La brecha digital se ha presentado como una nueva barrera que impide a los pobres (sean países o ciudadanos) su crecimiento económico y desarrollo. Los países desarrollados, aunque una parte de la población permanece aún al otro lado de esa brecha, marcan la tendencia de por donde debe ir el progreso. Además el diseño de sus infraestructuras y sistemas de información suelen ser tomados como los estándares tecnológicos para otros países menos desarrollados. Pero, la situación actual que podemos ver hoy en día en EEUU, Europa, Japón o Corea del Sur es el resultado de una larga historia de éxitos y fracasos, de ensayo y error. Para aprender de los errores ajenos no es necesario (ni conveniente) repetirlos, y por eso en muchas ocasiones se ha planteado que una estrategia de "leapfrogging" podría ser mucho más rápida y rentable para los países pobres.
Africa, en la que nos fijamos casi siempre sólo en casos de malos noticias, es un laboratorio de iniciativas para la superación de la brecha digital. Estos días he tenido noticia de dos proyectos interesantes: ambos son iniciativas locales (no proceden de agencias internacionales), ambos suponen "leapfrogging", ambos utilizan tecnologías simialres, pero difieren radicalmente en quiénes son sus promotores y en cuál es la filosofía de cual debe ser la estretagia de utilización de las tecnologías de la información en el de desarrollo. Son la iniciativa del gobierno etíope y la iniciativa que podríamos denominar DIY ("do it youself") en Malawi.
1. Etiopía
El Times londinense (Ethiopia leaps into the information age) ha informado de la inicitiva del gobierno etíope que está desarrollando un plan, con un coste anual equivalente al 10% (!!) de su PIB, para proveer de acceso de banda ancha mediante satélite a buena parte de su población.
Good news often seems to be an endangered species in Africa, even if many parts of the continent are making quiet progress while others occupy the headlines with stories of conflict and disaster. Still, it is surprising to learn that one of its poorer countries is spending 10 per cent of its annual GDP on a broadband, satellite-based internet system.
The Ethiopian government faced some puzzlement four years ago when it embarked upon a plan to bring the worldwide web to every school and local government office, but ministers insist that this is the quickest, most cost-effective way of building a national infrastructure.
La estrategia tiene unos objetivos claros y nítidos: 1) conectar las diferentes oficinas gubernamentales, 2) proveer contendios educativos y dar formaciónb al profesorado en los centros de enseñanza no universitaria y faciliatr la comunicación de sus universidades con centros extranjeros para favorecer la colaboración en investigación, 3) aplicar sistemas de telemedicina, y 4) proporcionar sistemas de infromación agrícola.
With the infrastructure in place, politicians, engineers and users now face the challenge of realising its potential. The network is intended to deliver high-quality education, agricultural training and, eventually, a telemedicine service, as well as to provide the foundation for an internet-based telephone system that could replace the antiquated equipment used in most of the country.
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Using the broadband network, the government is mounting a two-pronged campaign to drive up educational standards, employing internet-based training to boost the calibre of teachers at the same time as delivering educational material direct to pupils via the web.
A pesar de todas las aplicaciones previstas, está claro que un objetivo básico e inmediato es el uso por la administración pública de las nuevas infraestructuras:
Although some local businesses are making use of IT, the government remains the primary internet user in Ethiopia, and beyond the education sector the main customer is local government. Each of the 600 local offices and 11 regional centres is now connected by video conferencing equipment, which has replaced two-way military radios as the main form of communications in some areas, and in others has given villages their first link with the outside world.
El diseño técnico ha sido puesto en manos de Cisco y su aproximación tecnológica es un ejemplo claro de leapfrogging:
Ethiopia, along with other African countries, has the opportunity to leapfrog the technologies of the last century and progress directly from subsistence agriculture to the digital age. "Many countries are doing what the US did, what Europe did, and putting a lot of money into going from analogue to digital networks, then digital to IP [internet] networks. Why not jump that digital divide right away?"
Jamais Cascio en comenta la inicitiva de una forma más crítica, aunque positiva, en Worldchanging (Ethiopia leaps):
The introduction of an entirely new infrastructure or technology is almost always financially costly, and questions inevitably arise about the appropriate allocation of resources, the relative needs of the population, and whether the chosen path is actually the best way to achieve the leapfrog goal. Efforts that focus on information technology are particularly vulnerable to these kinds of criticism, as IT -- unlike (say) water or electricity, or even medical biotechnology -- has a less obvious day-to-day positive impact on the lives of the people making the leap. At the same time, as computers and networks have enormous potential as economic drivers, it can be tempting for a developing nation to push ahead with an IT strategy in hopes that it will trigger the kind of economic acceleration to make other sorts of development more readily achievable.
