Technologist Challenges International Divide Activists on ICT Development Fixes
BERKELEY, Calif. -- “Technology is the only way forward” to eliminate the digital divide in poorer countries, Eric Brewer, an activist computer science professor at this University of California campus, said at a forum late Wednesday. “There is no alternative.” He added that “maybe economics” offers a path, but only as “used to buy technology to close the divide.” But others disagreed.
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There’s “a real temptation” to view technology as the agent of change, objected Kentaro Toyama, a visiting scholar at the university’s School of Information who co-founded Microsoft Research India. “'Just put it out there and magic will happen.’ That will not happen.” Many social problems “are not fundamentally easy to solve with technology,” and “there are lots of cases where there is no technology solution,” including because foundations such as education are lacking, he said. A new form of communication isn’t necessarily even a “net positive addition” to a society, Toyama said. An “oppressive dictator or a very corrupt government” can shut it down or use it “for nefarious purposes itself,” Toyama said.
"Technology is fundamentally an amplifier of human intent and capacity” that must exist independently, not a substitute for them, Toyama said. Other speakers said their efforts take that approach into account and the potential shouldn’t be underestimated. One way Google.org, the Internet company’s donation arm, aids development is simply by bringing technologists together, said General Manager Megan Smith. “The technology is just part of the ecosystem.” But Brewer conceded that introducing technology can’t bootstrap the literacy needed to make it effective.
Smith and Brewer emphasized the centrality of the cellphone -- which Smith called “a great equalizer” -- and Wi-Fi in filling gaps in the reach of networks, because of low regulatory and financial costs. They also stressed, in Brewer’s words, “materially empowering technologists” and entrepreneurs as the players with the skills and ideas to make the best use of digital communications for themselves and their communities.
Inveneo, an international digital-divide nonprofit run like a business, has debunked commonly held objections, said Senior Director Wayan Vota. The absence of electricity in much of Africa can be overcome with solar-powered technology, he said. Poor people are motivated enough to overcome their lack of sophistication to accomplish what they want with digital communications, just like grandparents in wealthier countries, Vota said, though “you do have to harden the software … so an inexperienced user can’t randomly delete things.” With “12-14 people in San Francisco and me in Washington, D.C.,” Inveneo has reached 1.5 million people and “our social impact is doubling every year” in alliance with 76 local technology partners, he said.
"Facebook is driving a part of our local technology adoption” in poor countries, Vota said: “Facebook is becoming the email, the Web, the interaction of the Internet in Africa.” In 2004, BBC Sport was the big draw, Vota said: “Now Facebook and Google are getting up there."
Economic development efforts have “basically been technology-free,” the international institutions lacking savvy, Brewer said. Technologists offer an ability to act in the face of high uncertainty and very quickly -- both essential in dealing with severe deprivations, he said. They can complete projects in months, much more quickly than international institutions seek to do, Brewer said. Without that speed, “you're doomed,” he said. “You can’t have a five-year plan, because the situation will not be the same in five years.”