THE CHALLENGES OF ICT IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY


Author: Lesley Pocock, Publisher and Managing Director - medi+WORLD International
Correspondence: lesleypocock@mediworld.com.au



Key words: Information and Communications Technology (ICT); commonality of platforms, localisation, affordability.

Technology is now cheaper, less polluting and more adaptable. Innovation has not just been in the advancement of technology per se, but also includes advances in recycling of materials, better quality processes, portable and cleaner power sources (e.g. solar technology), and labour and time saving devices, which make technology more affordable and adaptable. Technology generally, has assisted ICT companies to enter markets and populations, not previously viable.

The challenge therefore is to apply appropriate technology to global problems and inequities, to provide new and better solutions. These solutions must be affordable and must be pragmatic to meet the real needs of local communities.

Hardware and software manufacturers need to retain focus on common platforms and universality to assist ICT authors and developers to provide such global solutions.

ICT of course does not work independently of people and is created by people for people, therefore the human factor is very much a part of the equation and the technology must meet the needs of global populations, from their own point of view.

In doing so the use of ICT has an economic benefit through sharing of global education and information resources. This benefits wealthy nations as much as poorer nations, for example, the benefits of sharing medical and public health information with and between developing nations has been made self evident by outbreaks such as SARS and avian flu.

Access to education via ICT however, is only part of the problem. If we can also change the perspective that intellectual property (IP) is owned by all mankind, not just academic or publishing institutions then the provision of quality content is also addressed. Of course the individual author or owner of the IP must be financially or otherwise compensated to encourage study, and the developers must also cover their costs, however within this approach we should also be able to distribute such content at an affordable price for all global situations.

If the developing nation can also be part of their own economic solution, they are then 'investing' in their own future. Giving developing nations some equity in IT projects developed to provide information services to them, also keeps money and expertise in the local community.

Most developing countries, in the author's experience, are just as keen to pick up IT skills as part of the IT package applied to their needs. Again this is vital if the projects are to continue to provide benefit and if the nation is to reap all of the benefits that information technology solutions can provide. This can be achieved through 'localisation', generation of 'local content' and training.

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations(1) says the greatest weapon in the war against poverty is the empowerment of women and the education of girls. He said 'study after study' has proved that helping women and girls will serve to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality and improve health. When women are fully involved, the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier; they are better fed and their income savings and investments go up. And what is true of families is true of communities and eventually whole countries."

Technology that reaches into remote communities, and gives access to such learning provides a platform for global change for the better and benefits for each global community.

How do we then apply information technology, given a huge variety of national politics, national GDPs, cultural and religious issues and, as Kofi Annan says 'to furnish them with hope'.

This paper addresses the application of ICT to global problems and then explores several working models using a global approach. Each of these models, to a degree, is providing parity of access to high quality information and education at little or no cost to the end-user and at greatly reduced costs to the supplier. The adaptation of technology therefore needs to cover many issues: language skills, information, empowerment, motivation, and utility.

Authors and developers on their side, can find viable markets in developing and middle income nations as long as they are prepared to look at the complete range of issues and provide the best pragmatic solution in each set of conditions.

This paper argues that information technology applied pragmatically can provide parity of information resources to all people of the globe.

We have a valuable opportunity to look at a number of global problems and provide a variety of solutions, honed to meet the real needs of these communities. In doing so we can assist all global communities.

The solutions fall under the following categories - adaptability, of both technology and information; cost/affordability; and the people skills required to achieve these outcomes.

Adaptability of technology

Once material is digitised it is in a suitable format for a variety of platforms, which can then meet a variety of situations - for example, internet, CD ROM, DVD. Africa, a continent with great needs, for example, has little access to the internet, for those who can afford it in the first place. In the case of Africa, CD ROMs may provide an opportunity to disseminate high quality education and information, especially more recent platforms that require little computer knowledge to use. Of course CD ROMs are useless unless the individual has the money to buy them, the computer to play them, the power supply for the computer, knowledge of computer usage and a reason and motivation to learn.

To have this motivation, the individual needs to believe that the knowledge has concrete benefits to his/her life and business, and that the investment in time and education will outweigh the additional time and financial constraints. Given these motivations and utilities, strategies for illiterate and other disadvantaged people still need to be found.

Information technology

Recent diversions from long established computer operating system protocols, (e.g. UNICODE) by some hardware manufacturers, are a concern to ICT authors and developers who already face an upward battle in providing universal access to digital content. The ICT industry therefore relies on a common approach to operating systems and it is the maintenance of this approach that will assist developers to create products with universal access and processes, for a wide range of international situations.

ICT developers and authors, who are looking to provide global products have been greatly assisted in the past by 'benign' monopoly and commonality of systems. The internet and (Microsoft) Windows have been greatly influential in allowing diverse global groups to communicate with relatively little effort.

