Processing and utilizing information has become the essential activity for economic prosperity in the 20^th century and will be the seminal commodity for the 21^st century. The "Information Society" was identified in the early 1980s when almost half the workforce in industrialized economies was engaged in the production, manipulation or dissemination of information rather than tangible goods.[1] The information technology industry had grown to more then 6% of the world economy by 1997 and continues to exceed the rate of global economic growth.[2] The importance of IT to development is widely acknowledged.[3] However, taking Botswana as an example, the increasing expenditure on IT is not bringing about significant development results because, even though the rate of adoption is increasing, IT is not being effectively utilized.[4] Lack of technical knowledge, of creative planning to identify relevant application areas, and of effective ways to support IT dissemination has resulted in IT "consumerism" rather than IT investment; more computers but little meaningful computing. The eternal promise of IT has not materialized and if it is to do so after 2000 new approaches must be found. The current (relatively) low cost technology and the informing power of computer networking, such as the Internet, can be used to accelerate information dissemination and leverage limited technical and other expertise. Considerable research has been conducted on the importance of organizational knowledge and memory in an age of growing information dependency and complexity, in terms of global organizational and industrial dynamics.[5] This research proposes IT solutions for the growing problems of losing valuable knowledge, locating needed information and finding the people with the knowledge. These are key problems in development. Practical application of available technologies can improve access to information and specifically, support effective IT dissemination so Africa can participate in the Information Age on an equal footing.

Is IT the Solution?

Investment in information technology, computers and data communication networks, should be the path to economic prosperity in the information age. A recent major international industry study of the "Digital Planet"[6] shows that the global IT industry, after growing at a phenomenal rate for 50 years, had reached 6% of the entire world economy by 1997. This supports the widely held views that the IT industry is the most significant single contributor to overall global economic health, that IT spending has key social and economic multiplier effects and that IT is an enabling technology for growth in all sectors. Apart from the important growth potential, economic prosperity depends upon improving production efficiency and organizational effectiveness and IT is the key to achieving this.

As the entire report of the Digital Planet study is not available, the methodology employed in the study is not known. However, as the study was undertaken on behalf of an international consortium of IT trade associations, its optimistic conclusions are to be expected. The benefits cited in the report are realized in developing economies and even there, critical assessment of the actual benefits has always presented serious contradictions. Questions about the benefits achieved from the massive investment in IT have persisted.[7] Empirical studies on the productivity or other economic benefits of IT are few and often yield ambiguous results.[8]

In developing countries, and specifically in Africa, little economic multiplier effect can be anticipated where IT is received but not produced, yielding no primary employment or secondary effects in local suppler industries. In small, poor countries, participation by indigenous companies in the global growth of the IT industry is an unlikely benefit in the short term. The greatest potential impact is from IT dissemination and effective utilization to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of other economic sectors, particularly the extensive government and the private sector. The knowledge and experience acquired in this process may facilitate the establishment of a local IT industry.

IT investment in Africa, like the rest of the world, is growing rapidly, driven by the advent of the personal computer (PC), the subsequent low cost local networking and client/server systems paradigm and IT embedded in other products. While IT is generally widely perceived to be useful and is being acquired, what is it being used for? Is it accelerating the pace of development and closing the gap between rich and poor nations?

While questions about the effectiveness of IT in industrialised countries are important and have not been adequately addressed, in developing countries these questions are crucial. Before the advent of the PC and the age of (relatively) cheap technology, many doubted that IT was an appropriate technology for development. P.P. Streeten[9] questioned the acquisition of technology that is inappropriate to the needs, resources and skill level of some developing countries:

... technologies for the rich may compete for scarce skills and capital with the technologies for the poor. Fast private transport, space exploration and catering for sophisticated consumers' choices may prevent or impede the development of technologies for efficient public transport or public health services, for low-cost construction, for mass literacy, or for an improved basic diet. In addition, the technologies that meet the most sophisticated demand are also more exciting intellectually, more glamourous professionally and more closely linked with advanced science.

The same might have been said for computers then, and Heeks[10]expresses similar warnings about current IT expenditures. It is important to be sure IT use is generating benefits to justify the cost.

