JonCamfieldBlog

Last Wednesday, Al Hammond of NextBillion.net fame (who now hangs his hat at Ashoka), presented to the Washington, DC ICT4D Practitioners on two of his initiatives working with the private sector to achieve sustainable positive change. He discussed two great projects -- a low cost rural connectivity pilot in Vietnam getting moving in its first deployments, and the other on base of the pyramid-focused healthcare -- mostly at a conceptual phase but building off existing proven models.

It was a fascinating discussion. I'm a strong supporter of sustainability (otherwise, why bother?) and Al Hammond gives a passionate and convincing argument for the central role of business in creating sustainable solutions. Talking with him beforehand, he mentioned (paraphrasing heavily) comparing the measurable benefits of the past five decades of foreign aid versus the last decade of private sector mobile phone rollouts -- the long-term benefits greatly favor the mobile phones.

I can only imagine that once mBanking really gets rolling, all doubt will be erased that the cell phone has helped the Next Four Billion more than 2.3 trillion dollars in aid. My mind quickly out-paces itself when I begin to ponder mBanking benefits for everyone from rural artisania workers able to take and receive payments for commissioned artwork to p2p payment systems to direct-to-market agricultural benefits...

Now, I have a few outstanding doubts about some parts of these two plans - some scalability and malicious-user problems with the Vietnam model, and some privacy and franchise-enforcement questions with the healthcare idea. Now, I have fewer doubts on both of these concepts, combined, than, say, the OLPC Project (though I strongly believe that a base-of-the-pyramid approach to the OLPC could work well). The huge difference between a BoP, market-driven approach and traditional development is that investors bear the brunt of failed projects, a pleasant change from the recipient country being in deeper debt regardless of the outcomes of debt-financed aid projects. I think traditional development will forever have a role in humanitarian and post-conflict aid, but in infrastructure and service creation, the BoP, private-sector approach will prove long-term much stronger than pure-play foreign aid programs, for the simple reason that it applies reasonable risk management to development projects. What a concept!

Without further ado, my full meeting notes after the jump...

Continue reading "Technology Transformations for the Base of the Pyramid by Al Hammond" »

Posted by Jon at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Unfortunately; this clip seems to focus tightly on his IP statements; leaving out some of his more relevant popoints on "sharing" - centric resource creation and open standards.

Posted by Jon at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Introductions: Lawrence McDonald Director of Communications and Policy; CGD

• key cgd ideas; rich world influence dev world beyond foreign assistance; investment, trade and technology (private sector interactions in dev world)
• cgd as pro-innovation thinktank ; tech but not bleeding edge
• firms come to cgd for beyond CSR; Corp engagement whitepaper

Ed Scott; CGD co-founder and board chair

carter admin and BEA founder

• sun based on open (BSD, open firmware board, "birth")
• move to competitive mkt against closed-software cos

