculty to become users of
enrolled in Algebra 2, trig, solid geometry and didn't even the system from necessity and will spread the knowledge out
break my stride. In fact I could keep up with the top of the to the regions. Then the faculty will bypass the endless
class. The text wasn't programmed, just well written. I could committees to work with the rural people and students to get
go on about small class size, motivation, small school and broadband to the rural areas. Some things gain importance as
the like but I learned from that experience that at least in one moves away from the cities. The city can be used for
some instances one doesn't need a teacher physically in the centralization of paper work. (people to correct, collate books
classroom. In fact it could be a detriment. I had to think etc etc.)
through the material. On the other hand I had a geometry
class with a teacher and it worked out quite well. Point being As we plan to do a virtual high school with teachers in the
that one can learn with or without teacher if motivated and field teaching and mentoring to students in 5 communities
given the opportunity. this spring we hope to keep learning from other people in
TechKnowLogia. Maybe someday we can submit our
However, that is just one class out of a curriculum. Now I experiences in Northwestern Ontario.
read that we are evolving into a paradigm where students
design their own curriculums. I simply ask, where do these …. Keep up the good work.
students gain all this wisdom to know how to chart a proper DAN PELLERIN
path toward a desired goal? Has culture produced no Network Operations, Northern Chiefs Tribal Council,
wisdom? Are events whizzing past us so furiously, vis-a-vis Canada
Toffler in Future Shock, cultural wisdom is garnered from
A Luxury or a Necessity rural areas, and not surprisingly, few of them have ever made
To judge by the attention that the Internet has received in the a telephone call. According to the International
past year, one could be forgiven for believing that “getting Telecommunications Union, over 80 percent of main
wired” is now the solution to all problems, the magic bullet, telephone lines are in urban areas. Some point out that new
the source of all wealth and wisdom. And indeed, in recent technologies, such as wireless and satellite communications,
months there has been much talk about the dangers of falling create opportunities for poor countries to “leapfrog”
behind in the Internet age, of the emerging “digital divide” technologically, moving directly to more advanced digital
both within and between countries. Dire predictions abound technologies that can reach a wider range of people. Yet
that poor communities and nations will be left behind by the there is increasing evidence that the gap between rich and
information revolution, and new projects emerge everyday to
poor countries, and communities, in terms of access to
narrow the “divide”.
information and communication technologies is widening.
Skeptics reply that poor communities and countries have While some poor countries are improving their citizens’
much more serious problems. 1.2 billion people lack access access to these technologies (or even simply to dial tone),
to safe and reliable water supplies. About 3 billion lack often with the latest technologies such as cellular, the pace of
access to basic sanitation facilities. Hunger and disease are the improvement is much slower than the pace of
rampant. War and civil strife still deprive millions of people technological (and communications) change in richer
of their basic daily needs. Why should we choose Pentiums countries. So even though these countries might be moving
over penicillin, wireless technology over water pumps? ahead on access, they are falling further behind. Over half of
India’s 600,000 villages, for example, still lack even one
The choice is not that stark; but the challenge is. In the 21st working telephone.
century, access to and effective use of information and
knowledge will be the critical determinant of successful and The access gap is not just a problem in rural areas. Even in
sustainable development for individuals, communities, and large cities, the poor have little access to information and
nations. New information and communication technologies communication technologies, and irregular access to simple
open vast new opportunities for poor communities and telephone service. Just as importantly, the poor have less
nations – access to the world’s store of information and access to the training and skills that come with these new
knowledge; increased efficiency and profitability for technologies and create new jobs and opportunities. Thus
governments and private companies; a stronger voice, locally even in cities, the spread of new technologies can widen the
and globally, for non-governmental organizations; a gap between rich and poor, between those who have access
reduction in the isolation and poverty of rural communities. to and know how to use effectively these new technologies
At the same time the advent of these technologies can widen and those who don’t. The challenge then, is not to provide
the gap – in life chances, in economic conditions, even in
basic health and well-being – between those who have access the poor access to phones and computers; it is to help
and those who don’t. Access to information and them make these new technologies into tools of their own
communication technologies – and the ability to adapt economic, social and political empowerment.
those technologies to local needs – is no longer a luxury; it
The simple argument that “the poor can’t afford these
is a necessity.
technologies and services” has often served as an excuse
The Scope of the Problem for complacency. In fact, there is growing evidence that
Of the 6 billion people on the planet, 3 billion live on less people even in the poorest communities would be willing to
than $2 per day. The majority -- roughly 60 percent -- live in spend modest sums for telephone and other communications
Even aggregated at a village level, providing information and What Can the International
telecommunication services to poor and isolated
communities faces continuing challenges. First, in many Community Do?
villages a public phone already exists; yet the national Projects to provide access to the Internet and telephone
monopoly operator has no particular incentive to service the services for rural and poor communities are very popular in
phone regularly, so it rarely works. Even local innovators, development agencies at the moment. Wiring villages and
such as phone shop operators, are at the mercy of the schools is hot. We learn a great deal from these experiments.
telecommunications service provider. A further challenge is Yet they risk distracting us from the tougher issues where
assuring that our experiments and pilot projects in providing our attention should perhaps be focused. They also reinforce
rural access are sustainable and do not have the perverse the supply-driven, project-focused tendencies of our
effect of crowding out local private entrepreneurship (as agencies; it is easier to quantify the “success” of ten
some have argued is the case with many of the recent telecenter projects than the slower, more difficult and more
“telecenter” projects supported by international agencies). complex success of helping to create the policy, regulatory
and investment environment in which thousands of
telecenters could bloom. Finally, they cause us to blur the
Access for Whom? Access for What? two “gaps” spoken of earlier -- the market efficiency gap and
There is a further challenge as well. Even if we could bring the access gap -- by encouraging us to provide solutions
access to information and telecommunications services to based on the second gap in environments where the first gap
every village on the planet, how can we assure that these is really the issue.
tools serve to empower, and improve, the lives of the
poorest? Particularly once we get beyond basic telephone If we have learned anything from the revolutionary changes
service and think about access to the Internet, how can we in the global economy in the past few years, it is that
help poor communities and countries develop and share technological innovation can expand the range of who has
content in their languages, relevant to their challenges and access, how quickly, and to what information, faster than we
interests? This means encouraging the growth of indigenous could have imagined a few years ago. Our goal is to assure
initiatives and networks that help the poor reach out to and that this revolution encompasses and empowers all, even the
learn from each other, through the full range of technologies poorest in the most remote village. To do that, we have to
from radio to the Internet, and that foster the growth of local carefully balance two tasks. The first is to make room for,
content in a variety of languages. and build a nurturing environment for, this innovation in
developing countries, so that the market-driven information
This concern with local content, and with enabling poor and revolution can spread around the world. This requires
isolated communities to learn from each other, reminds us working closely with the governments in these countries to
that, when we speak about access, what we really mean is make the difficult choices and changes -- in policy and
access to information, knowledge, and communications regulatory regimes, in public investment in infrastructure and
education, in national information flows -- that will help
opportunities, not access to one specific service or
grow the digital economy within their borders. The second is
technology. Tools are just tools. In our rush to wire every to find ways – through a combination of public investment,
village, we sometimes forget that already-widespread public-private partnerships, community based solutions, and
technologies (such as community radio) could do a lot more technical innovation – to assure that no one is left behind by
to empower people with information and knowledge if we these changes. It also requires that we who work in
only encouraged their broader use. Some of the same international development agencies ask ourselves tough
constraints that face the higher-end technologies (policy and questions about whether our usual approaches and our
regulatory restrictions, government monopolies, institutional favorite projects are having the maximum positive impact on
and political cultures that inhibit the free flow of these changes.
information) restrict even the effective use of simpler
1
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author and should not be
attributed in any manner to the World Bank, its affiliated organization members of its Board of Executive Directors or the
countries they represent.
We believe that, given the chance to take advantage of the information revolution, people can
improve their economic well being and empower themselves and their communities to participate in
their own development. Most of the world’s poor, especially those in developing countries, aren’t
benefiting from the powerful and positive changes that speedy and easy access to knowledge and
information is bringing to better-off countries. Access to knowledge is essential if the poor are to
improve their lives and the lives of their children. Helping knowledge-poor groups gain access to
knowledge and the technologies to harness it, contributes to improving people’s lives, the natural
environment and resource base, people’s health, children’s education, the global business climate,
and the global economy. It benefits everyone.
Many things indicate the degree to which people and their countries are participating in the
information age. For citizens to be knowledgeable and informed they need to know what is going on
in their community, their country, and in the world around them. For those who are literate and live
in urban or semi-urban areas, newspapers provide such information. But for those who are not
literate, or who live in more remote areas, radio is a more accessible source of information and
communication. Television is another measure of people’s access to information as well as
entertainment. Television is mostly accessible to people living in urban areas but satellite
technology is increasingly bringing it to more remote areas.
Sharing knowledge and communicating with others depends on access to telephones — and for
those in the remotest areas, only mobile telephones can keep them reliably in touch. And access to
modern technologies and the skill to use them — personal computers, and especially those that
allow easy, regular, and affordable access to the Internet — is of growing importance.
At the country level, we can measure countries’ engagement in building their knowledge base by
comparing how many scientists and engineers are trained for, and employed in, research and
development, and by the numbers of patent documents issued for new inventions.
The indicators presented here illustrate the degree to which the people of selected countries have
access to the tools and skills of the information age. They include data on the number of:
The data are extracted from the World Bank’s World Development Report, 1999/2000 (table 19).
These in turn are selected from more than 500 indicators included in the World Bank’s annual
©Corel World Development Indicators. More information about the data, including technical notes and data
sources can be found in the World Development Indicators and the World Bank’s other statistical
publications.