A great deal more research on technology impact is needed. Unfortunately, most related research is either market potential research by members of the global IT industry or their local representatives, or is conducted by IT professionals or academics, all with a vested interest in promoting IT. Not to suggest current IT growth or those proposing IT use are necessarily wrong, but the potential impact is not well understood. However, as cheap ubiquitous IT is being acquired at a growing rate and one which will continue, we will set aside considerations of whether IT should be used and focus on the question of how to use IT effectively. What benefits can we achieve from increasing investment in IT? Is the potential of existing investment being realized? How can IT best be utilized to further development?

The Situation in Botswana

Botswana had the fifth highest African GNP per capita in 1997[11], is a multi-party democracy, has among the best infrastructure roads, rail, telecommunications, financial services and foreign exchange, access to goods and services, etc. in Africa. However, with the highest rate of GNP growth in Africa over the past 25 years, these advantages are fairly recent. A quarter century ago Botswana was one of the 25 poorest countries in the world. While Botswana is atypical in terms of economic prosperity and potential, it still faces many of the same problems as other developing countries. These problems include: ineffective organizations, low productivity, conflict between traditional and modern cultural norms, an under-qualified workforce, particularly in such technological domains as IT, and conflicts in development priorities. While there are good links to other countries in the region and close access to the larger South African market, the local population and the local market is small, about 1.5 million, and large overseas markets are distant.

There are particular problems with respect to effective dissemination of IT. We will focus on government, which is the largest employer of information workers, where most development decisions are made and the mechanism whereby development initiatives are carried out and managed. Regional government is a distributed organization with the particular information problems of such organizations.

In a 1994 study of computer use in regional government, the level of IT dissemination was found to be very low and the utilization of the available technology even lower [12]. The only widespread application was basic word processing. There was essentially no networking at all and virtually no electronic exchange of information.

The Internet came to Botswana only in 1997. With the emergence of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the Internet in now available in a dial up mode throughout the country. The performance of Internet access is currently problematic and at present would be an impediment to any proposed use of this technology for organizational information exchange. It is likely that this limitation could be overcome. Networked applications are now being introduced and an ISDN service is on the horizon.

A recent 1999 investigation of regional computer use revealed that, in the 5 years since the 1994 study, the level of computerization has increased significantly throughout the country[13]. In particular, more than half the sites visited had local networking, the Internet was available to almost 40% of the people interviewed in the study and almost 40% used email although less than 25% used it frequently. The rapid growth in IT use is indicated by the fact that three quarters of the machines used Window 95, 98, or NT, while the proportion of older machines still using Windows 3.1 or earlier systems was quite small. Another indicator of both a late introduction of desktop computing and increased use is the fact that over half the respondents had used computers for less than three years. This was also the case in the 1994 study. However, despite this growth in IT dissemination, the predominant application remains simple word processing. Technology is being disseminated but meaningful application of this technology is still severely restricted.

While IT is being acquired, what is missing is the identification of effective ways of using it; the subsequent development of information systems based on identified application areas; and focused training on the use of computers for these specific purposes. There is also little progress to date on integrating information systems, use of networks, capture and reuse of development micro-data. The most important issues to address include:[14]

. lack of key technical leadership and expertise for: identifying useful application areas; development of useful applications; establishment of integrated data capture and networking, etc.
. low general IT capacity of public sector employees
. low public sector productivity
. lack of "community knowledge" of IT which allows learning to take place and expanded IT application through local synergism
. lack of effective focused training (which requires the development of information applications on which to focus the training).

The recently released "Vision 2016" seeks to set Botswana's national goals to be achieved by the 50^th anniversary of independence[15]. This wide-ranging visionary document addresses, among many other issues, both the importance of IT and of the need to improve productivity to effect future economic and societal wellbeing. Specifically, the document recognizes the need to enter "the information age on an equal footing". To achieve this Botswana will have "sought and acquired the best available IT and become a regional leader in the production and dissemination of information" and "all schools will have access to a computer and to computer-based communication such as the Internet". There is no evidence in this document of an understanding that merely acquiring IT, including placing it in the schools, will have any significant impact without effective planning and creative dissemination strategies with mechanisms to ensure effective learning and utilization. However, the problem of productivity and motivation is recognized as Vision 2016 urges the "pursuit of excellence through a new culture of hard work and discipline" (emphasis added).

