BATTELLE TECHNOLOGY FORECASTS: THE BUSINESS OF INNOVATION
Currently available selections from one of the world's best technological laboratories:
Top Ten Technologies by 2005;
Top Ten Most Innovative Products by 2006;
Top Ten Breakthroughs for Household Products by 2007;
Top Ten Challenges and Opportunities by 2008;
Top Ten Healthy Home Trends by 2010;
Top Ten Drivers of Consumer Value by 2010;
Top Ten Energy Innovations by 2010;
High Tech Haven: Forecast Predicts the Top Ten Innovations in Home Comfort and Convenience in 2012;
Strategic Technologies by 2020.
http://www.battelle.org/forecasts/default.stm
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
THE INTERNET GUIDE TO ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS, AND COMPUTING
This seems to be a great resource for engineering, mathematics and computing:
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/index.htm
Note for example its engineering Internet tutorials
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/vts/index.htm
and its online books of Internet Resources for these fields:
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/publications/
This seems to be a great resource for engineering, mathematics and computing:
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/index.htm
Note for example its engineering Internet tutorials
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/vts/index.htm
and its online books of Internet Resources for these fields:
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/publications/
Monday, January 13, 2003
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS STUDYING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Here are a few professional societies for people working to provide the basic understanding of social and economic processes that underlie K4D programs.
Society for the History of Technology (ShoT)
http://shot.press.jhu.edu/
Society for the Social Studies of Science (Technoscience)
http://www.cis.vt.edu/technoscience/technohome.html
Science, Knowledge and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association
http://www.asanet.org/sectionskat/
Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
http://www.aaas.org/about/sections/impacts.shtml
The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology
http://radburn.rutgers.edu/andrews/projects/ssit/default.htm
Special Interest Group on Computers and Society of the Association for Computing Machinery
http://www.acm.org/sigcas/
Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
http://www.aoir.org/
Here are a few professional societies for people working to provide the basic understanding of social and economic processes that underlie K4D programs.
Society for the History of Technology (ShoT)
http://shot.press.jhu.edu/
Society for the Social Studies of Science (Technoscience)
http://www.cis.vt.edu/technoscience/technohome.html
Science, Knowledge and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association
http://www.asanet.org/sectionskat/
Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
http://www.aaas.org/about/sections/impacts.shtml
The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology
http://radburn.rutgers.edu/andrews/projects/ssit/default.htm
Special Interest Group on Computers and Society of the Association for Computing Machinery
http://www.acm.org/sigcas/
Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
http://www.aoir.org/
K4D AND THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS
Richard G.A. Feachem had a piece in the Opinion section of yesterday’s Washington Post about HIV/AIDS (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41441-2003Jan11.html). He is the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (http://www.globalfundatm.org/). In 2001, it was estimated that 5.7 million people died of these diseases: 3 million from AIDS, 1.7 million from TB, and one million from malaria. That works out to 15,616 deaths a day. Every day.
That may be understating the case. It has been estimated, for example, that there are between 300 million and 500 million clinical cases of malaria a year, with between one million and three million deaths from malaria alone (http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidinthenews/articles/sachsmalariafeb02.pdf).
And the situation is getting worse, not better. Current projections are that the AIDS epidemic will not peak for another 40 or 50 years. TB is resurgent in many parts of the world, in part do to the increase in infections from drug resistant forms of TB that are expensive and difficult to treat. While great progress was made against malaria by the much maligned Eradication Campaign, efforts to control the disease have still left us with a million deaths per year, and increasingly complex problems of drug resistant parasites and insecticide resistant mosquitoes.
Jeffrey Sacks of the Earth Institute at Colombia University has underlined the importance of mobilizing global science and technology to address the crises of public health. (http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidinthenews/articles/sf9108.html) I would suggest in the context of this Blog, that “Knowledge for Development” engage with the problems of communicable diseases of poverty, and most importantly with these three: HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
“Knowledge for Development” is an approach. It should be a broad enough approach to be used against the most critical public health problems of our time. Certainly research and development of new tools with which to fight these diseases is a part of the K4D approach. I would note the International AIDS Vaccines Initiative (http://www.iavi.org/), and a number of malaria initiatives (http://www.malaria.org/initiatives.html).
The work of United Nations agencies, such as the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int), is very important in organizing and communicating the knowledge base about medical and public health approaches to these diseases. Their technical assistance to developing nations is invaluable and irreplaceable. One might underline the importance of donor assistance in communicating about best practices in the organization of health services and about quality assurance in such services.
I might also point to the Cochrane Collaboration (http://www.cochrane.org/) as a prototypical organization. The Cochrane Library is composed of meta-analyses of the biomedical research literature, providing summaries of the states-of-the-art for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of major diseases. Not only is the Cochrane approach important for public health, but it should serve as a model for the organization of technological knowledge in other fields.
The Communications Initiative (http://www.comminit.com/) is a great organization that supports health and population program communications in many ways, but is perhaps especially important in providing information on how to communicate to the public directly about public health problems.
The United States is spending enormous amounts of money on the War Against Terrorism. That is a concern that has mobilized the developed world. Yet worldwide the terror inspired by the enormous mortality and morbidity from AIDS, TB and malaria is far worse than that inspired by acts of terrorists. Indeed, the mortality from terrorism is lost in the noise of global death statistics, however prominent it may be in the media. Perhaps the key challenge for K4D is to help people in developed and developing nations to understand where their greatest enemies are to be found.
Richard G.A. Feachem had a piece in the Opinion section of yesterday’s Washington Post about HIV/AIDS (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41441-2003Jan11.html). He is the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (http://www.globalfundatm.org/). In 2001, it was estimated that 5.7 million people died of these diseases: 3 million from AIDS, 1.7 million from TB, and one million from malaria. That works out to 15,616 deaths a day. Every day.
That may be understating the case. It has been estimated, for example, that there are between 300 million and 500 million clinical cases of malaria a year, with between one million and three million deaths from malaria alone (http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidinthenews/articles/sachsmalariafeb02.pdf).
And the situation is getting worse, not better. Current projections are that the AIDS epidemic will not peak for another 40 or 50 years. TB is resurgent in many parts of the world, in part do to the increase in infections from drug resistant forms of TB that are expensive and difficult to treat. While great progress was made against malaria by the much maligned Eradication Campaign, efforts to control the disease have still left us with a million deaths per year, and increasingly complex problems of drug resistant parasites and insecticide resistant mosquitoes.
Jeffrey Sacks of the Earth Institute at Colombia University has underlined the importance of mobilizing global science and technology to address the crises of public health. (http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidinthenews/articles/sf9108.html) I would suggest in the context of this Blog, that “Knowledge for Development” engage with the problems of communicable diseases of poverty, and most importantly with these three: HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
“Knowledge for Development” is an approach. It should be a broad enough approach to be used against the most critical public health problems of our time. Certainly research and development of new tools with which to fight these diseases is a part of the K4D approach. I would note the International AIDS Vaccines Initiative (http://www.iavi.org/), and a number of malaria initiatives (http://www.malaria.org/initiatives.html).
The work of United Nations agencies, such as the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int), is very important in organizing and communicating the knowledge base about medical and public health approaches to these diseases. Their technical assistance to developing nations is invaluable and irreplaceable. One might underline the importance of donor assistance in communicating about best practices in the organization of health services and about quality assurance in such services.
I might also point to the Cochrane Collaboration (http://www.cochrane.org/) as a prototypical organization. The Cochrane Library is composed of meta-analyses of the biomedical research literature, providing summaries of the states-of-the-art for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of major diseases. Not only is the Cochrane approach important for public health, but it should serve as a model for the organization of technological knowledge in other fields.
The Communications Initiative (http://www.comminit.com/) is a great organization that supports health and population program communications in many ways, but is perhaps especially important in providing information on how to communicate to the public directly about public health problems.
The United States is spending enormous amounts of money on the War Against Terrorism. That is a concern that has mobilized the developed world. Yet worldwide the terror inspired by the enormous mortality and morbidity from AIDS, TB and malaria is far worse than that inspired by acts of terrorists. Indeed, the mortality from terrorism is lost in the noise of global death statistics, however prominent it may be in the media. Perhaps the key challenge for K4D is to help people in developed and developing nations to understand where their greatest enemies are to be found.
Saturday, January 11, 2003
KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY OR KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT
The terms “Knowledge Economy” and “Knowledge For Development” seem often to be used synonymously. I suspect that to be a mistake. K4D perhaps ought to be seen as composed of several facets, including “Knowledge Polity” and “Knowledge Culture”, as well as “Knowledge Economy”.
The first of these topics is intended to refer to knowledge systems in governance institutions. In the case of the knowledge economy, attention is directed to technological knowledge, market knowledge, innovation systems, etc. The difficulties of achieving development with governments that are unresponsive to the needs of their citizens, corrupt, or simply unaware of the information that could inform better policy and strategic choices are severe. The “Knowledge Polity” (KP) may well be of comparable importance with “Knowledge Economy” for development.
KP includes knowledge systems in the political process. Donor assistance Democratization programs (e.g. that of USAID: http://www.usaid.gov/democracy/) relate to an important aspect of this concern. In democratic societies, democratization concerns would relate to the role of knowledge in elections and participation of the electorate in governance. Perhaps it would be better to frame the issues in a broader way, focusing on the ways in which citizens learn about public issues, and the ways in which the views of the citizens are communicated to and affect public policy and strategy. One specific area in which donor efforts might prove to be useful here is in improving the news service of the media (I think that donors such as the Open Society Institute - http://www.soros.org/ -and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung - http://www.fesdc.org/ - do in fact work with the media.) Similarly, improving civics education in the schools might be useful.
