[This message was originally posted on the Global Knowledge for Development
listserv.]
Low-Cost Strategies for ICT Deployment in Developing Countries
by Roberto Verzola
Introduction
The distinguishing feature of the information sector of the economy lies
in the nature of information. The unique features of this sector
therefore are better appreciated by first studying the nature of
information.
Information refers to a new awareness which resolves existing
uncertainty. It is non-material. An expectant mother, for instance, may
be uncertain about the sex of her child. When the doctor tells her,
"it's a girl," the uncertainty has been resolved. The mother has
received the smallest amount of information possible: the resolution of
uncertainty between two equally possible outcomes. This smallest measure
of information is called the bit. There are millions of ways a blank
page may be filled with letters. A poem by Shakespeare resolves this
uncertainty by providing one of all possible ways and therefore provides
the reader a much bigger amount of information (among other things of
course). There are billions of ways bits may be strung up serially on
the tracks of a diskette. A particular program represents one instance
of these billions of possibilities, another example of information.
The non-material nature of information distinguishes the information
sector from two other major sectors of the economy. The industrial
sector is the sector of material goods which are non-living. And the
agricultural and fishery sector is the sector of living goods.
While information itself is non-material, it may need a material medium
for storage and persistence. The baby's sex is information stored in the
doctor's mind, later copied to the mother's. Shakespeare's poems are
stored in books, on paper and ink. Computer programs are stored on
magnetic or optical media. [1]
The development of new information and communications technologies
(ICTs) has propelled the full emergence of the information economy by
making it easier and easier to transfer information from one medium to
another and from one form to another. Digital technologies have further
revolutionized ICTs, by allowing these transfers and transformations to
occur with no information loss. With today's technologies, the cost of
replicating information without loss is approaching zero. I explained
further the implications of such low replication cost in the article
"Towards a Political Economy of Information" (URL:
http://glocal.peacenet.or.kr/training/).
High start-up costs, near-zero marginal costs
while the cost of moving or copying them is approaching zero, the
initial costs involved in creating new information or in building the
infrastructure for moving and manipulating them remain relatively high.
It takes a lot of effort to invent a new design, write a book, or
develop software. But the cost of replicating them, once they are
developed, is nearly zero. It also takes much resources to set up
information infrastructures like transmitting stations, telephone
exchanges, microwave repeaters, satellite facilities, copper and fiber
optic lines, oceanic cables, etc. But once they are in place, the
marginal cost of information transfer through these facilities is nearly
zero.
Because of this, ICTs are very often much more accessible to those who
can afford the high start up costs, than to those who cannot, to the
rich than to the poor. Yet, those who are privileged to have access will
then enjoy much lower marginal costs than those who don't and will
therefore be in a much better position to compete vis-a-vis the latter.
In short, the rich will tend to become richer, and the poor poorer.
While there will obviously be exceptions, the logic of the information
sector -- with its very high entry costs and very low marginal costs for
those who are in -- will generally work in favor of those who have the
resources, capital and existing infrastructure to take full advantage of
the benefits of ICTs.
Form of income: Information rents
Because of the high costs of entry, it is often those who have access to
huge resources who are in a position to set up the facilities for full
utilization of the technology. In terms of content and software tools,
private investors who do so clinch their control through statutory
monopolies like patents and copyrights, which grant them the exclusive
right to use the resources they have developed. In terms of the
communications infrastructure, the huge investments involved exclude all
but a few huge firms, who then lease out the resource under their
control to other users. Either way, private control over the software
and hardware infrastructure enables the owners to extract rents over the
information resource.
This rent-seeking system eventually extracts from the public wealth that
is way beyond the cost of setting up and maintaining the system. The
rent-seekers of the cyber-economy, or the cyberlords, therefore become
the superfluous and unwelcome propertied classes of the information
economy. In the article "Cyberlords: the rentier class of the
information sector", I discussed in detail the nature of this
rent-seeking system and how it manages to concentrate wealth in the
propertied class of the information economy.