Despite many views to the contrary, from the vantage point The real challenge for enhancing rural connectivity lies with
of a member of a rural community in a developing country, the urban-centered governments, businesses and agencies
getting connected with phone lines, payphones, and even that have for so long ignored or placated the desires of rural
Internet services is not a luxury or an "inappropriate" use of people to get connected to the world. The challenge is not
technology for development. For a rural person, getting technical or financial, but political and ideological.
connected is a means for sharing the wide range of Unfortunately, because so many rural people do not have
communication options available to urbanites. access and are not connected, we do not often hear their
Telecommunication services are important “lubricants” for voices on this issue (or on countless others!).
rural and agricultural development, and while they are not a
development panacea, their contribution can be significant – Many urban people, and many of those who make decisions
where they are available. about allocation of development resources, take the privilege
of connectivity for granted. Until one has experienced the
For rural people, access to a reliable telecommunication daily difficulties and knowledge access deficits faced by the
service represents:1 "great un-wired" of the world, then one has no business
deciding what is, or should be, in their best interests. Those
• a means for making better and more informed decisions, of us who advocate for improved rural telecommunication
• a means for accessing the services (health, education, infrastructure and applications in rural and remote areas of
information, etc.) that enable urban people to improve developing countries are used to hearing urban decision-
their lives, makers question the drive for rural connectivity. "Shouldn't
• a means for staying in contact with friends and families the recipients of rural development project interventions be
who migrate to urban areas for work and education, getting more appropriate technology?" "Isn't this just another
• a means for facilitating the transfer of funds and case of pushing Western technology at people who will be
resources from overseas workers and urban family overwhelmed or culturally damaged by it?" Rural people are
members to their relatives in rural villages – a significant not stupid. In developing countries they are quite adept at
means through which rural people can alleviate appropriating Western technologies for their own goals and
conditions of poverty, objectives. Rural people have every right to desire and
• a means of communication that is dramatically less demand the tools that help improve quality of life, health,
expensive, less arduous and less risky than alternative prosperity and cultural vibrancy. For people in rural villages,
means of communication involving the physical "politically correct" stances on the inappropriateness of
transportation of people or information, and which can telecommunication technologies, such as village telephones,
free up money and time that can be invested in as tools for rural development can be frustratingly myopic.
productive and income generating pursuits,
• and a means for linking rural businesses and agricultural Rural Access is Good Business
endeavors to the trade, transportation and commerce
systems of urban areas and to the global marketplace. Another challenge is the widespread belief that there is no
business case for establishing rural telecommunication
systems in developing countries. This is an out-dated market
*
Author note: The author is a principal consultant and Director of the TeleCommons Development Group, a consulting agency
specializing in community development enhanced through telecommunications. He is also an Associate Graduate Faculty
member of the Faculty of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph, Canada. Email: don@tdg.ca
Web: www.telecommons.com .
1
The following points are based on research conducted by the author and the TeleCommons Development Group
(www.telecommons.com), including rural telecommunication impact assessments and commercial viability studies in
Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, India, Peru, the Philippines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe during the last decade (Richardson and Paisley, 1998; Richardson 1997, 1998; 1999a; TeleCommons Development
Group, 1999; 2000).
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has outlined the reforms he In Mali, a pilot Multipurpose Community Telecenter (MCT)
claims Europe needs in order to build a thriving digital project has been set up in Timbuktu. This is a three-year
economy. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, project, which started in May 1998. The project is run by
Switzerland, Blair said the need for reform in education is technical staff and a steering committee, which includes the
paramount. "In an economy dominated by information and mayor, business people, artisans, librarians, health workers,
knowledge, education is king. Not just in school or university women's associations and other members of the community.
but throughout life," he said. He held up Britain as an The hope is that at the end of the project, it will be run by the
example. "A whole network of adult learning centres are community. There is also the hope that the project will
being established, with incentives provided to upgrade skills, expand to 701 rural communities. After the pilot phase the
and a new University for Industry established through the use estimated cost of running MCT in other rural communities
of Internet technology to give adults the skills they need." To will be around US $3,175. The pilot telecenter is equipped
read the entire article, go to http://www.silicon.com/a35401. with 11 computers. It serves 4 regions with an approximate
population of 200,000 people. It offers copying, telephone,
fax, and Internet services. A major emphasis of the telecenter
Asia's IT Revolution Exposes is to provide training to artisans to set up their web page to
sell their handicrafts with the hope that this will help develop
Serious Skills Shortage new global markets. The telecenter also serves a wide range
of other community groups, such as teachers, rural radio
animators, students and librarians. Another important area of
An information technology revolution sweeping across Asia service is support for healthcare. Telecenter staff train health
is causing an acute shortage of skilled labor that may limit workers in using the computers and the Internet to do
the region's rebound from an economic crisis. The New research. Also, health workers in outlying areas
Economy, fuelled by the new technology wave of digital communicate with doctors using the Internet. Keeping the
networks, software and new media is forcing many firms to community's limited income in mind, services are subsidized.
restructure and reconfigure to survive. "With technology There are also special discounts for women and children.The
driving the economy, amplified by the e-commerce craze and telecenter website is :
knowledge-based activities, the missing piece of the puzzle is http://www.tombouctou.org.ml.
skilled human resources," said Wong Yit Fan, Standard Birama Diallo, the MCT country coordinator is at
Chartered Bank's chief economist with Southeast Asia. Diallo@sotelma.ml. (Courtesy of Bytes for All)
Wong foresees a long gestation period to gear up the local
workforce through training and education because of
constraints like government budget deficits and lack of
expatriates who had quit during the financial crisis of mid- Need Fuels Continued Growth of
1997. Foreign talent is not an option due to the nationalistic Corporate Universities
sentiments borne out of the recent financial recession.
Countries most likely to succeed in the New Economy need The number of corporate universities has more than
to upgrade the skills and would require large investments in quadrupled in the past five years -- to more than 1,600. And
education at all levels from the public and private sectors as last year, according to Corporate Training magazine, U.S.
well as the overhaul of the education sector in many cases. corporations spent more than $60 billion in employee
(Agence France Presse, 2/1/00) training. "The drive for improved efficiency and the huge
merger activity has fueled this growth," said one corporate
training pro. "CEOs are very frustrated that they can't
This article describes community-based low powered FM radio as part of the work the Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
has undertaken in different regions of the Commonwealth. The radio projects are just one element of an overall strategy
by COL that develops and researches creative and effective media and technology-based models under the banner of an
initiative called the Commonwealth of Learning Media Empowerment (COLME)*
Radio is a very powerful technology that can allow There are a number of technological factors that are
information to reach large sectors of the population quickly important in the initial needs analysis before a station can be
and economically. Due to national broadcast regulations in considered. First, the physical landscape must be conducive
many countries, community radio stations have not to an FM signal to reach the intended target audience
developed. Also the cost of transmitters, infrastructures, and especially if rebroadcast of the origin station signal is not
equipment, has placed most potential community possible due to cost or licensing regulations. If the landscape
broadcasters at a disadvantage, especially those in the remote is mountainous then there will be difficulty in the signal
rural areas. There is a distinct information gap to the rural reaching a large radius of users. Second, the station target
corners of some countries resulting from the lack of service audience must have radios or access to radios. Third, there
by national broadcasters who in some cases have weak or must be a situation where there is a steady flow of content
non-existent signal coverage. Under COLME, portable FM and a regular broadcast schedule. Fourth, the station must be
radio systems have been tested and implemented as part of targeted to the local users so that they can directly relate to
media project work over the past three years. The station the content, language, and situations discussed.
configuration that was first developed has, with input and
data gathered from the field, aided the manufacturer in In the feasibility stage before station implementation, certain
altering the station to address each community’s need. The conditions must exist to improve the element of
station configurations range in price from three to five sustainability. In-country stakeholders are identified for each
thousand dollars US including all elements: antenna, of the stations. Their role is to insure that the infrastructure
transmitter, console, mixer, microphones and CD and tape for FM radio is in place, and that all licensing and issues
decks (Figure 1). The stations can be powered by 12 V DC or pertaining to community broadcasting are dealt with.
120/240 AC.
Another important factor is that the broadcasts are in
languages that are used daily in the local community level.
Figure 1 – A station in its The national or regional stations do not have the capacity to
watertight carrying case (on aim linguistically or at the level of information detail for
the consul starting on the left rural community issues. Community-based stations can be
top the gooseneck effective if well managed in providing information and
microphone, below is the
mixer, top right are two tape
training directly to the community. In the case of the
decks, below are two CD COLME installed community station in Uganda, it was
decks). The transmitter and imperative that the station be able, by law, to rebroadcast
power supply, not pictured, Radio Uganda in the event of important political
are housed under the consul. announcements. Therefore, among the technological
The consul is removed from upgrades in the design of the station, in addition to the
the carrying case when in interface for telephone calls, extra microphone inputs for
operation (see Figure 3 for group discussions, and a more powerful transmitter, a facility
operational mode). for radio rebroadcast of the national government station, (in
The projects underway via the COLME include computer-based software systems and networks, radio, and video production models.
Information concerning these projects can be obtained from:
Below are a few examples of topics treated: The formula is not much different from that of Globo Rural.