Let me suggest that KP also includes improving knowledge systems in the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. Thus one might improve the use of scientific and technological knowledge in government (as the US tried to do by creating the Office of Technology Assessment, or the executive branch by institutionalizing science advisors and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, or as the judiciary struggles with in dealing with expert testimony and alternative ways to deal with highly technical information and issues.) While improving Knowledge Management in government organizations is a part of the approach, I am suggesting a more general understanding of knowledge systems than KM theorists usually use. Thus I would be concerned with the means that government agencies have to exchange knowledge with the people they serve. It seems to me that the “Rule of Law”, and the operation of the judiciary system also has significant relationship with the judiciary knowledge systems.
Lets go then to Knowledge and Culture. I suspect that it is not a coincidence that the Age of Enlightenment is correlated with the breakout from the poverty trap, both in time and in the geographic location in which they occurred. I think the cultural shift to modern scientific and technological knowledge systems is strongly related to the shift to democratic political institutions and to market based economic institutions. These are all fundamental changes in knowledge systems in major institutions, and perhaps related to deeper cultural shifts in the approach to information and knowledge.
There have been some recent papers suggesting that development depends most fundamental on fundamental institutions ( such as: Voice and accountability, Political stability and absence of violence, Government effectiveness, Light regulatory burden, Rule of law, and Freedom from graft). For example, see “Tropics, Germs, and Crops: How Endowments Influence Economic Development” by William Easterly and Ross Levine. (http://www.cgdev.org/nv/Easterly_Levine_draft.pdf)
The World Values Survey (http://wvs.isr.umich.edu/wvs-fig.html) has suggested that more dependence on rational-secular values (versus traditional values) is correlated with higher per capita GDP (see the figure on the cited page labeled “Economic levels of 65 Societies, superimposed on two dimensions of cross-cultural variation”). It has also suggested that there is a strong negative correlation between dependence on rational-secular values and emphasis of survival over self-expression values, and that these are linked to general cultural roots (see figure labeled “Mapping Authority and Survival or Well Being”).
When I began in the development business in the 1960’s theory linked development with modernization. The term at the time certainly was tainted with ethnocentrism, the thought that citizens of developing nations had to become more like “modern” Europeans and Americans to progress. It seems to have gone out of favor, perhaps due to an increase in respect for cultural diversity in the international community. Certainly, cultural imperialism is to be avoided, and many cultures (from the French to the Moslem) are justly concerned with undue, unwelcome, and unacceptable foreign cultural influences. Still, it seems to me that culturally knowledge systems must change for development to progress. Knowledge must be subjected to strenuous validation, and much of the validation should be done in “modern” knowledge institutions. Validation of knowledge must be more based on evidence, and indeed on replicable evidence obtained under controlled circumstances.
This is hard to achieve. Indeed, the Economist pointed out in last weeks edition, that not only is the United States “far more traditional than any west European country except Ireland. It is more traditional (in contrast to rational-secular) than any place at all in central or Eastern Europe.” Moreover, the article notes that virtually alone among developed nations, the United States is registering more traditional in the last 20 years on the Values Survey. (Living with a superpower, January 2, 2003.) The continuing wars over the teaching of evolution in the US illustrate the clash between traditional and scientific knowledge systems.
The terms “Knowledge Economy” and “Knowledge For Development” seem often to be used synonymously. I suspect that to be a mistake. K4D perhaps ought to be seen as composed of several facets, including “Knowledge Polity” and “Knowledge Culture”, as well as “Knowledge Economy”.
The first of these topics is intended to refer to knowledge systems in governance institutions. In the case of the knowledge economy, attention is directed to technological knowledge, market knowledge, innovation systems, etc. The difficulties of achieving development with governments that are unresponsive to the needs of their citizens, corrupt, or simply unaware of the information that could inform better policy and strategic choices are severe. The “Knowledge Polity” (KP) may well be of comparable importance with “Knowledge Economy” for development.
KP includes knowledge systems in the political process. Donor assistance Democratization programs (e.g. that of USAID: http://www.usaid.gov/democracy/) relate to an important aspect of this concern. In democratic societies, democratization concerns would relate to the role of knowledge in elections and participation of the electorate in governance. Perhaps it would be better to frame the issues in a broader way, focusing on the ways in which citizens learn about public issues, and the ways in which the views of the citizens are communicated to and affect public policy and strategy. One specific area in which donor efforts might prove to be useful here is in improving the news service of the media (I think that donors such as the Open Society Institute - http://www.soros.org/ -and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung - http://www.fesdc.org/ - do in fact work with the media.) Similarly, improving civics education in the schools might be useful.
Let me suggest that KP also includes improving knowledge systems in the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. Thus one might improve the use of scientific and technological knowledge in government (as the US tried to do by creating the Office of Technology Assessment, or the executive branch by institutionalizing science advisors and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, or as the judiciary struggles with in dealing with expert testimony and alternative ways to deal with highly technical information and issues.) While improving Knowledge Management in government organizations is a part of the approach, I am suggesting a more general understanding of knowledge systems than KM theorists usually use. Thus I would be concerned with the means that government agencies have to exchange knowledge with the people they serve. It seems to me that the “Rule of Law”, and the operation of the judiciary system also has significant relationship with the judiciary knowledge systems.
Lets go then to Knowledge and Culture. I suspect that it is not a coincidence that the Age of Enlightenment is correlated with the breakout from the poverty trap, both in time and in the geographic location in which they occurred. I think the cultural shift to modern scientific and technological knowledge systems is strongly related to the shift to democratic political institutions and to market based economic institutions. These are all fundamental changes in knowledge systems in major institutions, and perhaps related to deeper cultural shifts in the approach to information and knowledge.
There have been some recent papers suggesting that development depends most fundamental on fundamental institutions ( such as: Voice and accountability, Political stability and absence of violence, Government effectiveness, Light regulatory burden, Rule of law, and Freedom from graft). For example, see “Tropics, Germs, and Crops: How Endowments Influence Economic Development” by William Easterly and Ross Levine. (http://www.cgdev.org/nv/Easterly_Levine_draft.pdf)
The World Values Survey (http://wvs.isr.umich.edu/wvs-fig.html) has suggested that more dependence on rational-secular values (versus traditional values) is correlated with higher per capita GDP (see the figure on the cited page labeled “Economic levels of 65 Societies, superimposed on two dimensions of cross-cultural variation”). It has also suggested that there is a strong negative correlation between dependence on rational-secular values and emphasis of survival over self-expression values, and that these are linked to general cultural roots (see figure labeled “Mapping Authority and Survival or Well Being”).
When I began in the development business in the 1960’s theory linked development with modernization. The term at the time certainly was tainted with ethnocentrism, the thought that citizens of developing nations had to become more like “modern” Europeans and Americans to progress. It seems to have gone out of favor, perhaps due to an increase in respect for cultural diversity in the international community. Certainly, cultural imperialism is to be avoided, and many cultures (from the French to the Moslem) are justly concerned with undue, unwelcome, and unacceptable foreign cultural influences. Still, it seems to me that culturally knowledge systems must change for development to progress. Knowledge must be subjected to strenuous validation, and much of the validation should be done in “modern” knowledge institutions. Validation of knowledge must be more based on evidence, and indeed on replicable evidence obtained under controlled circumstances.
This is hard to achieve. Indeed, the Economist pointed out in last weeks edition, that not only is the United States “far more traditional than any west European country except Ireland. It is more traditional (in contrast to rational-secular) than any place at all in central or Eastern Europe.” Moreover, the article notes that virtually alone among developed nations, the United States is registering more traditional in the last 20 years on the Values Survey. (Living with a superpower, January 2, 2003.) The continuing wars over the teaching of evolution in the US illustrate the clash between traditional and scientific knowledge systems.
Friday, January 10, 2003
KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT AT THE WORLD BANK
As I have noted before, there is a K4D site at the World Bank:
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/knowledgefordevelopment/
The K4D program rests on the basis built through the preparation of:
The World Development Report, 1998/99: Knowledge for Development
http://www.worldbank.org/wdr/wdr98/index.htm
That report was perhaps one of the most effective applications of K4D thinking in the Bank. Other important examples include:
China and the Knowledge Economy: Seizing the 21st Century
By Carl J. Dahlman, and Jean-Eric Aubert. 2001. (PDF, 196 pages)
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/China%20report_0917.pdf
Abstract: http://www1.worldbank.org/education/abstracts.htm#China%20and%20the%20Knowledge%20Economy
Korea and the Knowledge-based Economy: Making the Transition,
By Carl Dahlman and Thomas Andersson, 2001 (PDF, 149 pages)
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Korea.pdf
Abstract: http://www1.worldbank.org/education/abstracts.htm#Korea
To date, however, I don’t know of any comprehensive K4D projects that have been funded by the Bank. Thus the K4D approach until now has apparently proved more valuable as an analytic and didactic approach to development, than as a project development tool.
