Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91.951213210456.23362B-100000@copper.ucs.indiana.edu> Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 21:16:11 -0500 From: The Big Glee Bopper <mailto:thom@INDIANA.EDU> Subject: Re: (IT vs. Poverty) = (Let Them Eat "IT") ?! To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
On Wed, 13 Dec 1995, Abubakr Alkhalifa wrote:> Hello Again;
>
> My counter argument is: "We (the people of the poor countries) can start
> applying such an approach by taking advantage of the computer hardware
> that is currently being used in our countries. Since their use of
> computer technology is widespread in rural and urban areas of developing
> countries, and since the proposed approach may become an effective tool
> for achieving their developmental goals, International organizations,
> NGOs, and GOs can serve as regional centers for the implementation of
> this approach. Moreover, the "obsolete hardware -- by western standards
> --" can be a perfect medium for implementing these information systems.
I think one of the trickiest _obsolete hardware_ to deal with is probably paper. What the computer did in the western world was to make it easier to move paper around. I think it is often the case that _digitizing_ something is often a way to imprison information. Paper has it's problems but it still works after being dropped in a rice field which is more than you can say for a laptop either old or new. Fax machines, _old_ 386s, 1200 baud modems, dbase 2, etc are very useful but only if they are integrated with peoples lives and this usually means paper, things like newsletters and posters. I'm not saying go, back to paper-based catalogs but I am saying that the ultimate _old hardware_ may be paper which we often overlook in our efforts to digitize the world with both old and new hardware. The key is looking at peoples lives and seeing how to work with and within those lives to make a difference.
--Thom
p.s. I teach at Indiana University in the School of Library and Information Studies. I teach object-oriented design with C++ and Java, I teach interface design, database design, web design. My Phd is from Berkeley and it was about digitizing information. I digitize the world for a living [ irony intended ] but I was also lucky enough to work for FAO in Central Java for a year and got a good dose of reality to temper my obsession with things technical. Paper is technical and very effective. It is less about information than communication.