INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

A Newsletter of IFIP Working Group 9.4
and
Commonwealth Network for Information Technology

Volume 8, No3, January 1998
Editor: Subhash Bhatnagar

January 1998

Conference Announcements

The Impact of Multi-Media Technologies and GIS on the Labour Structure in India

Editor's note: We reproduce a note written by Dr.Marco Corsi, Via Marradi 146, 57126 Livorno, Italy (E-mail: corsim@sysnet.it) outlining his research project.

For years now I have been committed to the problems concerning Social Policies as regards the Asian area, with particular reference to the Indian sub-continent. I have studied issues related to the socio-economic impact of development policy on Indian society. These studies had particular regard for modernisation processes (compare "the green revolution").

My Ph.D. project involves the impact of new multi-media technologies on work organisation in India: I intend to concentrate the research on

(a) the results related to regional use of "new technologies";

(b) how these are received in social contexts (the manner in which they receive "new technologies" shows strong openness to technological innovation in certain aspects, but strong ties to traditional work organisation forms with respect to other aspects);

(c) the impact strategies developed by the national or local governments (policies of structural adjustment are an example of how these strategies are co-ordinated with economic and social policies that take into account guidelines established by international agencies);

(d) the possibilities of pursuing social goals through participatory GIS.

I am training with an Austrian GIS software society which is going to start a joint venture with an Indian society and which provides MS-Windows based GIS and related products. My research, is principally aimed at gathering information on the restructuring and delocalising forms of organisational and productive cycles that many European companies are following on a global scale in the attempt to recover productivity and competitiveness. This entails understanding the forms that such strategies take and the effects that they produce with respect to job opportunities and, in a collateral sense, the dynamics and the availability of labour in spatially and traditionally distant contexts. I am also obviously very interested in the consequences of the application of GIS technology in India, how could they be used to resolve social issues, in what ways might this technology influence the effective development of the Sub-continent. I would be very grateful for every suggestion which will enable me to install a connection’s network for discussions, exchange of opinions, comparisons and suggestions.

Asia Pacific Web Conference (APWeb98)

Beijing, September 27-30, 1998

http://www.cm.deakin.edu.au/apweb98

The conference focuses on the following topics:

Technology Stream: Application Programming Interfaces; Databases and Knowledge Bases; Distributed/Component-Based Objects; Distributed/Real-Time Systems; Hypertext/ Hypermedia/Multimedia; Information Retrieval and Data mining; Internet/Intranet/Extranet; Languages; Middleware; Mobile Computing and Intelligent Agents; Networking and Communication; Protocols; Security

Application Stream: Business Opportunities; Community and Cultural Impact; Education; Electronic Commerce and Digital Libraries; Enterprise Computing and Workflow Management; Entertainment; Human-Computer Interaction; Groupware/Computer Supported Cooperative Work; Industries; Industry Training; Software Development

Submissions are due by April 6, 1998. Please contact Dr. Yun Yang at Deakin University, Australia. Email: yun@deakin.edu.au

Information Systems: Current Issues & Future Changes

Helsinki, Finland, December 10-13, 1998

The Twenty-First Century economy is taking shape. As ideas turn over with increasing rapidity, knowledge and experience are at a premium. Process engineering is giving way to workflow management; object technologies are maturing; and knowledge management is the dominant issue for senior managers. We must make the best use of whatever partial knowledge that is available to us. How can we combine highly focused research with the broad lens of experience? How can we make theory practical and practice generalisable?

We need to integrate our understanding of the field as well as envision the challenges ahead. Because of this, the working conference objective is to present practical and theoretical frameworks that explore the many-faceted nature of IS/IT-related change. Of special value is the coupling among theoretical thinking, effects exploration, and practical managerial guidelines.

Background

Many books and articles have been published about positive and negative impacts from IS/IT development and use. Examples of impact areas addressed are business value, organizational effects, (work) group effects, deskilling, and effects on the individual level. Within each of these broader areas, economical benefit or loss, magnitude of change, impacts on the formal and informal social structure, changes in job content, and information satisfaction have been explored. Research and trade publications, in business and public administration, are positioned on all managerial levels; strategic, tactical, and operational.

Practical as well as theoretical conceptual frameworks aimed at integrating these diverse aspects of IS/IT change effects are rare. The field is very fragmented. Therefore, the advancement of integrated practical views and theories of a holistic nature are needed. As we approach the 21st century, we must also ask: what do we envision in IS/IT development and use? How might we integrate our understanding of knowledges, processes, and technologies, in the organizations of the future, to better serve learning and work?

Organisers invite you to submit a paper, experience report, or position statement or to propose a panel, workshop, or tutorial for this conference. Contributions are due by April 17th 1998. Contact: Associate Professor Tor J. Larsen, Department of Organization and Management, The Norwegian School of Management, P.O. Box 580, 1301 Sandvika, Norway

Telefax:+47 67 57 08 54 ;Email:tor.j.larsen@bi.no

ITU to Set Up Centre of Excellence

Faced with the rapidly changing world telecom scenario, International Telecommunications Union (I|TU), a UN body which sets international telecom standards and coordinates worldwide telecom systems, is redefining its activities to suit the next millennium. With the aim of increasing telecom penetration in the developing countries of Asia, ITU is going to set up a centre of excellence in the continent before the year 2000. The exact location of the centre is, however, yet to be worked out. A similar such centre is also planned in South America for the benefit of the Latin American countries.

These centres will focus on training the officials of public telecom bodies on topics like management of frequency spectrum, law and regulations relating to telecom. Later private operators will also be trained on the latest technologies and how these can build a profitable business.

Internet is another challenge which ITU is keen to tackle with positive results. ITU will try to promote internet in Developing Countries eventhough some telecom companies are afraid that internet may one day become a basic service. ITU has also started a global telecom policy forum which has members from the government bodies as well as the private operators to negotiate international telecom agreements.

WIC'98: Fifth Australasian Women in Computing Workshop

Brisbane, Australia, 8-10 July 1998

The Third Australasian Conference on Computer Science Education (ACSE'98) will be held at The University of Queensland immediately after WIC'98. The theme of WIC'98 will be:

Perceptions, Realities and Visions of Women in computing as they relate to Academia, Industry and Society (including the Media). The generic term "computing" here refers to any aspect of computing such as in computer services, computer science, information systems, or information technology.

For submission, please check at

http://www.cs.flinders.edu.au/Events/WIC98/

Contributions to Newsletter

The next issue of the newsletter will be published in April 1998. We are looking for the following types of materials.

• Your response to the discussion on electronic dissemination of research or to any article published in this issue.

• Short articles describing IT applications in DCs which have created a social and/or economic impact. Even failure stories which highlight key implementation problems are welcome.

• News about a country/region. The news could cover applications, education, experiments with new technology, initiatives in policy, etc.

• Write-up about research projects focusing on social implications of computers in DCs.

• News about future conferences or a summary of an interesting conference that has taken place in the last 3/4 months. Review of a book which could be of interest to our readers.

We encourage serious articles proposing new paradigms/frameworks, but these should be written in a style that would appeal to the many different constituents of our readership. Please provide only essential references.

The above list is indicative. Please feel free to send any material which you think will interest our readers. Contributions can be sent as Ascii file, a Word file or a WP file to reach us by April 5, 1998 preferably by E-mail: subhash@iimahd.ernet.in or by post to Prof. S.C. Bhatnagar, IIM Ahmedabad 380015, India or by Fax:+91-79-6427896.