Subject: GKD List Summary 1/17 - 1/23
This message attempts to summarize briefly the major discussion points
made on the GKD list. Inevitably, many valuable points will not be
captured here, and new List members are encouraged to obtain past List
archives. Currently, they can be obtained from the GKP WWW site
<http://www.globalknowledge.org//course.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg> in a HyperMail format, which groups
messages by thread (subject) and also allows full-text searches of all
the List messages. For those without WWW access, the digest version (a
plain text compilation of each week's messages) can be retrieved via
anonymous FTP from ftp.edc.org. The path is
pub/mailing-lists/gkd-digest.
ICT AND ACCESS
A GKD member submitted survey results on the use of the Internet in
China. "The China Daily" reported that there are 747,000 computers
online, of which one quarter are concentrated in Beijing. The actual
number of users is much higher since users many share a single account.
The typical user is not unlike the typical Internet user anywhere
on-line: young (average age: 27), male, single, college educated and in
full-time employment. The lack of Chinese content was one of the most
expressed complaints from these users. Another report indicated that
there are only 5,000 Chinese Web sites on the Internet. Forecasts are
that by the year 2010 there will be 10 million Chinese online due to
intense promotion and ongoing investment. In December, China and Japan
decided to cooperate and join Internet research resources in a joint
technology agreement. However, e-commerce in China will remain low due
to a lack of significant spending power among Chinese Internet users.
ICT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
The discussion on the use of low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites for remote
connectivity continued. A GKD member who is currently installing a
telecenter in Jakar (Bhutan) asked for more information about LEOs as an
alternative to GMPCS or point-to-point microwave connections. Any
information on which companies provide LEOs can be forwarded to Steve
Silver, e-mail: .
Another member expressed caution on the use of individual satellites.
"With the growth of local capacity to support access and connectivity,
and the growth of ground based wireless connectivity, the major window
of opportunity for the low earth orbit satellites may be history for
some uses." He mentioned East Africa as an example. Remote research
stations in that region that used to rely on connectivity through a LEO
satellite, operated from the USA, are getting e-mail through local
Internet providers. According to this member the key lesson to be
learned is the growth of local capacity to support appropriate
state-of-the-art solutions.
A third person mentioned that LEOs "provided access when nothing else
was around, and then it became less cost-effective when local outfits
were able to set up a radio network." According to this member future
LEO systems have a lot of up front costs for the launching of the
satellite network, and competing technologies (existing satellite, other
wireless, and landline) may provide a challenge. Yet another member
pointed out that a downside of LEOs is their limited bandwith and the
fact that the groundstations are generally not user-friendly. This
member suggested that commercial satellite providers are in a better
position to provide connectivity. "By subsidizing end-users instead of
providers, international donors and governments can stimulate the
development of Internet services in areas where commercial companies
generally don't see market potential."
A GKD member who works for the LEO provider VITA strongly disagreed with
these opinions. "There will be a niche for low-bandwidth, low-cost
systems like LEO email satellites providing rural communication services
for many years to come. By supporting initial development and
appreciation of 'information culture' they can also facilitate migration
strategies to other solutions when needs change." An example of a
low-bandwidth LEO satellite e-mail system helping to make a significant
impact in rural Africa can be found at:
<http://www.cyber24.com/htm2/5_2.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg>.
Y2K AND DEVELOPMENT
The discussion on Y2K and its impact on developing countries continued.
A list member pointed out that contingency planning is rarely part of
Y2K remedial efforts - even if systems are certified to be Y2K compliant
in order to offset the unknown. In a study he conducted in mid-1998 "68%
of the respondents in a survey of IT/IS professionals and managers
indicated that their organizations had no or little contingency plans in
place in their Y2K remedial blueprint." The same research also showed
that an often used option in the Y2K remediation activities is "to
retire old 'legacy' systems and build new ones -- once the trade-off
between the two options has been quantified in favor of a new system."
The Moderators posted a message on a rather unorthodox measure by the
Chinese Ministry of Information Industries to raise awareness about the
Millennium bug. "All the heads of the airlines have got to be in the air
on 1 January 2000," said a spokesperson of the Ministry. In other
countries the danger that Y2K could pose to aircraft safety has made
airlines consider grounding all flights on December 31.