In fact, one can easily see that a winning solution was
• Management of natural forests in the Amazon. The transposed to another sector. The half-hour programs present
program reports a pioneering effort to introduce innovations, show spectators how to contact specialized
management techniques suitable to small farmers. The government agencies, promote web sites that help small
land is divided into ten plots, selectively cut: one per exporters and so on. But the main thrust of the program is to
year. Hard data on yield and revenues are also presented. show examples of successful small entrepreneurs or good
• Bananas are very fragile crops and traditionally more ideas that can be adopted by other would-be entrepreneurs.
than half of the harvest is lost due to improper handling. Below are a few examples:
A farmer explains every step he took to reduce the
damages and losses. It also shows how an extension • A man who transforms the metal sheets of recycled cans
worker helped the farmer in each step. There is also an into sculptures of animals. The clip starts in his
interview with a banana growing expert and the farmer's backyard, full of colorful or shiny toucans, roosters,
final comments boasting his overall reduction in losses. alligators and many other animals. It then moves on to
• A farmer explains a simple method to get rid of ticks in show how he works the sheet metal and the tools he has
his cattle. created to shape them into feathers, animal skin and so
• A relatively long clip displays a farmer who employs his on. The following part shows how he managed to get an
nine daughters to work on his property using very exclusive contract to decorate a supermarket chain and
traditional methods. The entire background description the economics of selling his art. It ends with an
of what is going on is in rhymes, sometimes presented as interview with the supermarket buyer discussing the
poetry, sometimes as music. This one is not to teach economics of selling in small enterprises.
methods but rather to present a picturesque case of the • Another craftsman created a simple cooler for beer and
many and various methods that can benefit Brazilian soda cans: press a lever and one can at the time is
farmers. released without opening the box. After this
demonstration, the clip mentions that the inventor is
In parallel with the TV program, there is a magazine looking for partners or entrepreneurs who might want to
following exactly the same line and with the same name (on- manufacture or commercialize his idea.
line version: www.globoruralon.com.br). Given the nature of • A small manufacturer has produced a pizza oven on
the printed media, there are more technical data, more wheels that can be transported anywhere. It works from
statistics and a greater variety of subjects. Significant space bottled propane for outdoor operation or from electricity
is devoted to answering technical questions sent in by for indoor use. After presenting the price of each pizza
readers. This is the "Ann Landers" column of Globo Rural: chariot, several customers who purchased it are
advice for real-life problems. Each month, 140,000 copies of interviewed and the costs of raw pizzas and the sale
the magazine are sold. prices are presented, as are typical uses and monthly
revenues generated.
Again, given the nature of print media, the magazine, more To sum up this somewhat inadequate evaluation, it makes
so than the program, is a market place for ideas, products and sense to suggest that programs with little entertainment value
services. In addition to references to all firms and products will only be watched if they offer something that is useful. If
described, it provides substantial space for paid classified around 4.5 million watch one and close to two million watch
ads. the other, year after year, their allegiance seems to be telling
us that they are learning something useful indeed. Otherwise
Do They Work? they would simply vote with their feet (better said, with their
fingers, changing channels). By the same token, private
What is the ultimate meaning of these two programs? A advertisers are willing to continually sponsor the relatively
harmless and useless effort to help farmers and small expensive production of both programs. They too must be
entrepreneurs? Entertainment for them? A significant getting something in return. The bottom line, it seems, is that
contribution to real life productivity? these programs are an effective way to support farming and
small enterprises. We only regret that initiatives that appear
Unfortunately, there has been no effort to evaluate the impact to be so productive remain so long without a serious
of either program, even though Globo Rural has aired for 20 evaluation of their ultimate impact.
years. The producer is a commercial media network. For it,
The World Links for Development program (WorLD) is an recurrent Internet and telephone costs. This last requirement
initiative of the World Bank Institute to expand the opportu- limited school selection to those schools within a local phone
nities of education technology to developing countries. call to an Internet Service Provider – which excluded most
WorLD’s primary objective is to link via the Internet secon- schools outside of the Kampala area. While schools within a
dary-level students and teachers around the world, in order to local telephone call to an ISP would pay US$144 per month
improve educational opportunities, develop youth employ- for 60 hours of access, schools outside of this local call range
ment skills for the 21st Century, and build global awareness would pay an exorbitant amount of US$720 per month.
and understanding. WorLD is currently working in 18
countries around the world and is planning to expand to an Based on these criteria, the steering committee selected the
additional 5 countries by July 2000. Specifically, WorLD 10 schools for the program and each of the schools got busy
works with Ministries of Education to connect secondary with computer lab preparation and phone line installation.
schools to the Internet, train teachers in the pedagogical uses Once the infrastructure requirements were fulfilled, the
of information technology and project-based learning appli- World Links program procured, refurbished, and shipped one
cations, assist schools to establish links with other schools hundred 486-computers that the World Bank donated to the
from around the world, and monitor and evaluate the impact program. Local private sector partners were then contracted
that this intervention has on teaching and learning. to install the equipment and make the final configuration for
http://www.worldbank.org/worldlinks the schools to access the Internet. “Dial to connect to Inter-
net” should have been the final bridge to cross. The tele-
communications infrastructure, however, failed at a large
The Story of Uganda number of the schools -- dropped lines and misconnections
left 6 of the 10 schools without connectivity. While the fixed
line infrastructure was relatively reliable for analog voice
In many countries in which WorLD is working, the first step connections, the lines and the exchanges could not carry
-- establishing reliable and cost affordable Internet connec- data. With over half of the schools unable to establish reli-
tivity -- can be the most challenging. The WorLD program able connections to the Internet, another path needed to be
in Uganda provides an interesting case study of the chal- forged.
lenges and successes of working to establish connectivity on
the digital frontier. Upon the heels of telecom liberalization in Uganda, two cel-
lular telephone operators received licenses to offer services.
In 1997, the World Links program selected 10 pilot schools The World Links program approached one of the providers –
based on criteria set forth by the Ministry of Education, a Celltel Uganda – to determine if the private sector company
local steering committee and the World Links program. The would be interested in partnering with the program to help
school selection criteria stipulated that eligible schools the schools establish Internet connections over the new ex-
needed to have the basic infrastructure (electricity, access to panding cellular infrastructure. The company agreed to pro-
telecommunications, and a secure classroom for a lab), a vide one hour of free airtime to the schools per day. The
vision of how to integrate the technology into their teaching schools could now at least establish a 9600 kbps link using
and learning process, and a business plan for sustaining the cell phone technology to send and receive email messages.
• Facilitates teaching and learning for teachers: Teach- • Improves internal efficiency of the education system:
ers in developing countries generally have very little op- In addition to the improvements in student learning
portunity to exchange ideas, lessons, and activities with mentioned above, many school systems have noted a
each other in their own country, much less with teachers marked increase in school attendance, and a decrease in
outside their nation’s borders. Moreover, because li- drop-out rates after a period of sustained use of comput-
braries are usually poorly stocked with outdated resource ers and the Internet in the classroom. This appears to be
materials, if they exist at all, teachers must often rely on linked to increased student interest, possibilities for self-
their own textbooks, or even memories, as their sole learning and perceived improvement in employment
source of information. prospects both from students and parents. Given that
low student throughput is of the greatest challenges of
The introduction of WorLD Program promotes teacher many African school systems, this is an important factor
exchange, both domestically and abroad; helps over- to consider and measure.
come teacher isolation, permitting distant teachers to
collaborate, complement each other’s strengths, access • Encourages progressive pedagogy: The WorLD
subject matter expertise, resources and high-quality schools which have most effectively integrated informa-
learning activities; provides access to other lesson plans, tion and communications technologies (ICTs) into their
activities and teaching techniques (both within the same classrooms have noted a fundamental shift in pedagogy
country and internationally); supports group learning to the type of teaching that has proven most effective
activities, allowing collaboration among schools for towards promoting learning among students. The edu-
collection and analysis of data, email, etc.; offers ad- cational process changes from top-down, teacher-
ministrative support for attendance, accountability, man- directed, passive, rote-based instruction to bottom-up,
agement of educational supplies (e.g. textbooks, etc.); student-centered, project-based, interactive learning.
and facilitates teachers’ need to address students with
different learning styles or special needs. • Enhances opportunities to build community links:
Many of the current collaborative education projects un-
• Improves students’ learning and motivation: By en- dertaken by WorLD Program schools rely on students
gaging in collaborative Internet-based projects, WorLD reaching out into their community to obtain information,
students can learn more and learn faster, and enjoy their conduct surveys and interviews, and bring in local ex-
classes more. They can become independent learners perts to enhance the teaching and learning of various
and self-starters, broadening their horizons in all sub- subjects. In addition, because schools may in fact be
jects, but particularly about the world beyond their the first point of entry for ICTs in many developing
community. They certainly develop a more positive at- country communities, there are countless opportunities
titude towards computers, and towards technology in for the school and its surrounding community to mutu-
general, and acquire workplace competencies that in- ally support one another. From students reporting to lo-
clude working with resources, acquiring and evaluating cal farmers on crop prices or weather patterns, to train-
information, working with others in groups or teams, ing others in the use of computers; from schools opening
and understanding complex relationships and systems. their doors after school hours to provide Internet access
Perhaps most important, they learn how to learn. to the community (and even generate revenue to recover
costs) to students and teachers providing their services to
• Preserves local culture and contributes to the body of local businesses for web site creation in return for
world knowledge: The use of the Internet is not just a “sponsorship” of their school.
one-way street, with developing countries receiving in-
formation from elsewhere. Equally, if not more impor-
tantly, is the opportunity to promote and preserve local Educational Impact
culture by producing materials for worldwide consump-
tion. In the past, non-Africans wrote much of what was
written on Africa for worldwide consumption. The
In 1998, the WorLD Program contracted with SRI Interna-
Internet presents an unparalleled opportunity for Afri-
tional’s Center for Technology in Learning to design and
VADC offers training and degrees in six languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic to
students from 43 countries around the world. The degrees vary in specialty and are accredited and licensed. VADC also oper-
ates one of the largest international educational portals on the Web and through this site students and corporate clients can ac-
cess over 1000 degree and training programs from a variety of institutions. This agreement will expand VADC into all 22
Arabic speaking countries throughout the Middle East.
VADC plans to initially offer courses in English as a second language (ESL) and computer training courses, including Micro-
soft Certified Systems Engineer certifications.
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take LESS," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take MORE than nothing."
Alice in Wonderland
Sources
Information for this article comes from a variety of sources. The same old story?
