ICT and its role in rural development

1. ICT and its role in rural development Martyn Warren mwarren@plymouth.ac.uk www.martynwarren.co.uk

2. Digital exclusion and social exclusion: The cloud in the silver lining Lecture 3

3. Agenda • Digital divides – the theory • Digital exclusion and social exclusion – the digital vicious cycle • How do we deal with the problem? Theme: People matter as much as the technology

7. Digital divide • The existence of a difference in adoption of digital technology between societal groups, through reasons beyond their own control. • Income • Education • Age • Race • Gender • Rich country/poor country • Rural-urban…

8. A bit of theory

9. Diffusion theory - classification of adopters (Rogers 1995)

10. The ‘S’ curve

11. Digital divides

12. Knowledge gap hypothesis …as the infusion of mass media into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socio-economic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease” Tichenor, Donohue and Olien 1970

13. The digital vicious cycle • “New ideas make the rich richer and the poor poorer, widening the socio-economic gap between the earlier and later adopters…. • The effects of an innovation usually cannot be managed to separate the desirable from the undesirable consequences” Rogers 1995 p414

14. Countervailing influence - the ‘leapfrog’ • Those slow to adopt basic technology skip one or more of the stages that earlier adopters go through. • For instance • mobile phones, mesh wireless broadband in Africa • Fibre-optic networks in China, Ruanda • Mobile wireless in Europe?

15. ‘Leapfrog’ example • More than half the world's population now pay to use a mobile phone, with developing countries accounting for about two-thirds of the mobile phones in use. • Over the same period, fixed-line subscriptions rose more modestly, indicating that many people in the developing world are bypassing the older technology altogether. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/02/mobile-phone-internet-developing-world Accessed: 19 April 2010

16. The ‘mutating divide’ • Slower-adopting groups can catch up… • But by that time, the rest of the world has moved on: the divide merely changes its nature, e.g.: • Videotex • dial-up internet • low-bandwidth broadband in a telecentre… • ….then at home • then progressively higher bandwidths • 3G/4G mobile access

17. Infrastructural digital divides

18. Broadband less than 2Mbps 2008 CRC State of the Countryside 2008

19. UK ‘next-generation’broadband 2009 Point Topic Sep 09

20. ‘Digital divide looms again over superfast broadband’ • “it would cost almost £29bn to deploy a 1Gbit/s new fibre optic line to every home and business in the UK... • ...a renewed digital divide is likely if operators are able to neglect rural rollout in favour of more profitable urban infrastructure. The Register 8th September 2008

21. Europe 3G coverage 2009 http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/GSM_EuropePoster2009A.pdf

22. SURFIN' BIRD! • Ms Brumfield set about transmitting a short five-minute video from her farm to a reporter waiting some 75 miles away. At the same time she strapped a memory card containing the clip to the leg of Rory the racing pigeon. • Ninety minutes later the memory card arrived in Skegness: an hour after that, the reporter was still waiting for the clip to upload. Ms Brumfield’s first attempt to upload the clip crashed after ten minutes. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/17/bt_bird/ 17 Sep 2010

23. Consequences for rural population? • Limited access to government services, and to the full range of social benefits, such as cheaper bills and healthcare diagnostics; • Limited job search opportunities and online training, etc; • Poor access to social and recreational uses of the internet; • Increased isolation felt by many older people; • Weakened business innovation. CRC Mind the Gap June 2009

24. Future king in rural broadband warning

25. Future king in rural broadband warning • Rural businesses in "broadband deserts" are being denied vital internet services, Prince Charles has warned. • He said isolated towns and villages were placed at a "severe disadvantage" by being in the "internet's slow lane". • Failing to invest in rural economies would be "vandalism on a grand scale", the Prince of Wales added. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8300337.stm

26. Digital exclusion and social exclusion

27. Digital exclusion • Only partly a matter of supply of technology • Partly a matter of human factors – competence, confidence andmotivation • All may be combined as an effect of social exclusion

29. The class/income effect The Register 28 May 2008

30. Changes to UK welfare system • Claims "will normally be made through the internet". • The government say they expect "most subsequent contact between recipients and the delivery agency will also be conducted online". • Claimants will be expected to manage their claims as they would an online bank account. • There will be support for the "minority" unable to use the online system. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11734972 11/10/2010

31. The age effect • Of the 17 million people over the age of 15 at risk of digital exclusion, 9.3 million (44%) are over the age of 55. • This is especially important in rural areas, where the median age is 6 years older than those in urban areas. Commission for Rural Communities (2009) Mind the Gap: Digital England – a rural perspective http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/files/CRC104%20Digital%20Inclusion%20Report1.pdf