Sun / Scott McNealy

• Open Drives Progress: ("sun is about open")
• internet is growing; chinaMobile went from 300M to 450M subscribers; more subs than US citizens; all using internet, mobile as internet access key
  • => critical improtancec of standards; common way; same side of the road
    • not helpful that there's competition on which side of street to drive on; role for govt for standards
  • IP matters "true believer" in patents and copyright done properly to get return on R&D, Sun is 43 worldwide in R&D spending cross-sector
• No one owns language: common language of the internet should be free ("I'd love to own english; I'd even take French") imagine if anyone owned "y" and charged a nickle?
  • not the way the computer industry had been or should go
• Sun cause at start (kept low profile)
  • Eliminate the digital divide w/o harming the planet
    • 70% of globe without connection/google/etc ("sounds good for about 20 minutes but then oyustart to shake')
    • people in the us don't understand poverty; sun not ging to solve maslow / water level needs, but ready tohelp once they're at the it level
    • Sun hs a cause and mission beyond standard capitalistic reqs. --- mission is to outfit the data centers/NOCs
    • strategy - sharing "we invented open source" ; bill joy BSD; NFS, tcp/ip opened from sun and it won; opened tech platform today; ultrasparc now curriculum ref implementation in China
    • 19years cashflow positive with openness
    • sharing will never "win" but will succeed
    • mySQL gets downloads 70k/day (gives a hunting license to upsell); openoffice/stardownload 1M/week (?)
• 5 reasons to be open
  • lower barrier to entry (free less oppcost)
  • increase interop (biggest platform for sun solarisis HP)
  • lower R&D (community help for javaphone roi when I is zero; competiting)
  • more secure (no more secrets; many eyes)
  • Lower exit barriers (zero; how hard to shift from ford to chevy vs english to mandarin, easier to switch)
• Proposal: OpenGov platform for an open source govt tech platform from census/mapping/email/polling/etc.; 26B r&d non-xclusive contribution
  • China adopting; germany interested
  • increase access for citizens, safety/security, cut costs, drive efficiencies
• Open Source Education -- text, online curricula, community developed, 37k mmbers, (curriki) 11k assets already, FREE, social networking; statistical evidence for testing improvements
• $4.3B/yr spent in US on textbooks - why constnt revisions yearly expenditures
• h1b visa cap -- let\s not let the smart people in; sun and java very immigrant focused

Panel Discussion

• ellen miller sunlight foundation crp
  • open govt data; importance of open data? is there a connection?
    • philospohically inconsiderate and counterintuitive
    • bring philosophy of oss to opengov advocates
• dave witzel forumOne cofounder; ex-Banker on sabbatical at CGD
  • policycommons - moving valuesof oss to education; green; also apply to governance

Lawrence McDonald connection of sun mission and dev goals for 2B under $1/day/ Scott McN: importance of competition on pricing model (MC of software is zero, monopoly rent of ms?) bulk of new net users are getting online using java phones, on 2B phones

LMcD policy research - tech policy unexplored field; only some from IP on dec index; what would a pro-dev US tech policy look like?

• Scott; pro-IP; returns to ragig capitalist Ip matters to get R&D investment; but sharing can expode opportunities with right licensing models; ip and open source not mutually excusive
  • phizer; contribute drug dev as open source (ran away)
    • ...you can make a profit off of open source licensing

Audience Questions

• bill sabidoff econ consultant at cgd
  • collective decisions on standards; how collectively decide what's open and what\s proprietary?
    • focus on CostC barrier to exit costs to drive decisions on what's proprietary
• goerge ingrham AED
  • practical lvl of first 3 stepsforgovt openness/
    • attitude adjustment (govt data belongs to people); FOIA is backwards; burden of providing info should be on govt
    • rest by executive order to go open
    • Scott: mandate a balanced budget to motivate openness; need bully pulpit to focus on openness; procurement; restrictions of govt investment
• John richards center for stud... resopnsible...
  • headlinenumber for savings to go open; ~25% on it budget; prob is barrier to exit from proprietary systems => stuck
  • "gazillions"
• why hasn't the market gone already? b/c tipping point/network system/cost of switching + monopoly power; govt has buying and regulatory power
• claudia - policy health markle foundtion; health info sharing
  • if goal is privacy; need tranparent tech choices
  • can't separate tech choice from policy choice
  • Scott: security: who's who + what's what + access

• wiztel: philosphoical agree on openess; how to you get there?
  • Ellen: newer institutions more open to open; struggle for older ngos and extrapolating harder for govt; non-profit will force govt to meet public expectation of online openness
  • sometimes you're the windshield. sometimes the bug -- world book; card catelog. classified ads -- or wikipedia;oogle. ebaycraigslist -- if you want to compete; ,go clear + transparntand fast

cost trends towards marginal costs of zero; free is the new number

govt and ngos should ride the free wave instead of not curriki in india; s.af.; focus on innovation to avoid high costs

random notes

• tweem hashtag #cgdmcnealy : http://m.twemes.com/cgdmcnealy
• yunus blogging youth project yunus social action group .org
• curriki.org

Posted by Jon at 06:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is essentially a list of resources from the DC ICT4Dev Meetup on careers (you'll have to do the googling and hyperlinking yourselves. Email me at jon @ joncamfield dot com if you're interested in this in a wiki form.