A few simple web searches yielded over 200,000 sites related While efforts are underway to increase ICT access, improve
to the topics of "women" or "gender" in computing and capacity and enable usage for all—or at least for more—
telecommunications.2 When narrowed to the developing questions are arising about how well those efforts are
world, of course, the number of sites decreased significantly, reaching women in developing countries. It's the same old
as did the quantification of the data. Many new articles and story, in some ways, with a high tech twist. Early returns
books on ICT access and use, as well as the digital divide, suggest that women are neither participating in nor benefiting
are also available, with some attention to gender issues. In from the efforts at anywhere near the same level as men.
addition, active web sites, listservs and online discussions, The familiar and still formidable constraints are again rearing
launched and run mainly by women, are underway around their ugly heads—poverty and illiteracy, lack of time,
the world. Many were prompted by a strategic objective that insufficient skills—with "technophobia" and male-
grew out of the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women to dominated, corporate control of technology added to the list.
increase the "participation and access of women to Accompanying the questions and constraints are the
expression and decision-making in and through the media continuing debates about the relative value of "Women In
and new technologies of communication." In preparation for Development"-type initiatives vs. "gender mainstreaming" as
the upcoming Special Session of the General Assembly for responses. Noteworthy progress notwithstanding, after a
the Beijing +5 Review in June 2000, UN agencies, quarter of a century of exploring, analyzing, debating and
The same yet different If a road is built to my remote village, I will benefit
While the constraints to ICT use among women worldwide whether or not I use that road to travel. If my
are similar, the difference in usage rates is significant. By community/network/organization gains access to the
the summer of 1998, for example, women in the United Internet, and uses it innovatively, I may benefit even if I
States accounted for more than 40 percent of the 42 million never use a computer...information being received
Internet users in the country, up from 10 percent just a few through e-mail and redistributed through other circuits
years before.11 This tremendous increase in usage among illustrates this sort of strategy.16
U.S. women is interesting because a common theory
regarding nonuse is that those who do not produce or The other "circuits" used to redistribute information may
construct a product are less likely to use it. As one include traditional communication channels such as popular
researcher suggested, "Women tend to experience technology theater and community radio, demonstrating a creative
differently...and if those experiences are not addressed during blending of old and new technologies. Through this
'construction,' then women are more likely to feel intimidated repackaging of Internet-delivered information, it is possible
by new information technologies and resist learning about to reach much larger numbers of women, including those in
them and using them."12 There is no question that U.S. remote areas where the prospects for ICT access are remote.
women are "underrepresented in every aspect of computer
culture, from programming to product design to everyday Around the world, NGOs with ICT access also are using
use."13 Indeed, computer science is clearly a masculine mailing lists and email for advocacy and activist purposes.17
domain, where "women comprise just 7.8% of science and Through targeted marketing, for example, groups are
computer engineering faculties," for example, "and only flooding officials, stakeholders and decision makers with
2.7% are tenured."14 Yet U.S. women who have access are messages in support of positions favorable to women or
using ICTs enthusiastically, and there seems to be no public protests against perceived injustices-a breakthrough in
evidence to suggest that they "would respond differently to communication in light of the persistent difficulty in getting
computers if they were designed and programmed by mainstream radio, television and newspaper media to cover
women."15 "women's issues." These efforts are beginning to link
organizations around the world, leading to the creation of
There are few statistics indicating the prevalence of ICT use virtual communities focused on specific development issues
among women in developing countries, and we have no way and the forming of alliances enabling greater participation in
of knowing if the trend experienced in the United States will international fora and decision-making.18
be replicated elsewhere, assuming that ICTs become widely
accessible. At present, it is probably safe to assume that While women's access to information and communication is
women in developing countries are less likely to have access increasing through these collaborative collection and
than men, less likely to have opportunities to develop usage dissemination schemes, there is less activity in the
capacity than men, and, perhaps, less likely to use ICTs even production of information. This field is fertile, however, for
when they do have access. the future. With some skill sharpening and, perhaps,
translation service, those who currently are collecting
At the same time, there are indications about how women in information also can produce it, drawing on local networks
the middle- and low-income countries are using these for valuable content. Another possibility is software
technologies where they are available. One trend that is development and the production of inexpensive multi-media
emerging is based on organizational, collective usage. material, which ICTs can facilitate.
2
As such searches are accustomed to do, one revealed a site devoted to jokes about Why a computer is better than a woman
("because computers don't make you meet their parents, or ask you to call them in the morning, or because you can shut a
computer down when you're tired of it") - perhaps a telling commentary on the need for continued attention to the issue. (URL
withheld at author's discretion).
3
See, for example, http://sdnhq.undp.org/ww/women-media for a list of web sites.
4
LearnLink is a five-year Indefinite Quantities Contract (No. HNE-1-00-96-00018-00) of the U.S. Agency for International
Development, funded by the Human Capacity Development Center in the USAID Global Bureau, the Africa Bureau, and other
USAID Bureaus, offices and missions. It is operated by the Academy for Education Development (AED). For more
information on LearnLink's activities, see http://www.aed.org/learnlink/ .
5
This and many of the following quotes are from the Virtual Working Group on Women and Media-with a special focus on
ICTs as they impact women's lives-sponsored by WomenWatch and facilitated by Women Action 2000 during November and
December, 1999. The Group's goal is to analyze, at a global level, which of the objectives from the Beijing Platform for
Action, Section J, have been realized and which still need attention. Recommendations from the Working Group will be
compiled for inclusion in a report to be submitted by UN WomenWatch at the 44th session of the Commission on the Status of
Women in March 2000. To access the Group's archives, go to: http://sdnhq.undp.org/ww/women-media .
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
9
Ibid.
10
Ibid.
11
Dan Schiller, Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System, The MIT Press, 1999, p. 139. (Note: Some of the
most sophisticated tracking of Internet usage comes from the advertising world. In the case of women, Schiller quotes Procter
& Gamble remarking that "the vast majority of [women Internet users] represent the target audience for most of our brands").
12
Ruth Anne Corley, Women, Technology and the Internet: How will the three get along? Working Papers in Communication Technology
and Culture, Carleton University, 1994.
13
Leslie Regan Shade, talk given at Community Networking: The International Free-Net Conference, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada,
August 17-19, 1993.
14
Ibid.
15
Ruth Anne Corley, Women, Technology and the Internet: How will the three get along?
16
The Women and Media Working Group on the Beijing Platform for Action.
17
For a sampling of ways in which women are using ICTs for these purposes, see "40 activist ways of using the internet" at
http://www.womenspace.ca/Campaign/Activism/activistways.html .
18
Sally Burch, "Latin American Women Take on the Internet," http://www.connected.org/women/sally.html .
19
The Women and Media Working Group on the Beijing Platform for Action.
20
Ibid.
Literacy is a fundamental skill that allows one to access a variety of information and knowledge
resources and to continue learning throughout one’s life as an independent learner. In order to promote
literacy and a lifelong learning environment for both children and adults, public library systems can
serve as a powerful mean for the goal. Several bridges need to be built and strengthened to take
advantage of library services in education for children and adults. Such bridges include: 1) a closer
linkage among school, library, community, and publishing industry at local levels; 2) a conceptual bridge
between education for children and education for adults; and 3) closer communication and collaboration
among stakeholders at national and international levels, including libraries and resource centers,
research and practice organizations, governments and international organizations.
Linking School, Library, Community, and librarians, and community workers; 4) day-to-day school
Publishing Industry based support; 5) motivational programs and events for
students and teachers; and 6) assessment and evaluation for
In order for the public library system to be better utilized in further development and assistance. According to READ’s
education for children and adults, especially for neoliterates learners’ achievement survey, students at schools
and people with limited literacy skills, libraries need to work participating in READ program are ahead of control school
closely with schools, communities, and publishing industries. students in their reading and writing ability. The staff of
READ has been involved in similar education efforts in
South Africa’s READ program, started in 1979, is supporting Lesotho, Nigeria, and Tanzania to share their experiences.
learners in rural primary, secondary and tertiary levels
throughout South Africa for skills development in reading, Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie promotes
writing, and accessing information technology, to help them literacy in French speaking countries in Africa through
become independent, lifelong learners. In collaboration with assisting public reading rooms for rural populations to help
educators, librarians, teachers, and parents, READ develops their social and cultural communication and community
and assists using inexpensive teaching and learning materials development, and through Centres de Lecture et Animation
in libraries and classrooms. READ program provides a wide Culturelle (CLACs) or reading and cultural centers for
range of services including curriculum and teaching methods students and teachers. At CLACs, students and teachers can
development, and teacher training, following the six-step consult and borrow books, magazines, journals, and
strategy: 1) initial program presentation and consultation educational toys and games, provided by the Agency, while
with schools and libraries; 2) systematic resource provision the buildings, equipment and volunteer teachers (usually
after consultation and training; 3) training for principals, from primary schools) are supported locally. The CLACs
subject teachers, librarians, supervisors of teachers and project started in 1986 and by the end of 2000, there will be
*
Adult Outreach Education Thematic Group, Human Development Network - Education, The World Bank
The Internet is now the largest library in the history of the world. It is also a strange library. Currently it has far
more short abstracts, summaries, and references to important sources, than it has the full text of those docu-
ments. Sometimes an abstract or summary is all that is needed, but at other times the full text of a document is
needed to ascertain details and get the full story. This article will steer you to Internet sources that provide the
full text of books, reports, journals, and newsletters. All these will be referred to in this article as “documents.”
SCOPE slash (/) to find a live site that may steer you to the new
URL. Alternatively, use another of the listed sites to try to
The focus is on documents that are distributed in full-text on find the same document. Third, text is available on the web
the World Wide Web or by e-mail. Some of the sites offer in two main formats, HTML and Adobe Acrobat .pdf files.
full-text materials for free and others charge a fee that is usu- The former downloads fastest. The latter includes all the
ally paid with an international credit card. Many of the ref- original graphics, but Adobe Acrobat Reader software must
erenced sites will have materials only in English, but several be installed on your computer to read the documents. It can
offer materials in other major languages. Most of the sites be download for free from:
will allow you to access not only current issues of periodicals http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
and recent reports, but also several years of earlier issues and
reports. Some of the documents are available only electroni- ALL FORMS OF PUBLICATIONS
cally, but others are electronic versions of documents also
distributed in print. Eldis
Eldis is the best portal to information on the web that is rele-
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES vant to national development. It currently links to about
2,800 web sites of organizations involved in development
and to 5,000 documents available in full-text.