Organizational Knowledge and IT

In the modern information society retention, manipulation, distribution and access to information are central activities. There is more information, it is more important to an organization's success, people are valued more for their knowledge and information processing skills than in the more traditional forms of production. Organizational knowledge encompasses all kinds of information acquired over time and through experience, industrial processes, formulae, operational procedures and parameters and all sorts of other "how-to" knowledge. Organizational knowledge can no longer be retained by a few key individuals or efficiently transferred informally. Organizations are too large and complex. Organizational memory systems are necessary to retain vital organizational knowledge and IT is the basis of such systems. There has been increasing research interest in how to categorize and represent this knowledge and use of IT to support the retention and dissemination of organizational knowledge[16]. There are obvious advantages of this approach to distributed organizations[17] and there have been successes using the Internet[18].

Research into organizational memory and its representation, combined with existing network technologies, can be applied to support distributed organizations, such as local government in developing countries. Important organizational information is hidden in printed operational manuals, minutes of meetings, memos, oral tradition, all situated locally. It would be a simple use of the technology to make these procedures accessible over a temporal and geographical domain. For example, we published the evolving rules for applying for research grants on the University intranet. This allowed for accessibility, immediate location and currency, so long as information is updated as decision rules are changed. The advantages are more pronounced for geographically distributed organizations. This involves trivial publishing technology with no complex systems development or dissemination / implementation.

Knowledge about IT is one kind of organizational knowledge and it is a particularly important one because it is a foundation requirement to allow end-users to realize other benefits from this technology.

How to Improve IT Dissemination

There is a need to consider and test new approaches to IT dissemination in the local setting. The basic ideas we propose have been expounded earlier[19] but progress in testing these ideas has been retarded. The essential idea behind the approach is to try to leverage the limited IT expertise that is available by modifying the role of certain key IT personnel and making use of networking technology to help expand the community knowledge base related to IT utilization.

. key qualified IT actors would serve as IT facilitators in addition to their production and support role. To help expand useful government IT applications throughout the country, the facilitators could:
- identify suitable applications that might already exist in certain localities, improve or modify such applications as necessary and help disseminate them more widely
- provide end-users with focused training using specific applications that would introduce them to the advantages of computing, expose them to more sophisticated techniques of IT use and to a limited extent, encourage end-user application development
- assist others in developing their own applications, based on previously disseminated examples, focused training and an on-going support network

. networking would be used to create a shared domain for discourse on problems and solutions
. applications would be disseminated via networks as would subsequent application training and ongoing user support.

Since these ideas were articulated, the networked support system approach has become quite common in such forms as Internet based technology user support systems offered by many IT vendors and technical interest groups, including frequently asked question (FAQ) forums for problem and answer interchange. The "Answer Garden"[20] research project uses similar techniques to facilitate an organization's technical support and information sharing needs. A number of computer augmented help-desk systems are available that primarily involve the use of telephones to put end-users into contact with technical support[21] . It is now accepted that end-users need ongoing support and IT can be used to mediate the interaction between those who know and those who need to know[22].

We propose to adopt this approach both to introduce organization knowledge support as a useful application of IT and to support knowledge requirements of IT dissemination specifically. Key operational characteristics of such systems:

. allow users to request help. This may involve use of email or distributed web-forms
. have "experts" participate to answer users questions
. make previous questions and answers available for reference. This allows users to passively search for help without actually posing questions, which they may be more comfortable doing at first. Information found this way does not involve anyone else's participation. In replying, referring to a prior question and response that applies is more efficient than answering again
. support interaction with the system that is designed to make it easy to locate information that is already in the system
. register inquiries to the system as soon as they occur so that anyone has the opportunity to answer them. That is, the "expert" is anyone who has something to contribute. Thus experiences can be shared and available knowledge accessed
. provide a mechanism of automatically classifying questions which is needed to reduce delays and manpower requirements for human mediation.

It would eventually be useful to incorporate expert systems and other artificial intelligence techniques but can be disregarded in place of simpler systems at the start. FAQ systems usually support threaded discussions so that a series of communications on a topic can be accessed in the order they occurred. There may be links to related topics. The range of topics for discussion or support may vary widely depending on the needs of the organization and the perceived usefulness of this type of access for different types of information.