Organizations

Development organizations with ICT: Chemonics, ACT, DAI, CHF

Orgs with real ict4dev departments: AED, Winrock, RTI (n/ carolina ict+health), Nethope, APCD(?)

For africa: kabissa.org, digitalopportunity.org

News / keeping up with the sector

mobileactive.org, globalgiving.org, kiva, microplace, also see sites under job listing

Job listings

oneworld.net, devnetjobs.org, devex, devgateway

...look at the orgs as well as the jobs to see who's hiring/etc.

EVENTS and networking

networking most important, talk tolocal event speakers; set up informational interviews/coffee/mtgs

Volunteering

humaninet, geekcorps/iesc, unvolunteers, telecom w/o borders

non-Bank/usaid

InterAction, InterNews, inveneo (low-power PCs), voxiva (health PDAs => national health infrastructure => platform for mobile data collection hiring now from for-profit)

Posted by Jon at 01:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Below the fold are my notes from the Democratizing Development: How Technology is Disrupting Traditional Development Models panel by SID/W at Chemonics on the 15th. Overall it was a very interesting panel with some path-breaking models (especially Kiva's peer-lending system; where anyone can provide microfinance loans through on the ground micro-finance loan institutions to people needing small loans with full feedback and transparency). The speaker from the World Bank was very pro open source, and was involved with linking the Bank to Development Seed to create their BuzzMonitor system to try and hammer into the rest of the Bank that they were not operating in a vacuum. He also seemed pro data-sharing; which would be very interesting, if unlikely, to see happen.

All of the speakers stumbled on the last-mile solution; their solutions never got beyond requiring someone with the time, training, and technology to access websites and do some semi-complex online tasks. With the buzz that MobileActive is getting, I think that there remains a goldmine of low-cost transactions and information sharing that just needs a little development and partnership work put into it to bridge the loan recipients directly back to sites like Kiva.org as a pipeline directly to potential funders.

Read on for my staccato notes.

Continue reading "Notes from "Democratizing Development: How Technology is Disrupting Traditional Development Models"" »

Posted by Jon at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

APCMap has an insightful review of their experiences with Windows XP on the Asus Eee. This isn't (yet) any different version of XP than you'd have on a "normal" PC -- it takes up 2 gigs of the 4G drive, and it's not even up to date:

"Disappointingly, the OS image hasn’t even been updated with the latest versions of Windows Media Player, Windows Live Messenger and so on. This makes for a massive update session the first time the user goes online, and that’s not a good way to start the relationship.

Not only is it a bit cramped on the hard drive, it doesn't even fit well on the screen either (but Everex's CloudBook with the gOS/Linux system is having similar problems):

"It’s as if the Eee PC’s display is a small cut-out window onto a desktop which is slightly taller. You nudge the mouse cursor to the top or bottom of the screen and the display pans up or down accordingly."

With that performance, I'd rather find a way to run a BartsPE liveCD from the hard drive, reducing the footprint to under 640MB. Asus is "prepping a special edition Eee PC that will be preloaded with a cut-down version of XP which is expected to be available within the next eight weeks." however, and it should include current updates and weigh in under 2G (....but not by much).

It seems XP is not only holding on as a desktop OS, but it's getting a new life on mini devices. On the one hand, this will hopefully help convince MS to extend XP's life once again; or at least revisit their approach on OS design to continue to support "low-end" machines. On the other hand, Linux is much better poised to deliver useful, modern, products for low-end machines with their support of older hardware, weirder hardware, and different configurations, and it's make my Penguinista heart warm to see XP continue to fail to deliver a good experience on this growing low-cost; stable performance market.

Posted by Jon at 07:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You normally don't expect such staid bodies as the OECD to go and start talking about Web 2.0 and user-created content (or "UCC" in their terminology), but then they go and create a huge report doing just that (Via DG):

This study describes the rapid growth of UCC and its increasing role in worldwide communication, and draws out implications for policy. Questions addressed include: What is user-created content? What are its key drivers, its scope and different forms? What are the new value chains and business models? What are the extent and form of social, cultural and economic opportunities and impacts? What are the associated challenges? Is there a government role, and what form could it take?