Advantages of Electronic Text www.ids.ac.uk/eldis/eldis.html
Instant Access The Internet Public Library
Cost Efficient This is a major portal to full-text documents on the web. The
periodicals are listed in alphabetical order by title, but can be
Searchability
searched by subject headings and subheadings. “Education”
Easy Storage is a subheading under “Social Issues and Sciences.” Books
can be searched by author, title, keywords, and the Dewey
classification scheme.
Periodicals: http://ipl.org/reading/serials/index.html
Disadvantages of Electronic Text Books: http://ipl.org/reading/books/
Reading Immobility Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC)
Inability to make notes on text This is the premier North American system for searching for
reports, journal articles, and conference papers on education.
Obsolescence of Storage Media With rare exceptions, the system does not provide the full-
text of the documents electronically, but three other organi-
A few precautions are in order. First, most of these portals zations do so for fees.
try to link to everything within their domain of interest, For documents to which ERIC assigns a number starting with
without screening for quality. They link to first-rate material ED, contact:
as well as to false and misleading material. Second, URLs
are changing rapidly. If a given link does not function, try ERIC Document Reproduction Service
truncating the right portions of the URL to each forward http://www.edrs.com
In the early 1990's, Tim Bernes-Lee developed the global one-fifth of the world’s population, had less than one percent
hypertext system - the World Wide Web - with an aim to of the users. The United Kingdom alone had 10.5 million
provide a common space where information could be shared Internet users, compared to one million in the whole African
without barriers. The expansion of the Web may have continent (Black, 1999). In 1994, when the Web started to
surprised even its creator. In less than ten years, the online spread through the world, the average telephone density in
population has grown to 180 million individuals across all industrialized countries was 52.3 per 100 habitants,
continents, while an estimated 250,000 sites are added to the compared to 5.2 in developing countries (Mike Holderness,
Web each month (www.net-surfin.com/page4.htm). Rapid in Loader, 1998). Even at accelerated rates of investment,
expansion is not unique to the Web. Computers, a strange the fastest growing economies of Asia, South America and
word some fifty years ago, are now common household Eastern Europe may need two decades or more to reach the
items and integral parts of educational systems in many telephone penetration rates of the industrialized countries.
countries. At the end of 1998, more than 40 percent of the For the slower-growing economies, it may take a century or
households in the United States owned computers and one- more (Credé & Mansell, 1998). The information
fourth had Internet access (NTIA, 1999). In October 1999, “superhighway” in the poorest countries, writes Trevor
90 percent of all Canadian schools were online; four out of Haywood, “is more often than not a long and tortuous dirt-
ten students had used e-mail during the previous school year; track miles from a made-up road which itself is miles from
and 30 percent had designed their own web sites the nearest medical centre or school.” (in Loader, 1998, p.
(www.nua.ie/surveys). Scholars, journalists and practitioners 24)
reacted to the rapid development of the new information and
communication technologies (ICTs) with high expectations This digital divide exists not only between nations, but also
and equally great concerns. All recognize the technology’s within individual countries. A recent study on the
potential to overcome geographical and cultural barriers and telecommunications and information technology gap in the
bring needed improvement to people’s lives all over the United States shows that computer ownership and Internet
world. At the same time, fears have mounted that this access are strongly correlated with income and education.
potential is not being tapped. Instead of fostering a new Households with annual incomes of $75,000 and higher are
equilibrium among countries, the ICT revolution may be about nine times more likely to have a computer at home and
widening the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots,” twenty times more likely to have access to the Internet than
and creating a divide that may prove extremely difficult to households at the lowest income levels. Although access to
close. electronic resources has been steadily increasing in all social
strata in America, the differences are also increasing. For
instance, between 1997 and 1998, the digital divide between
Who is benefiting from the ICT individuals at the highest and lowest education levels
increased 25 percent and between those at the highest and
Revolution? lowest income levels increased 29 percent (NTIA, 1999).
The Industrial Revolution divided the world into two large
Besides income and education, variables that influence the
blocks. While the industrialized countries amassed
divide include geographic location, race and ethnicity.
significant wealth and power, those countries that were
Regardless of income, U.S. families living in rural areas are
unable to change their pre-industrial forms of production
less likely to have Internet access when compared to families
experienced mounting economic and social problems.
living in urban areas. Similarly, Blacks and Latino
Starting in the industrialized countries, the ICT revolution
households are approximately one-third as likely to have
seems to be perpetuating this divide. In 1998, 88 percent of
home Internet access compared to Asian/Pacific Islander
all Internet users lived in industrialized countries, home to 15
households and two-fifths as likely as White households
percent of the world’s population, while South Asia, with
(NTIA, 1999). A telephone survey with 5,813 randomly
Exchange of information is a phenomenon as old as two-hour interviews focused on the following themes: the
humanity. From foot couriers to electronic mail, information reasons for becoming a network user, patterns of service
exchange has gained in speed, outreach, precision and utilization in the job and outside it, problems with network
reliability. The past fifty years have been particularly usage, the role of network services in the individual’s life,
significant for the areas of information and communication. and the future role of the Internet in society. To support the
New technologies, such as satellites, computers, and the qualitative data from the interviews, the researcher used
Internet, are challenging our concepts of space and time, and results from a 1996 national survey of 1,080 Finn
redefining the words “global” and “immediate.” Researchers households.
are trying to understand the impact of these technologies in
our lives and the ways people are reacting to them. We Findings:
present here four summaries of research that address the use
of electronic documents for information seeking and ♦ At the time of the research, only 3 percent of the survey
retrieval. Reijo Savolainen, from the University of Tampere, respondents had utilized the Internet to seek practical
Finland, focuses on the use of the Internet to obtain information.
information in job-related and other contexts. Bridget
Booske and François Sainfort, from the University of ♦ Males, low-income level participants and those with
Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A., study the use of electronic high education levels were more likely to use the
documents (e-documents) to obtain information in decision- Internet for information seeking than females, people
making contexts. Lee Komito, from the University College with high income levels, and those with low education
Dublin, Ireland, uses qualitative methodology to study levels.
employees’ preferences between e-documents and paper-
♦ The Internet was most frequently used for
based documents. The last summary moves the focus from
communication (e-mail, discussion groups) than
the people who seek and use the information to the intrinsic
information seeking.
qualities of electronic information-retrieval tools. Michael
Gordon and Praveen Pathak, with the University of ♦ In the context of information seeking, participants used
Michigan-Ann Arbor, U.S.A., analyze the retrieval the Internet mostly to “stay up to date” and monitor
effectiveness among different World Wide Web search daily events.
engines.
♦ Research participants cited the following criteria to
The role of the Internet in information seeking. Putting choose networked services over other media for
the networked services in context by Reijo Savolainen. information seeking: easiness of accessing a huge
Information Processing and Management, 35: 765-782, amount of data at low cost, savings in time and money,
1999. the chance to consult with experts, and greater
independence of when and how to seek the information.
Focus:
Focus Research shows that the strengths of electronic
sources as tools for information seeking are their easiness of ♦ The factors that make traditional media more attractive
updating, modifying and manipulating data and the speed of than networked sources were: lack of computer or
search. On the other hand, printed formats have the computer skills; insufficient quality control (information
advantage of being easier to transport and rooted in our daily may be outdated or unreliable); technological glitches
routines. This research focuses on whether the Internet is (slow response time, frequent breakdowns); and the
replacing other media as an information-seeking tool and the chaotic nature of the Internet.
criteria for such a replacement.
♦ Printed newspapers are still preferred to their online
Methods:
Methods The researcher conducted 23 theme interviews versions, because: they are easier to read (participants
with Internet users in Finland, in spring 1997. Participants found it inconvenient to read long texts on the screen),
were recruited through an online paper. Reflecting the tend to have more news and more in-depth coverage of
demographics of the online population, the participants were news and, most of all, reading the newspaper is a well-
mostly university students and white-collar workers. The established part of the individuals’ daily routines.
Focus:
Focus The analysis of information use in any medium Paper “work" and electronic files: defending professional
raises issues of quantity (how much information can a person practice, by Lee Komito. Journal of Information
handle?) and quality (which criteria are used to define quality Technology, 13: 235-246, 1998.
information?). Answers to these questions are essential for
improving the effectiveness of the new information and Focus:
Focus Organizations are moving toward the use of
communication technologies. The research funded by the electronically stored data over paper-based documents for
U.S. Health Care Financing Administration, focuses on the many reasons, such as reducing costs, improving safety of
use of electronic documents to obtain information in a data, standardizing data input and automating work. The
decision-making process. transition from paper to electronic documents is technically
easy, and does not alter the categories and general format of
Methods:
Methods A group of 201 individuals were offered the information. However, acceptance of e-documents is not
alternative hypothetical health care plan scenarios using a smooth, and the resulting systems are not as effective as it
Windows 3.1-based computer system. The sample was would be expected. This research examines some of the
randomly selected from a population of 70,000 state factors that influence people’s reaction to electronic
employees with experience in health plan choice. The documents.
software was programmed in Delphi as the front end to reach
Microsoft Access databases. Participants could search the Methods:
Methods The research is a case study of the use of a Lotus
database by plan, by attribute (such as costs, services offered NOTES database within a department of the Irish Civil
etc.), or any combination of methods. The quantity of Service that examines citizens’ claims for services or
information was arranged in levels, from general to detailed, benefits. The methodology included three months of
and participants could move easily from one level to another participant-observation of work practices and social
and back. Researchers collected information on number of interactions in the office, tape-recorded interviews with all
screens visited, amount of time spent per screen, overall staff members (thirty in all), and analysis of logs of e-mail
amount of time spent in the search, and number of redundant traffic over a two-month period.
visits to the same screen. In addition, participants were
asked their reactions to the process and their satisfaction, or Findings:
Findings
frustration, with the information received.
