Challenges in international ICT development

This document provides an overview of the physical, cultural, and social challenges related to development in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) worldwide. The author begins by distinguishing between IT (information technology) in the West and ICT in the global sphere. He points out that "In the west, communications technology are taken for granted due to their pervasiveness. In the developing world this is not the case." Communications technology in the West, he claims, is dependent on heavy-duty infrastructure requirements. Such a network of wires, the author points out, is prohibitive economically for developing nations.

Cell phone technology, however, has inspired what the author calls "a dramatic change". The cell phone towers are small, enclosed, and can be run off the electricity grid using generators. Electrical power generators that run on various fuels can also substitute for a grid. In this way and in many other ways, Woodside argues, ICT development (unlike IT) intrinsically involves bringing communications technology to places it has never been before.

Sections that follow in this article explore trends in the areas of:

• Electricity - urban and rural - some rural setting have no grid...
• Shipping and acquiring parts - "Shipping advanced or unusual equipment into a developing country can be slow, expensive, and possibly even difficult from a political perspective. Thus solutions that can be built on simple, easy-to-acquire commodity parts are more appropriate..."
• Local expertise - often lacking
• Software costs - pirated software is widely available in developing nations...the prices for commercial software are very high, and it is almost impossible to obtain localised versions of this software in languages other than the 10 or 20 most popular global languages...open source software (OSS) offers "an attractive alternative"...
• Network provisioning - "International bandwidth is a precious resource in most of the developing world....many developing nations...rely on either low-bandwidth telephone cable connections, or satellite connections. Both are very slow compared to fibre. Telephone lines are difficult to maintain, and satellite links are very expensive. Still, in the absence of other options, both are used...One technology, called "WiFi" or 802.11, is exciting because it is free of any license and the hardware is available at very cheap commodity prices..."

Contact Simon Woodside sbwoodside@yahoo.com for a copy of this article.