Way Forward

The impact of new information technology in the developing countries

1

Peter Thorpe

International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR), 2509 AJ The Hague, The Netherlands

Received 25 June 1984

The major constraints to the use of new information technology in the developing countries are identified and discussed and related to the setting up of a computerised bibliographic database system. Examples of existing systems are given to provide guidelines as to how new technology can successfully be used in the developing countries despite these constraints. It is concluded that staff training, international operation and social-political aspects (attitudes) are the priority areas for (attitudes) are the developing countries. New technology can be successfully introduced only if there is the political will and all involved are fully committed to the idea.

******** 1. An extensively revised version of a paper originally presented at Database’83. Budapest, 6-8 June 1983 North Holland Journal of Information Science 8 (1984) 213-220 0165-5515/84/$3.00, 1984. Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. (North Holland) ******** 1. Introduction The use of new technology for the collection, storage and dissemination of information is profoundly affecting all aspects of information transfer in the industrialized world. This new technology is essentially based on advances in two interrelated fields. On the one hand, developments in microprocessor ('chip') technology have brought about large scale reductions in the physical size of computers, whilst at the same time they have also increased their reliability and speed by several orders of magnitude. Mass production of chips has caused dramatic reductions in cost, resulting in a marked improvement in the processing capacity available for unit cost. Simultaneous developments large capacity, random access storage devices (disks) means that the stand-alone capabilities of such microprocessor systems can be quite...