♦ Overall, staff expressed satisfaction with the
Findings:
Findings introduction of the new system. The staff dealing with
queries from the public reported that NOTES reduced
♦ On average, participants accessed only 20 percent of the time in finding the status of cases, facilitated prompt
available information and spent no more than 45 seconds responses to the public, and made the work less
on each screen (including redundant visits); 70 percent repetitive and more interesting. Staff responsible for
of all participants considered the amount of information examining the claims stated that the workload had
about right. increased, since they had to do all the word processing
and control, but expressed satisfaction with their greater
♦ In general, participants who stated that there was not control of the work and improved quality.
enough information available had either failed to take
advantage of all the available information or were ♦ The information sharing and work collaboration features
interested in information that was not in the plan; also of NOTES were rarely used and the paper file remained
participants who considered choosing a health care plan as the “document record” par excellence.
a difficult task were more likely to state that more
information was necessary for a decision-making ♦ Staff suggested that the paper files provided a “hidden
process. story” of the case that was considered vital in the
decision-making process (the scribbled notes on the
♦ Participants who thought that there was enough or too margins of the document, the number of papers included
much information were more likely to have a higher in the file and their order of inclusion, etc). This meta-
percentage of redundant visits to the same screen and information was absent in the electronic documents;
have spent less time per screen. although NOTES allowed for the inclusion of notes and
other types of information, these features were not used.
A National Strategy
Since then, the introduction of information and communica-
In the 1990s, Korea developed and implemented the concept tion technology has been seen as a barometer of national
of an “Edutopia,” intended to create an open and lifelong competitiveness and quality of life. Thus, informatization—
learning society. To overcome the problems with the current the process and outcome of introducing and implementing
education system, which is too rigid and uniform to meet information and communication technology in the society—
individual students’ learning needs, a new system for the 21st is being pursued as a national development strategy for se-
century was suggested to prepare people for the information curing leadership in the world economy in the information
and globalization age. age of the 21st century. Due to the national efforts for infor-
matization, the PC penetration rate in 1998 rose to 20 percent
The government’s plans and action strategies have been de- of the population, with a total of 9 million PCs supplied.
veloped according to suggestions made by the Presidential Moreover, the number of subscribers to PC online services
Commission on Education Reform since 1995. The Com- and Internet hosts was approximately 6 million and 3 mil-
mission, which operated from 1994 to 1998, defined the goal lion, respectively. Korean newspapers recently reported that
of the Korean Education System in the 21st century as an more than 4 million Koreans were using the Internet services
“Edutopia,” meaning “an education welfare state—a society in 1999 and among the Internet users, 73% were male and
of open and lifelong education to allow each and every indi- 27% female.
vidual equal and easy access to education at any time and
place.” In 1997, the Commission recommended the estab- Implementation Measures
lishment of a virtual university, a national credit bank system
and the use of advanced technologies in education as a possi- The active implementation of the above plan came with the
ble means of realizing this Edutopia. establishment of the independent Bureau of Educational In-
formation and Technology (BEIT) in 1996, and the Korea
This strategic plan enjoys unanimous societal consensus; few Research and Information Center (KRIC) and the Korea
have even raised issues about its cost-effectiveness or effi- Multimedia Education Center (KMEC) in 1997. Using gov-
ciency. There is almost universal support for the elements of ernment funds, KRIC has established and/or linked many
this plan, which include: establishment of an information digital libraries and provided information services for profes-
infrastructure by 2005, development of a multimedia data- sionals in higher education with its own server and network
base, training in the use of advanced technologies, and the system to which all higher education institutions are now
use of information technologies to educate the next genera- linked. Online journal articles, research papers, academic
tion. Most importantly, there exists a national aspiration for databases and other academic materials are provided to pro-
Korea to become a world leader in the future information fessors and researchers in Korea. Membership is required,
society. Newspapers echo this consensus with slogans, in- but no individual or institutional payment is necessary for the
cluding one that urges: “We fell behind in the industrial use of KRIC’s services at this time. They will charge mem-
revolution, but let us lead in the information revolution.” bership fee later—perhaps starting next year.
Open-source is the term used to designated software that is Digital Alphas.2 Eric Raymond, a developer of much open-
publicly available in source code form, rather than as final source software, refers to the successful development of Li-
product. By making the source code public, the software nux as a "great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and ap-
developer enables other programmers to modify and expand proaches . . . out of which a coherent and stable system could
the original product. Indeed, some developers even offer seemingly emerge only by a succession of miracles."3
bonuses for people who will improve and redistribute their
software. Open-source software is generally copyrighted and Free-For-All?
its license may include notices of authorship and restrictions Although the bazaar image fits well the open-source commu-
to preserve the open-source status and control development. nity, far from being a free-for-all environment, the commu-
In contrast to commercial licenses, open-source licenses do nity obeys a set of shared rules and regulations that protects
not restrict the use, modification and redistribution of the ownership, while ensuring public access. These non-written
product.1 rules define who can modify the software and in which con-
ditions, how it can be redistributed and by whom, and how
The use of open-source software is more prevalent than usu- transfer of control can occur. Public legitimacy is an essen-
ally thought. According to David Niemi, only a small pro- tial value of this community. In an environment where co-
portion of software development is geared toward commer- operation is a required condition for success, prestige is both
cial use. The vast majority represents software developed for a personal reward and a guarantee of further cooperation.
internal uses of both public and private organizations and For the open-source community, the concept of personal
many of these have open-source licenses. Some open-source property, as the exclusive right of use and disposition of a
products eventually become commercial, while commercially good, is replaced by a system of prestige, honor and respect
developed software may become open-source. Netscape, for that is closer to the values of tribal societies than to the ex-
instance, decided to go open-source with its Navigator 5.0 pected rewards of capitalism. Indeed, Raymond compares
browser, although it is using a license that entails more con- the notions of property in open-source software to the Eng-
trol of the development and the trademarks than usual open- lish laws of land tenure.4 By changing the rules that govern
source licenses. Many of the most fundamental software private property, an essential element of capitalist societies,
running the Internet are developed as open-sources, includ- the open-source community may have initiated a social
ing: Apache, a program that powers more web services than movement of unsuspected consequences. However, the
Microsoft and Netscape together; InterNet News (INN), open-source community is already divided between two
which handles the majority of Usenet News on the Internet groups: those who argue that any commercialization of open-
and in many corporate Intranets; and WU-FTPD, the most source products violates the very principles of the movement,
popular File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server on the Internet. and those who are flexible about commercialization of the
software.
Best Known Examples
Probably, the two better known examples of open-source The Rationale
software are UNIX and Linux. UNIX is an operating system Why did a company like Netscape move into the open-source
initially developed by University of California, Berkeley, realm? In part, it may be trying to reach a new sector of the
under the BSD license (a license that requires notice of copy- public, specifically those with expertise in programming. In
right and authorship). Most commercial versions of the pro- part, though, this move may reflect a wise cost-saving meas-
gram are based directly on the original source code or borrow ure. By opening the source code of a software to the public,
heavily from it. Linux, the most popular non-Microsoft op- companies ensure a better product without investing large
erating system, was originally created in 1991 as a school amounts of money in staff and development time. This also
project by Linus Torvalds, then an undergraduate student in provides a more efficient way for other companies to develop
Finland. The system has had the contribution of thousands software that uses an open-source platform, because they
of independent programmers around the world and many for- have easy access to the source code. Open-source organiza-
profit companies. It is under the General Public License tions can create profit through support services, such as in-
(GPL), which forbids restrictions on derived or redistributed stalling and adapting the product to individual customer
products. Linux can support diverse platforms, from the needs and providing technical support. For skilled consum-
smallest Palm Pilots to supercomputing clusters of 64-bit
1. For more information on this topic, see Software for Public Interest, http://www.delian.org and the Open Source Definition,
http://www.opensource.org/osd.html.
2. An in-depth and clear review of open source software can be found in David Niemi (1998), Open-Source Software: What is it? Why use
it? And what's gotten into Netscape? at http://www.tux.org/~niemi/opensource/customer-case.html .
3. Eric S. Raymond (1998), The Cathedral and the Bazaar, at http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar .
4. Eric S. Raymond, Homesteading the Noosphere. This book has a thorough discussion of the rules that regulate the open-source movement
and how these rules are maintained in place. The book is the second in a trilogy that starts with The Cathedral and the Bazaar and ends with
The Magic Cauldron. These and others of his writings can be found at http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings .
CROSSROADS OF THE
NEW MILLENNIUM
LEARNING AT THE CROSSROADS •CULTURE AT THE CROSSROADS •QUALITY AT THE CROSSROADS
FEATURING INTERNATONAL SPEAKERS FROM OVER 20 COUNTRIES
Dr. Paul A. Elsner Dr. Jethro Newton
Chancellor Emeritus Head, Academic Office
Maricopa Community Colleges, USA North East Wales Institute of
Higher Education, UK
Dr. John Hinchcliff
Vice Chancellor Baroness Pauline Perry
Auckland University of Technology President
New Zealand Lucy Cavendish College
Cambridge University, UK
Dr. Geraldine Kenney-Wallace
Managine Director and Vice Chancellor Dr. Jerry W. Wright Jr.
Virtual University Senior Trade Policy Advisor
British Aerospace plc, UK US Agency for International Development, USA
WHO The Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates • WHAT Conference on Technological
Education and National Development • WHEN 8 to 10 April 2000 • WHERE Abu Dhabi Inter-Continental Hotel
According to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry allocate a set number of frequencies for each cell. So then
Association, in 1999 there were 200 million wireless sub- two cells can use the same frequency for different conver-
scribers worldwide and in 2005 it is projected that there sations as long as they are not adjacent to each other.
will be 1 billion wireless subscribers worldwide. That is to (http://aol.pcwebopedia.com/TERM/c/cellular.html)
say that there are now over 200 million people using mo-
bile communications in one way or another. Mobile tele- While cellular technology is still used, there are newer and
phones have come a long way since the days of the "port- more improved technologies than analog, such as GSM
able" 20-pound suitcase. and CDMA. More recently, non-cellular technology is
being developed using satellite communications.