Help-desks consume a lot of technical support capacity and lead to burnout[23]. Using IT to remember and ease recall of past solutions organizational knowledge and casting all participants in the role of both seeker and provider of information can make end-user support more efficient.

Problems

We can anticipate a number of serious problems to be overcome for this approach to work:

. getting the technology developed or acquired and then operational is an initial obstacle, delaying learning more about the approach. This is a serious problem
. in general, the Internet is still not widely used. The quality of service is often not adequate. Provision for access would need to be approved and funded. Small-scale experimentation could provide incentive to a wider application of the medium
. to support technically those weak end-users of the Internet as a medium requires correspondents to gain a minimum level of interaction skills. Not all problems can be solved from a distance
. the users must be willing to use the system. This will be the greatest challenge. Typical correspondents will not likely be motivated goal-seekers who want to find better ways to do their jobs and so, better ways to use IT. This is, in general, a fundamental problem with use of such organizational memory systems, [24]

Progress

For a number of reasons, little progress was made after the original conception of this approach in 1994. The main problem was that there was no networking infrastructure until the Internet arrived in 1997. Apart from this, such research is also constrained by the same restraints on development in general:

. little or no technical or administrative support at the University
. thus, no specialization of labour, leaving one to do everything for oneself
. high teaching loads, extended academic semesters, little research time
. no graduate student support, little or no effective teaching assistant support
. no budget for software, for additional machines for research, or for assistants
. difficulty in finding motivated participants.

We are also aware that some of the time spent investigating and developing appropriate technologies is not productive because suitable systems are available elsewhere and could be applied to our research in a short time, if we were aware of them or had meaningful access. As usual, lack of access to technical information and time to pursue this information impedes the progress in employing technology.

Conclusions

While the widespread investment in information technology by developing countries is still controversial, in an information age IT will be acquired. We have shown that IT is expanding in Botswana but few substantial benefits are being realized because the process of dissemination is not effective. Dissemination is restricted by a lack of management of the process of identification of how IT can be used and of IT expertise as well as of motivation in end-users. We have described how distributed IT networks, such as the Internet, can be used to improve access to organizational knowledge and, in particular, knowledge about IT use itself. We believe IT mediated information networks are an important area of development research. We also cite our research as an example illustrating the difficulties of IT dissemination. Conducted in a developing country environment, the research has had very limited success so far due to typical obstacles such as our own lack of technical information and other resources.

[1] S. Serafini and M. Andrieu, The Information Revolution and its Implication for Canada, Department of Communications, Canada, November 1980, pp.11-13.

[2] International Data Corporation, Digital Planet, The Global Information Economy, Executive Summary, World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), 1998, https://www.witsa.org/, p.1.

[3] E. Talero and P. Gaudette, "Harnessing Information for development, a proposal for a World Bank Group Strategy", The World Bank, Washington, DC., March, 1996, https://www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/harnessing/.; UNDP, Information and Communication Technologies for Development, United Nations Development Program, New York, 1998, https://www.undp.org/info21/Index5.htm; Presidential Task Group, Vision 2016, Towards Prosperity for All, September, 1997, Government Printers, Botswana, p.5.

[4] D.J. Parsons, "Towards Effective Use of IT for Development; with reference to IT Deployment in Local Government in Botswana", Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology and Socio-Economic Development, IFIP WG 9.4, January 09-11 1995, Cairo, Egypt, pp.255-274; E.A. Onibere, S. Morgan, D. Mpoleng and E.M. Busang, "Survey Analysis Results, Preliminary Report", unpublished report of a research study on Human Computer Interaction in the Botswana Environment, August 1999.

[5] M.S. Ackerman and C. Halverson, "Considering an Organization=s Memory", in Proceedings of the ACM 1998 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Seattle Washington, November 14-18 1998, pp.39- 48; U. Reimer, "Knowledge Integration for Building Organizational Memories", Proceedings of the 11th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop, Banff, Alberta, Canada, April 18-23 1998.; K. Romhardt, "Processes of Knowledge Preservation: Away from a Technology Dominated Approach", a paper for Workshop 01, "Knowledge Based Systems for Knowledge management in Companies", of the 21^st Annual Meeting of the German Society for Artificial Intelligence, 9-12 September 1997, Freiburg.; J. Scott, "Warehousing Over the Web", Communications of the ACM, September 1998, Vol. 41, No.9, pp.64-65; J.C. Tang, N. Yankelovich, "Network Communities: Supporting distributed field organizations", SigGroup Bulletin, December 1998, pp.33-34.

