Bridging the Digital Gap in Developing Countries: Special Issues, Barriers, and Benefits of E-Society

1. Digital Divide: International • General issues: Diversity, barriers, benefits • Discussion

2. E-Society in Poor Countries • We have focused on e-society in UK and other rich countries • What are the special issues, barriers, and benefits to e-society in poor countries? • I’ll discuss in general, then ask class members to discuss their own countries

3. Issue: Diversity • Poor/third-word/developing countries are very diverse • Rich countries more homogenous • Diversity inside a country as well as between countries

4. Between countries • “Poor” countries very diverse • Low income: < $1K/yr GNI/person • Peaceful (more or less): Bangladesh • Civil war, unrest: Congo, Zimbabwe • Lower-middle: $1-4K GNI/person • India, China, Egypt • Upper-middle: $4-12K GNI/person • Chile, Poland, Turkey • High income: eg, Kuwait

5. Inside a country • Countries internally very diverse • Usually higher income inequality than rich countries • Brazil (upper-middle) is combination of • Spain (40M high-income people) • Bangladesh (150M low-income people) • E-society affects “Spanish” Brazilians very differently from “Bangladeshi” Brazilians

6. Other things that vary • Education level • Infrastructure (power, telecoms) • Political stability • Corruption levels • Etc, etc

7. Consequence • E-Society has different impact on • Illiterate Bangladeshi farmer • Successful university-educated Chilean businessman • Keep in mind! • Will try to generalise nonetheless

8. Barriers to E-Society • Few people have PCs to access Web • www.worldbank.org/ic4d , click at-a-glance tables • But access via mobiles growing • Few people have skills to build and maintain complex web sites • Typically shortage of skilled IT staff • Even if large overall unemployment • Many learning (eg in Aberdeen)

9. Barriers to E-Society • Poor, expensive infrastructure • Power, post, roads, telecoms, spare parts • Indian IT companies often have own generators, satellite uplinks, etc • (slowly) getting better • Poor bureaucratic infrastructure • Getting things done is slow, complicated, may require bribes • Rulers may not want improve life for citizens

10. Poor international infra • [Map of undersea fibre optic cables]

11. Barriers • Limited English in many countries • English is dominant language of Web, for better or for worse • Limited support for non-Latin alphabets, especially if not left-to-right • Getting better • Crime, HIV, civil war, … • Make it difficult to concentrate on e-society

12. Benefits • Many e-society benefits are even stronger in poor countries • Shop/learn/book/vote/etc at home • Especially valuable if travel is difficult • Limited choice even in major cities? • Avoid huge queues at train stations, etc

13. Information provision • Big benefit to making info available • Prices (which port pays most for fish?) • Service updates (eg, trains) • Govt info: rules, announcements, etc • Educational material • Internet fantastic for academics in poor countries • Health advice • etc

14. Commercial Benefits • Outsourcing: Web makes it easier for people in India, etc to provide services for people in rich countries • More well-paid (by Indian standard) jobs • Cheaper purchasing • Not at mercy of local monopolists

15. Political benefits? • Bureaucratic corruption, incompetent, indifference often huge problem • Can Web help reduce this? • Political repression major problem • Can Web help reduce this • Controversial

16. Discussion • Comments from class members, especially from third-world countries?