While it's not as groundbreaking or waxing-visionary as Benkler in Wealth of Networks, it is interesting to see how OECD is perceiving peer production:

User-created content is already an important economic phenomenon despite it originally being largely non-commercial. The spread of UCC and the amount of attention devoted to it by users appears to be a significant disruptive force for how content is created and consumed and for traditional content suppliers. This disruption creates both opportunities and challenges for established market participants and their strategies.

The OECD as one should expect ties it back to innovation policies, and doesn't shy away from talking about copyright and fair use:

The rapid rise of UCC is raising new questions for users, business and policymakers. Digital content policy issues are grouped under six headings: i) enhancing R&D, innovation and technology; ii) developing a competitive, non-discriminatory policy framework; iii) enhancing the infrastructure; iv) shaping business and regulatory environments; v) governments as producers and users of content and vi) better measurement.

[...]In the regulatory environment important questions relate to intellectual property rights and UCC: how to define “fair use” and other copyright exceptions, what are the effects of copyright on new sources of creativity, and how does IPR shape the coexistence of market and non-market creation and distribution of content. In addition, there are questions concerning the copyright liability of UCC platforms hosting potentially unauthorised content, and the impacts of digital rights management.

Of particular interest, the OECD seems to support a strong fair use doctrine; "For example, copyright issues arise when users post unaltered third party content on UCC platforms without authorisation" (emphasis mine) -- meaning that altered content; content with value-added creativity by the users, mashups, and the like, would not be copyright issues in this context. Score one for the OECD!

Posted by Jon at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now, normally this isn't something I'd sign on with, but Global Voices Online is hosting a video log of human rights abuses. Some shot with cell phones, others with home video cameras. I think it's a splendid idea. This is a different side of "development;" it's not so much worrying about capacity building as it is stopping monstrosities, and any outlet to raise awareness of these abuses I feel is worthwhile. This one, from a smuggled DVD, shows police cracking down on a peaceful union protest in Zimbabwe"

Posted by Jon at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A lot more information about Zimbabwe, some history, and also a look at their draconian proposed wiretap law (it's possible even worse than in the US!)

Posted by Jon at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Someone has to pay the 'net bill:

Internet traffic in Zimbabwe has come close to a standstill after an international satellite firm slashed its bandwidth because the cash-starved government failed to pay the bill.

Government-owned TelOne, which owns the country's main satellite Internet link, said satellite firm Intelsat had cut its international bandwidth because it failed to pay the $700,000 fee.

"The link is slow because they reduced the megabits on our satellite link until the payment is made," TelOne spokesman Phill Chingwaru told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We have approached the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for foreign currency and they are working on that, but meanwhile there would be delays in browsing because of the partial cut-off."

Posted by Jon at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Directions in Managua

But I digress. I feel that IT capacity building among these small non-profits is of huge value. It's a bit removed from front-line development work, but in the two short weeks I was there I was able to greatly increase their workflow efficiency and capacity, which will enable them to do more with their current setup and to grow, hopefully, in the near term.

Some of this was just training in some relatively universal best practices; backing up, using some tools more efficiently, and so on - nothing particularly unique about it. However, the most important parts are where traditional IT breaks down. The electricity in Managua goes out, unpredictably, for 2-8 hours at a time, often in the middle of the afternoon. Though they have a shared document folder, it is on the only "permanent" computer (i.e. non-personal laptop) in the office, which is a desktop plugged into an old UPS that doesn't last very long. Ideally, some version control system on a remote Internet machine would be a great solution, but then the Internet can fail for up to months at a time, leading to huge problems with binary files (text files could just be merged, but .docs are binary and resist such useful things). So we came up with a (human) process to save locally during power outages and replace on the server when the power returns. It's not perfect, but it's locally relevant. This is, I feel, the real key to ICT development strategies - realizing when the "best practice" is contextually invalid for social or environmental externalities, whether they be hungry goats chewing on phone lines or cultural differences.