A GKD member who has been working on Y2K remediation efforts in the
Carribean summarized some of his findings. Since funds for Y2K are
minimal some governments are still trying to establish the compliance
status of computers "you'd expect to find only in museums; and they
haven't the hard currency to replace them." There is a scarcity of
expert resources and those who were identified are immediately recruited
by international companies. The countries involved in this project all
need: a) an injection of expertise; b) to create/improve remediation and
contingency programs in parallel, modifying the latter as the former can
demonstrate progress. To run such parallel exercises they need funds,
yet these funds aren't available, although international banking and
telecom organizations are doing good work in helping in their respective
areas.
CALL FOR CHAPTERS
A member submitted a call for chapters for the book "Knowledge
Management and Virtual Organizations: Theories, Practices, Technologies
and Methods", which will be edited by Yogesh Malhotra, Ph.D (@BRINT
Institute and Florida Atlantic University). The book will be a
compilation of innovative and interesting theories, case studies and
best practices, information and communication technologies,
methodologies, methods and measures that relate to the topics of
knowledge management and virtual organizations. Scholars, practitioners,
and researchers are invited to submit conceptual, theoretical,
practitioner and empirical articles that may use qualitative,
quantitative, or interpretive methodologies or any combination thereof.
The book will be published by Idea Group Publishing in the last quarter
of 1999. Submission deadline for proposals: March 1, 1999. Submission
deadline for chapters: June, 1999. 2-3 page proposal should be sent to
or mail your proposals to Yogesh Malhotra. Mailing
address: @BRINT Institute 818, NW 89th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL
33324, U.S.A.
Another GKD member called for chapters for the book "Community
Informatics: Enabling the Community Use of Information and
Communications Technologies", edited by Dr. Michael Gurstein (University
College of Cape Breton, Canada). The book will be an introduction and
elaboration of the "Community Informatics" approach. It will include
invited papers and contributed chapters by researchers and practitioners
addressing issues, trends, controversies, challenges and opportunities
facing the community application of ICTs into the millennium.
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a 2-3 page
manuscript proposal clearly explaining the missions and concerns of the
proposed chapter on or before February 15, 1999. The book is scheduled
to be published by Idea Group Publishing in December 1999. Inquiries and
submissions can be forwarded to: Michael Gurstein, tel: +1 902-563-1369,
fax: +1 902-562-0119, e-mail: .
ANNOUNCEMENTS
A GKD member announced new listservs in the World Bank's Development Forum.
The following online discussions will be launched on February 1, 1999:
* Attacking Poverty (WDR2001)
This list invites the public to contribute its knowledge, experiences,
and questions to the World Development Report 2001 on poverty, which is
currently in the early stages of preparation.
* Les consequences de la maternite precoce sur l'education des filles
(EDUC-FILLES)
This list, in French, will examine the related issues of pregnancy and
education among teenage girls, particularly in Africa.
* Knowledge and Information for Development (IKD)
This list will discuss the role of information and knowledge as tools of
sustainable development, and the challenges facing developing countries
in seeking to join the global information economy. It takes as its
point of departure the recent World Bank World Development Report on
Knowledge for Development and the series of Panos Institute articles
responding to that Report.
* Gender and Law (GENDER-LAW)
This list will examine what the World Bank's role should be in the
important legal issues affecting women in developing countries and
attempt to improve understanding of how the law can be used to improve
gender equity.
To subscribe, please send a message to: ,
leave the subject line blank and type in the body of the message:
subscribe . For more information or questions contact
.
WEB SITES
Global Knowledge Partnership:
http://www.globalknowledge.org2.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg
World Bank Development Forum:
http://www.worldbank.org/forum2.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg
GKD List Summary 1/24 - 1/30
This message attempts to summarize briefly the major discussion points
made on the GKD list. Inevitably, many valuable points will not be
captured here, and new List members are encouraged to obtain past List
archives. Currently, they can be obtained from the GKP WWW site
<http://www.globalknowledge.org/.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg> in a HyperMail format, which groups
messages by thread (subject) and also allows full-text searches of all
the List messages. For those without WWW access, the digest version (a
plain text compilation of each week's messages) can be retrieved via
anonymous FTP from: ftp.edc.org. The path is:
pub/mailing-lists/gkd-digest.
