EECS 294-12 (3 units) Fall 2003 AN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT) FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING REGIONS Description: There are only 100 million people on this planet who have a purchasing power in excess of US$20,000 per annum, while there are 4 billion people who earn US$2,000 or less. How can we use information and communication technology most effectively to create opportunities for these people to improve the quality of their lives? How can we do this in a sustainable way, not simply as a charity? What are the technologies, architectures, and business models that can make this possible? And what applications must this infrastructure enable? In this course we explore the key research and deployment issues for novel information and communication technologies (ICT) for developing regions of the world. The class will be co-taught at Berkeley, CMU and the University of Washington via Internet teleconferencing, and will include several guest lecturers from a wide variety of backgrounds. The class will require a final paper or a project but will not have a final exam and, while listed as an EECS course, is open to any Berkeley graduate or undergraduate students. We would especially like to include students from business, sociology, and the humanities who have an interest in the subject. The course will address three principal questions, as follows: v Context: What are the major economic and social challenges faced by developing countries? v Application: What role could and effective ICT infrastructure play in addressing these challenges? v Technology: What are the technologies, architectures, basic services and associated research needed to make such an ICT infrastructure affordable, useful, and economically viable? Format One meeting per week, with typical format of 1hr presentation and 1hr discussion in one of these three areas each week. Presentations will be made by participants and invited guests on selected topics in each area. Final grade will be determined by quality of class participation, selected homework assignments, and final project or research assignment. Reading assignments will be provided and participants will be expected to come to class prepared for discussion. Instructors Berkeley: Professor Eric Brewer, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Tom Kalil, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Science and Technology, Berkeley Professor Richard Newton, Dean of the College of Engineering CMU: Rahul Tongia, Institute For Software Research International M. Bernardine Dias, Robotics Institute Prof. Raj Reddy, Robotics Institute/Computer Science Logistics Meeting locations: Wednesday, 11am-1pm, 290 Hearst Mining Building For more information contact Eric Brewer ([email protected]) or see http://courseweb.berkeley.edu/courseweb/pub/courses/2003/FL/COMPSCI/294/012EECS 294-12 (3 units) Fall 2003 AN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT) FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING REGIONS Expanded Description CONTEXT We will consider two levels of context in this course—the macroscopic or global context for this issue, and the contextual issues related to a specific ICT deployment. Global Context What are the economic, political and social challenges faced by developing countries? A major goal in this aspect of the course is to familiarize course participants with the range of challenges and the key sociological factors involved in undertaking such research. Speakers will also familiarize participants with methodologies for understanding the diffusion and adoption of technology in a broader economic and social context. What are the range of economic and social conditions prevalent in developing conditions? What is it like to live on $1-2/day? What are the different ways in which concepts like “development” and “sustainable development” have been defined? Why have some developing countries grown faster than others in the post-war period? We will also discuss the potential impact of ICT on the developing world and possible implications of such work—positive and negative! In fact, why are some observers skeptical about ICT for development? Deployment Context What are the elements of a successful national strategy to reap the benefits of ICT? v Legal/policy regulatory framework v Infrastructure v Enterprise/private sector v Human resources What are different players (e.g. G-8, multilateral and bilateral development assistance agencies, developing country governments, NGOs) currently doing to take advantage of the promise of information technology? APPLICATION How could an affordable ICT infrastructure address these problems? What are the range of needs in such an infrastructure to be effective? What are key applications and their associated benefits and over what timeframes might they have measurable impact? What business models might “serve the poor profitably” in an ICT context? What strategies are being pursued by NGOs, social enterprises, and multinationals such as HP? How is ICT being used to address specific developing country challenges, or how might it be used in the future? v ICT for economic growth, productivity, job creation, commerce, and income generation for the poor v Knowledge and development v E-health v E-learning v E-government, transition from authoritarian to more democratic societyWhat can the research community do to maximize the contribution that ICT can make to development? We will build a taxonomy of applications of interest and their characteristics and potential benefits, along with existing projects and their status in each area. TECHNOLOGY What are the appropriate technologies, system architectures, deployment and support strategies needed to implement effective solutions to the above (e.g. role of wireless, optical fiber, satellite, etc.) How can one build, deploy, and support such a system so that it can be a self-sustaining, profitable business? What new technologies (hardware, software, basic services) are needed to make such an enterprise viable? Which existing technologies are so cheap (as a result of economies of scale and learning economies) that they can be usefully adopted in a developing country context? v Continuously versus occasionally connected network v Where and how to maintain state in the system and its implications v Implementation of a robust, ‘fail safe’ architecture under continuous challenges—from the elements (e.g. sand, unreliable power, monsoons, etc.) as
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