Free and open source tools also provided me with a great opportunity. Not only are they reliably internationalized (all software has to be available in Spanish for obvious reasons), they are within the budget and customizable to local needs. There's a lot more to say about OSS and ICT Dev, and I'll save that, and how I punched down ethernet jacks with my CVS keychain card, for another post.

Posted by Jon at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm on the technology committee of the Esperanza En Accion board, and as part of this, and in fulfilling a long-standing promise to EeA's director, I'm off to Managua, Nicaragua to help out with their computer systems, networks, IT planning, and also to see Nicaragua.

Posted by Jon at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Via the Info Policy blog, I found the news story and EIU/IBM e-readiness report that's just come out, with the great news that the digital divide is narrowing and/or gone:

"This is particularly evident in basic connectivity: Emerging markets are providing the vast majority of the world's new phone and Internet connections

"This is the first time we see a level playing field between developed and developing nations, in terms of connectivity. It's up to governments to take advantage with education and other initiatives" - Peter Korsten, European director at IBM's Institute for Business Value.

But there are also constant factors, many of them non-technical, such as a country’s innovation levels and its legal and business environment. For example, Hong Kong’s and Singapore’s voracious technology adoption has earned them both high e-readiness marks. The two markets, however, lack the intellectual property creation of North America and Western Europe, and this acts as a drag on their broader digital progress.

Well, I'm certainly happy that we can stop worrying about this silly digital divide and move on to intellectual property concerns.

Wait....

Why are there only 72 countries listed? Why is the entirity of Sub-Saharan Africa left off of this report? And only 8 Latin American countries? Oh, I'm sorry -- these countries all fall in the lowest categories, and might skew your data. The International Telecomm Union (which is in the business of selling phones, not good news, so definitely wants to portray that there are still new markets on the horizon, perhaps) has a substantial "low" category which has been effectively excluded from the EIU/IBM study.

The digital divide's still there. We're just trying to ignore it now.

Posted by Jon at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, more as an elaborate bookmarking system than a full wiki (for now), I have installed the latest and greatest MediaWiki server here at JonCamfield.com and am populating it with some of my favorite resources. Check wiki4dev out! Heck, it's a wiki -- contribute!

Also, in my LAMP insanity, I've also added a Moodle (open source course management) system. Probably won't have time to do much with it for a while, but ideally I'd like to put some short self-paced IT/Dev focused courses in it.

Posted by Jon at 02:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Computers aren't green. The article covers the market in computer scrap smuggling into China, for labor-intensive, environmentally-unfriendly scrapping and partial recycling.

Not to mention corporations sending their effectively remaindered PCs to LDCs as an act of charity -- because the manpower and skill to bring junky old, mismatched and undocumented 486s and Pentium Is to working functional order is just everywhere, twiddling their collective thumbs waiting for a shipment.

In the insanely rapid adoption of computers into modern life, and the high rate of turnover of old computers, combined with the push to get LDCs online, some thought needs to be put into the environmental externalities, both for the industrialized and the developing worlds, beyond cell phones that pop apart at high temperatures.

We need to find ways to internalize the costs of rapid hardware obsoletion -- through forcing companies to offer some form of buyback/recycling program (which may not work well for computers sold overseas in different jurisdictions/enforcement mechanisms). It's not like there's been lots of success with global environmental regulation thus far, but with this possibly leading to a definite negative impact for China, and US corporations being swayable through the name-and-shame methods, there you have two of the major computer manufacturing players dealt with already. If there's some tie to add in Taiwan, Japan and S. Korea through the APEC forum or a new FTA agreement with environmental policies tied in...