As I have noted before, there is a K4D site at the World Bank:
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/knowledgefordevelopment/
The K4D program rests on the basis built through the preparation of:
The World Development Report, 1998/99: Knowledge for Development
http://www.worldbank.org/wdr/wdr98/index.htm
That report was perhaps one of the most effective applications of K4D thinking in the Bank. Other important examples include:
China and the Knowledge Economy: Seizing the 21st Century
By Carl J. Dahlman, and Jean-Eric Aubert. 2001. (PDF, 196 pages)
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/China%20report_0917.pdf
Abstract: http://www1.worldbank.org/education/abstracts.htm#China%20and%20the%20Knowledge%20Economy
Korea and the Knowledge-based Economy: Making the Transition,
By Carl Dahlman and Thomas Andersson, 2001 (PDF, 149 pages)
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Korea.pdf
Abstract: http://www1.worldbank.org/education/abstracts.htm#Korea
To date, however, I don’t know of any comprehensive K4D projects that have been funded by the Bank. Thus the K4D approach until now has apparently proved more valuable as an analytic and didactic approach to development, than as a project development tool.
ANOTHER BLOGER
NGO Map
Olaf Brugman's Blog on non-governmental organizations
http://ngomap.blogspot.com/
Where I found:
The Triumph and Tragedy of Human Capital: Foundation Resource for Building Network Knowledge Economies
This is a highly relevant presentation by William H. Melody. It focuses on building human capacity for the knowledge economy, and the role of universities in building that capacity. University of Witwatersrand. 18 September, 2002.
http://link.wits.ac.za/papers/wm20020918.htm
Learning to Make Policy: the emergence of knowledge-based aid
"Aid agencies are becoming increasingly influenced by debates about the knowledge economy and its implications for development, on the one hand, and private sector practices of knowledge management on the other. This project explores the nature of the resultant knowledge-based aid and asks whether it is indeed in the interest of those in the South who are supposedly the partners in development cooperation."
http://www.ed.ac.uk/centas/futgov-home.html
where in turn I found a link to:
LEARNING IN DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
"The purpose of this book," according to the editors, "is not only to highlight problems of learning in development
co-operation, but also to use the insights of the contributions to the book, to develop suggestions as to how effective learning can be implemented in development co-operation." The editors believe that the book has "identified a set of critical, sometimes structural, problems in development aid that need to be overcome, if learning is to become more effective than it is today."
http://www.egdi.gov.se/pdf/20002pdf/2000_2.pdf
Olaf Brugman is also moderator on the following site:
KnowledgeBoard: The European KM Community
The European special interest group on knowledge management for non-government organizations. This is a great web site for those interested in the topic.
http://www.knowledgeboard.com/community/zones/sig/kmngo.html
NGO Map
Olaf Brugman's Blog on non-governmental organizations
http://ngomap.blogspot.com/
Where I found:
The Triumph and Tragedy of Human Capital: Foundation Resource for Building Network Knowledge Economies
This is a highly relevant presentation by William H. Melody. It focuses on building human capacity for the knowledge economy, and the role of universities in building that capacity. University of Witwatersrand. 18 September, 2002.
http://link.wits.ac.za/papers/wm20020918.htm
Learning to Make Policy: the emergence of knowledge-based aid
"Aid agencies are becoming increasingly influenced by debates about the knowledge economy and its implications for development, on the one hand, and private sector practices of knowledge management on the other. This project explores the nature of the resultant knowledge-based aid and asks whether it is indeed in the interest of those in the South who are supposedly the partners in development cooperation."
http://www.ed.ac.uk/centas/futgov-home.html
where in turn I found a link to:
LEARNING IN DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
"The purpose of this book," according to the editors, "is not only to highlight problems of learning in development
co-operation, but also to use the insights of the contributions to the book, to develop suggestions as to how effective learning can be implemented in development co-operation." The editors believe that the book has "identified a set of critical, sometimes structural, problems in development aid that need to be overcome, if learning is to become more effective than it is today."
http://www.egdi.gov.se/pdf/20002pdf/2000_2.pdf
Olaf Brugman is also moderator on the following site:
KnowledgeBoard: The European KM Community
The European special interest group on knowledge management for non-government organizations. This is a great web site for those interested in the topic.
http://www.knowledgeboard.com/community/zones/sig/kmngo.html
Thursday, January 09, 2003
WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT SITES
Here are an interesting set of sites from the World Bank in addition to the previously noted
· K4D site http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/knowledgefordevelopment/
· and Constructing Knowledge Societies New Challenges for Tertiary Education http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Constructing%20Knowledge%20Societies.pdf
Education for the Knowledge Economy (EKE)
EKE is a three year analytical program, initiated by the Human Development Network of the World Bank, to understand and articulate how education and training systems need to change in order to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy, and to offer practical and sustainable policy options for developing countries.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/eke.asp
Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges for Developing Countries
This study seeks to reflect the increased need for people to continue learning created by the growing knowledge economy, and recommends major changes in the way educational services are conceived and implemented. It was prepared by a World Bank team led by Toby Linden and Harry Anthony Patrinos and published in October, 2002. (PDF Format, 128 pages).
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/Lifelong%20Learning_GKE.pdf
Strategic Approaches To Science And Technology In Development
This (draft) paper was produced by a World Bank team, and dated June 26, 2002. (A second volume is apparently available from the Bank EXE program.) It suggests the Bank strengthen its S&T efforts, seeking to increase awareness of the role of S&T in development, and to increase efforts in four programmatic areas: human resource development for S&T, promoting private sector S&T demand and utilization, promoting public sector support for S&T, and support for ICTs. (PDF, 46 pages)
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Science%20&Technology%20Strategic%20Directions%20Draft.pdf
Review of World Bank Lending for Science and Technology: 1992-98
A review of World Bank S&T lending done by Michael Crawford in 1999.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/scied/documents/S&T.pdf
World Bank & Education for the Knowledge Economy
This is the site for an International Conference held in Stuttgart, October 9-10, 2002. The site has links not only to the conclusions from the conference, but also to a number of major online reports on topics highly relevant to the Knowledge Economy.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/life_index.htm
Tertiary Distance Education and Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa
Bill Saint's study reviews tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa, in light of persistent pressures to expand access to education, despite declining quality, and mere funding possibilities. According to Saint, distance learning may provide an answer, complemented with a selective application of information, and communication technologies.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Tertiary%20Distance%20Education%20(Africa).pdf
Here are an interesting set of sites from the World Bank in addition to the previously noted
· K4D site http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/knowledgefordevelopment/
· and Constructing Knowledge Societies New Challenges for Tertiary Education http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Constructing%20Knowledge%20Societies.pdf
Education for the Knowledge Economy (EKE)
EKE is a three year analytical program, initiated by the Human Development Network of the World Bank, to understand and articulate how education and training systems need to change in order to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy, and to offer practical and sustainable policy options for developing countries.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/eke.asp
Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges for Developing Countries
This study seeks to reflect the increased need for people to continue learning created by the growing knowledge economy, and recommends major changes in the way educational services are conceived and implemented. It was prepared by a World Bank team led by Toby Linden and Harry Anthony Patrinos and published in October, 2002. (PDF Format, 128 pages).
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/Lifelong%20Learning_GKE.pdf
Strategic Approaches To Science And Technology In Development
This (draft) paper was produced by a World Bank team, and dated June 26, 2002. (A second volume is apparently available from the Bank EXE program.) It suggests the Bank strengthen its S&T efforts, seeking to increase awareness of the role of S&T in development, and to increase efforts in four programmatic areas: human resource development for S&T, promoting private sector S&T demand and utilization, promoting public sector support for S&T, and support for ICTs. (PDF, 46 pages)
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Science%20&Technology%20Strategic%20Directions%20Draft.pdf
Review of World Bank Lending for Science and Technology: 1992-98
A review of World Bank S&T lending done by Michael Crawford in 1999.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/scied/documents/S&T.pdf
World Bank & Education for the Knowledge Economy
This is the site for an International Conference held in Stuttgart, October 9-10, 2002. The site has links not only to the conclusions from the conference, but also to a number of major online reports on topics highly relevant to the Knowledge Economy.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/life_index.htm
Tertiary Distance Education and Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa
Bill Saint's study reviews tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa, in light of persistent pressures to expand access to education, despite declining quality, and mere funding possibilities. According to Saint, distance learning may provide an answer, complemented with a selective application of information, and communication technologies.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/PDF/Tertiary%20Distance%20Education%20(Africa).pdf
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
KEY DOCUMENTS ON ICT FOR DEVELOPMENT
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), with meetings in 2003 and 2005, is already the subject of a number of preparatory conferences and will be expected to generate a major set of findings.
http://www.itu.int/wsis/
The last few years have already seen a number of important policy documents relating to ICT for Development. Here are links to some:
The United Nations General Assembly Meeting on Information and Communication Technology for Development (June 2002)
http://www.unicttaskforce.org/news/assembly.asp
Report of the Secretary General of the UN on ICT Activities to ECOSOC's Annual Meeting 2001
http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/422/58/PDF/N0142258.pdf?OpenElement
The role of the United Nations in promoting development, particularly with respect to access to and transfer of knowledge and technology, especially information and
communication technologies, inter alia, through partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including the private sector: Report of the Secretary-General (2001)
http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/359/80/PDF/N0135980.pdf?OpenElement
Report of the ICT Advisory Committee to the UN
http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/260/47/PDF/N0126047.pdf?OpenElement
The reports from the UN ICT Task Force:
http://www.unicttaskforce.org/index.asp
The World Bank ICT Sector Strategy Paper
http://info.worldbank.org/ict/ICT_ssp.html
Report of the Digital Opportunities Task Force (DOT Force) May, 2001
http://www.dotforce.org/reports/DOT_Force_Report_V_5.0h.html
COMMUNIQUÉ of the G8 Meeting in Genoa, July 2001.
