Summary

In this essay the author examines the philosophical and technical currents that underpin the ongoing info-technological revolution and its impact on knowledge and knowledge sharing. She notes the importance of knowledge sharing for development and examines the potential for ICTs, improved access, and new comparative advantages to improve the quality of life for the global poor. The author wholeheartedly believes that ICTs and the knowledge that they carry represent some of the most powerful tools to solve pressing global challenges. However, the information revolution is not without barriers and both the causes and solutions are examined. The essay concludes with a set of policy prescriptions that the author believes are necessary to truly enable ICTs to improve the global condition.

Key Points

At the heart of the author's discussion is knowledge. Knowledge is empowering and allows individuals to create linkages and generate understandings about each and every action that they and others make. Studies have revealed that it is knowledge, and not handouts, that the poor of the world are demanding. Knowledge is also not a scare resource, it proliferates with use, unlike any other commodity. Knowledge sharing is the process whereby the right information is made available to the right people in a timely fashion, enhancing its value. For the greatest value to be generated it is necessary for knowledge to be held in the public domain. It is this transfer from the private to the public that has the potential to re-skew the imbalance between haves and have-nots.

ICTs play an important role in this process, for they are the drivers of the knowledge society and are behind much of the transfer from private to public domain. The Internet, for example, is the ultimate public storage space. ICTs allow knowledge sharing to transcend hierarchy, class, and culture, and networks are inherently based on principles of inclusion. As knowledge perpetuates, it continuously gains in value and is customized to each users needs. In addition, ICTs enable each and every individual to be both a consumer and generator of knowledge. Connections allow these empowered individuals to form together in communities to facilitate development objectives. Once ICT infrastructure has been established, communities also have the potential to ‘leap-frog' ahead because of the low-costs associated with technology and data transmission. ICTs also become “force-multipliers” in inter-connected economies because information dissemination enriches every social and economic activity.

But, ICTs have also brought forth their own set of challenges as developing countries are at very different starting points in their utilization of ICT infrastructure and knowledge processes. One of the barriers for developing societies to successful appropriation of the knowledge revolution is the inability to recognize that the knowledge they possess has value. Indigenous knowledge is often recognized and utilized by developed country foreigners before it is recognized in the local context. This is contributing to a substantial brain-drain from the developing nations and is a “self-imposed barrier” that needs to be removed if countries are to fully participate as a knowledge society.

Developing countries must also shift their comparative advantage in the knowledge economy to capitalize on their diversity and human resource capital, and amass a wealth of information that works for the poor and marginalized. The old reliance on large populations for material production will no longer suffice. Another barrier is the lack of a high-speed, broad-band digital information infrastructure throughout the developing world. It is essential for all institutions within a country to strive to deliver either individual or community access to ICT.

But even being connected is not enough and developing countries must also deal with the barriers created by the lack of locally specific and useful content, by the shortage of ICT skills that are necessary for the handling, hosting and retrieval of information, and by the omnipresence of both the English language and literary format on the web. The need for vernacular content and information that is not conveyed in the written form is prescient.

The policy implications that stem from this analysis include the development of enabling frameworks, a “de-bottlenecking” of regulations and marketization, and an open-ended learning approach to harnessing the power of ICTs. Developing countries must anticipate and accommodate the rapid changes in processing power, telecommunications, and multi-media while simultaneously investing in their infrastructure. Indeed government should itself function on an ICT model by making every effort to digitize.

The best approach to development would involve the merger of technology and human capital and it is necessary for more organizations to emerge to ensure that ICTs do not pass the equality agenda by. The value that an individual gains from information is always different and there is a danger that the revolution could deepen the economic and knowledge gap - especially in cases where people are unaware of its worth.

Source: Vikas Nath “Heralding ICT enabled Knowledge Societies,” Sustainable Development Networking Programme (India)

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