Towards a conceptual framework for ICT4D: Lessons learnt
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This document summarizes a paper about a conceptual framework called the "cube framework" used to model the transition to information societies in Latin America. The framework models the interplay between three dimensions: technology, policy, and social change. It depicts technology as having two layers - physical infrastructure and generic services. It also includes vertical sectors that are application areas for the technology and a horizontal layer for capabilities and skills. The framework has been useful for structuring ICT strategies in Latin America. Lessons learned are that the interrelationships are complex, an open dialogue is needed between players, and there is no single approach given variations between regions/countries.
Towards a conceptual framework for ICT4D: Lessons learnt
- 1. University of Guyana Faculty of Natural Sciences Dept of Computer Science ISY 4201: SEMINAR 1 Student: Ardith Conway Lecturer: Mr Malcolm Williams
- 2. Paper of interest: Hilbert, M. (2012). Towards a conceptual framework for ICT for Development: lessons learned from the cube framework used in Latin America.pdf
- 3. Background This paper is set against the need to address the lack of comprehensive and adequate conceptual frameworks for ICT for Development community. In 2003, United Nations Regional Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean proposed a three-dimensional conceptual framework that models the transition toward so-called Information Societies as interplay between technology, policy and social change. This model has been adopted throughout the region as a rough guidance for outlining international Action Plans, as an organizational tool to identify actors and priorities for national strategies, as well as a reference a tool to organize scholarly research.
- 4. Focus of Paper: This article reviews some of the diverse applications the model has found during recent years and shows how it can be used, i.e: how the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean used it to structure their regional ICT-for-development strategy
- 5. THE “CUBE” FRAMEWORK a) Theorethical Framework Built on the Schumpeterian notion of socio-economic evolution which holds that human progress “goes on in units separated from each other by neighborhoods of equilibrium. Each of those units, in turn, consists of two distinct phases, during the first of which the system, under the impulse of entrepreneurial activity, draws away from an equilibrium position, and during the second of which it draws toward another equilibrium position”. The result is an incessant process of “creative destruction”, which modernizes the modus operandi of society as a whole. The motor of this incessant force of creative destruction is technological change
- 6. The “ICT-for-development-cube-framework” (Latin America “el cubo”) reduces this technological dimension to only two broad layers: a) physical infrastructure (i.e. hardware and telecommunications networks: computers, fixed telephone lines and mobile phones, fiber-optic networks, digital TV, and all other tangible access equipment), b) generic services (software and other generic digital services, such as Webhosting, browsers and multimedia applications).
- 7. Traditional concept used to describe the layered communications and computer network protocol design.
- 8. THE “CUBE” FRAMEWORK b) Interdependencies among three dimensions: technology, policy and social change The United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) has proposed a three-dimensional reference framework to conceptualize the scope and nature of this transformation.
- 11. Decomposing the Cube Framework Those “Vertical Sectors” are the application areas of the technology, which provides the “content” of the networks in an Information Society and lead to tangible social change. The focus of Vertical Sectors is on “digital processes”, as opposed to the focus on “digital products” in the Horizontal Layers There are many different “e-Sectors” -and sectors are the basic requirements and building blocks of an Information Society, but they are not sufficient for development.
- 12. Decomposing the Cube Framework In order not to undermine the importance of human capital, a Horizontal Layer was added, called: “Capabilities and Skills”, which focuses on the effective usage of the technology - The Horizontal represents the identified areas of policy activity were regulatory frameworks that foster and provide scope for these new forms of behavior, financing mechanisms that support the diffusion of these technologies and their implementation, and human capital that acts as the driving force behind the technology.
- 13. Lessons Learnt (& my take-away) 1. The dynamics that form the interrelationship between the different fields, are characterized by uncertainty, incomplete contracts, irrational behavior, spillover effects and other deficiencies and failures. 2. An open dialogue between the different players, institutions and organizations from all the different Horizontal Layers, Diagonal Areas and Vertical Sectors is therefore necessary for mastering the complex task of guiding a society in its transformation towards an Information Society. 3. Since the characteristics of every particular field vary in different regions and countries, there is no “one size fits all” recipe for the transition towards an “Information Society”.