http://www.g8italia.it/_en/docs/XGKPT170.htm
G8 COMMUNIQUÉ OKINAWA 2000
http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/g7/summit/2000okinawa/finalcom.htm
The World Economic Forum Proposal on the Digital Divide to the Okinawa G* Summit
http://www.weforum.org/pdf/DigitalDivide/Official_G8_Statement.pdf
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Report for 2001 (including other materials, 7MB plus)
http://www.weforum.org/pdf/AnnualMeeting/AMreport2001.pdf
REPORT OF THE AD-HOC INTER-AGENCY WORKING GROUP ON THE CO-ORDINATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
IN THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM (July 2000)
http://accsubs.unsystem.org/iscc-intranet/work/documents/pdf/IAG-ICT-5.pdf
Digital Bridge to Africa Final Report (from a meeting held in the UN Complex in New York, July 2002)
http://www.ddn-africa.org/new_final_report.html
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), with meetings in 2003 and 2005, is already the subject of a number of preparatory conferences and will be expected to generate a major set of findings.
http://www.itu.int/wsis/
The last few years have already seen a number of important policy documents relating to ICT for Development. Here are links to some:
The United Nations General Assembly Meeting on Information and Communication Technology for Development (June 2002)
http://www.unicttaskforce.org/news/assembly.asp
Report of the Secretary General of the UN on ICT Activities to ECOSOC's Annual Meeting 2001
http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/422/58/PDF/N0142258.pdf?OpenElement
The role of the United Nations in promoting development, particularly with respect to access to and transfer of knowledge and technology, especially information and
communication technologies, inter alia, through partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including the private sector: Report of the Secretary-General (2001)
http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/359/80/PDF/N0135980.pdf?OpenElement
Report of the ICT Advisory Committee to the UN
http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/260/47/PDF/N0126047.pdf?OpenElement
The reports from the UN ICT Task Force:
http://www.unicttaskforce.org/index.asp
The World Bank ICT Sector Strategy Paper
http://info.worldbank.org/ict/ICT_ssp.html
Report of the Digital Opportunities Task Force (DOT Force) May, 2001
http://www.dotforce.org/reports/DOT_Force_Report_V_5.0h.html
COMMUNIQUÉ of the G8 Meeting in Genoa, July 2001.
http://www.g8italia.it/_en/docs/XGKPT170.htm
G8 COMMUNIQUÉ OKINAWA 2000
http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/g7/summit/2000okinawa/finalcom.htm
The World Economic Forum Proposal on the Digital Divide to the Okinawa G* Summit
http://www.weforum.org/pdf/DigitalDivide/Official_G8_Statement.pdf
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Report for 2001 (including other materials, 7MB plus)
http://www.weforum.org/pdf/AnnualMeeting/AMreport2001.pdf
REPORT OF THE AD-HOC INTER-AGENCY WORKING GROUP ON THE CO-ORDINATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
IN THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM (July 2000)
http://accsubs.unsystem.org/iscc-intranet/work/documents/pdf/IAG-ICT-5.pdf
Digital Bridge to Africa Final Report (from a meeting held in the UN Complex in New York, July 2002)
http://www.ddn-africa.org/new_final_report.html
INVENTION IN AFRICA
Anyone who has seen wire toys of Africa must recognize a kind of inventive talent in the region. Here are a few web sites that attest to a more "modern" inventive potential in the region.
WIPO Regional Seminar on Invention and Innovation in Africa
http://wipo.int/innovation/en/meetings/1999/inn_abj/index.htm
International Federation of Inventors Associations - AFRICA DEPARTEMENT
http://www.invention-ifia.ch/africa.htm
Technology Policy and Practice in Africa
http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=508&CATID=15
Anyone who has seen wire toys of Africa must recognize a kind of inventive talent in the region. Here are a few web sites that attest to a more "modern" inventive potential in the region.
WIPO Regional Seminar on Invention and Innovation in Africa
http://wipo.int/innovation/en/meetings/1999/inn_abj/index.htm
International Federation of Inventors Associations - AFRICA DEPARTEMENT
http://www.invention-ifia.ch/africa.htm
Technology Policy and Practice in Africa
http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=508&CATID=15
Sunday, January 05, 2003
LEADERSHIP IN ICT FOR DEVELOPMENT
Lets consider three areas of ICT4D:
1. The ICT physical infrastructure, which I take to include telephone and computer infrastructure, radio and television infrastructure, and (if pushed) the print media infrastructure – including both the presses that publish newspapers, magazines and books, and the physical infrastructure involved in their distribution;
2. The ICT industries. There seems to be focus on export oriented ICT industries, such as the software industry in India, the chip manufacturing industry in Costa Rica, and IT-enabled services, such as back-office services (accounting, credit card processing). There is an argument for export-lead ICT industry development, but developing nations will also have to develop ICT industries for domestic use, including in addition to those described, wholesale and retail distribution of ICT products, ICT maintenance, ICT consulting, Internet value added services, etc.
3. Utilization of ICTs in all the other productive sectors of the society. These include the often cited telemedicine, distance education, e-commerce and e-government, but also applications of telephones, mass media, and computers to business and government that have long been common in developed nations, but are still uncommon in developing nations.
It seems to me that development for each of these three areas requires development in the others as well. Thus without ICT industries and utilization of ICTs in the productive sector, there will be little incentive to develop the physical infrastructure. Similarly, without the infrastructure, there would be little opportunity to develop ICT industries nor applications. All three areas should develop in parallel, creating a virtuous ICT4D circle.
Where in this circle does leadership matter? Probably everywhere! I suspect that there will need to be large number of individuals innovating. Business leaders will have to show entrepreneurial leadership in finding new business opportunities in building the physical infrastructure, creating and expanding ICT industries, and applying ICT to development. Government and civil society leaders must similarly become social entrepreneurs, finding new and expanding existing ICT opportunities.
I suspect that at a deeper level, it is critical to develop social, economic and policy environments conducive to such leadership, and to ICT innovation. Indeed, countries that are maintaining high rates of social and economic progress probably have such an environment stimulating to ICT leadership and innovation, and countries with poor development environments will probably not make an exception for ICT4D.
Still one must note the benefits that have come to nations that opened the Internet and telephone industries to competition, that regulated to encourage universal telephone coverage and cost-based telephone pricing, that eliminate excise taxes on personal computers, that provided tax financing for ICT investments, and that have established policies promoting ICT applications in government services. Leadership in establishing the general conditions under which others can lead and innovate is especially important.
I guess several other kinds of leadership are also especially important. Technological leadership is one; that is leadership in identifying the technologies that provide new and growing opportunities, and adapting those technologies to local needs and circumstances.
Leadership in education and training is another. Skilled people in large numbers will be needed to develop the ICT infrastructure and industries, and to apply ICT to development problems. Developing this cadre of people is a major responsibility, and will probably be needed before most people in the society recognize the need for an ICT literate workforce. Similarly, leadership in developing the policies that will encourage these trained people to remain at home (or return home) and apply their skills, rather than contributing to the brain drain.
Leadership in institution building is also critical. Thus without leaders developing the education and training institutions in which people can learn to use ICT, little will be accomplished. Similarly, leadership is needed in developing governmental ICT policy and regulatory institutions, in developing markets for ICT products and services, etc.
One of the things I have come to believe in many years of work is that leadership should be rewarded. Money is nice, but often leaders also need recognition and appreciation for the work that they have done.
Lets consider three areas of ICT4D:
1. The ICT physical infrastructure, which I take to include telephone and computer infrastructure, radio and television infrastructure, and (if pushed) the print media infrastructure – including both the presses that publish newspapers, magazines and books, and the physical infrastructure involved in their distribution;
2. The ICT industries. There seems to be focus on export oriented ICT industries, such as the software industry in India, the chip manufacturing industry in Costa Rica, and IT-enabled services, such as back-office services (accounting, credit card processing). There is an argument for export-lead ICT industry development, but developing nations will also have to develop ICT industries for domestic use, including in addition to those described, wholesale and retail distribution of ICT products, ICT maintenance, ICT consulting, Internet value added services, etc.
3. Utilization of ICTs in all the other productive sectors of the society. These include the often cited telemedicine, distance education, e-commerce and e-government, but also applications of telephones, mass media, and computers to business and government that have long been common in developed nations, but are still uncommon in developing nations.
It seems to me that development for each of these three areas requires development in the others as well. Thus without ICT industries and utilization of ICTs in the productive sector, there will be little incentive to develop the physical infrastructure. Similarly, without the infrastructure, there would be little opportunity to develop ICT industries nor applications. All three areas should develop in parallel, creating a virtuous ICT4D circle.
Where in this circle does leadership matter? Probably everywhere! I suspect that there will need to be large number of individuals innovating. Business leaders will have to show entrepreneurial leadership in finding new business opportunities in building the physical infrastructure, creating and expanding ICT industries, and applying ICT to development. Government and civil society leaders must similarly become social entrepreneurs, finding new and expanding existing ICT opportunities.
I suspect that at a deeper level, it is critical to develop social, economic and policy environments conducive to such leadership, and to ICT innovation. Indeed, countries that are maintaining high rates of social and economic progress probably have such an environment stimulating to ICT leadership and innovation, and countries with poor development environments will probably not make an exception for ICT4D.
Still one must note the benefits that have come to nations that opened the Internet and telephone industries to competition, that regulated to encourage universal telephone coverage and cost-based telephone pricing, that eliminate excise taxes on personal computers, that provided tax financing for ICT investments, and that have established policies promoting ICT applications in government services. Leadership in establishing the general conditions under which others can lead and innovate is especially important.
