We came of age at a time of rapid improvement in the human environment. Economically and socially, the world became a much better place to live, work and raise families for many of us. While becoming freer from colonial domination was a help to improve our lives, the greater value beside political freedoms was the arrival and availability of technologies that contributed to higher levels of prosperity. The twentieth century saw the arrival of radios, televisions, airplanes, antibiotics and the green revolution, among many other conveniences. The twenty-first century arrived with a bang in the form of nuclear power, space travel, the microchip, computers, the Internet and the Web. All these technologies have changed our world not once but many times over.

In the last four sections of this module we explored the evolution of the technologies from the early part of the last century and how human ingenuity and curiosity led to the development of logic circuits and the microprocessor resulting in the digital revolution. The coupling of digitisation to electronic computers created massive infrastructures of interconnected telephone services, standardised computing hardware, the Internet, radio and television linked via satellites to every corner of our earth.

The revolutionary potential of new ICTs lies in their capacities to instantaneously connect vast networks of individuals and organisations across great geographic distances at very little cost. As such, ICTs have been key enablers of globalisation, facilitating worldwide flows of information, capital, ideas, people and products. They have transformed businesses, markets and organisations, as well as revolutionised learning and knowledge-sharing, empowered citizens and communities, and created significant economic growth in many countries. ICTs have amplified brainpower in much the same way that the nineteen century industrial revolution amplified muscle power. That is one side of the story. There are many who would say these changes are not necessarily for the better; some of the changes are good while others are somewhat detrimental. In this section of the module we will consider the impact of the ICTs on human development. We shall explore four things:

1. How measures are made to study the impact of the digital technologies.
2. Malaysia's performance in ICT development.
3. The bigger picture and how, at a global level, the successful assimilation of ICTs affects a nation's fabric of life.
4. The concerns expressed about the negative impact of ICTs.

 

Measuring impact

Bridges.org is an international organisation with a mission to promote the effective use of ICT in the developing world for meaningful purposes, such as better healthcare, education and self-sustaining economic development. They have done a series of studies especially on issues around the digital divide and one especially delved into some detail on factors that either enable or inhibit the adoption of ICTs for personal and community development. These factors and the questions they raised include:

1. Physical access: Is technology available and physically accessible?
2. Appropriate technology: What is the appropriate technology according to local conditions and how people need and want to put technology to use?
3. Affordability: Is technology access affordable for people to use?
4. Capacity: Do people understand how to use technology and its potential uses?
5. Relevant content: Is there locally relevant content, especially in terms of language?
6. Integration: Does the technology further burden people's lives or does it integrate into daily routines?
7. Socio-cultural factors: Are people limited in their use of technology based on gender, race, or other socio-cultural factors?
8. Trust: Do people have confidence in and understand the implications of the technology they use, for instance in terms of privacy, security, or cyber-crime?
9. Legal and regulatory framework: How do laws and regulations affect technology use and what changes are needed to create an environment that fosters its use?
10. Local economic environment: Is there a local economy that can and will sustain technology use?
11. Macro-economic environment: Is national economic policy conducive to widespread technology use, for example, in terms of transparency, deregulation, investment, and labour issues?
12. Political will: Is there political will in government to do what is needed to enable the integration of technology throughout society?