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This is an enormous gamble for Ethiopia, as the overarching agenda isn't simply to upgrade and expand the telecommunication network, but to transform the country's economy, turning Ethiopia into the foremost information technology and services provider in the region. In essence, the Ministry of Capacity Building wants to make Ethiopia Africa's first real Knowledge Economy. For a nation that has in recent decades suffered from overwhelming famine and civil war, this is an ambitious goal to say the least. If it fails, Ethiopia could become a symbol for the dangers of leapfrogging and the dangerous temptations of going too far, too fast. But if it succeeds -- and the earliest signs are hopeful -- Ethiopia could instead symbolize the pathway to success in 21st Century Africa.
Cascio marca claramente los peligros de este proyecto (que podrían ser especialmente relevantes, caso de confirmarse, por el "efecto demostración" que supondrían). Entiendo que los principales riesgos se encientran en estos aspectos: 1) apostar por las IT antes que por otras necesidades más básicas; 2) utilizar una "estrategia cerrada" planificada por el gobierno en la que ya se decide a priori que sectores económicos y sociales se verán favorecidos por el uso de IT (y cómo se verán favorecidos); y 3) apostar por tecnologías que proporcionan capacidad de innovación a los ciudadanos, siempre que se permita su uso libre y abierto cuando en realidad los promotores (el gobierno) no creen en este modelo. Para apoyar este último peligro, posiblemente el más grave, basta leer un comentario de Ethan Zuckerman sobre la censura en Intenet del gobierno etíope (Zenawi sues Ethiopian radio station in US, website disappears):
The website of Ethiopian opposition radio station Tensae Ethiopia Voice of Unity has disappeared, apparently as a consequence of legal threats received by their webhosting provider.
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Reporters Sans Frontières notes that Ethiopia has been systematically hassling independent journalists, imprisoning an editor for refusing to identify a source, arresting reporters for covering post-election violence, etc. Nothing on the Tensae case yet, but I’m trying to reach friends there about the situation.
2. Malawi
En Malawi se está desarrollando uin proyecto que también pretende proprocioanr acceso de banda ancha a la población, también utiliza tecnologías inalámbricas, pero supone un modelo radicalmente distinto al etíope. La iniciativa es privada y pretende "sólo" desarrollar las infraestructuras dejando a la innovación de los usuarios los usos y su impacto en el desarrollo.
Mike McKay, uno de los promotores define en su blog (Hacktivate) su idea (en respuesta a la iniciativa gubernamental etíope):
My dream is to bring bandwidth to Malawi especially its villages. By sellingVOIP and relying heavily on Open Source innovations and communities as well as used equipment from Ebay to keep prices low, I am hoping to develop market driven approaches - not just the government gravy trains that are far too common in Africa.
Timbuktu Chronicles da más información del "modelo Malawi" que define como DIY BroadBand: Malawi (DIY por "do it yourself"):
The advent of wireless technologies in Africa has liberalized access to communication,the ripples of which are impacting areas as diverse as banking, product pricing and medicine. The utmost enablers however will be true modular redundant wireless networks that exclude any dependency on centralised systems as is the case with existing wireless networks. Mesh Networks built on open source platforms with open source hardware will ultimately be part of the puzzle. DIY wireless Broadband as demonstrated by Mike Mckay of Hactivate in Malawi could prove to be critical, the objective"... is to bring bandwidth to Malawi especially its villages. By selling VOIP and relying heavily on Open Source innovations and communities used equipment from Ebaygreater detail, "...Take a bunch of Freifunked WRT54Gs and disperse them around the neighborhood, preferable on rooftops with antennas. Some of these would be connected to VSAT systems and therefore provide a route to the web. Then whoever wants to jump on the mesh, just turns on their machine and connects with normal DHCP to the ad-hoc network supplied by the mesh..." to keep prices low..." Outlining the steps in greater detail, "...Take a bunch of Freifunked WRT54Gs and disperse them around the neighborhood, preferable on rooftops with antennas. Some of these would be connected to VSAT systems and therefore provide a route to the web. Then whoever wants to jump on the mesh, just turns on their machine and connects with normal DHCP to the ad-hoc network supplied by the mesh..."