I guess several other kinds of leadership are also especially important. Technological leadership is one; that is leadership in identifying the technologies that provide new and growing opportunities, and adapting those technologies to local needs and circumstances.
Leadership in education and training is another. Skilled people in large numbers will be needed to develop the ICT infrastructure and industries, and to apply ICT to development problems. Developing this cadre of people is a major responsibility, and will probably be needed before most people in the society recognize the need for an ICT literate workforce. Similarly, leadership in developing the policies that will encourage these trained people to remain at home (or return home) and apply their skills, rather than contributing to the brain drain.
Leadership in institution building is also critical. Thus without leaders developing the education and training institutions in which people can learn to use ICT, little will be accomplished. Similarly, leadership is needed in developing governmental ICT policy and regulatory institutions, in developing markets for ICT products and services, etc.
One of the things I have come to believe in many years of work is that leadership should be rewarded. Money is nice, but often leaders also need recognition and appreciation for the work that they have done.
Wednesday, January 01, 2003
KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT WEBLOGS
I recently read that there are more than three-quarters of a million web logs, or blogs, now in operation. These are of course people like me taking the opportunity provided by very user friendly blogging web sites to post messages frequently that can be widely read. Some of them deal with Knowledge for Development or related topics.
Bret Fausett’s icann.Blog
A Los Angeles based lawyer’s Blog about the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers activities.
http://www.lextext.com/icann/
Steve Cisler's Blog
Cisler is one of the people most active in bringing Internet access to communities worldwide, and his blog is a useful addition to the materials he has placed on the web on his home page and other sites.
http://glocal.crimsonblog.com/
e-Government & Technology Middle East
An Information site for furthering information society and eGovernment (eGov) collaboration. ArabGov.Com represents a forum for the sharing of news, ideas and initiatives between the governments of Middle-Eastern and Gulf countries.
http://www.government.blogspot.com/
Lawrence Lessig's Blog
An important leader in thinking through the institutions determining whether the Internet will be a commons or privatized.
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/
Smart Convergence: New Technology and Business Opportunity
A Blog produced by Eduardo Prado in Brazil
http://www.smartconvergence.blogger.com.br/
Emergic.Org
Rajesh Jain's Weblog on Emerging Technologies, Enterprises and Markets.
(Entrepreneur, Mumbai, India, Emergic, Netcore, Internet, IndiaWorld, Sify, IIT-Bombay, ColumbiaUniv)
http://www.emergic.org/
Smart Mobs
A Website and Weblog about Topics and Issues discussed in the book
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold
http://www.smartmobs.com/index.html
FLORA Blog
FLORA.org is an independently owned and operated volunteer service that acts as part of the Community Networking movement.
It acts as a sort of commons or free-space where organizations can set up lines of communication and provide information to members of the community.
http://weblog.flora.org/
ScienceBlog
This is an online science magazine in the form of a Blog, with advertising.
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/index.php
Tom Munnecke
A journal of thoughts and activities of a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University Digital Visions Program
http://munnecke.com/blog/
Ilkka Tuomi’s Blog
Mr Tuomi is a Finnish author and columnist on topics science, culture, technology and economy who is is currently a visiting scientist at the European Commission's Joint Research Center, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville, Spain.
http://www.jrc.es/~tuomiil/moreinfo.html
SynapShots
Peter West’s “Citations for Knowledge Workers”
http://carbon-unit.blogspot.com/
David Brake’s Blog
A UK-based consultant, journalist, and virtual community builder provides news and comments on the Internet, digital TV, community regeneration, and more. http://blog.org/archives/2002_06.html
Misnomer
A weblog about the politics of new and old media, foreign policy, tech, culture, philosophy, and photography. It is maintained by Dru Oja Jay, who variously calls himself a student, journalist, web designer, and writer. He lives in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.
http://misnomer.dru.ca/
dyslexia
“laws, lies, legal research and the internet”; a research project by Maximillian Dornseif.
Research interests are primary in interactions in a highly interconnected environment between safety, security, laws and policy. PhD Student University of Bonn.
http://md.hudora.de/blog/
There are also relevant Blogs in other languages:
Jorge Arabito Facso
This Argentine lawyer has a Blog dedicated to “The Social Impact of New Technologies and Something More”.
http://www.jarabito.blogspot.com/
Knowledge Discovery Room
“a repository of knowledge and ideas discovered in everyday reading life.” In Spanish, French and German as well as English (via automatic translation).
http://k-room.blogspot.com/
Blogs of some more PhD students
PHD Web Logs
This is a site which links to a number of graduate students, including some working on topics within the area of my blog such as those identified below:
http://phdweblogs.net/
Eszter's Blog
Sociology, the Net, academia, teaching, research, books and movies, current events, fun Web stuff, art, gadgets andt anything else that comes to mind of Eszter Hargittai, a PhD student at Princeton.
http://campuscgi.princeton.edu/~eszter/weblog/
http://www.esztersblog.com/
www.karakerwin.net
Kara Kerwin is a student at the University of Buffalo at the School of Informatics, Department of Communication.
http://www.karakerwin.net/
Among the many web logs that are somewhat related to our topic:
Innovation Weblog
InnovationTools is a Web site designed by Chuck Frey to help busy executives to be more innovative in their businesses. This is the associated Blog.
http://www.innovationtools.com/weblog/innovation-weblog.asp
Ray Schroeder's Techno-News Blog
Keeping up with the changing technologies, issues and related developments in education, distance education, and online learning.
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/blogger.html
b.cognosco
Terry W. Frazier’s Blog focuses on publishing and information-sharing, but crosses over into politics, law, technology, process, and business strategy when those things intersect with the aforementioned focus.
http://www.terryfrazier.com/weblog/
robertshaw.info
Telecoms, Internet and Convergence
http://radio.weblogs.com/0108486/
Shauna Curphey
Shauna Curphey is a freelance writer living in Long Beach, Calif. She was an editor at Microsoft's Encarta eLearning Center and at Smart Pros.com.
http://www.girlwrites.com/weblog.php
Glenn Reynolds InstaPundit
http://www.instapundit.com/
A law professor's whose recent topics have included stories on the US elections, Islamic terrorism in Indonesia, a debate on the American gun culture and the more down-to-earth subjects of sex and music.
Note some organizational web logs:
SCROLLA
The Scotish Center for Online Learning and Assessment has organized a Blog for short communications..
http://www.scrolla.ac.uk/log/
On line learning Europe
This site has also developed a Blog for short communications on online learning.
http://oleurope.blogspot.com/
Itslife
Another online learning site:
http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/Library_Reports_Research%201.htm
iWire
the online journal of the iSociety research project at the Work Foundation.
http://www.theisociety.net/
Some sites that help find Blogs:
BlogHop
Claims 13869 blogs on file.
http://www.bloghop.com/
Eatonweb
8623 weblogs as of 01.01.03.
http://portal.eatonweb.com/
DAYPOP
Search 7500 News Sites and Weblogs for Current Events and Breaking News
http://www.daypop.com/
Globe of Blogs
Claims 3121 weblogs have registered so far.
http://www.globeofblogs.com/
The Weblogs Directory of braZil and Portugal
Listed by categories, countries and languages. Also lists new and updated blogs.
pontoblog.tk
I recently read that there are more than three-quarters of a million web logs, or blogs, now in operation. These are of course people like me taking the opportunity provided by very user friendly blogging web sites to post messages frequently that can be widely read. Some of them deal with Knowledge for Development or related topics.
Bret Fausett’s icann.Blog
A Los Angeles based lawyer’s Blog about the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers activities.
http://www.lextext.com/icann/
Steve Cisler's Blog
Cisler is one of the people most active in bringing Internet access to communities worldwide, and his blog is a useful addition to the materials he has placed on the web on his home page and other sites.
http://glocal.crimsonblog.com/
e-Government & Technology Middle East
An Information site for furthering information society and eGovernment (eGov) collaboration. ArabGov.Com represents a forum for the sharing of news, ideas and initiatives between the governments of Middle-Eastern and Gulf countries.
http://www.government.blogspot.com/
Lawrence Lessig's Blog
An important leader in thinking through the institutions determining whether the Internet will be a commons or privatized.
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/
Smart Convergence: New Technology and Business Opportunity
A Blog produced by Eduardo Prado in Brazil
http://www.smartconvergence.blogger.com.br/
Emergic.Org
Rajesh Jain's Weblog on Emerging Technologies, Enterprises and Markets.
(Entrepreneur, Mumbai, India, Emergic, Netcore, Internet, IndiaWorld, Sify, IIT-Bombay, ColumbiaUniv)
http://www.emergic.org/
Smart Mobs
A Website and Weblog about Topics and Issues discussed in the book
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold
http://www.smartmobs.com/index.html
FLORA Blog
FLORA.org is an independently owned and operated volunteer service that acts as part of the Community Networking movement.
It acts as a sort of commons or free-space where organizations can set up lines of communication and provide information to members of the community.
http://weblog.flora.org/
ScienceBlog
This is an online science magazine in the form of a Blog, with advertising.