New versions of hardware unfortunately have worked against this in that changes in UNICODE have resulted in major problems for developers. Programs that run from CD or DVD drives are relatively unscathed but those programs that interface with the operating system (for scoring, recording., tracking and bookmarking) are encountering problems of foreign characters and irregular display sizes. Characters in every day use, such as hyphens and apostrophes can no longer be trusted. 'Embedding' is often required to guard against character substitution with consequent loss of quality of screen resolution.

Adaptability of content

If using a global approach both technology and education needs to adapt to the individual needs of each community. Issues include language (translations or ESL, local phraseology), levels of literacy, poverty, infrastructure and motivation.

Cost/affordability

The first simple rule is that the ICT product must be affordable in each market place. To meet the needs of a variety of markets and financial situations, often a two or three tier approach needs to be adopted. See World CME example later.

People skills

Technology is not divorced from the human aspect in development, usage or motivation to use. We therefore need to not only instill technical skills in potential users but also instill the motivation in suppliers, to look at global problems not just in broad economic terms. The models that follow have all required a global or regional approach, and technical innovation and adaptation.

Benefits

The benefits of improved access to education and skills-building are not just for the recipients of the information technology products, but for all mankind. An article in the New Scientist, December 2001 details for example, that the smaller the gap between rich and poor the healthier the whole society, and that lifting the quality of life for those in the lower echelons raises the status of the entire society.

Cultural, religious, and geographical issues

To be universally acceptable education and information must be seen to be about the day to day problems of any given group, that is, relevant to local needs. Being sensitive to cultural factors, such as religious taboos, is just employing common sense. The flexibility of IT means that existing digital information can be easily modified to suit various situations and indeed 'localised' for language, custom, local references and contacts.

There are also practical considerations. In medicine for example, a phrase such as 'pins and needles in the arm' may be a diagnostic phrase but one which may not literally translate.

Therefore 'localisation of IT', does not just look at literal translation it also needs to look at phraseology and relevance to the local community. Issues of translation, English as a second language (ESL), and specific 'local content' must be addressed.

Model 1: Applied Sciences of Oncology Course on CD ROM.

This project, financed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations was designed to overcome a world shortage of oncologists and to better train those already working in oncology who, in some countries, may not have had any formal training whatsoever. This pragmatic approach to a real global situation recognized the real needs of practitioners 'doing their best' under a range of 'local conditions'.

This was a most interesting project in that the brief was to 'educate without teaching', that is, not to teach specific approaches for fear that untrained practitioners may follow by rote in all instances of cancer treatment. Rather, education was on the basic principles to be applied. The project had a developing nations focus and the review group was drawn from developing and developed nations. Strategies to keep the education relevant to diverse global needs involved - level of language (ESL), navigation using symbols (for example, forward and back arrows), navigation to be intuitive, and that the learning experience was to be interactive and user driven. Five pilot country trials took place in 2005 in Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt, Argentina and the Philippines at which trials the project was deemed to be an international success by the medical students involved and the Technical Contracts division of the IAEA. Interestingly most comment from the students centred on the high quality graphics and learning environment, backing the data which indicates that if the learning experience is a pleasurable one, knowledge is better retained.

The focus was on improving skills however, as opposed to formal education.

The most important aspect of the project was the universality of the educational content and indeed authors needed to geographically remove themselves from any specific location and were not to assume any level of understanding, or prior knowledge, on the part of the trial participants. Multimedia CD was deemed the best current platform for the work, as the work included interactivity, video and high-end animation

Technical challenges were many and included eliminating the display of 'foreign characters' on foreign language computer systems, requiring the embedding of all non-text displays. The CD also had to run on a variety of older systems, as these are still in use in the participating countries.

The skills and issues involved can be learned and applied by all information providers as medicine is one of the few areas requiring total accuracy of information and therefore becomes the most critical test. A certain level of understanding was not to be assumed nor the point of reference to be assumed. Rather the authors had to aim their content at a general understanding and a universal audience.

Model 2: World CME

This is a project of medi+WORLD International based on the philosophy outlined previously. International marketing showed that those countries/doctors who needed (continuing) medical education the most, were in the least position to afford it, certainly at prices paid by western doctors. We were faced with putting the education on the shelf or finding a way to market it to those who cannot afford it. A cost structure was found based on World Bank Atlas Method and Purchasing Price Parity (PPP)(2) whereby 'Low Income nations' receive the education free, via the internet, and 'Middle Income Nations' have several pricing structures based on their ability to pay for the service. The Low Income Nations were facilitated by housing the data online allowing free access to Low Income country doctors, at no great additional cost to the providers, other than 'online traffic'.

