The Role of ICT in Sustainable Development Raj Reddy Aug 29, Johannesburg Summit Presentation

The Vision Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not the cure-all to the world’s problems. But it can be a powerful tool to facilitate and enable affordable solutions to Economic Development Economic growth Job creation Low-cost access to goods and services Societal Development: Empowering the Individual Improved literacy Reduced mortality such as U5MR Access to safe water (as a result of monitoring) Free flow of information (supports democratization) Increased transparency Environment Protection Pollution monitoring, diagnosis and elimination Clean air, clean water, clean energy, etc. Logistic Support for Disaster recovery Oil spills, e.g., Exxon Valdez Indonesian fires Chernobyl accident

Is ICT Necessary? ICT cannot improve the quality of life but can facilitate access that can improve the quality of life such as Providing access to entertainment Providing access to education and life-long learning ICT cannot make you literate but can enable learning independent of age and physical limitations Providing access to all human knowledge anytime anywhere Access any book, magazine, newspaper, music, or video regardless of language by anyone Universal Library video The Million Book Digital Library project of China, India and US

Is ICT Necessary? (cont) ICT cannot feed the poor but can enable wealth creation and expense reduction through applications such as price discovery, creating export opportunities, and job creation ICT cannot cure the sick but can provide a link to doctors and treatment using telemedicine ICT cannot save the environment but can help to monitor it and diagnose and provide options to policy makers eventually can be linked to appropriate technologically-controlled remediation approaches as well

Necessary Conditions for Sustainable ICT Sustainability has been traditionally linked to environmental sustainability Sustainability of ICT is also essential To achieve sustainable ubiquitous use of ICT, it must be accessible and affordable ICT can not be deployed as charity Even an illiterate farmer must desire a TVPCR and be willing to pay for it ICT must also create a clear value proposition would you rather spend the money on food?

Accessible ICT? Connectivity within a walking distance Costing less than cup of coffee per day Language divide Usable in any language Literacy divide Permitting communication using speech Recognition and synthesis

Affordable ICT? If ICT is to achieve pervasive presence in developing economies, it should be affordable A TVPCR at the same price as the current TV set The value proposition should be self evident It should be more than a TV for entertainment Any movie anytime, interactive entertainment, massive multiplayer games More than a cell phone for communication IP phone with no long distance charges, voice , video Better than a teacher in a class room for learning and education A teacher for every learner Better than a local expert for rapid and reliable access to knowledge and knowhow Easy to use, easy to learn, and affordable

Trustable ICT? Trusted sources of information--local and global prices of crops at regional markets civic obligations (e.g. tax information, filing deadlines) news Anonymity guaranteed where needed and appropriate requesting information about a potentially communicable disease On-line assets and records as safe, anonymous, and accessible as the best hiding place in your house!

What should the Scientific Community do? Get the IT firms to see the developing economies as huge markets - not as charity Develop affordable low cost systems and software Support and codesign of low cost options Dependable designs: 6 sigma reliability Radically simpler software and user interfaces Low cost, easily deployed and integrated sensors Develop solutions that support low levels of literacy and languages of developing economies Support of R and D for orphan languages Develop power without the power gird E.g. Solar, biomass and crank power options Develop technologies for connectivity without telephony Explore low cost connectivity using satellite and wireless

What can Each Nation do? Supportive national policies for ICT from developing economies Provide “Free Broadband Internet”. It is only about 1% of the cost of building roads Immediately eliminate exorbitant prices for connectivity from PTT monopolies Eliminate and/or radically reduce taxation on ICT Develop multilingual software tools Support and incubate local entrepreneurs solving local problems

What can the UN do? Provide free access to knowledge and knowhow Create a center that can provide answers to problems faced by national, metropolitan and rural communities using ICT The center can have access to world class experts from TWAS and other academies who can provide timely inputs to pressing problems Create a World Knowledge Bank which acquires intellectual property rights from owners and makes them available to developing economies at affordable costs Owners of IPR get little revenue and profit at present from developing economies And many of them would make available their IPR under appropriate safeguards for a lower fee or royalty