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/index.php
Tom Munnecke
A journal of thoughts and activities of a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University Digital Visions Program
http://munnecke.com/blog/
Ilkka Tuomi’s Blog
Mr Tuomi is a Finnish author and columnist on topics science, culture, technology and economy who is is currently a visiting scientist at the European Commission's Joint Research Center, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville, Spain.
http://www.jrc.es/~tuomiil/moreinfo.html
SynapShots
Peter West’s “Citations for Knowledge Workers”
http://carbon-unit.blogspot.com/
David Brake’s Blog
A UK-based consultant, journalist, and virtual community builder provides news and comments on the Internet, digital TV, community regeneration, and more. http://blog.org/archives/2002_06.html
Misnomer
A weblog about the politics of new and old media, foreign policy, tech, culture, philosophy, and photography. It is maintained by Dru Oja Jay, who variously calls himself a student, journalist, web designer, and writer. He lives in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.
http://misnomer.dru.ca/
dyslexia
“laws, lies, legal research and the internet”; a research project by Maximillian Dornseif.
Research interests are primary in interactions in a highly interconnected environment between safety, security, laws and policy. PhD Student University of Bonn.
http://md.hudora.de/blog/
There are also relevant Blogs in other languages:
Jorge Arabito Facso
This Argentine lawyer has a Blog dedicated to “The Social Impact of New Technologies and Something More”.
http://www.jarabito.blogspot.com/
Knowledge Discovery Room
“a repository of knowledge and ideas discovered in everyday reading life.” In Spanish, French and German as well as English (via automatic translation).
http://k-room.blogspot.com/
Blogs of some more PhD students
PHD Web Logs
This is a site which links to a number of graduate students, including some working on topics within the area of my blog such as those identified below:
http://phdweblogs.net/
Eszter's Blog
Sociology, the Net, academia, teaching, research, books and movies, current events, fun Web stuff, art, gadgets andt anything else that comes to mind of Eszter Hargittai, a PhD student at Princeton.
http://campuscgi.princeton.edu/~eszter/weblog/
http://www.esztersblog.com/
www.karakerwin.net
Kara Kerwin is a student at the University of Buffalo at the School of Informatics, Department of Communication.
http://www.karakerwin.net/
Among the many web logs that are somewhat related to our topic:
Innovation Weblog
InnovationTools is a Web site designed by Chuck Frey to help busy executives to be more innovative in their businesses. This is the associated Blog.
http://www.innovationtools.com/weblog/innovation-weblog.asp
Ray Schroeder's Techno-News Blog
Keeping up with the changing technologies, issues and related developments in education, distance education, and online learning.
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/blogger.html
b.cognosco
Terry W. Frazier’s Blog focuses on publishing and information-sharing, but crosses over into politics, law, technology, process, and business strategy when those things intersect with the aforementioned focus.
http://www.terryfrazier.com/weblog/
robertshaw.info
Telecoms, Internet and Convergence
http://radio.weblogs.com/0108486/
Shauna Curphey
Shauna Curphey is a freelance writer living in Long Beach, Calif. She was an editor at Microsoft's Encarta eLearning Center and at Smart Pros.com.
http://www.girlwrites.com/weblog.php
Glenn Reynolds InstaPundit
http://www.instapundit.com/
A law professor's whose recent topics have included stories on the US elections, Islamic terrorism in Indonesia, a debate on the American gun culture and the more down-to-earth subjects of sex and music.
Note some organizational web logs:
SCROLLA
The Scotish Center for Online Learning and Assessment has organized a Blog for short communications..
http://www.scrolla.ac.uk/log/
On line learning Europe
This site has also developed a Blog for short communications on online learning.
http://oleurope.blogspot.com/
Itslife
Another online learning site:
http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/Library_Reports_Research%201.htm
iWire
the online journal of the iSociety research project at the Work Foundation.
http://www.theisociety.net/
Some sites that help find Blogs:
BlogHop
Claims 13869 blogs on file.
http://www.bloghop.com/
Eatonweb
8623 weblogs as of 01.01.03.
http://portal.eatonweb.com/
DAYPOP
Search 7500 News Sites and Weblogs for Current Events and Breaking News
http://www.daypop.com/
Globe of Blogs
Claims 3121 weblogs have registered so far.
http://www.globeofblogs.com/
The Weblogs Directory of braZil and Portugal
Listed by categories, countries and languages. Also lists new and updated blogs.
pontoblog.tk
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE SOCIETIES NEW CHALLENGES FOR TERTIARY
EDUCATION: A WORLD BANK REPORT
I was going to try to do a Blog entry on higher education projects, and their role within a Knowledge for Development Strategy. The World Bank report at the following address does so much better than I could possibly, and thus saves me the trouble. It was prepared by a team lead by Jamil Salmi and apparently published in December 2002.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/Constructing%20Knowledge%20Societies.pdf
From the Executive Summary of the Report: "This World Bank report on tertiary education describes the role of tertiary education in building up a country's capacity for participation in an increasingly knowledge-based world economy and investigates policy options that have the potential to enhance economic growth and reduce poverty. The report examines the following questions: · What is the importance of tertiary education for economic and social development? · How should developing and transition countries position themselves to take full advantage of the potential contribution of tertiary education? · How can the World Bank and other development agencies assist in this process? The report has two complementary goals. The first is to provide information and insights that reflect current knowledge about successful reforms and effective implementation and that are applicable to World Bank tertiary education lending practices. The second is to engage client countries and the international community in a dialogue on the role of tertiary education in the context of overall World Bank strategies and policies, the justification for investing in the subsector, and ways of minimizing the negative political impact of tertiary education reforms." (PDF format, 634KB)
EDUCATION: A WORLD BANK REPORT
I was going to try to do a Blog entry on higher education projects, and their role within a Knowledge for Development Strategy. The World Bank report at the following address does so much better than I could possibly, and thus saves me the trouble. It was prepared by a team lead by Jamil Salmi and apparently published in December 2002.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/Constructing%20Knowledge%20Societies.pdf
From the Executive Summary of the Report: "This World Bank report on tertiary education describes the role of tertiary education in building up a country's capacity for participation in an increasingly knowledge-based world economy and investigates policy options that have the potential to enhance economic growth and reduce poverty. The report examines the following questions: · What is the importance of tertiary education for economic and social development? · How should developing and transition countries position themselves to take full advantage of the potential contribution of tertiary education? · How can the World Bank and other development agencies assist in this process? The report has two complementary goals. The first is to provide information and insights that reflect current knowledge about successful reforms and effective implementation and that are applicable to World Bank tertiary education lending practices. The second is to engage client countries and the international community in a dialogue on the role of tertiary education in the context of overall World Bank strategies and policies, the justification for investing in the subsector, and ways of minimizing the negative political impact of tertiary education reforms." (PDF format, 634KB)
Monday, December 23, 2002
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE STATE OF WORLD DEVELOPMENT
There are a number of periodic reports that together provide invaluable information on development and development priorities. Many are available online, and can be downloaded without charge. These include:
The Millennium Development Goals (from a consortium of donors)
http://www.developmentgoals.org/
The World Development Report (World Bank Group)
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=1017492
WDI Online (World Bank Group, only an excerpt is available without charge)
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=631625
Global Economic Prospects (World Bank Group)
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=1755536
The Human Development Report (United Nations Development Program)
http://hdr.undp.org/
State of the World Population (UNFPA)
http://www.unfpa.org/swp/swpmain.htm
The World Resources Report (World Resource Institute; charge for this report)
http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_description.cfm?PubID=3764
State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization (UNICEF)
http://www.unicef.org/noteworthy/sowvi/
State of the World’s Children (UNICEF)
http://www.unicef.org/sowc03/
The World Health Report (WHO)
http://www.who.int/whr/en/
The World Communication and Information Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=2826
The World Culture Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=3613
World Education Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=3016
World Science Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=2735
The State of: Food and Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture, World’s Forests, and Food Insecurity in the World (FAO)
http://www.fao.org/sof/index_en.htm
Industrial Development Report (UNIDO)
http://www.unido.org/doc/5156
Global Environmental Outlook (UNEP)
http://www.unep.org/Geo/index.htm
UN Peace Operations Year in Review
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/yir/english/
International Trade Statistics (WTO)
http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/statis_e.htm
UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1584&lang=1
WIPO Industrial Property Statistics
http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/index.html
The UN Refugee Agency Statistical Yearbook
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/template/+RwLFqv5BwBo5Boq5eUh5cTPeUzknwBoqeRzknwBo5Boqwce6lxxwGxddAeRyBDXWeRDlmqeIybnM
The ICT Indicators page of the ITU
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/index.html
Economic Report on Africa (UNECA)
http://www.uneca.org/era2002/
Economic Survey of Europe (UNECE)
http://www.unece.org/ead/survey.htm
The statistical publications of the UN ESCAP secretariat
http://www.unescap.org/stat/statdata/statpub.htm
International Development Statistics CD-ROM (OECD, charge for this document with statistics on development assistance)
http://www.oecd.org/EN/document/0,,EN-document-15-nodirectorate-no-1-3264-15,00.html
Online access to these statistics is available at:
http://www.oecd.org/htm/M00005000/M00005347.htm
There are a number of periodic reports that together provide invaluable information on development and development priorities. Many are available online, and can be downloaded without charge. These include:
The Millennium Development Goals (from a consortium of donors)
http://www.developmentgoals.org/
The World Development Report (World Bank Group)
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=1017492
WDI Online (World Bank Group, only an excerpt is available without charge)
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=631625
Global Economic Prospects (World Bank Group)
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=1755536
The Human Development Report (United Nations Development Program)
http://hdr.undp.org/
State of the World Population (UNFPA)
http://www.unfpa.org/swp/swpmain.htm
The World Resources Report (World Resource Institute; charge for this report)
http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_description.cfm?PubID=3764
State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization (UNICEF)
http://www.unicef.org/noteworthy/sowvi/
State of the World’s Children (UNICEF)
http://www.unicef.org/sowc03/
The World Health Report (WHO)
http://www.who.int/whr/en/
The World Communication and Information Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=2826
The World Culture Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=3613
World Education Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=3016
World Science Report (UNESCO; access fee to download)
http://upo.unesco.org/onlinebookdetails.asp?id=2735
The State of: Food and Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture, World’s Forests, and Food Insecurity in the World (FAO)
http://www.fao.org/sof/index_en.htm
Industrial Development Report (UNIDO)
http://www.unido.org/doc/5156
Global Environmental Outlook (UNEP)
http://www.unep.org/Geo/index.htm
UN Peace Operations Year in Review
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/yir/english/
International Trade Statistics (WTO)
http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/statis_e.htm
UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1584&lang=1
WIPO Industrial Property Statistics
http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/index.html
The UN Refugee Agency Statistical Yearbook
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/template/+RwLFqv5BwBo5Boq5eUh5cTPeUzknwBoqeRzknwBo5Boqwce6lxxwGxddAeRyBDXWeRDlmqeIybnM
The ICT Indicators page of the ITU
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/index.html
Economic Report on Africa (UNECA)
http://www.uneca.org/era2002/
Economic Survey of Europe (UNECE)
http://www.unece.org/ead/survey.htm
The statistical publications of the UN ESCAP secretariat
http://www.unescap.org/stat/statdata/statpub.htm
International Development Statistics CD-ROM (OECD, charge for this document with statistics on development assistance)
http://www.oecd.org/EN/document/0,,EN-document-15-nodirectorate-no-1-3264-15,00.html
Online access to these statistics is available at:
http://www.oecd.org/htm/M00005000/M00005347.htm
Sunday, December 22, 2002
FOUNDATIONS THAT SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN TECHNOLOGY
I have been reading the book, "The Dinner Club: How the Masters of the Internet Universe Rode the Rise and Fall of the Greatest Boom in History" by Shannon Henry. I find it an interesting book generally. I note that it mentions the development in the Washington DC area of a very interesting philanthropic organization:
Venture Philanthropy Partners
http://www.venturephilanthropypartners.org/index.htm
"VPP was created by the Morino Institute," according to one presentation I found on the Internet, "in partnership with 30 new economy business leaders, Community Wealth Ventures and the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region to demonstrate venture philanthropy as a new approach to bringing the work of the nonprofit sector to scale."