[6] International Data Corporation, Digital Planet.

[7] W. Bowen, "The Puny Payoff from Office Computers", Fortune, May 26 1986, pp.20-24; I.R. Hoos, "Statement of Concern", Office Technology and People, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co., Amsterdam, 1982, Vol. 1, p.30; P.A. Strassman, "Will big spending on computers guarantee profitability?", Datamation, February 1997, pp.75-85.

[8] D.J. Parsons, C.C.Gotlieb and M. Denny, "Productivity and Computers in Canadian Banking", the Journal of Productivity Analysis, 4, 1993, pp.95-113; P.A. Strassman, Datamation.

[9] P.P. Streeten, "The Conflict Between Communications Gaps and Suitability Gaps", in Communication Economics and Development, M. Jussawalla and D.M Lamberton eds., Pergamon Policy Studies, Pergamon Press Ltd., Canada, 1982, pp.16-35.

[10] R. Heek, "Information and Communications Technologies, Poverty and Development", Development Informatics Working Paper Series, Paper No. 5, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, 1999, https://www.man.ac.uk/idpm/idpm_dp.htm#devinf_wp. Thanks to Sharon Morgan for this reference.

[11] World Bank (1998), The World Bank Group Countries: Botswana, Washington, DC., USA, https://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/adi/adi.html.

[12] D.J. Parsons, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology and Socio-Economic Development.

[13] E.A. Onibere, et al., Human Computer Interaction.

[14] D.J. Parsons, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology and Socio-Economic Development.

[15] Presidential Task Group, Vision 2016.

[16] M.S. Ackerman and C. Halverson, Proceedings of the ACM 1998 Conference, pp.39-48; U. Reimer, Proceedings of the 11th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop; K. Romhardt, Workshop 01 of the 21^st Annual Meeting of the German Society for Artificial Intelligence.

[17] J.C. Tang and N. Yankelovich, SigGroup Bulletin, pp.33-34.

[18] J. Scott, Communications of the ACM, pp.64-65.

[19] D.J. Parsons, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology and Socio-Economic Development.

[20] M.S. Ackerman, "Augmenting Organizational Memory: A Field Study of Answer Garden", ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), July 1998, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.203-224.

[21] C. Mandel, "Helpless", Report on Business Magazine, Toronto Globe and Mail, June 1999, https://www.robmagazine.com/html/ft4.html

[22] A.H. Clement and D.J. Parsons, "Work Group Knowledge Requirements for Desktop Computing", Proceedings of the 23rd Hawaii International Conference on System Science, Kailau-Kona, Hawaii, January 2-5, 1990. pp.84-93; J. Timson, "Tech staff in line of fire", Toronto Star, June 10 1999, https://www.thestar.ca/thestar/editorial/money/990610BUS03_FI-Timson10.html.

[23] C. Mandel, Toronto Globe and Mail. J. Timson, Toronto Star.

[24] C. Glassey, "Seducing the End-User", Communications of the ACM, September 1998, Vol. 41, No.9, pp. 62-69.

Mr. T. Z. Nkgau MSc. is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, University of Botswana. He teaches courses in Computer Algorithms, Formal Languages and Automata and Computational Complexity. He has an MSc. in Computer Science from McGill University, Canada and is about to commence study for his Doctorate. His interests lie in the areas of Theory of Computing, Algorithms, Cryptology, Distributed Computing and, Application of Computers for Development. He is currently involved in research investigating how the Internet can be utilized in the Southern African region to advance development and improve organizational effectiveness by facilitating technology transfer, supporting access to and exchange of information and improving education.

Paper presented at the African Studies Association of Australasia & the Pacific 22nd Annual & International Conference (Perth, 1999) New African Perspectives: Africa, Australasia, & the Wider World at the end of the twentieth century

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