The term “digital divide” indicates the inequality that can arise when those with the money or technology to make the most of IT do so, while those without the money or technology get left behind. As a simple example, someone who has to hand-write a CV to apply for a job is at a significant disadvantage compared to someone who can type it up using a proven template and both email it and print it out on a laser printer. But does IT need to expensive?
There are several major initiatives to bring IT to the low-income masses. One notable example is Nicholas Negroponte, a millionaire bent on bringing the world the $100 computer. A low-tech portable device that runs on open source (ie. non-proprietary) software using tough components, it may not offer the best gaming experience available, but it provides email, word-processing, and internet access. Access to information, and the ability to communicate very cheaply over the internet, is a key benefit. Negroponte has a vision of every schoolchild in the world having their own computer.
More local examples can be found too. Vanuatu has several CRCs, or Community Resource Centres. These offer cheap access to IT (internet, word-processing, printing, email) in strategic locations, maintained by local staff, again running open source software to provide facilities that rival and probably exceed those of many business houses. Active development is under way to see if they can be powered by the sun through solar panels, and there are even experiments to build computers with no moving parts (ie. much less to go wrong). Wireless communications through mobile phones extends the reach of such low-cost IT centres to a very wide area. Imagine being able to set up a communal village computer with internet access, but no need for mains power or a phone line. Some leading-edge work is being done in this country.
A little more unlikely is Microsoft's new idea of 'renting' its operating system to low-income users. They have apparently come up with the idea that the Windows operating system could be installed on cheap computers without having to be purchased up front, but instead the user would pay a much lower annual fee to keep Windows activated. Quite how this would work is difficult to envisage, given that significant numbers of such people may not have a credit card or even a bank account.
Of course, to capitalise on the option of using IT over a wider area, the economic environment needs to be supportive. IT is no good on its own unless it is for purely social purposes, and in that case it becomes just a cost. For businesses to grow and succeed, the IT needs to become an 'enabler' that simplifies and speeds processes, widens the potential market, enhances service, and reduces cost. Government policy is an essential supporter for such an environment – the level of import duty on IT is an area where the government could boost IT use and penetration in Vanuatu, for example. Bear this in mind if you get the chance to talk to decision-makers.
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- Tony Phelps is part of the Merlin Pacific IT team, dedicated to effective & efficient business IT (see www.merlinpacific.net).
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