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 1 st 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 Infrastructure (Telecom networks) Internet governance NTU School of Communication & Information? LIRNEasia Telecom strategies of the poor Least cost subsidies in Nepal

5 What does building Asia-based capacity mean? 1.Mobilizing existing expertise a.Repurposing existing expertise 2.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 , independent scholar award) Visiting Scholar ( ) 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 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 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