Yacine raises a very important, but I fear often overlooked point: any technologies, ICTs included, should only be seen as a means to an end. Acquisition of technologies should never, or at best very very rarely, be seen as the end in itself.
And, partly adopting a role of "Devil's Advocate", I can also see an equally important question implied in Yacine's comments: the diffusion of ICTs benefits both the "consumer" and also the provider. And it troubles me somewhat that the latter, in many (most?) cases can often be traced back to the large, frequently multinational and essentially "western"-based, corporations (naming no names, but I think we all know who I mean!). We should never forget that these vendors (not unnaturally!) have strong vested interests in developing new markets; and those of the developing world - in particular in South and South-east Asia - are probably the most significant of all of these in terms of the numbers of people involved and the revenue they could generate for the suppliers. In such circumstances, adopting technologies without also having full access to their underpinning conceptual and operational foundations could be very risky, and creates a culture of dependency, as well as having potential security implications. When I read Yacine's comments, I started wondering whether the marketing strategies of at least some of these large multinational corporations doesn't foster and, perhaps even depend on, the entrenchment of both the digital and the social divide? After all, the acquisitive instinct is one of the most powerful allies of the entire advertising / marketing industry worldwide! We all want to be the kids with the newest and fanciest toys in the neighbourhood, and the news and advertising media hardly discourage such motives! I accept I am quite new to this forum, but even within this GKD group, I have seen very little discussion of these questions? Comments anyone? Darius ************************************************************* Darius Bartlett Department of Geography Roinn na Tireolaiochta University College Cork Colaste na hOllscoile Corcaigh Cork, Ireland Corcaigh, Eire Phone: (+353) 21 4902835 Fax: (+353) 21 4271980 Phone(GSM): (+353) 86 8238043 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.ucc.ie/staff/djb ************************************************************** Yacine Khelladi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We are sick and tired of the "digital divide" problem. The REAL problem > is how are we going to use the Strategic opportunities offered by the > ICTs to close the SOCIAL divide. And avoid digital divide initiatives > that deepen the social divide. This is not a semantic problem, but a > vision that encompasses all of our objectives, methods and actions, to > use ICTs for "sustainable human development". ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
