IT for Developing Regions

Draft August 25, 2003

Week 1: Introduction – August 27

• Objectives for the course.
• Economic and social conditions in developing countries – range between and within developing countries.
• What is it like to live on $1-2/day?
• Different definitions of “development”:
• Discussion of Millennium Development Goals

Week 2: The role of ICT in development – September 3

• Previous instances of developing and introducing new technologies (e.g. Green Revolution)

• Why the growing interest in ICT for development?
• Current state of the debate. How important is IT?

Week 3: ICT for development – current activities – September 10

• An overview of “ICT for development” activities by different actors:

- Int’l organizations (G-8, UN, World Bank)

- Companies (e.g. HP)

- NGOs and social enterprises (e.g. GrameenBank)

- National governments

• National frameworks for “e-readiness” being adopted by developing countries to accelerate the adoption of ICT:

- Infrastructure

- Development of workforce with ICT-specific skills

- Legal, regulatory and policy environment

- Role of private sector

- Applications

• Is it possible to “serve the poor profitably”? (Prahalad). Possible business models – shared access, micro-franchise, etc.

Week 4: Trends in information and communications technologies – September 17

Overview of price and performance in ICT “building blocks.”

• Semiconductors (memory and logic)
• Storage
• System-on-chip
• Wired and wireless networks (satellite, cellular, 802.11, 802.16)
• Displays

Possible unique requirements for developing country users:

• Low-cost
• Low-power
• Intermittent connectivity
• User interfaces for populations with multiple languages and low levels of literacy
• Shared access as a possibly dominant use mode
• Limited skilled workforce for maintenance

Week 5: Economic benefits of ICT – September 24

• Income generation
• Job creation (e.g. outsourcing)
• Better functioning of markets, lowered costs of domestic and international economic transactions
• Economy-wide increases in productivity
• E-commerce
• Benefits for the poor?

Week 6: E-health, e-learning – October 1

• Public health applications
• Health information
• Tele-health

Week 7: E-government, E-democracy – October 8

• Can government work better and cost less?
• Reducing corruption and increasing transparency
• Use of ICT by civil society
• Government efforts in censorship and surveillance

Week 8: Energy and environment – October 15

Week 9: Technology-specific issues – networking/infrastructure – October 22

• Alternative network architectures
• Co-design of infrastructure and device – advantages for cost and functionality
• Intermittent connectivity
• Use of 802.11 in developing world – leapfrog opportunities?

Week 10: Technology-specific issues – devices – October 29

• Current approaches such as Simputer
• System-on-chip
• Novel, low-cost, low-power devices – how low can we go?
• Novel, low-cost displays

Week 11: Technology-specific issues – user interfaces – November 5

• Support for multiple languages
• Speech as interface
• Support for users with low-levels of literacy
• User interaction with sensor networks

Week 12: Cross-cutting issues – November 12

• Intellectual property
• Privacy
• Role of open source in developing countries
• Developing countries as producers as opposed to merely consumers of innovation

Week 13: Beyond ICT – other tech needs for developing countries – November 19

• Water purification
• Affordable energy
• Low-cost diagnosis of infectious diseases
• Cook stoves

Week 14-15: Student presentations – November 26/December 3