A low-cost, mass-produced device that melds computer and
communications capabilities was one idea considered by
international agencies examining the role of information and
communications technologies in global economic
development.
Representatives from the World Bank, the Division for
Sustainable Development of the United Nations and academic and
research institutions from various countries, held a three-day
workshop in Bangalore to develop an agenda for ICT research and
development that would help sustain global economic and social
development.
Participants at the workshop, organised by Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, proposed technology, regulatory and
policy requirements for ICT to help achieve the UN's millennium
development goals, according to Vallampadugai Arunachalam, a
Carnegie Mellon professor and co-ordinator of the workshop.
The millennium development goals include eradicating poverty and
hunger, universal primary education, promoting gender equality,
empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal
health, combating disease, ensuring environmental sustainability
and developing a global partnership for development.
"We are raising the awareness about ICT and establishing a link
between ICT and sustainable development," said JoAnne DiSano,
director of the UN's Division for Sustainable Development in New
York. "Our main focus this year is on water, sanitation and human
settlements, and ICT plays an immensely important role in all of
that."
Among the issues addressed by the workshop is the development
and creation of affordable technology for people in developing
economies.
The final agenda that emerged from workshop has not yet been
disclosed, although participants did explore the possibility of
replacing a traditional computer for ICT applications with a
standardised, mass-produced device that can serve as a combination
of computer, TV, telephone and digital VCR.
Carnegie Mellon has taken the initiative to develop a device of
this kind, and is working with an undisclosed Korean company on a
prototype, according to Arunachalam, who did not disclose device
specifics or commercialisation.
Workshop attendees discussed using open-source software and
hardware development to reduce user costs.
"There is a need to create a global research community devoted
to research and experimentation on digital divide and development
issues, leading to plausible solutions to each of the problems, and
making such tools and solutions readily available to the whole
world through open source and other low-cost mechanisms,"
Arunachalam said.
"What separates developing countries from developed countries is
not only a gap in resources, but a gap in technology and
knowledge," said Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and professor of
economics and finance at the Columbia University Graduate School of
Business in New York.
John Ribeiro writes for IDG News
Service