7 March 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Education is the key to information and communication technology (ICT) development.
And that's the focus of the Digital Review of Asia Pacific (DirAP) 2009-2010.
"Today, the Internet is the primary instrument for communicating and sharing information around the world, and more so with each passing day.
"If previously, the key challenges included infrastructure, connectivity, and access, today the key issue is human capital development through education," said Shahid Akhtar, DirAP's Editor-in-Chief.
Mr Akhtar was in Singapore this week for a three-day DirAP authors' meeting.
With him were some 50 experts from government, academe, industry, and civil society from more than 30 countries. They were meeting to brainstorm as they review a draft of the DirAP 2009-2010.
"The DirAP biennial is not only an ICT publication; it is about a network and Asian networking so that experiences are shared. It's an opportunity to learn from each other," added Mr Akhtar.
The biennial Digital Review of Asia Pacific project is coordinated by Dr Claude-Yves Charron, who is Secretary-General of ORBICOM (the Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communications), and also Vice-Rector of the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada.
The project is supported by the International Development Research Centre of Canada, which is represented on the DirAP Board by Ms Maria Ng Lee Hoon, an ICT specialist, based at IDRC's Southeast and East Asia Regional Office in Singapore.
It is a comprehensive guide to the state-of-practice and trends in information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in Asia -Pacific.
Their target audiences include policymakers, ICT professionals, and academics, not only in the Asia-Pacific region but around the world.
The 2009-2010 publication will be the fourth edition of the biennial DirAP series.
It is expected to cover themes such as ICTs, education and the Millennium Development Goals, distance education, ICTs and non-formal education, private-public partnership in ICTs for education, and knowledge and innovation.
The review, to be released in the first quarter of 2009, will also include two overview chapters - one on emerging ICT4D technologies and their relationships to markets and communities, and the other, on regulatory approaches to ICTs and best practices.
The author of one of the overview chapters, Mr Rajesh Sreenivasan - a lawyer from Singapore - said the public sector could encourage the development of ICTs with tax incentives, and studies into intellectual property legislation and enforcement. Also important, he stressed, was the need to train a special group of people to understand these issues.
He said this when asked about what the public and private sectors could do to enhance ICT development.
As for the private sector,, Mr Sreenivasan opined that they could support the government by giving feedback from the ground, and be more pro-active in creating new technologies.
ON PREVIOUS EDITIONS
The previous DirAP editions received overwhelming response.
One of the authors attending the meeting, Milagros Rivera -- who heads the Communications and New Media Programme at the National University of Singapore, said the DirAP is a useful reference material for her students and research colleagues. DirAP is also used as a textbook at Athabasca University in Canada. The DirAP has also been well received in India, according to Suchit Nanda, an ICT consultant based in Bombay.
DirAP 2007/2008
In the current 2007/2008 edition, North Korea was included for the first time.
It contained authoritative reports on how 31 economies in Asia Pacific were using ICT in business, government and civil society.
The reports were written by senior authors who live and work in the respective countries. Also included were two subregional chapters on ASEAN (which attracted the then ASEAN Secretary-General Mr Ong Keng Yong) and APEC.
Among the significant issues include Mobile and wireless technologies, ICTs in risk and Disasters Communication, Localisation, and Key policy issues in intellectual property.
"The report includes recommendation to policy makers. For example, for Mobile and Wireless Technologies, we noted that governments must be involved in the development of infrastructure," said Danny Butt - a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Mr Butt is an editorial board member of the review and a consultant in new media, culture and development.
As for ICTs in Risk and Disasters Communication, Mr Butt cited the tsunami as an example. He said cooperation across the region was crucial because communication may be crippled due to different systems in the various countries.
Interesting ICT Projects
1. Single Operating Environment for all government
2. Next Generation Broadband
ICT for Development - Two Interesting Examples of Mobile and Wireless Technologies
1. Tsunami - Email from Singapore alerted a village telecentre in Pondicherry, India to move villagers out, before the waves hit it
2. Fishermen in India eliminated "middlemen" by using text messaging to sell their catch. The community chipped in to buy a cellphone to be shared by all.
DirAP's Key Contributions
1. It adds a major source of research-based data and information to a field that is growing into a discipline with as yet relatively little research literature especially relating to Asia Pacific.
2. It gives ICT stakeholders in Asia Pacific opportunities to develop skills in research methods, research processes and research documentation.
3. It draws together a large number of leading ICT players from both developed and developing countries in Asia to reflect on platforms they identify as important for engagement to influence change.
4. It permits a time series narrative macro view of how total project investments by all parties aggregate into national syntheses on both country-level performance and issues-based performance.
5. It harnesses the intellectual contribution of a sizable community of practitioners and researchers from a multitude of disciplines from most of the developing countries of the region.
More information on Digital Review of Asia Pacific 2007-2008 is available from this IDRC link:
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-116715-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
PICTURES
Pix 1: The Digital Review of Asia Pacific 2009-2010 team (Photo credit: Suchit Nanda)
Pix 2: The Editorial Board (Left to right) Suchit Nanda, Rajesh Sreenivasan, Dr Claude-Yves Charron, Maria Ng, Milagros Rivera, Patricia Arinto, Danny Butt, Shahid Akhtar
Available for download from
http://picasaweb.google.com/ResearchSEA/DigitalReviewOfAsiaPacific?authk...
For more information, please contact :
Mr Shahid Akhtar - Canada
Editor-in-Chief, Digital Review of Asia Pacific
Email: [email protected]
Dr Claude-Yves Charron - Canada
Coordinator of the Digital Review of Asia Pacific project,
Secretary-General of ORBICOM and Vice-Rector of the University of
Quebec, Canada.
Email: [email protected]
Ms Maria Ng Lee Hoon - Singapore
Senior Program Specialist, International Development Research Centre of
Canada, Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia.
Email: [email protected]
Office telephone: +65 64396837
The Digital Review of Asia Pacific project is supported by the
International Development Research Centre of Canada.
"About IDRC
Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is one of the World's leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges of international development. For close to 40 years, IDRC has worked in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies. See http://www.idrc.ca/"
