Message-ID: <9603028284.AA828478142@gabriel.maf.org> Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 15:30:00 UTC From: Stephe Dean <mailto:Stephe_Dean@WVI.ORG> Subject: Re[2]: Traditional I.T. Before the Internet ?! To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Hi Abu,I work for an American based NGO in Harare Zimbabwe. We are a somewhat top heavy
organisation doing grass roots development in 28 countries in Africa. I am and Australian acting as the "systems manager/consultant" for the SADC countries.
We use LAN based systems in our capital city offices and are just beginning to move electronic services out to the rural sites as part of a long term change of
development model and cost/organisational structure.
The org that I work for has private international network - all dial up - which
has had an internet gateway for nearly three years - which is how I am talking to you now. There are two problems I am facing. The first is the availability of
competent technical staff to implement and maintain systems - and this need becomes more acute as you begin to geographically disperse equipment and services throughout the country side.
The second is how to handle electronic communications form remote sites. You may
be aware that outside urban hubs cable - and cellular - telephone services are generally very poor, and often will not sustain a 2400 baud link. There is lots
of optimism about Low Earth Orbit satellites and so on but at the moment the thing that works is data packets by HF radio. Typical baud rate 1200. This is not a big time internet link.
A further issue which I find hard to express in an acceptable way is so many African's mis/disorientation with computers and electronic equipment. This is not the fault of the people, it is just an environmental reality. I am not sure
how long you have been there at South Alabama U. but the thing I notice in when
I visit the Australia and the US is the sheer prolificness and pervasiveness of
computers and related technology - so that even my father, a 65 year old retiree
grudgingly sends me e-mail rather than writing letters.
I have a couple of guys doing volunteer stuff for me who have some computing qualifications but have so little contact with computers that their lack experience and practise makes them liabilities to work with. (We are getting over that.)
The thing that prompted my response is that I think your aspirations are good and noble but a long way from the field reality.
Stephe Dean
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Traditional I.T. Before the Internet ?! Author: Abubakr Alkhalifa <mailto:aalkhali@cis.usouthal.edu> at internet Date: 02/04/96 10:25
On Mon, 1 Apr 1996, Wilbur Streett wrote:
> Traditional I.T. before the Internet? Please define "Traditional I. T."
> for me.=20
Thanks for asking. In terms of hardware, I meant by "Traditional I.T."=20 stand-alone computers, as opposed to networked or Internetable. In=20 terms of software, I was referring to appropriate information systems for= =20 development that run on such hardware.
> When I think of Traditional I. T. I think of the systems created by my
> father's generation for the monolithic corporations and their information
> processing needs. I think of the Mainframe based systems with their Data
> Centers, SNA Networks, and ISAM, VSAM, MVS, DOS and Cobol and Assember ba=
sed > systems. I think of the system that have less power than the systems tha=
t I > have on my desk, and cost 10's of Millions of dollars to purchase, not th=
e > mention the specialized environments and training necessary to maintain t=
hem.Definitely that's not what I meant. Please help me find a better term to= =20 describe "Traditional I.T.". This term seems misleading.
> We have the capabilities to create infrastructure with very low capital
> expenditures. Companies are creating satellite communications networks j=
ust > for the cost of monthly cable bills. Telecom companies around the world =
are > willing to put up satellites anywhere in the world with 20 Gigabit
> transmission capabilities just for the guarenteed access to customer mark=
et > in the future.
*************************************************************************** If this is the case.... and given other valuable contributions of the list(s) members, I am re-evaluating my negative views towards the Internet in Africa. My major concerns were cost of connectivity, cost of required telecom infrastructure, consequent income redistributional effects and political abuse. I think the benefits can outweigh the negatives if we have a fair amount of distributed accessibility.=20 ***************************************************************************
> On the other hand, back to an appropriate definition of Information
> Technology for the developing countries. Information Technology is the
> study of useful techniques in the processing of Information. I would say
> that the useful information processing techniqes for what I percieve is a=
s > "rural" Africa are paper and pencil, teaching methodologies, organization=
al > skills, etc. =20
I agree that paper and pencil are appropriate tools for "rural" Africa.=20 However, what can they do about the rate of 0.08 physicians / 1000 people in Sub Saharan Africa? Yes, 8 physicians for every 100,000 people !!!!
If we have 1 nurse / 10 villages, we can provide him/her with an Information system to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of suffering patients who might otherwise die before any of them sees a doctor.=20
Here is an idea for using the Internet to solve such a problem: the nurse can consult an on-line "physician-on-duty" via the Internet, this physician could be in the other side of the Globe.=20
The involvement of I.T. in development is clearly realized when the decision-making involves processing and communicating complex, vital, rarely available, and/or inaccessible information, as is the case in many developing countries.
To avoid duplication of efforts, it is feasible to develop one set of generically designed information systems for all developing countries with this end in mind. After consulting with potential users, these generic systems could then be customized to accommodate local languages, country specific data, and other geographical and cultural variations. =20
These systems can be used in areas such as: =B7 Health: e.g., Diagnosis and treatment of diseases. =B7 Nutrition: e.g., Optimization of expenditure on food. =B7 Endangered Practices: e.g., -Valid- traditional medicine. =B7 Agriculture: e.g., Agricultural extension, production, and marketing. =B7 Education: e.g., Literacy and Training.
The role of the Internet here stems from the fact that it can provide a medium for downloading and remote processing of these information systems.= =20
> Granted that the Internet can deliver a great deal of that sort of
> information, but the reality is that it will take individual "Human"
> effort to deliver Information Technology to developing countries. If the
> "Human" carries a laptop into the field with him with a celluar hookup,
> and can afford the phone bill, it still won't deliver the technology to
> the people of the developing country. It will take human relationships
> and understanding to be able to appropriately apply "Information
> Technology" to the problems at hand.=20
Sure, I agree 100%.
> But based on my experience with corporate America, that is the way that i=
t > is here in America also. It takes people to apply technology. People to
> understand the political situation and find appropriate uses of technolog=
y. > Technology doens't apply itself. Finding the nexus between cultural
> acceptance of technology and technology that is appropriate to the cultur=
e > is the real challendge. Getting a group to accept the opportunites
> presented by technology and finding the opportunities that technology
> presents to a group are infinitly harder than delivering the technology.
Believe me, that's why I am working on this topic for my MS thesis.
> Technology that isn't accepted is more of a waste than no technology at
> all.. Technology applied without a context is useless. So which first,
> Tradional I. T. or the Internet? What's the context?
>
> Whatever is appropriate for the problem at hand is the first thing that
> should be implemented. And given where technology is today, that's
> probably going to be a PC with a modem, connected to the Internet and
> running a database.=20
Allow me to complete the statement ...connected to the Internet and=20 running a set of customized appropriate software.
> Wilbur Streett
> ---------------------------------------
> Putting a human face on technology. ;-)
> ---------------------------------------
Abu _________________________________________________________________________
Abubakr Alkhalifa=09=09"I.T. vs. Poverty" 612 Montclaire Way=09=09Graduate Student Mobile, AL 36609=09=09School of Computer & Information Sciences USA=09=09=09=09University of South Alabama Tel/Fax: (334)660-0242=09=mailto:09aalkhali@cis.usouthal.edu _________________________________________________________________________