ICT for medical education should also be a two-way approach to the sharing of information. Imposing 'first world medicine' on developing world health problems is not going to provide the best outcomes. There is no point in directing doctors to facilities that do not exist in their own country, so alternative approaches need to be suggested. A means therefore of providing education on specific problems can and should, be a two-way process and all benefit. Sharing knowledge between developed and undeveloped nations includes all global problems and their solutions. Global outbreaks of SARS and avian flu justify this approach.

Without an ICT approach providing the free service would have been impossible. Paper prices double almost every year making paper based education and information services even more unaffordable. Mail is not reliable in many countries, especially developing nations, and this compounds the problem.

ICT is planet and environment friendly and provides a cheaper distribution method to paper, as long as the hardware at the user end is available. Strategies to furnish developing nations with IT abound, from philanthropic organisations supplying second hand computers via the diplomatic service to 'laptop lending libraries' becoming part of the service of local libraries.

Of course provision of the service has to be sustainable, if lowering prices for low-income markets.

Internet

With internet technologies, issues surround access and bandwidth/speed of interaction.

In developing countries there is a surprisingly high level of computer ownership but the hardware is often locally made, or locally assembled, and often does not necessarily conform to Operating Systems used in developed nations. This has implications for CD and DVD developers, however the internet itself is still a great tool for providing equality of access to education and information.

Reach and affordability are therefore fast becoming problems of the past. Problems now center on content provision and issues of Intellectual Property (IP). While there are an encouraging number of philanthropic websites providing valuable information to global users, the mentality still needs to change. IP becomes a major issue when looking to provide parity of resources. Does Intellectual Property, or human knowledge, belong to the human or the institution that generated it - or to all mankind? Most current human knowledge is universally available and the problem now belongs with the educational institutions. Naturally the individual author, the academic institution and the developers need to be rewarded for their time and effort, but with the majority of countries unable to pay for this knowledge, at the rates educational institutions charge, a solution needs to be found or such nations will be left out permanently. Relying on global funding bodies is not going to address the situation. The developers need to do this by finding their own pragmatic solutions.

The internet itself can be a wonderful ICT tool giving access to education, art, music and culture. Unfortunately it is also the precinct of those who prey on society - the traffickers of ugliness and exploitation. Indeed it is only these inhuman elements that are holding the World Wide Web back from achieving its potential. Better organisational protocols and enactment of international law may solve some of these problems.

'Giving it away' is still a financially viable method of making the internet work commercially, as long as developers can interest some commercial entity that has an interest in the traffic that the website invokes. Philanthropists are increasingly sought to subsidise those information sources that do not appeal to commercial players.

The suppliers of knowledge have a great responsibility to take on the needs of the wholeness of mankind, and find appropriate solutions to do this.

'Middle ware' and other electronic interfaces can assist ICT developers through supplying devices to allow disparate entities to talk, but it remains far less costly if we all try to develop to a common accessible global platform.

ICT and the Middle East

The Middle East is currently second only to China as the biggest purchasers of personal computers, providing the people of the Middle East with an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the information revolution and to avoid some of the mistakes made by those who entered the technology early.(4)

The Middle East is therefore in a position to choose the best of what the global ICT companies have to offer and to also develop their own information services to represent the best of regional education, products, services, literature, art, religion, history and culture.

If the Middle East can learn from the successes, the mistakes, and the excesses of the past 20 years, it is in a good position to take advantage of, and participate in, the information revolution.

Spreading truths, be they educational, political, societal, environmental or other, will enable the local populace everywhere to take part in the management of their own future and that of the planet, and not those who seek to monopolise it and its resources. In a world of spin, propaganda and incitement, the sooner we address these issues, the better.

In summary therefore, the application of IT to global problems of inequity, provides hope for improvement in the lives of all people of the globe.

Recently retired President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, in a television interview (4) says he believes the 'fundamental cause of disequilibrium and conflict, and in many cases, terror, is poverty. Our world has half the people of six billion living under $2 a day and about 1.2 billion living under $1 a day and if you want to solve the question of hope and want to give our young people something to think about constructively you have to give them opportunity. Half the world today, is under 2 years of age."

From a planetary perspective we are not going to be able to afford the health and social implications of the great divide between rich and poor. It therefore is vital that we implement change and we have a great opportunity to use the economic tools of technology to counter this slide into poverty through the sharing of information and education, and the elimination of ignorance.

References

1. Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations, UN News Centre http://www.un.org, February 23, 2004.
2. World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/countryclass.html
3. James Wolfensohn, President of World Bank, 7:30 Report, ABC television, 10/02/2004.
4. http:www.computerworld.com.au/pp?id=1649788759&taxid=9

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