Dear GKD Members, At some point in this discussion, the question was raised whether those with access are yielding.
I 'connected' Nicaragua to the Internet (blue node in 1989, online 1993) and I'm doing know -13 years later- a global eReadiness study, among others to evaluate how far we've gotten in those 13 years (and if not why). I'll try to carry out the study in a participative way - at least in principal for those may be 100,000 that now do have access (when we started, we were exactly 12) using a website <www.eready.org.ni>, email-lists and so forth. However exactly this approach proves again that even for the 'haves' there are more fundamental barriers then just access or literacy. (Many of my would-be counterparts have university education). I pinpointed this barrier already 6 years ago, doing a study about use and impact of all types of information-systems (traditional, like libraries, and modern IT-based ones) on real development in Nicaragua. Finding: we from 1. World (I'm originally German, moved from a German IT research center to Nicaragua in 1985) tacitly assume that our model or practice of decision-making is universal ... and it is not. The 'western' model - shaped basically by enlightment already in the 18 century - has more or less the following sequence: (1) problematic situation (or desired situation) encountered (2) identify underlying problem (3) gather evidence and look for additional information (4) develop alternative courses of action based on evidence and information with pro's and con's (5) apply decision mechanism among alternatives (consensus, established hierarchy, elections ....) Within this model -obviously- the lack of information becomes crucial .. and who is better informed takes advantage. However if the decision procedures are not rational (=not enlighted), but almost exclusively based on personal power to take decisions (or group arrangements, that as social balance empower to take decisions), there is no need for information. Additionally, normally decision-making implies allocation of resources. But if there are simply no excess-resources -beyond pure survival- there is no space left for any decisions to make. (Curiously enough: exactly lack of resources and hence the missing base for true decisions produces that plethora of Analysis, Diagnostics, Studies and so forth, that eat up about 60% of so called cooperation for development and that -once done- sit in some shelf to dust (or age in some Global Development Gateway). Anyone else with similar experiences ? Regards, Cornelio ------------ ***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/>