What are the Types of Wireless
Tech
Technologies? GSM
Short for Global System for Mobile Communications,
The earliest mobile phones used analog technology - sig- GSM is one of the leading digital cellular systems. GSM
nals that transmitted at low frequencies where call quality uses narrow band TDMA. TDMA stands for Time Divi-
was bad. Calls were not very secure and service was ex- sion Multiple Access which is a technology for delivering
pensive. Today, more and more mobile phones are using digital wireless service using time-division multiplexing
digital technology. Calls are clearer, more services and (TDM). TDMA works by dividing a radio frequency into
security are supported, and while phones are usually more time slots and then allocating slots to multiple calls. In this
expensive than analog phones, digital services tend to be way, a single frequency can support multiple, simultaneous
cheaper. The digital network works on two frequencies: data channels. GSM was first introduced in 1991. As of the
digital cellular functions on the lower 900-MHz frequency; end of 1997, GSM service was available in more than 100
and digital PCS functions on the higher 1900-MHz fre- countries and has become the de facto standard in Europe
quency. and Asia. (http://aol.pcwebopedia.com/TERM/G/GSM.html)
Three of the digital standards used are: CDMA, GSM, and CDMA
TDMA. (http://aol.pcwebopedia.com/TERM/T/TDMA.html) A CDMA is short for Code-Division Multiple Access, a
dual-mode phone works on both the analog network and digital cellular technology that uses spread-spectrum tech-
the digital network. A tri-mode phone works on analog, niques. Unlike GSM, that uses TDM, CDMA does not
digital cellular, and digital PCS. A dual-band phone assign a specific frequency to each user. Instead, every
works on both the high and low frequency bands. channel uses the full available spectrum. Individual con-
versations are encoded with a pseudo-random digital se-
The words "mobile" phone and "cellular" phone are used quence. CDMA is a military technology first used during
interchangeably because mobile computing uses cellular World War II by the English allies to foil German attempts
technology. Cellular usually refers to communications at jamming transmissions. The allies decided to transmit
systems that divide a geographic region into sections over several frequencies, instead of one, making it difficult
called cells. The purpose of this system is to make the for the Germans to pick up the complete signal.
most use out of a limited number of transmission frequen- (http://aol.pcwebopedia.com/TERM/C/CDMA.html)
cies. In cellular technology, each connection requires its
own dedicated frequency and the total number of available PCS
frequencies is about 1,000. In order to support more than PCS is Personal Communications Service, the U.S. Fed-
that amount of simultaneous connections, cellular systems eral Communications Commission (FCC) term used to
What can Mobile Phones Do? With the built-in "minibrowsers", you can access the Inter-
net and check the weather, trade online, read the news,
In the old days, mobile phones were a luxury - only those shop, book a flight, and get directions. Some mobile
of us who could afford to have one. The technology wasn't phone companies in North America use "push" technology
that great and costs were exorbitant. Perhaps we made a to send information directly to your phone based on your
call here and there in case of emergency or a very urgent personal preferences.
business call, but whatever the case, we savored those
times when we could use our mobile phones. If you have a laptop computer and want to connect to the
Internet or send an email but don't have access to a phone
Things have changed. Nowadays in most developed coun- line, there is no problem. Just plug in your mobile phone
tries, just about everybody is carrying one and sometimes and connect to the Internet via your wireless network when
two, including the kids. The phones are getting smaller and and where you choose.
the services getting less expensive. Developing countries
are leapfrogging into the 21st century and increasing their Large content providers like America Online, Inc. (AOL)
access to information by using mobile telephones. and similar companies around the world will be making
their content available to mobile phone users. Whereas
However, the traditional idea about what phones are for AOL's content is currently available either on the Internet
has gone by the wayside, replaced by products and serv- or via its subscription service, soon you will be able to
ices we wouldn't have dreamt about a few short years ago. access this content from your mobile phone. In Japan,
Wireless data is the latest phenomenon and is driving the Mobilephone Communications International (MTI), touted
next generation of growth in wireless communications. As by Forbes magazine as the world's largest content provider
demand for 24-hour access to people and information in- for the mobile Internet, offers over 200 services for mobile
creases, the lines between voice and data communications telephones.
is blurring. The last generation of mobile phones provided
voice communications services; you could make a phone In addition to the services listed above, in Japan, via your
call, leave a voice mail message, receive a call while on a mobile phone you can: engage in digital dating via live,
call, receive a page on your phone and perhaps receive a recorded, or written messages; participate in interactive
text message. talk shows and live auctions; and place an ad for an
anonymous rendezvous. Similar companies offer restau-
On top of these voice communications services, today's rant menus and theater show times via mobile telephones.
data communications services include: wireless faxing,
wireless connection, wireless email, wireless Internet, ***
short messaging services, location-based services and a
As is clearly evident, mobile phones are not just mobile
host of other things.
phones anymore. Wireless operators are differentiating
Mobile phones today are practically computers in your their services and increasing airtime revenues by expand-
pocket. The displays are larger, they utilize power saving ing data-based value-added services for their subscribers.
techniques to conserve battery life, include security fea- With the cost of receiving such services ranging between
tures and have enhanced basic services. You can receive US$60 per month to US$170 per month, it's only a matter
numeric and text pages and email messages. You will soon of time before wireless data becomes an integral part of
be able to send live, instant messages to your friends and people's daily lives.
colleagues as well. You can see the number of who is
International Center for Distance Learning (ICDL) is an international center for research, teaching, consultancy, information
and publishing activities. ICDL distance education databases contain information on over 31,000 distance learning programs
and courses mostly in the Commonwealth countries, over 1,000 institutions teaching at a distance worldwide, and over 11,000
abstracts of books, journal articles, research reports, conference papers, dissertations and other types of literature relating to all
aspects of the theory and practice of distance education.
Orientation.com
http://www.orientation.com
Orientation.com is the world's first global network of licensed local and regional multi-lingual Internet portal sites, offering the
most relevant country and region-specific information available on the World Wide Web. Through its partnerships with the
United Nations and other organizations focusing on sustainable economic development, Orientation.com has been instrumental
in developing Internet communities in countries outside of Western Europe and the United States. Orientation.com has also
expanded its reach through its unique licensing system, using Internet Service Providers in each country to provide locally pro-
duced, locally relevant content, while offering access to a global network, the newest technology and a worldwide audience.
Soft Power Expeditions was developed to expand the global horizons of school children around the world by providing web
based educational adventures that transcend the barriers of culture, geography, economics and language. Children and teachers
around the world, using today's most advanced technology, and traveling teddy bears, enter the classrooms of developing
country schools and gain a unique knowledge and understanding of each other and the world in order to advance education,
foster peace and develop future trade and business relationships.
The European SchoolNet is network-of-networks in Europe whose aim is to promote the use of Information and Communica-
tion Technologies (ICTs) among schools in Europe by supporting collaboration between schools, offering a broad range of
educational content and services, promoting good practice and experience, and advancing standardization processes in educa-
tion.
You can browse keyword lists, search by terms, or access subject lists to see this site's nearly 7,000 resources. The Gateway to
Educational Materials (GEM) project is a consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to the substantial,
but uncataloged, collections of educational materials found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial
Internet sites. GEM is a project of the U.S. Department of Education and is a special project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on
Information & Technology. The Gateway is a free service.
CREN offers access to the knowledge and experience of technology experts through their TechTalk facility. TechTalk events
are live audio Webcasts that provide up-to-the minute information from leading experts on relevant technology topics. Live
events are archived and transcripts indexed (a list of all the indexed topics is also available). The site includes an Event Calen-
dar that lists upcoming events for the next three months. CREN also offers Web-based Virtual Seminars that analyze TechTalk
topics in more detail using multimedia such as audio, video, animation and text. Current seminar topics include Creating Inter-
net2, Untangling the Web, and Campus Communication Strategies.
Think Quest
http://library.thinkquest.org/26451/frames.html
Think Quest is an educational web site that takes visitors on a journey of discovery through the world of communication. It is
about the development of verbal and non-verbal communication through human history and shows how developments in the
field of communication have affected our lives and how they continuously change the world in which we live. Illustrations,
photographs, and diagrams reinforce the instructional character of the site. The site also includes a quiz and a survey to en-
hance the learning experience. Think Quest is a valuable online resource not only for teachers and students but also for every-
one interested in communication.
Altavista Translations
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Just type in English, hit the "translate" button, and your message comes up in your choice of several European languages
(Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese). You can also convert foreign documents into English.
By Laurence Wolff
Until now nearly all home and small business connections to TV, Internet, and telephone, with Internet access always on.
the Internet have been made to permit transmission of data at Where cable is already available, as in the US and some
56,000 bits per second (56 KBPS). This is the limit at which European countries, the costs to the consumer are quite rea-
current technology permits transmission of data over normal sonable. One provider is advertising Internet access via ca-
telephone lines (two twisted lines of copper). But comput- ble at a cost of $29.95 per month if the customer provides the
ers are capable of exchanging data 200 or more times as modem. For most developing countries, this option is not
rapidly as the current transmission rate. While Internet users realistic, since cable systems are not already installed.
have gotten used to this slow speed of Internet, in reality they
are at the “horse and buggy” stage of inter-connection and
data transmission. Over the next five years, in the developed
world, there will be a rapid transition to high bandwidth, or
Internet via Telephone (DSL)
“broadband” communications, which will permit far more
rapid communications and new applications of the computer. Copper telephone lines have been installed
With broadband, consumers will be able to combine voice, in more than 600 million phone lines
television, and Internet communications. They may link up worldwide. A new technology, called
with “smart” search engines providing specialized services. “digital subscriber line” (DSL) exploits the
Health and education services may be far more effectively long dormant capacity of these lines to
provided at the home, office and other centers. In most cases, handle wide band Internet. It provides a fifty-fold increase
the Internet connection can always be on. New, as yet un- (1.5 MBPS downstream and 0.5 MBPS upstream) speed of
foreseen, uses of the Internet will surely arise as speed of data transmission. The technology requires a heavy invest-
transmission increases exponentially. ment in the central telephone offices, since the signal deterio-
rates beyond 5.5 kilometers of transmission over normal
The economic and technical aspects of providing telephone wires. One advantage over cable is that the signal
“broadband” are complicated. There are at least five options. is not shared with other users and telephone wires are physi-
This article summarizes the current options and costs and cally secure. Another advantage is that businesses generally
notes what appears to be most feasible for developing coun- are not already connected to cable. DSL is also relatively
tries. inexpensive in the US. While cable has a two-year head
start, DSL is rapidly catching up. Newspaper ads in the US
offer DSL access at $49.95 per month, which includes tele-
phone usage.
