I feel sure that my thoughts here are somewaht off target, since the
focus of this listserv is the use of ICT for development. But Sam
Lanfranco and Tom Abeles have reinforced some of the (to me) most
relevant factors in development, and they are only peripherally related
to ICT.
People relate to community, first of all and most importantly. For most
individuals, they leave their communities only when forced to do so by
economic or political necessity, expediency, or sometimes opportunity.
And if they do leave, strong communal ties beckon them home, as soon as
the economic and/or political climate makes that option viable.
These basic facts have two implications for our efforts to introduce or
expand the use of ICTs in developing countries:
1) First, we should all recognize that we play second fiddle. As part of
the Prince George's Community College (Maryland, USA) team, my work in
Africa the last four years has been concentrated in Rwanda and in South
Africa, where recovery from genocide in one case and from apartheid in
the other case present societal imperatives of the first order; and,
frankly, the effective use of ICT (while important) is nevertheless
secondary. These (very different) societies need to develop ways of
getting along with each other, and perhaps the intelligent application
of ICT can help; but the repair of the social fabric (not the use of
computers) is the pre-eminent imperative.
2) Second, ICT makes it more possible for local activists to stay at
home, and for expatriates to return home. If you have skills as an ICT
professional, you can make a decent living in your local community, you
can feel good about your contribution to your nation's economic
development, and you can even maintain your contacts with the outside
world. We could not make this claim without ICT. My Irish forebears came
to the USA without hope of return to Ireland or even significant contact
with the homeland; through ICT, current emigres may return to Rwanda
while they continue to teach online for University of Maryland
University College. Hence, one important contribution of ICT to the
global development paradigm is that local talent in any developing
country may leave and return, and may continue to contribute to their
local communities.
--Bob Spear
Dr. Robert J. Spear
Past President, Maryland Distance Learning Association
Professor, Computer Information Systems
Prince George's Community College
Largo, Maryland 20774
phone: 301-322-0156 fax: 707 982-7178
~~~
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you
to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
~~~
On June 18, 2004, Tom Abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Sam Lanfranco's comment, below, is worth serious reflection,
particularly his last sentence (copied up, here):
The challenge is to keep the skilled personnel in service for local
society.
..snip...
It seems to me that the problem has been turned upside down. We need a
livable and desirable community to induce individuals to either not
leave, or in some cases, return or locate in that community. If that
exists, then the needed skills will come and/or skilled individuals will
remain. In the US we have a group of highly qualified individuals who
move to remote locations because they find them attractive, and the
infrastructure support (e.g. broad band access) and good mobility
support them in these spaces.
ICT's are not a magic bullet nor are they like a narcotic which compels
an individual or a business to become obligated or committed to a
location. They are only one of many components that make a community
desirable, though some may see them as of greater importance than other
quality of life indicators. One has to make sure that we do not see
these like the proverbial hammer where all problems begin to look like
nails.
...There is no guarantee that with highly mobile, wireless ICT's that
communities which have always existed, should remain where they are in
the future. ICT's may lead to a creative destruction and reallocation of
human resources as new opportunities outweigh past static communities.
At one time, many groups of humans were nomadic. Permanance may not be a
desirable characteristic, at least as we imagine it based on our past.
On June 16, 2004, Sam Lanfranco wrote:
Femi is correct in this observation. The suggestion was not that
organizational cultural changes are a prerequisite for ICT-enhanced
skill development. The suggestion was that they are a co-requisite if
the local society expects to both effectively utilize those skills, and
to keep those skilled personnel in local residence, for service to the
local society. There is no question that skilled personnel are turning
to ICT-enhanced opportunities on an as can basis. For evidence of
this, one only has to look at how wireless telephony (cell phones) have
raced ahead, and been widely deployed, in contrast to all other forms of
ICT-supported