TECHNOLOGY NOTES
A GKD member submitted an article on the recent lifting of the state
monopoly of Internet services in India. Private Internet providers are
now facing obstacles such as poor telephone and personal computer
penetration, constraints on domestic as well as international
connectivity, little local content, and a ban on offering voice services
over the Internet. Thus ISPs will use much of 1999 to start up their
businesses. "The Internet will become a phenomenon in India only in
2000. That's when I see real growth in electronic commerce and
e-business," said Suresh Rajpal, president of Hewlett-Packard India.
Growth is particularly expected from cable companies, currently serving
25 million households. "If you see that there are 600,000 cable
operators in India, all of which are keen to offer Internet services,
even one percent of that number gives you 6,000 ISPs," according to an
analyst.
ICT AND ACCESS
The moderators posted an article on Internet services via HF radio in
the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ugandan-based provider Bushnet has
started offering e-mail services in Goma, a city of a few hundred
thousand inhabitants in Eastern Congo. Bushnet charges US $2-$3 per page
of text and has currently around 200 subscribers in Goma. High prices
are not the only reason that the service has not spread widely: the
Internet itself is a foreign concept for most people. "The average
person in Goma has never touched a telephone," Bushnet representative
Taty Kaliba said. "So when you start talking about the Internet, about
surfing and chat rooms, they are lost." Under the 32-year dictatorship
of Mobuto Sese Seko, telephone lines were scarce in the city and only a
private cellular phone company offers services to around 700
subscribers.
Another GKD member shared recent experiences from the World Food
Programme with e-mail via radio in the Great Lakes region in Africa. A
combination of HF with less expensive VHF or UHF technology and
automated scanning of radio frequencies has further improved service by
relieving e-mail radio communications of its dependency on skilled human
operators. Off-the-shelf technology used by amateur radio enthusiasts, a
packet radio modem and a VHF or UHF radio (price US $1000), is now
sufficient. One drawback is that the system covers far shorter distances
(50-60km for VHF/UHF). In Uganda three commercial ISPs are currently
offering e-mail-over radio services.
ICT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
The discussion on the whether low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites have
become less useful for remote communication was continued. A member
pointed out that the high costs of launching new satellites can be
avoided by acquiring licenses and trading them for access to other
(commercial) satellites. He also described ways of dealing with the
limited bandwidth of store-and-forward LEOs. In addition, four
independent efforts are underway to develop a new generation of ground
stations that will have more capacity. The member stressed that LEOs
have been a valuable form of technology transfer in the past. Many of
the so-called FIDOnet system operators of the 1980s and 1990s are now
heading ISPs. He pointed at the difficulties faced by the commercial
satellite consortium Iridium and refuted claims that the private sector
is in a better position than nonprofits to provide low-cost data
communications to forgotten rural areas and asked if anyone on the list
knew of case studies. Another member added: "It took 100 years to
install 700 million phone lines. The conservative estimates are that 700
million more phone lines, plus 700 million wireless 'phones' will be
installed in the next 15 years."
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
A GKD member, who is working on a study of citizen involvement and the
Internet, requested examples of how the surge in Hindu nationalism has
been strengthened by the use of the Internet. According to a member from
India the Internet hasn't really reached nationalists in significant
numbers in India: "Most fundamentalists are poor, often have low
literacy levels, so they are unlikely to be fluent in English." Much of
the Hindu fundamentalist discussion on Usenet and the Web does take
place among Indians living outside the country.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
A member announced a new version of the budgeting software package
PlanBud 4, software designed for organizations involved in budgeting or
assessing budgets for development projects. The software allows for a
solid conceptual basis to plan, monitor and evaluate projects.
Additional information on the PlanBud software can be found at
<http://www.mdf.nl/PlanBud.htmg/.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg>http://www.mdf.nl/PlanBud.htm./.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg
The GILC News Alert is the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty
Campaign, an international coalition of organizations working to protect
and enhance on-line civil liberties and human rights. To submit
information about upcoming events, new activist tools and news stories,
contact: A. Cassidy Sehgal-Kolbet, American Civil Liberties Union 125
Broad Street 17th Floor, New York, New York 10004, USA or by e-mail:
. To subscribe to the alert send a message to
with the words 'subscribe gilc-announce' in the
body of the text.
WEB SITES
Bushnet:
http://www.bushnet.netBud.htm./.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg
Global Internet Liberty Campaign:
http://www.gilc.orgnetBud.htm./.htmrse.htm4HM.HTMtm8S0017h01_99.htmlpg