ICTs and the Internet: a critique
In the articles "The Internet: A Second Opinion"
(URL: http://glocal.peacenet.or.kr/training/) and "Globalization: The Third
Wave" (URL: http://global.peacenet.or.kr/training/), I explained in more
detail how the Internet has in fact become the leading edge of the
global information economy, the new infrastructure for marketing the
information products of the more technologically advanced countries. As
such, it will will facilitate the intrusion of global capital into
developing countries, the extraction of more wealth from these
countries, and an even faster concentration of wealth among rich
countries and global corporations. My critique of the new ICTs, best
represented by the Internet, may be summarized as follows:
- The entry costs are very expensive, and these entry costs recur every
three to five years, as rapid obsolescence forces the frequent
replacement of hardware and software. In effect, those who join the
Internet are caught in a expensive technology trap. While many of the
supposed benefits of these new ICTs may eventually prove to be illusory,
the high costs of entry are very real.
- In reality, the Internet is emerging as the infrastructure for the
marketing and distribution of the information products of rich
countries. The more it penetrates into developing countries, the greater
the market of information economies expands.
- The Internet will also facilitate rapid financial transactions which
will benefit most the huge finance firms who have the facilities, clout
and connection to take the best advantage of the new ICTs. These will
all hasten the ongoing concentration of wealth.
- ICTs will further weaken labor and strengthen capital, as machines are
more and more in a position to replace labor and as the technology
enables tighter management control. Many people will lose their jobs to
machines, and new jobs created by new technologies will not be secure
either, as they will also be under threat from a new round of
replacement. On the other hand, ICTs will facilitate
managing-at-a-distance even better than working-at-a-distance,
empowering capital even more than labor.
- The benefits of the Internet will be best enjoyed by those who live in
countries where the ICT infrastructures are most developed. Most
resources and effort spent on serving information on the Internet will
not help the poorest and the least advantaged, who cannot afford
commercial Internet services and whose lives revolve around basic needs
and survival concerns.
- Many of the promised benefits of the Internet will be as illusory as
the broken promises of television, which has become the idiot box of the
20th century. The ongoing commercialization of the Internet will tend to
turn it into the TV -- and idiot box -- of the 21st century.
- In fact, very few seem to be looking at the negative effects of ICTs.
The issue of radiation and its impact on human health persists -- from
the near-microwave frequencies of the cell phone, to the video monitor
radiation that direct shines on the user's eyes, to the very low
frequency of power lines -- and remains a matter of dispute. The
increasing dependence on computers for mental work, thinking, and even
entertainment reminds us of the deleterious effects on the human body of
machine-dependence and its resulting lack of exercise.
To be connected or not?
To some, these misgivings are enough reason to stay away from these
technologies. Yet, the option to completely reject the new ICTs may have
its own pitfalls. While one can argue that to use them is to immediately
get trapped in a losing battle; one can also argue that not to use them
is to lose the battle by default. But is the battle in the information
arena in fact worth fighting, or are we simply being drawn away from
what are real wealth -- our ecological wealth, our natural resources,
our cultural heritage -- to be exchanged with virtual and perhaps
illusory wealth?
The answers do not come so easily. Perhaps, we need to know more about
the technology itself and to dip one foot to check the waters while
reserving the option to get out if sharks and crocodiles lie in wait.
If a developing country -- fully aware of the pitfalls and traps that
lie in wait -- nonetheless wants to tap ICTs and continue exploring the
possibility of bringing their benefits to its people, what then are the
options available to such a country? This is the question we will try to
answer for the rest of this paper.
Cost of entry is a barrier
A real obstacle to the introduction of ICTs in a developing country is
the high entry cost of the technologies.
In the Philippines, for instance, the following summarizes the costs of
providing 51% of Filipino families access to different technologies:
Technology Current Cost per Total Cost for 51%
Reach (%) family ($) reach (million $)
B&W TV only 43% $ 100 $ 102 M
Color TV only 14 300 1,413
VCR 12 250 1,241
Cable TV 2 1000 6,236
Telephone 6 1000 5,727
Fax 1 200 1,273
Internet 0.1 1000 6,478
CDROM/DVD 0.1 300 1,943
Virtual Reality 0 2000 (?) 12,982
Radio 84 10 20 (100% reach)
Total 37,314
Considering the rapid developments in the field, some of these
technologies become obsolete rather quickly, forcing those who have made
commitments to deploy them into another round of huge investments every
few years or so.
