Building capacity for Asian ICT policy and regulatory reform

1. Building capacity for Asian ICT policy and regulatory reform Rohan Samarajiva & Sujata Gamage Executive Director & Director of Knowledge Networks

2. Agenda • LIRNEasia and its mission • Building capacity • Mobilizing existing expertise • Producing and reproducing scholars • S&T project that serves as model • What’s different in the social sciences • What is proposed for • ICT policy and regulation scholars in Asia • ICT P&R scholars in universities

3. LIRNEasia and its mission • Non-profit organization incorporated in Sri Lanka; working in region; South Asia and out • Still in 1st year: launched September ’04 • Current projects in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka • Mission: To improve the lives the people of Asia by making it easier to make  use of  the information and communication technologies they need; by facilitating the reform of the laws, policies and regulations to enable those uses; by building Asia-based human capacity through research, training, consulting and advocacy.

4. Who focuses on what part of the ICT value chain now Internet governance NTU School of Communication & Information? Telecom strategies of the poor Infrastructure (Telecom networks) LIRNEasia Least cost subsidies in Nepal

5. What does building Asia-based capacity mean? • Mobilizing existing expertise a. Repurposing existing expertise • Producing and reproducing expertise • LIRNEasia working on 1 • Only universities can do 2 • Do universities have to be Asia-based? • How many Asian universities have strengths in ICT P&R?

6. Our proposal • A systematic approach to identifying existing ICT expertise on Asian ICT policy and regulation • Going beyond conventional casual networking/snowballing approach • Research on conditions for • Building a virtual community of Asian ICT policy and regulation scholars • Improving production & reproduction of scholars

7. Proposal builds on • “Best practices in North-South research collaborations: A case study of Sri Lanka” • US National Science Foundation, Science and Technology Studies Program (SES-0328729, independent scholar award) • Visiting Scholar (2003-05) at Research Value Mapping Group, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA, USA

8. Objective of NSF study • Identify best practices in building S&T capacity in Sri Lanka and the relative role of North-South collaborations

9. Knowledge networks • KN membership captured through • Memberships in associations • Co-authorships • Citations in publications and/or • Citations in patents • But this data by themselves do not explain how KNs are created or the conditions for their sustainability

10. Research methodology • No universal typology • Define the desired outcome • Start with any kind of KN • Mapped through methods such as publications in ISI journals and citation analysis • Identify key members • Use interviews and surveys to discover conditions for success

11. In the NSF study • Desired outcome = active researchers located in Sri Lanka building local capacity • Defined as production of at least one PhD in Sri Lanka who has published at least one ISI journal article • This is being redefined in the course of the research

12. NSF study • Start with co-authorship based population • Cluster into KNs • Identify key researchers • Then survey using questionnaire • Conduct interviews

13. Starting point of KN mapping • Publications in Science Citation Index 1993-02 with Sri Lanka in the address field, e.g.,

14. Sample Record Authors: Taniguchi-Y Nagao-T Maeda-H Kameyama-Y Warnakulasuriya-KAAS Title: Epithelial-Cell Proliferation in Oral Lichen-Planus Full source: CELL PROLIFERATION 2002, Vol 35, Iss S1, pp 103-109 . . . . . . . . . No. Related Records: 20 No. cited references: 19 Addresses: AICHI-GAKUIN-UNIV, SCH DENT, DEPT ORAL & MAXILLOFACIAL SURG 2, NAGOYA, AICHI 464, JAPAN AICHI-GAKUIN-UNIV, SCH DENT, DEPT PATHOL, NAGOYA, AICHI 464, JAPAN FAC-DENT-SCI, PERADENIYA, SRI-LANKA UNIV-LONDON-KINGS-COLL, GUYS KINGS & ST THOMAS DENT INST, DEPT ORAL MED & PATHOL, LONDON WC2R-2LS,ENGLAND

15. Population then clustered into KNs • Based on common keywords, e.g., • Solid State Physics/Chemistry • Malaria/Filaria • Other Diseases • Crops/Livestock/Food • Natural Resources

16. Sample of solid state physics KN

17. Sri Lanka-based KN-1: Solid state physics

18. Solid state physics KN • Groups and group leaders can be identified • Some groups do not interact • Some are linked through a few researchers • Intensity of relations not shown

19. Solid state physics KN • Inputs: • Materials ($s, consumables, equipment) • Knowledge (explicit, tacit) • Outputs: • Expertise (PhDs/MPhils/BScs/Other) • Placement of experts • Professional development

20. Hard science networks v. social science networks • Multiple authorships the norm in hard sciences • Co-authorship analysis yields useful network maps • Those at nodes tend to be senior researchers • Snap shots at different points of time will show “graduation” of researchers from subordinate to superior roles • From periphery to center • SCI is a good indicator

21. Hard science networks v. social science networks • Multiple authorships less common in social sciences • Co-authorship analysis may be inadequate by itself • Have to supplement with citation analysis • Limitations in SSCI & HCI, especially for policy researchers

22. What is proposed for Asian ICT policy & regulation KNs • KN mapping using keywords in Google Scholar, SSCI and HCI • Ideally identify multiple KNs corresponding to different parts of the ICT value chain • Because we start from ICT policy and regulation research on Asia, assume two main subsets within each KN • Those located in Asia • Those located outside Asia

23. But problems exist . . . • Ang and Rivera publish journal article on telecom regulation in Singapore using Samarajiva chapter in 2002 ITU Trends in Telecom Reform Report, but cite as ITU not Samarajiva • Samarajiva, Ang and Rivera belong to same KN but data may not reveal relationships

24. ICT P&R researcher population located in Asia • Those with research in areas of current LIRNEasia research will be invited to participate in LIRNEasia activities • Active website • 23 registered users; 24 mB content; 30/day repeat users; another 30 or so first-time/day; ave. 100 page loads/day • Discussion threads with over 60 comments • Participation in networking meeting, scheduled for September 2005 • Participation in virtual community: web discussions; real-time participation in colloquia, etc. • Joint research projects

25. ICT P&R researchers located in universities (Asian and other) • Will be studied in terms of “reproduction” • Who produces PhD and MAs? • What are the factors conducive to reproduction? • What are the constraints? • Question: should we privilege reproduction in Asia? • What can be done to enable greater reproduction?

26. If NTU participates . . . • Full spectrum of ICT P&R research will be studied • NTU can use the research to consolidate its position as a leading center in Asia