On Wednesday 18 January 2006 10:20 am, Rony Bill wrote:
JTD wrote:
True. And u wind up with bigger debts, lesser knowledge and a deeeeper hole. It's a vicious circle exactly like the one the farmers are in but with the glitz of computers. Any idea how much does a Cisco CCNP cert costs. U can learn much more about routing and filtering with a Rs.4000/- 2nd hand 386 box and earn even more chucking the cisco router.
Cisco type networking learning is not computer literacy.
It is and that was an example of an it guy in the network field v/s farmer in the cotton field. There are many more defs of computer literacy but that is a different story.
With due respect, why would poor people need computers or need to be computer literate?
Because a computer is a tool for aggregation, disbursement and creation of all types of knowledge and to date the cheapest tool to do so. Every other method or tool splits the above three creating innumerable hurdles for the other functions.
IMHO, the only IT revolution that will benefit poor nations along with the masses is e-governance. One by one all govt. depts. should get computerised. Thats where technology will come in handy to reduce delays, corruption and provide fast access to data.
These are symptoms because of governance. You do not need governments in the vast majority of society's needs and the few areas where they are needed would indeed be well served by computerisation subject to a drastic change in the basic philosophy of governance.
No loss of paper files, files eaten by rats etc...
computers have their equivalents. The main benefit of computerisation is ease of retrival. Transparency is a policy matter not a function of computerisation.
Wherever computerisation has taken place, the public has benefited. Ownership of a pc or laptop is not essential. Govt. depts. are the ones where FOSS will be most beneficial in cutting budgets. But do they make use of this wealth?