Responding to high costs
The introduction of ICTs is clearly an expensive proposition for most
developing countries. They compete for our peoples' time, skills and
attention, taking resources away from essential activities like food
production, health services, basic education and so on. Yet, the
possibilities of the new technologies are also tantalizing, and many
people sincerely feel that these technologies also have some benefits to
offer and, properly deployed, can facilitate solutions in providing for
basic needs.
How does a poor country solve the problem of providing for its people
facilities which are terribly expensive and which are hardly affordable?
I propose a five-point strategy for doing so:
- stick to the idea of appropriate technology, make do without the
online frills, and concentrate on low-cost offline technologies, which
can bring in the most essential services;
- use free/open software where they are available, because they take
full advantage of the benefits of pooling together the intellectual
resources not only of a country but of the whole Internet community;
- apply genuine compulsory licensing where commercial software is the
only option; GCL is an internationally-recognized mechanism that allows
poor countries access to technologies on their own terms;
- set up public access stations that do not require the ordinary citizen
to pay a fixed monthly charge; and
- work out a system of public ownership over the hardware infrastructure
to minimize rent-seeking by private interests, which can lead to further
concentration of wealth.
Appropriate technologies
Countries must practise extreme care in selecting the technologies to
tap, identifying those which are lower-cost, simpler, and capable enough
to provide the most essential services. Often, as Schumacher pointed
out, these are intermediate technologies, which greatly improve on the
old ways of doing things but are very accessible to poor communities
because the technologies are simpler and more affordable. Schumacher's
ideas remains as relevant as ever in the information sector.
An example of appropriate technology is low-power, community-based radio
broadcasting. As the table of technology costs above shows in the case
of the Philippines, this technology can provide 100% access and
approximate interactivity with very affordable investments, while the
more advanced technologies would require billions of dollars of
investments every several years or so and yet leave half of the
population unserved.
In computer communications, appropriate technology would be offline
technologies, i.e., technologies based on store-and-forward email and
email-based services such as mailing lists, email-enabled access to ftp
sites, Web sites, etc. Such technologies would be text-mostly, offline,
low-bandwidth, and low-cost. They would run over the basic POTS ("plain
old telephone system") network, instead of requiring a huge and
expensive network of dedicated data lines.
Free/open software
The basic principle in overcoming high resource requirements is to pool
meager resources and the share the benefits with as many people as
possible. This is exactly what free/open software does: it pools the
intellectual resources available over the Internet, and shares the
results freely with the rest of the world.
The result is something dramatic, effective and reliable. Free/open
software have proven themselves equal to if not better than commercial
software in terms of quality and reliability.
The most popular example of this approach is the Linux/GNU operating
system.
A philosophy of freedom
Linux represents a philosophy of freedom. It is freedom that makes free
software like Linux/GNU "free": the freedom to use it; the freedom to
copy and share it; and the freedom to modify it, because the source code
is available.
These freedoms are the mark of free software. A legal document called
the General Public License (GPL) was carefully formulated by the Free
Software Foundation, also headed by Richard Stallman, to protect these
freedoms while the protected software goes through the process of use,
sharing and modification. Thus, free software can also be defined as
software that is protected under the GPL.
The access to source code that Linux/GNU makes possible represents at
the R&D level the same kind of pooling of resources, an approach
perfectly suited to a poor country like the Philippines.
The source code of a computer program is the equivalent of the schematic
diagram of a piece of electronic equipment, the architectural plans of a
building, or the mechanical drawings of a machine. Once a piece of
equipment, a building, or a machine becomes complicated enough -- as
most pieces of software are -- modification becomes extremely difficult
without the corresponding schematic diagram, architectural plan,
mechanical drawing, or source code.
Microsoft doesn't make its source code available; Linux/GNU does. Since
the Linux source code is available, Linux can be customized much more
easily and flexibly than software without source code. Windows users
have to wait a long time for an improved version of the software to be
released by Microsoft. Linux is being improved all the time by the
Internet community, which includes thousands of independent developers
and programmers who volunteer their time and effort making the software
faster, more robust, and generally better.
(continued in part 2 of this message)
----------------------------------
Send mail for the 'huridocs-tech' list to 'huridocs-tech@hrea.org'.
Mail administrative requests to 'majordomo@hrea.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: 'owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org'.
Archives of previous messages posted to the list can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.html
[Reply to this message] [Start a new topic] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index] [Subject Index] [List Home Page] [HREA Home Page]