It’s a valid question and one that ran like a branching river through John Pilbeam’s presentation. For majority areas of the South (see definitions) where even the basics of survival are a daily struggle and the infrastructure can barely support electricity for most people never mind broadband, is the information technology ‘revolution’ a vain proposition? That’s not to deny that the South could and ultimately probably will benefit from more active participation in the digital knowledge economy however the poor results of initiatives such as One Laptop per Child, that Nicholas Negroponte of MIT said ‘could bridge the technology divide’ between ‘the over-developed and under-developed nations of the world’ exposes the credibility gap between idealism and practicality. When 40% of the world lives on less than a two dollars a day (Human Development Report 2007/8, p25) which family can afford to spend $100 on a laptop and if the South governments were to provide them wouldn’t the money be better spent in other ways?
‘Digital bridge‘ by Kris Emmerson, symbolising the multiplier effect of PCs donated from the UK to Africa.
There is another side to the equation and that is knowledge transfer in the other direction. John Pilbeam, Forced Migration Online (FMO), University of Oxford, presented on the work of information sites FMO, Fahamu and Mursi online. These are examples of using the internet to disseminate expert knowledge from research institutes to a wider constituency. FMO is essentially a digital library and directory that includes hard to find ‘grey literature’ (see definitions) on a specialist area. Fahamu is an education and campaign project, focused on Africa whose mission statement is to ‘supports the struggle for human rights and social justice in Africa’. Mursi online, aims to provide a more balanced perspective of remote tribe in Ethiopia.
What is apparent about all three sites is that information about the South is not neutral. The audiences may be different, academic, policy maker, or tourist etc, but the information sits within and is implicated in a context of active knowledge. A dictionary is an example of passive knowledge; the engine behind Wikipedia is active, participatory, networked knowledge. Recurrent themes of Pilbeam’s presentation were ‘access’ – breaking down traditional monopolies of information; and ‘accessible technology’ – means to present information.
Digital tools for researchers – websites, blogs, podcasts, video production
The low cost of digital media production enables researchers to produce content that twenty years ago would have been prohibitively expensive, easily, cheaply and quickly. Online channels can disseminate of this content directly to an audience via the internet. Also relevant to the process are improvements in broadband, open source technology and the interconnections with search engines, notably Google. We have seen this phenomenon with user generated content on Youtube, Flickr and blogging platforms, now researchers are using the technology to deliver compelling, high quality, original material. Some specific examples of tools are: content management systems (CMS), eg Plone – allows a user to create and update content via a browser anywhere in the world; audio editing tools like levelator that optimises the sound quality of podcasts; and a researcher can even create a television channel using services such as miro. These services and tools are open source or free, an integral strand of the internet revolution that is driving the democracy, idealism and community connections of the web. Blogs in particular are having a dramatic effect on the web, reshaping communication and news agendas.
Although Pilbeam said that in terms of the academic research these technologies have not necessarily changed the nature of academic research or what researchers are studying and that PDF downloads are still the predominant vehicle for online publishing – it is apparent that digital technology is having an effect on presentation, new content forms and audiences. The fact that if you google ‘mursi’ the second listing after Wikipedia (!) is mursi online, ahead of National Geographic or tourist brochures, eloquently validates the work of creating alternative news sources.
Writing for Change, Fahamu training material assists project workers, fundraisers, campaigners etc write more effectively.
Ushahidi.com was created in a record breaking two days (“Kenya: Citizen Reporting Tool Comes in Handy” Business Daily – Nairobi, 15 January 2008) – and is a graphic example of using web applications (google maps, blogs, sms functionality..) ‘cobbled together’ with xml (see definitions) for community action. The word ‘ushahidi’ means witness, the site is an alert system for people to report incidents of violence during the Kenyan elections. Users can also post pictures and send text messages to the site.
Digital tools for the South
Ushahidi aside, forecasts for uptake of internet technology in the South are not promising. Mobile phone use is rapidly increasing but penetration rates for Internet and broadband in developing countries remain at very low levels about 25% and 3% respectively (Developing Nations ‘Increase Share of Tech Exports’ 7. Feb 2008, SciDev.net). Poor quality of connectivity and low bandwidths are common issues – infrastructure is expensive, costly and undeveloped. The implications of this is that while Africa and other South countries might be getting more coverage, they are unlikely to be active participations in the generation of this content, nor do they make up a significant proportion of the audience. The notion that mursi online would ever be able to tell a story from the Mursi point of view is fanciful, however to return to the question posed at the beginning of the essay, two quotations from the Mursi:
What’s it for? You can’t eat it, and you can’t tie your bull up with it”
I’m glad you’ve done this…because now that our lives are changing so quickly, our children will be able to see how we used to live.”
It isn’t the quantity or quality of digital technology that matters in the South but the fact that it exists is a window of possibility. Obviously most people would prefer to see the cameras in Mursi hands rather than those of the ignorant and disrespectful tourists (Tourists at the Bridge) however technological including information technology solutions remain essential in a post industrial, globalised economy. They just have to find the right ones for the South.
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Definitions
grey literature – papers, reports, technical notes, or other documents produced and published by governmental agencies, academic institutions and other groups that are not distributed or indexed by commercial publishers. Many of these documents are difficult to locate and obtain. Virginia Institute of Marine Science
grey literature – a body of materials that cannot be found easily through conventional channels such as publishers, “but which is frequently original and usually recent” Wikipedia
South or Global South – These terms are now preferred to the ‘developing world’.
xml – extensible markup language (*.xml) – a standard, simple, self-describing way of encoding both text and data so that content can be … exchanged across diverse hardware, operating systems, and applications. XML Basics. RSS is an example of a successful XML format.
>> Next essay Identity, Privacy, Anonymity – Personal data and the digital technology
Tags: developing world, digital culture, digitising the south, global south, kcl