Posted by Jon at 01:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kevin Kelly provides an excellent analysis of the rust beneath the chrome of leapfrogging:

The most commonly cited evidence for leapfrogging is the pattern of cell phone adoption in China and other parts of the world. For hundred of millions of people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, their first telephone is a cell phone. But second examples of skipping the industrial revolution are scarcer. I am aware of a small island in the Ganges delta of India and one village in Thailand that installed solar power. Beyond that, the examples of skipping the industrial revolution evaporate on inspection. A few pilot programs here and there, but no real adoption. In fact the closer one looks at the evidence, the more unlikely it seems to me that leapfrogging actually happens.

He goes on to point out that leapfrogging is really just an overlapping boom -- the cell phone boom overtook -- but did not destroy -- landline growth, which continues apace, just not as fast as cell (he argues that cell phones in fact encourage reliance on telephone communication, essentially spurring continued landline growth).

Kelly also underlines the liberal and environmentalist bias of leapfrogging -- why don't we consider the jump straight to landrovers and trucks from donkeys and handcarts, skipping large horse-drawn carriages and rail infrastructures (and sometimes preceeding paved roads)? Is it not green enough? Not high-tech enough? Not an elegant solution?

I feel that these are valid objections. Particularly in ICT, it is far too easy to get caught up in creating the best solution than to make an inelegant first step, and get something started, whether or not it's the perfect solution.

Beyond the humanitarian need to do something quickly more than perfectly, there's also the benefit that step-by-step methods allow those you're working with to have a better feel for the process, instead of being presented with just the final project.

Posted by Jon at 04:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Digital Divide Simulator lets you select the website you want to test, then select the bandwidth you want to simulate, and click "simulate". You will be presented with two pages: one at full speed and one at the limited speed. You can then compare the two.", which options ranging from 0.3 Kbps ['Deep field' HF radio] to 128 Kbps[ISDN Connection; VSAT Downstream], 256 Kbps[ADSL Connection], and full speed.

This is missing the point entirely. Sure, a .3Kbps connection is... uh... slow, and does not enable even most IM clients (they're surprisingly bandwidth hogs for text transfer), and most websites are image-laden beheamoths, BUT... we're arguing degrees of access; this is the digital ditch. The divide is beyond te .3Kbps, it's where there is no Internet access or telecom infrastructure available (or affordable to anyone but the very rich).

Now, there is an excellent map on this website that shows the world and relative Internet access:

Jamaica is listed in the "Upper" category of countries, with 17.2 subscribers per 100, but from personal experience I know that there are many places in the deep rural parts that have no landline service, and have only recently gotten cell coverage. There are schools without electricity, without even the option for telephones or computers with Internet access.

These cheery categorizations and statistics, and the ability to "try out" Internet access through a slow connection are masking the realities of the situation. 17.2 per 100? That means 82.8 per 100 without home access; what percentage of those don't have Internet at work? At school? Available in their community? Those numbers begin to reveal the true divide.

Posted by Jon at 04:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think I'm pretty much obligated to talk about the World Bank's ICT data and report about "Investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries will reach 100 billion dollars annually over the next five years."

Beyond validating my career path choice, it will hopefully get the mass statistical engines of the Bank brining in more data on ICT projects and success.

It remains my fear (which this report only increases) that ICT is going to be a big, money-draining fad in development, and pull money away from more basic humanitarian, health, social, and educational needs. Yes, computers are important in trying to prevent a truly massive division between the "North" and the "South," but we can't put our blinders on.

Posted by Jon at 02:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

John Daly wins the award for insanely detailed blog entries with his blogel (my neologism for novel-length blogs, spread it!) on K4D, which is its own neologism for "Knowledge for Development" -- the "new" area of ICT and knowledge-economic stuffs and their role in development projects.

If you don't have a few hours to digest that blogel, it provides a decent, straightforward summary of a mostly pragmatic approach to ICTs in development. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's unique in not really trying to be groundbreaking, but realistic:

ome enthusiasts portray e-development as sure path to social and economic development. ICT expenditures constitute only a few percent of GDP in even the most advanced nations. Thus it asks a lot for an e-Development strategy to lead overall economic and social development.

