huridocs-tech Experts Urged to Join New Global Information Resource

Title: DEVELOPMENT: Experts Urged to Join New Global
Information Resource By Gumisai Mutume

MEXICO CITY (IPS World Desk) Feb 29 - Academics, think-tanks
and other experts from developing countries are being urged
to enlist in a new Internet-based network created by the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) to promote the exchange of
technical information.

The system, known as WIDE, was launched by the UNDP's
Special Unit for Technical Co-operation among Developing
Countries (TCDC) last weekend to establish communication and
co-operation among information-poor developing countries and
make information in these countries more visible and
accessible.

Following on the heels of the launch, the creators of WIDE
issued a statement Monday calling on institutions and
experts across the globe to participate in the initiative.

"It is designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency
of South-South expertise...and to enable partners to use the
electronic venue for the conduct of some of their work,
build parts of their own information systems, and take
advantage of its capacities for greater collaboration," the
UNDP/TCDC said in a statement Monday.

"All information maintained in WIDE is in the public domain
and is available to anyone, anywhere, free of charge," the
statement said.

One of the goals of the UNDP is to reverse the widening
knowledge gap between rich and poor by ensuring that the
information revolution serves human development.

WIDE is part of this response. It is being financed by the
UNDP, the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology and
the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological
Development (CESAR).

It consists of WIDE On-Line - an Internet-based public
access database containing information on experts and
institutions and showcasing the "best" practices in the
South. Another branch of the system is known as WIDE
Inter-Link - a network of technical specialists.

The system includes an experts registry where professionals
can log-on to the network. It also allows its databases to
be searched via the Internet.

Institutions affiliated with WIDE include scientific and
research institutions, governmental and non-governmental
organisations and private companies.

"WIDE works both on and off-line to cope with slow Internet
connections," notes Atsede Worede Kal of the UNDP/TCDC.

By June last year only 180 million of the world's six
billion people had full access to the Internet. In many
developing countries, people only have access to off-line
services such as e- mail.

"The availability of information on developing countries'
needs and their capacities to provide training and expertise
are fundamental to the process of technical co-operation
among developing countries," says Worede Kal.

The rules of globalisation have set off a technological
race, with developing countries scrambling to catch up. The
UNDP says that while a typical US medical library subscribes
to 5,000 journals, the Nairobi University Medical School
Library in Kenya, regarded as a leading institution in East
Africa, only receives 20 - down from 300 a decade ago.

The Internet, with its ability to link institutions across
national and international boundaries, is spurring efforts
like WIDE - a global knowledge base that poor countries can
access freely.

The UN Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among
Developing Countries was established in 1974 by the General
Assembly to assist countries with technical programmes.

One of its instruments, the Information Referral Service
system - which was launched in 1977 as a paper-based
technical register - has now evolved into the modern
Internet-based system, WIDE.

Dr. Fabio Silva, director of CESAR, says that in "developing
countries, a wealth of information cannot be accessed
because there is no way to interact with it because it is
stored in paper, books, cabinets: nowhere where it is
needed."

"WIDE aims to provide worldwide real-time information about
institutions and individuals in any way related to technical
co-operation among developing countries, serving as an
interface between UNDP/TCDC and similar institutions,
countries and to the Internet population," Silva says.

However, a major drawback for a large part of the population
in developing countries will be the language barrier. The
network operates in four languages - English, French,
Spanish and Portuguese.

Still, its creators are touting WIDE as an example of
sophisticated and appropriate technology being adapted to
serve as a simple, practical, and effective global
information system for development.

The WIDE Initiative has partnerships in three continents,
with some of its web pages hosted in New York, others in
Brazil and the rest in Canada. Its news service is based in
the Republic of Korea.

The Internet broadcast news service will also focus on
issues of South-South co-operation and development.

UNDP/TCDC says an important feature of WIDE is that users
and clients will supply and manage their own information.

"With the sheer amount and range of data, information and
knowledge that, at least theoretically, has to be stored,
processed and retrieved in a system like WIDE for it to be
useful, it is impossible for anyone or group to have central
control over such a mass of information," UNDP/TCDC says.
(END/IPS/DV/gm/ks/00)




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