32. Old meets new in digital divide • 40% of those aged 65 or over in the UK have never used the internet. • The charity Age UK warns that unless more could be done to help older people get online "there is serious concern that they'd become more and more marginalised members of society". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11501622 15 Oct 2010

33. The education effect (10,000 adults, UK) Future Foundation 2004

34. Effect of personal disadvantage on employment potential, UK Berthoud , R and Blekesaune, M (2006). Persistent Employment Disadvantage, 1974 to 2003 http://www.train2000.org.uk/research-reports/pdfs/EssexResearchEmploymentPentalities.pdf [accessed 25/4/10]

35. If these are problems in rich countries… • ...they are likely to be far greater problems in the developing world... • ... even though relative rates of growth might be higher in many poorer countries, and some ‘leapfrogging’ of technology is occurring. • Lack of advanced internet use (Kenney 2006)

36. Digital divide in processing capacity • “...in 1996 the average inhabitant of the industrialized countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had a capacity of 49 kbps more than its counterpart from Latin America and the Caribbean. • Ten years later, this gap widened to 577 kbps per inhabitant.” Martin Hilbert ab; Priscila Lopez c;Cristian Vasquez (2010) Information Societies or “ICT Equipment Societies?” Measuring the Digital Information-Processing Capacity of a Society in Bits and Bytes . The Information Society, Volume 26, Issue 3 May 2010 , pages 157 - 178

37. International digital access index

38. Global density of internet connectivity http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/closing-the-global-digital-divide-technology-in-developing-countries.php Accessed: 19 April 2010

41. A health divide • Information and communication technologies have not been harnessed systematically to improve the health of populations in developing countries. • The current digital divide is more dramatic than any other inequity in health or income. The quality of health information available on the web is inconsistent, and the visibility of research from developing countries is limited. Edejer T T-T. (2000) Information in practice: Disseminating health information in developing countries: the role of the internet. BMJ 2000;321:797-800 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7264/797 Accessed: 19 April 2010

42. Factors limiting utility of advanced internet use in developing areas • Low quality of infrastructure • Limited internet usage among locals • Lack of broader environment to exploit technology (e.g. e-commerce) • Lack of access to human capital • Advanced education • Literacy skills • Language skills • Migration of skilled people Kenny (2006)

43. Factors limiting utility of advanced internet use (2) • Weak institutional capacity • Especially legal protection, necessary for consumer trust • Poorly developed financial institutions • Cultural barriers • Hierarchical management structures • Etc… Kenny (2006)

44. In Developing Countries, Web Grows Without Profit • Web companies ... are enjoying some of their most vibrant growth in developing countries. • But ... web companies often need more servers to make content available to parts of the world with limited bandwidth. • And in those countries, online display advertising is least likely to translate into results. Stone, B and Helft, M (2009) In Developing Countries, Web Grows Without Profit . New York Times, 26 April 2009.www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/start-ups/27global.html?_r=1 Accessed 19/4/10

45. In Developing Countries, Web Grows Without Profit (2) • This has become a serious drag on the bottom lines of photo-sharing sites, social networks and video distributors like YouTube. • Those who hoped to unite the world in a single online village are increasingly finding that the economics of that vision just do not work. Stone, B and Helft, M (2009) In Developing Countries, Web Grows Without Profit . New York Times, 26 April 2009.www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/start-ups/27global.html?_r=1 Accessed 19/4/10

46. The vicious cycle at work • Internet use has more than doubled globally, with 23% of people using the net last year compared to 11% in 2002. • However, only 20% Africans went online in 2007, the last year for which firm figures were available. • Across the world just 5% of people have broadband internet at home, although 20% in the developed world now have a fast connection. • http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/02/mobile-phone-internet-developing-world Accessed: 19 April 2010

47. Can it be resolved?

48. Remedies? • Improving infrastructure and physical access is vital… Examples…

49. UK Government boosts hill farm and upland communities support • “Funding of up to £26million to support hill farmers and help some of England’s rural communities to thrive was unveiled today by Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman.  • A new Rural Community Broadband Fund expected to be worth up to £20million will be set up to help end the digital and social divide suffered by rural areas and up to £6million a year more will be available to hill farmers for environmental stewardship schemes. ” http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2011/03/10/uplands/

50. United Nations sets global broadband targets • The United Nations has called on all countries to put in place broadband strategies by 2015. • By that time it wants to see 60% of people in the developed world online, with a slightly lower target of 50% for people living in the developing countries. • It also wants net access to be made available to 40% of households in the developing world by 2015. • It emphasised that broadband services must be "affordable" - amounting to less than 5% of average monthly incomes. BBC News 25/10/11 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15447329