There are a lot of similar groups of entrepreneurs who might be tapped for Knowledge for Development support:
Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund
http://www.sv2.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation
http://www.the-ef.org/
Austin Entrepreneurs Foundation
http://www.takestock.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas
http://www.efnt.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation of Oregon
http://www.eforegon.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation of New England
http://www.efofne.org/
The are also some interesting articles on the topic of philanthropy that I found on the Internet:
"Giving Back the Silicon Valley Way: Emerging Patterns of a New Philanthropy"
by Peter deCourcy Hero, President, Community Foundation Silicon Valley
http://www.philanthropy.org.au/pdfs/hero-speech1.pdf
Strengthening Philanthropy in Asia Pacific: An Agenda for Action
http://www.asianphilanthropy.org/appc/appc_conference.pdf
Giving on Internet Time
http://www.galtglobalreview.com/business/giving_internet.html
I have excerpted from:
"Minority Philanthopies"
http://www.ewowfacts.com/pdfs/chapters/69.pdf
the following points:
"Asian Americans, like Hispanics, send back large sums of money to their native countries. Filipinos, for example, reportedly send back as much as $8 billion per year. (The Forum of Regional Associations of Grant makers)
"The Asian American community, like the Hispanic-American community, is composed of people from multiple countries and cultures that take different approaches to giving. Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans more commonly give to mainstream organizations than Korean Americans, who prefer to give to Korean organizations. ("The Roots of Minority Giving")".
Corporate Foundations may also be considered, especially for technology related philanthropy. Some that might be considered are:
Microsoft
The Bill Gates Foundations
GTE
Verizon
SBC
MCI WorldCom Foundation
AOL Time Warner Foundation
It might also be interesting to promote Knowledge for Development philantropy in family foundations and small foundations. Good general sites for these are:
NATIONAL CENTER FOR FAMILY PHILANTHROPY
http://www.ncfp.org/Family_Giving_News-6.7.2002.html
The Association of Small Foundations
http://smallfoundations.org/
Since originally posting this I discovered the Global Catalyst Foundation, which makes grants for ICT for development.
http://www.global-catalyst.org/
I have been reading the book, "The Dinner Club: How the Masters of the Internet Universe Rode the Rise and Fall of the Greatest Boom in History" by Shannon Henry. I find it an interesting book generally. I note that it mentions the development in the Washington DC area of a very interesting philanthropic organization:
Venture Philanthropy Partners
http://www.venturephilanthropypartners.org/index.htm
"VPP was created by the Morino Institute," according to one presentation I found on the Internet, "in partnership with 30 new economy business leaders, Community Wealth Ventures and the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region to demonstrate venture philanthropy as a new approach to bringing the work of the nonprofit sector to scale."
There are a lot of similar groups of entrepreneurs who might be tapped for Knowledge for Development support:
Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund
http://www.sv2.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation
http://www.the-ef.org/
Austin Entrepreneurs Foundation
http://www.takestock.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas
http://www.efnt.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation of Oregon
http://www.eforegon.org/
Entrepreneurs Foundation of New England
http://www.efofne.org/
The are also some interesting articles on the topic of philanthropy that I found on the Internet:
"Giving Back the Silicon Valley Way: Emerging Patterns of a New Philanthropy"
by Peter deCourcy Hero, President, Community Foundation Silicon Valley
http://www.philanthropy.org.au/pdfs/hero-speech1.pdf
Strengthening Philanthropy in Asia Pacific: An Agenda for Action
http://www.asianphilanthropy.org/appc/appc_conference.pdf
Giving on Internet Time
http://www.galtglobalreview.com/business/giving_internet.html
I have excerpted from:
"Minority Philanthopies"
http://www.ewowfacts.com/pdfs/chapters/69.pdf
the following points:
"Asian Americans, like Hispanics, send back large sums of money to their native countries. Filipinos, for example, reportedly send back as much as $8 billion per year. (The Forum of Regional Associations of Grant makers)
"The Asian American community, like the Hispanic-American community, is composed of people from multiple countries and cultures that take different approaches to giving. Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans more commonly give to mainstream organizations than Korean Americans, who prefer to give to Korean organizations. ("The Roots of Minority Giving")".
Corporate Foundations may also be considered, especially for technology related philanthropy. Some that might be considered are:
Microsoft
The Bill Gates Foundations
GTE
Verizon
SBC
MCI WorldCom Foundation
AOL Time Warner Foundation
It might also be interesting to promote Knowledge for Development philantropy in family foundations and small foundations. Good general sites for these are:
NATIONAL CENTER FOR FAMILY PHILANTHROPY
http://www.ncfp.org/Family_Giving_News-6.7.2002.html
The Association of Small Foundations
http://smallfoundations.org/
Since originally posting this I discovered the Global Catalyst Foundation, which makes grants for ICT for development.
http://www.global-catalyst.org/
Friday, December 20, 2002
GRANT-MAKING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATIONS
IN DEVELOPING NATIONS
Let me note how important these are. Probably the best known are federal governmental foundations such as:
CONACYT in México
http://www.conacyt.mx/
Colciencias in Colombia
http://www.colciencias.gov.co/
CNPq - Conselho Nacional De Desenvolvimento Científico E Tecnológico in Brazil
http://www.cnpq.br/
The Brazilian Innovation Agency
FINEP - Financiadora De Estudos E Projetos
http://www.finep.gov.br
There are also state S&T Foundations, especially Brazil’s state Foundations for Support of Research, (Fundações de Amparo à Pesquisa):
Most notably, perhaps, FAPESP in Sao Paulo (Fundação De Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado De SP)
http://www.fapesp.br/
FAPERJ in Rio de Janairo (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho De Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado Do RJ)
http:// www.faperj.br
In general, these follow a model in which funding allocations are somewhat separated from political processes, and scientific expertise is brought to bear via peer review.
There are a number of bilateral foundations, such as the US-Israeli foundations:
The Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
http://www.bsf.org.il/
The Binational Industrial Research Foundation (BIRD)
http://www.birdf.com/
The Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD)
http://www.bard-isus.com/
The Luso-American Foundation (A Fundação Luso-Americana) is in Portugal,
http://www.flad.pt/
The United States-Mexican Science Foundation,
http://www.fumec.org.mx/ingles/ingles.htm
Or the German Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development
http://www.gifres.org.il/
There are also in some cases important private S&T Foundations (which may be operating foundations as well as, or instead of grantmaking foundations) such as:
The Tata Trusts in India
http://www.tata.com/0_beyond_business/trusts/
Fundación Polar in Venezuela
http://www.fpolar.org.ve/index.html
The Mexican Health Foundation (specialized in biomedical S&T)
(La Fundación Mexicana para la Salud (FUNSALUD))
http://www.funsalud.org.mx/
Fundación Chile
http://www.fundch.cl/fundch_i/index_i.cfm
The MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in India
http://www.mssrf.org/
The Habibie Foundation for Human Resources in Science and Technology in Indonesia
http://www.habibie.net/
Thus in developing nations, local or locally-managed foundations or foundation-like organizations that benefit from scientific peer review and expertise can be important vehicles for science and technology. Notice, that official multilateral donors may have trouble reaching such foundations, since they usually fund central government agencies.
