LEADERSHIP AND THE FUTURE OF ICT IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

It seems to me that many leaders are needed to step forth if developing nations are to adequately benefit over the long term future from the potential inherent in information and communications technologies.

Technological Leadership:

There is a gap in appropriate ICT for developing nations. Technology that is:
· Affordable;
· Accessible, e.g. using spoken language and images rather than written language, communicating in languages of developing nations;
· Rugged;
· With software built to meet national legal, financial, personnel information, and other standards and needs.
· That is user friendly within their cultural contexts.
Poor countries have been importing technology created for other nations, and often not adapting it well to their own needs. Without leadership to ameliorate the situation, they will continue to do so.

Innovators (who become leaders when their innovations are replicated) are needed to apply the available appropriate technology much more creatively in development. Radio, television, and tape recorders could be used much more effectively.

ICTs are going to be much more pervasive in the future. Micro-chips are of course now embedded in lots of machines, from motor vehicles, to laboratory instruments, to household appliances, as well as pets and livestock. In the future they may be embedded in packages you buy from the supermarket and in your clothing. Where are the developing country technological leaders stepping forward to see that this technology is applied to the most critical social and economic issues?

The world is going to be much more networked. Telephone connectivity is growing rapidly. Wireless connectivity is going to provide much more pervasive Internet connectivity. Many (most?) of the embedded chips described above are going to be linked to the Internet. Again, technological leaders are needed to assure that networking technology is developed appropriate to poor nations, and innovators are needed to assure that the technology is applied in farming, business, health service, education, and many other sectors.

Capacity Building

Some things take so long to do, that leadership is urgently needed to start doing them now! And to keep doing them actively, efficiently and effectively for years to come.
· The national information infrastructure of developing nations has to be radically expanded;
· Human resources have to be trained for ICT work, the institutions to train them have to be expanded, and the ancillary institutions to finance the training, provide training materials, support the trainees after graduation, etc. have to be expanded;
· The financial capacity to support greatly increased ICT investment has to be created;
· Organizations have to be reengineered to build their capacities to utilize ICTs;
· Markets and other institutions have to be restructured, again to build social capacity to utilize the technology.

Institution Building

There has been a lot of interest in e-government and e-commerce. It seems to me that leadership is needed now, if these developments are to be successful in poor countries.

E-commerce depends on markets being created or expanded utilizing new ICTs. This of course involves having computers that process transactions, and telecommunications infrastructure that allows buyers and sellers to interact. But institutionalizing a market involves very widespread knowledge in the buyers and sellers in how to participate in the market. It requires the institutionalization of trust by the participants in the marketplace. Developing country sellers may have to reengineer to meet quality standards demanded in the North. Financial institutions may have to be created to enable financial transfers from buyer to seller. Standards, fair business practices and other systems may have to be expanded and modified.

E-government similarly depends on a culture of government service, and a culture of trust in government institutions that must be built in many developing nations. Citizens must learn of the range of government services available, where to find them, and how to utilize them. Government must learn of the range of citizen service needs, and how to satisfy them. Again, if financial transactions are to take place via the e-government portals, then there need to be financial institutions to support them. Quality control of both the offerings of government and the information provided by citizens has to be institutionalized.

Policy

There are key policy issues that should be addressed now, before they become moot. Policy leadership should be especially admirable, since one would hope the leaders would be wise in the ways of their nations, informed about the implications of the policy alternatives before them, public spirited, and seen as exercising legitimate authority by those within and outside their countries.

How will countries draw the line between that which is to be a “commons” versus that which is to be private property? What will be free, gratis (as in the sense of free software) and what will be purchase in the marketplace. What will be free, (in the sense of open source software) and what protected? What will be placed in public domain, treated as a public good, and what will be private?

How open or closed will the society be? Will different political views be encouraged or discouraged, welcomed or prohibited? Will rapid technological change, (and the economic and social changes it involves) be encouraged or will the society seek to moderate the pace of changes? How open will the society be to alternative views in key areas, such as gender roles and religion?

Societies that were formed by the “Enlightenment” have an ideological preference for rational decision making. Indeed that preference is so culturally defined that it may not be apparent to Western Europeans and Americans that there are other views. Yet, it is possible to prefer decisions that are validated by accepted institutional processes. Appeals courts don’t judge whether the lower court decision was rational, but whether the process was acceptable. Democracies don’t second guess whether the population made the most rational choice in an election, but whether the election was fair. It is not only in monarchies that people assume that the head of state is chosen by divine will, not by a rational choice of the people. While the proponents of ICT usually advocate a cultural shift toward more rational decision making, conservative voices question what would be lost by that shift. Clearly leaders can affect such choices by a nation.

Understand the Social and Economic Effects of ICT

I see a critical leadership role for the scholarly community. Technological revolutions in the past have occurred with very little understanding of what was going on, and why it was happening. The industrial revolution, for example, resulted in great economic progress, but it also was accompanied by great disruptions and suffering. The social sciences and humanities have unprecedented potential to improve our understanding of the processes of the information revolution and their consequences. Leaders equipped with such knowledge may increase the rate of progress, and ameliorate the undesired consequences. We need a cadre of scholars in developing nations to work on these issues; we need stronger institutions to network these scholars, to disseminate their findings, and to help them influence decision makers; we need institutions to train and support the scholars. And I would suggest that given the time delays involved, the most urgently needed leadership is in the creation of those training programs.