Internet via Cable.
DSL technology offers wide opportunities in middle income
Currently the leading providers of countries, especially in Latin America and Southeast Asia,
broadband in the USA are cable compa- since with deregulation of phone provision, many of these
nies. Over 90 percent of US homes have countries have an increasing number of telephone connec-
nearby access to cable. In order to provide tions. However, most telephone companies still charge for
access, cable companies have deployed phone connections by the minute. DSL may remain beyond
fiber optics in their transmission networks, leaving the “last the reach of homes, and therefore it may not pay for phone
mile” to the existing network of coaxial cable. The cable companies to make the investment in their central telephone
company’s central facility can serve up to 1000 homes. Ca- offices.
ble modems can provide a wide variety of services, including
Although English has become very common in business, of native languages into UNL, and any UNL text can be "de-
entertainment, science and government related matters, a converted" into native languages.
communication gap persists for non-English speakers. There
are billions of people who do not speak English and who do The UNL would bring potential benefits to citizens, scholars,
not have the opportunities or resources to learn it. Likewise, business, media, government and non-governmental organi-
a gap exists between English speakers and the information zations across linguistic barriers and in a variety of situa-
and culture that exist in other languages. Many attempts to tions. In particular, it can be a very useful tool for interpret-
overcome the language barrier have been made in the past. ers and translators. As well, it will accelerate the information
exchange in many parts of the world that do not rely on Eng-
One such attempt, The Universal Networking Language lish as their primary language.
(UNL), is being developed with the goal of enabling people
from around the world to communicate in their native lan-
The UNL System
guages. UNL is an electronic language for the Internet. It is
a common language, or type of translator if you will, that can
The UNL system consists of language servers, editors and
deal with natural languages and exchange information
viewers.
through computers. UNL is being developed by the Institute
of Advanced Studies of the UN University located in Tokyo,
UNL Language Server
Japan, in cooperation with research groups from around the
world.
The language server consists of a deconverter and an encon-
verter. A language server that resides on the Internet provides
UNL is a software system that will reside on the Internet, and
the processes of "enconversion" and "deconversion". The
will be compatible with standard network browsers. The
"enconverter" and "deconverter" are responsible for con-
software is yet in its early stages. The initial stage involves
verting a particular language into UNL, and vice versa. The
the development of modules for 15 languages: the six official
"enconverter" "enconverts" a language into UNL, while the
languages of the United Nations, Arabic, Chinese, English,
"deconverter" "deconverts" UNL into a native language. As
French, Russian and Spanish. The other ten are German,
the system is developed, language servers for every language
Hindi, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Latvian, Mongol, Por-
supported by UNL will also be developed.
tuguese and Thai. In April of this year, UNL will be open to
the public in 6 UN official languages and 6 popular lan-
UNU/IAS developed a software for enconversion called
guages. By 2002, UNL services will be extended to all the
"EnCo" and a deconversion software called "DeCo", both of
languages of EU member states, and by 2006, to all the lan-
which constitute an enconverter/deconverter together with a
guages of the 185 member states of the UN.
word dictionary, co-occurrence dictionary and conversion
rules for a language. "EnCo" and "DeCo" are language inde-
Once the system is fully developed, any person with access
pendent, and applicable for any language.
to the Internet will be able to "enconvert" text from a range
1
Hiroshi Uchida, Meiying Zhu, Tarcisio G. Della Senta,
The UNL System would consist of language servers, UNL UNL: A Gift for a Millenium, UNU/IAS, Tokyo, Japan,
editors and UNL viewers, connected via the Internet November 1999.
The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) is an evolving, In March 2000, the Partnership is organizing an Action
informal partnership of public, private and not-for-profit or- Summit attended by current and potential GKP members.
ganizations from across the globe. About 50 current member The Summit is part of the “Global Knowledge II” conference
organizations range from multilateral institutions such as the organized in cooperation with the Government of Malaysia.
World Bank and UNDP to bilateral aid agencies, founda- The Action Summit has two objectives: the first is to expand
tions, corporations, civil society organizations, and training the GKP’s membership to include more organizations from
institutions. What unites these organizations is a commitment middle- and low-income countries; organizations that can
to partnering: to sharing information, experiences and re- more effectively voice the views and experience of the peo-
sources, and to promoting broad access to, and effective use ple most in need of greater access to knowledge and infor-
of, knowledge and information as tools of sustainable, equi- mation and communication technologies. Some 75 such or-
table development. ganizations are registered to participate in the Action Summit
to explore the opportunities for membership.
The GKP emerged from the cooperation of several dozen
organizations that sponsored the Global Knowledge 97 con- The second objective of the Action Summit is to generate
ference, "Knowledge for Development in the Information consensus within the Partnership on priorities for joint action
Age" in Toronto, Canada in June 1997. Information on that for the next two years. The Action Summit focuses particu-
conference, and on the Partnership and its history, can be larly on three key themes: Access, Empowerment, and Gov-
found at the GKP website at, http://www.globaknowledge.org . ernance. Working Groups, made up of member representa-
tives from across the Partnership are preparing detailed rec-
The work of the Global Knowledge Partnership is rooted in ommendations on these three themes to be presented to the
the conviction that access to, and effective use of, knowledge Action Summit. Each working group has addressed four
and information are increasingly important factors in sustain- critical questions:
able economic and social development for individuals, com-
munities and nations; that the information revolution can be a ♦ What is the state of our current knowledge on this issue?
positive force for empowering the world's poor; that effective ♦ What are the greatest challenges facing the international
action to assure the inclusion of the poorest individuals, community and the world’s poor, in this area?
communities and nations in the global information economy ♦ Which of these challenges would best respond to con-
requires increased partnership and mutual learning among certed joint action by a partnership of public, private and
public, private and not-for-profit organizations. non-profit organizations such as the GKP?
♦ What concretely could we do as a Partnership over the
GKP members cooperate through a variety of initiatives - next two to three years to address these challenges?
pilot projects, conferences and workshops, capacity-building
initiatives, information sharing and project coordination. To The Working Groups’ recommendations form the basis for a
join the GKP, members contribute resources to at least one draft Action Plan of the Partnership presented at the final
initiative organized by present members of the Partnership. plenary of the Kuala Lumpur conference. The draft will be
While all members endorse the GKP’s general principles and available for further consultation within partner organizations
goals, members are free to decide in which Partnership- over the proceeding few months with a goal of reaching con-
related initiatives they participate or support. The GKP’s sensus on the Partnership’s action priorities by later in the
activities are coordinated by a small secretariat, currently spring of 2000.
located at the World Bank Institute.
Based on the interest in helping support the development of The National Network: InfoChange Foundation, with sup-
self sustaining community communication centers in devel- port from the World Bank’s Info/Dev program and working
oping countries for those least able to access information on with UCS, is currently engaged in the establishment of a
their own, a group of people representing both corporate and Ghana National Network (G-Net) of community communi-
non-profit telecommunications interests organized Info- cation centers (CCCs), owned and operated by Ghanaians.
Change. Based in Washington, D.C. this two year old non- One of the centers, the Ghana National Service Center
profit organization has an informal membership of over 100 (GNSC), will function as the core of the network and will
individuals and organizations, including government repre- help establish CCCs and coordinate their services and opera-
sentatives, helping move forward the goal that everyone tions. Support will include assistance with capitalization,
should have access to information through technology, and leasing equipment on a long term basis, training, and man-
that, without this access, basic education will remain limited agement advice.
and slip further behind what is available to most of the de-
veloped world. The local Centers will:
InfoChange is furthering the development of centers based ♦ Generate local data and information.
on the models of self-sustainability, namely that the centers ♦ Provide support services for new and on-going busi-
are financially viable entities with built-in maintenance nesses (business incubator resources: facsimile, copying,
structures and are part of a larger self-sustaining network of and administrative support).
centers. They can be housed almost anywhere, including ♦ Offer individual and group computer-assisted training
schools, as long as they are self-sustaining. and educational courses.
♦ Have the capability of linking into the postal service in
By bringing together the resources and products of compa- addition to e-mail.
nies with the technical work of non-profit groups, Info- ♦ Link with government agencies for "kiosk" services.
Change members can help access hardware and software, ♦ Engage in desktop publishing.
center models, and educational content relevant to the appro- ♦ Connect with national and international Internet serv-
priate local situations as the centers are established. ices.
♦ Secure technical assistance - long distance.
An Example: The Ghana National Network Plan ♦ Stimulate conference dialogue and exchange.
Telecommunications Infrastructure: United Communica- ♦ Connect computer users in the community.
tions Systems, Inc. (UCS) and United Communications Sys-
tems International (UCSI), in cooperation with Ghana corpo- Into the Future
rations, are building a telecommunications infrastructure for One goal of InfoChange over the next year is to help estab-
Ghana and Western Africa. The Volta River Authority lish a dynamic, member-focused association of local tele-
(VRA) and the UCS Team implement a major component. centers that would operate predominately in underserved
The VRA has completed the installation of a Fiber Optic markets, regions and countries. The association would pro-
Ground Wire along the coastline from Accra to Takoradi, vide support, business research, and shared member access to
and then has extended it to Kumasi. This provides an excel- resources and experiences. InfoChange can be reached at
lent platform for the implementation of a national high-speed http://www.infochange.net
telecommunications backbone for Ghana.