What's on the Horizon for ICT and Local Government?
GKD members have identified a number of cases where ICTs have improved
local government performance, and outlined major obstacles and critical
success factors. With increasing emphasis on decentralization in
developing countries, the role of ICT
On Monday, June 21, 2004, Global Knowledge Dev. Moderator asked:
KEY QUESTIONS:
1) What are the most innovative, cutting edge ICT-related practices
currently used for professional development in developing countries?
2) Can technology innovations revolutionize professional training for
Dear GKD Members,
The future of technology is exciting: online face-to-face courses with
simultaneous translation; virtual reality training offering real-world
experience; tiny hand-held devices providing just-in-time job mentoring
from top experts. It is easy to imagine inspiring possibilities.
I'd like to add a set of technologies involving language to the list
before this thread is entirely cold: translators, text-to-speech (TTS),
and speech-to-text (STT). In societies of the global South that are
multilingual, and have strong oral traditions and low literacy rates,
these technologies
I think what Allen is speaking of here can be generalized:
IMHO, ICT is a tool (or more accurately, a very large suite of tools)
that can be used to achieve a wide array of goals. It is not more, and
it is not less. Tools have been around for thousands of years, and
though the implementation of
1. What new high impact technologies are on the 3-year horizon? Who
(exactly) needs to do what (concretely) to make those technologies
widely available?
It seems to me that most of the component technologies needed for
deploying ICT in rural areas are already in place. What really needs to
be
As for Guido Sohne's comment on battery life of hand-helds:
Of course the real alternative is in effecient circuit design and
perhaps the genre of mini fuel cells being researched on by various East
Asian companies.
However, there is one solution in low-cost solar power. Do visit
Dear GKD Members:
It is interesting to note the emphasis on policy. I for one, based on my
education and experience base have come to believe that the Governments
must not make technology choices and it should be best left to the
forces that are well experienced in using it to the purposes they
If we were to ask What SHOULD be on the horizon?, then I would answer:
IMHO, the number one thing that would help Africa catch up to the
technology revolution would be the elimination of the telecom
monopolies. Whether by allowing competition from both internal and
external vendors, privatization
3. Where should we focus our efforts during the coming 3 years? On ICT
policy? Creating ICT projects with revenue-generation models that are
quickly self-supporting? Demonstrating the value of ICT to developing
country communities?
Universities in developing countries need to build their ICT
I agree strongly with Simon Woodside's answers--experimentation, more
modern technology, and broadband. But I was also struck by what another
contributor said, e.g. Find successful and sustainable activities.
Replicate. Get constraints out of the way. Get funding on the right
basis. Let the demand
My two bits...
1. What new high impact technologies are on the 3-year horizon? Who
(exactly) needs to do what (concretely) to make those technologies
widely available?
Optical frequencies communication for exceptionally low power, very high
bandwidth, short distance communications
It's hard to predict or foresee technology. Mainly, it becomes an
exercise in wishful thinking. So here are my wishes ...
On Mon, 2003-11-17 at 20:28, Global Knowledge Dev. Moderator wrote:
1. What new high impact technologies are on the 3-year horizon? Who
(exactly) needs to do what
Perhaps we should ask: what could be on the horizon? After all, this is
a question more likely to lead to proposals for action that are feasible
in terms of their possible payoff in the medium term if appropriate action
would be taken now. In that connection I would suggest an examination of
the
This new set of questions is intriguing. I am not sure I agree with the
direction of the questions and the focus on magic bullet technologies.
First, I submit that the focus of efforts should be on policy,
particularly universal access policy. IDRC's Acacia programme, DFID's
CATIA programme and
Dear GKD Members,
In response to the question asked on What's on the Horizon, to us in the
developing world it is more or less provision of basic connectivity,
integrating basic services in the connectivity and a lot of capacity
building. I wish to concentrate on educational delivery and discuss
Time for peering into the crystal ball, I guess. First, three years is
about the outer limit IMO for any kind of computer technology
predictions. I tend to look at trends that are coming in the next year
or two and that's quite challenging enough...
This week we ask GKD members to consider the
Dear Colleagues,
I am not sure that what I have to say can be described as valuable
input and insights!, but here goes anyway!
1. What new high impact technologies are on the 3-year horizon? Who
(exactly) needs to do what (concretely) to make those technologies
widely available?
Affordable
Dear GKD Members,
During the past three weeks, GKD members have discussed a number of
intriguing technical solutions to bringing access to underserved
communities, several of which have demonstrated promise in the field.
Especially noteworthy are various forms of wireless connectivity, in
19 matches
Mail list logo