Ideally, e-Development would take place in the context of an overall policy and institutional environment conducive to rapid national economic growth and development and in the context of strong pro-poor policies. Unfortunately, such environments are seldom found in developing nations. (Where they are, of course, a truly holistic e-Development strategy is possible.)

It is possible, however, to produce enclaves of development -- where the resources, policies, and institutions permit –- even in the absence of a policy and institutional environment optimally conducive to overall development

It continues with a definitely rosy-tinted view of the value of ICTs as their own development projects, and encourages risk-taking among donor agencies. I have to come down with a more cautious summary note[1], but overall agree with his hedges and warnings; ICT has to be planned and cheaperl, limited pilot projects should be used to test the waters and feasibility (Though these, too, have problems -- Jamaica was caught in an endless cycle of pilot projects, with very few island-wide rollouts, so the same few schools always got the best technology).

[1] There are many things more grounding (cynicism-inducing?) than walking by the World Bank ("Working to end world povery") every day, with the little park across the street where DC's homeless hang out, but this does get extra points for irony.

Posted by Jon at 02:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So yeah, it's obvious that I like computers, and think that this whole "Internet" thing holds some transformative power for development. I really hope the $100 laptop project goes well, but at the end of the day I'm pragmatic, I'd rather have gotten something done that's helpful than talked about something that might be. This of course means that withi 30 years I'll have moved to some remote corner of the world to pursue off-the-grid subsistence farming as an occupation, but that's for later discussion.

It pleases me to see some big inventors focusing their attention on fundamental technologies. The Segway inventor is now putting the finishing touches on a flexible portable whatever-burning generator and a water-purifier that can largely run off the waste heat of the former. Read the full article on this at CNN.

A computer grant has a huge list of prerequisites that aren't thought of by development people behind desks, or grant-givers. As a volunteer, we had tons of companies trying to unload their old 486s and Pentium-Is on us and our schools, and we simply couldn't take them -- the cost of customs on them was more than the schools could pay, and their utility was so incredibly low. Sure, we could get FreeDos or some prehistoric Linux running on them, or maybe Linux Terminal Server if we could source one powerful machine to serve desktops, but these things all required skills that were not easily available locally, especially in deep rural settings. But even a modern, new computer has a lot of requirements. First, for it to last any time at all, in needs some technical expertise setting it up to be safe from the nasty Internet, virii, spy-ware and the like. Second, it has to be in a reasonable environment -- the roof can't leak, there should be some A/C or good fans at least, the dust should be at a minimum, salt air should be kept out, and for security's sake, the windows and doors have to be barred and locked.

Beyond that, you'll still need electricity, and lots of it for the computers and A/C. And, in Jamaica and many developing countries, black and brown outs are common, and even sometimes spikes, so you'll need a UPS, which don't come cheap and need replacing often in that climate.

And, to reap the benefits of the Internet, you'll still need a phone line, dedicated for the Internet. Cable and Wireless, the monopoly land-line company in Jamaica, had a great deal for Jamaican schools -- if you filled out the right form (only available from the Kingston head office) and sent it through the regional Ministry of Ed. office to a specific person within C+W, they would give you free Internet access. Of course, you still had to pay the monthly and per-minute phone charges. We were working with the competitive cell-phone company, digicel, to get cheap or at least flat-rate Internet for particularly rural schools which couldn't even get a land line strung to them.

But beneath all of this, there are fundamental problems of development that are More Important. Clean water, sanitation services (double-ventilated pit latrines will banish every bad thought you've had about pit latrines!), and sufficient food come to mind. A child who's hungry, or sick is not a child that's going to be learning much from anything, even if it has a mouse attached.

The problem here is message. What foundation or agency wants to say "we installed 50 pit latrines" when they could say "We set up a computer lab in a rural community" ? Who will fund pit latrines over computers? Along the same lines, who will fund a project to maintain existing labs, build local capacity, or set up a repair fund over dropping new computers in?

These questions end up going to fundamental morality-of-development-policy issues that I'm not sure have pretty answers.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/16/technology/business2_futureboy0216/index.htm

Posted by Jon at 02:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)