IN DEVELOPING NATIONS
Let me note how important these are. Probably the best known are federal governmental foundations such as:
CONACYT in México
http://www.conacyt.mx/
Colciencias in Colombia
http://www.colciencias.gov.co/
CNPq - Conselho Nacional De Desenvolvimento Científico E Tecnológico in Brazil
http://www.cnpq.br/
The Brazilian Innovation Agency
FINEP - Financiadora De Estudos E Projetos
http://www.finep.gov.br
There are also state S&T Foundations, especially Brazil’s state Foundations for Support of Research, (Fundações de Amparo à Pesquisa):
Most notably, perhaps, FAPESP in Sao Paulo (Fundação De Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado De SP)
http://www.fapesp.br/
FAPERJ in Rio de Janairo (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho De Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado Do RJ)
http:// www.faperj.br
In general, these follow a model in which funding allocations are somewhat separated from political processes, and scientific expertise is brought to bear via peer review.
There are a number of bilateral foundations, such as the US-Israeli foundations:
The Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
http://www.bsf.org.il/
The Binational Industrial Research Foundation (BIRD)
http://www.birdf.com/
The Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD)
http://www.bard-isus.com/
The Luso-American Foundation (A Fundação Luso-Americana) is in Portugal,
http://www.flad.pt/
The United States-Mexican Science Foundation,
http://www.fumec.org.mx/ingles/ingles.htm
Or the German Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development
http://www.gifres.org.il/
There are also in some cases important private S&T Foundations (which may be operating foundations as well as, or instead of grantmaking foundations) such as:
The Tata Trusts in India
http://www.tata.com/0_beyond_business/trusts/
Fundación Polar in Venezuela
http://www.fpolar.org.ve/index.html
The Mexican Health Foundation (specialized in biomedical S&T)
(La Fundación Mexicana para la Salud (FUNSALUD))
http://www.funsalud.org.mx/
Fundación Chile
http://www.fundch.cl/fundch_i/index_i.cfm
The MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in India
http://www.mssrf.org/
The Habibie Foundation for Human Resources in Science and Technology in Indonesia
http://www.habibie.net/
Thus in developing nations, local or locally-managed foundations or foundation-like organizations that benefit from scientific peer review and expertise can be important vehicles for science and technology. Notice, that official multilateral donors may have trouble reaching such foundations, since they usually fund central government agencies.
Monday, December 16, 2002
THE ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY
The December 14th issue of the Economist magazine includes its Technology Quarterly (TQ). The first essay of the TQ focuses on the Bayh-Dole Act, attributing to it a major role in the improvement of the rate of technological innovation in the U.S. I too am impressed by the benefits of the law which gave intellectual property rights for government sponsored research to universities, small and medium enterprises, government research laboratories (where the invention occurred, rather than to the entire government), and importantly, to people who did the inventing. I have spent far too much time over the past decades discussing IPR policy with lawyers and bureaucrats in large government and quasi-governmental organizations to take lightly the quality of insight that Bahy-Dole represents. Simply, it gets the incentives more-nearly right to commercialize inventions made with public money, and in so doing gets lots of producer benefits and consumer benefits from the publicly financed knowledge out to the economy and people. That is a great accomplishment!
The Economist economic bias comes through in the essay. In my opinion it attributes too much of the success in improving innovation rates to a single law, and not enough to the technological wave on which the US rode, to the improvement in knowledge of how to manage innovation, to the restructuring of the economy and reengineering of enterprises, to the marked success of the US in drawing talent and money to its industry and putting it to productive use.
The TQ describes a lot of advances in ICTs that can be expected shortly, as the result of what we might think of as normal technology. (Kuhn talked about normal science in his famous book – the science that most scientists do most of the time, filling in the knowledge gaps identified by the relevant community as important within existing theory. I think normal technology may be similarly conceived as those advances of the technology frontier that are relatively predictable and available to the industrial R&D labs.)
I was impressed by the predictions that there will soon be available
· Recordable CD-ROM (using blue lasers);
· 3D LCD displays for personal computers, affordable, with software to match;
· digital radio, improving radio quality and range and opening the AM and FM spectrum to new applications;
· organic semiconductors, bringing new information display options;
· new extensions of programs that allow publishing not only in visual forms over the internet, but in voice mode.
Anybody reading this who doesn’t know about these technologies should probably rectify that situation soon.
In one article, TQ suggested that telephone e-commerce is likely to be more important (for quite a while) than Internet e-commerce. Voice recognition, voice generation, and other technologies are coming online, made possible by cheaper computer power and memory. It occurs to me that the implication for developing nations may be that telephone service jobs may not last. Some developing nations have been using the mastery of European languages by their citizens as the basis to develop businesses offering these services. Low wage rates in India give Indian firms a competitive advantage in telephone based services over firms hiring highly paid U.S. workers. However, automating the service may be cheaper still. It might be fairly important to estimate how long before human telephone service providers go the way of buggy whips before investing heavily in the development of telephone-service boiler rooms in developing nations.
TQ spends considerable space on the advances in bio-computing, gene-chips, and biological research. I wonder how many developing nations will be able to utilize bio-computing sufficiently well to compete with the U.S., Japan and Europe. Not many! Were more being done with grid computing (the utilization of idle time on the networks of millions of PCs in the world) for developing nations, I would be less concerned. Perhaps more to the point, developing nations are more concerned with developing technologies to meet their own needs than are developed nations. There are exception opportunities to utilize bio-computing and other new techniques of biological research to increase the rate of discovery:
· of new vaccines and affordable treatments for tropical diseases and the other diseases of poverty;
· of better varieties of basic food crops; and
· of new vaccines and affordable treatments for veterinary diseases found primarily in developing nations.
I suspect that the developing nations will not sufficiently master the new techniques to fully take advantage of these opportunities. Developing nation researchers who do master the techniques will find powerful incentives to move to developed nations where they can be applied more productively (to solve the problems of developed nations).
Material for a lot of thought.
The December 14th issue of the Economist magazine includes its Technology Quarterly (TQ). The first essay of the TQ focuses on the Bayh-Dole Act, attributing to it a major role in the improvement of the rate of technological innovation in the U.S. I too am impressed by the benefits of the law which gave intellectual property rights for government sponsored research to universities, small and medium enterprises, government research laboratories (where the invention occurred, rather than to the entire government), and importantly, to people who did the inventing. I have spent far too much time over the past decades discussing IPR policy with lawyers and bureaucrats in large government and quasi-governmental organizations to take lightly the quality of insight that Bahy-Dole represents. Simply, it gets the incentives more-nearly right to commercialize inventions made with public money, and in so doing gets lots of producer benefits and consumer benefits from the publicly financed knowledge out to the economy and people. That is a great accomplishment!
The Economist economic bias comes through in the essay. In my opinion it attributes too much of the success in improving innovation rates to a single law, and not enough to the technological wave on which the US rode, to the improvement in knowledge of how to manage innovation, to the restructuring of the economy and reengineering of enterprises, to the marked success of the US in drawing talent and money to its industry and putting it to productive use.
The TQ describes a lot of advances in ICTs that can be expected shortly, as the result of what we might think of as normal technology. (Kuhn talked about normal science in his famous book – the science that most scientists do most of the time, filling in the knowledge gaps identified by the relevant community as important within existing theory. I think normal technology may be similarly conceived as those advances of the technology frontier that are relatively predictable and available to the industrial R&D labs.)
I was impressed by the predictions that there will soon be available
· Recordable CD-ROM (using blue lasers);
· 3D LCD displays for personal computers, affordable, with software to match;
· digital radio, improving radio quality and range and opening the AM and FM spectrum to new applications;
· organic semiconductors, bringing new information display options;
· new extensions of programs that allow publishing not only in visual forms over the internet, but in voice mode.
Anybody reading this who doesn’t know about these technologies should probably rectify that situation soon.
In one article, TQ suggested that telephone e-commerce is likely to be more important (for quite a while) than Internet e-commerce. Voice recognition, voice generation, and other technologies are coming online, made possible by cheaper computer power and memory. It occurs to me that the implication for developing nations may be that telephone service jobs may not last. Some developing nations have been using the mastery of European languages by their citizens as the basis to develop businesses offering these services. Low wage rates in India give Indian firms a competitive advantage in telephone based services over firms hiring highly paid U.S. workers. However, automating the service may be cheaper still. It might be fairly important to estimate how long before human telephone service providers go the way of buggy whips before investing heavily in the development of telephone-service boiler rooms in developing nations.
TQ spends considerable space on the advances in bio-computing, gene-chips, and biological research. I wonder how many developing nations will be able to utilize bio-computing sufficiently well to compete with the U.S., Japan and Europe. Not many! Were more being done with grid computing (the utilization of idle time on the networks of millions of PCs in the world) for developing nations, I would be less concerned. Perhaps more to the point, developing nations are more concerned with developing technologies to meet their own needs than are developed nations. There are exception opportunities to utilize bio-computing and other new techniques of biological research to increase the rate of discovery:
· of new vaccines and affordable treatments for tropical diseases and the other diseases of poverty;
· of better varieties of basic food crops; and
· of new vaccines and affordable treatments for veterinary diseases found primarily in developing nations.
I suspect that the developing nations will not sufficiently master the new techniques to fully take advantage of these opportunities. Developing nation researchers who do master the techniques will find powerful incentives to move to developed nations where they can be applied more productively (to solve the problems of developed nations).
Material for a lot of thought.
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