Re: (GodFathers) Fwd: [ROSHNIasu] Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits by Atanu Dey
Yamanoor Srihari <yamanoor-/[email protected]> Thu, 1 Apr 2004 21:08:05 -0800 (PST)
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--0-451033007-1080882485=:22091 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii The article is intriguing. However, some assumptions are wrong. One of them is the cost factor. What the person obviously misses is ICT will be tools that will be provided to the NGOs, Primary Health Care workers and others, and they will use them to increase the efficiency of their operations. We are working on a huge project involving palmtops and cell phones for vaccination programs in Andhra Pradesh. The previous version, worked on, without our intervention failed. However, there is an IAS officer here on a Reuters scholarship who is collaborating with Stanford, and IIIT Hyderabad and we are writing up a sound business plan. Implementation of such projects need a lot of government goodwill. Such goodwill is available in abundance in Andhra Pradesh. We were indeed surprised to find that all the 7 crore people in Andhra Pradesh have social security numbers !!! which the government plans to integrate into all their documents. The entire state is wired with fiber optics... All these things are available in AP and there are not enough projects that use these resources optimally. That is where things are wrong. We don't need nay sayers for India. We need people with creative ideas. Then India will "shine" (these days it is really poor to write anything about India, without the shining cliche!). Whats more important is that internet and computers can be made cost effective. Without going into details, I invite you to look at Simputer and the work done by Nilgiri Networks in Tamil Nadu. Of course, MIT Media Lab's ego - blown attitude (the lab is sort of independent from MIT) which of course became news in the past, pulled down their project - very similar to what we are trying to implement in AP. Imagine MIT Media Lab and IIT Bombay, what a horrible ego clash among two organizations that became famous without ever actually doing anyone any good...so thats the kind of people and attitude we don't want. People are thinking about India and ICT quite a lot...I hope the author's question is only rhetoric and not effacing other people's intelligence.... Srihari Jai Sivanantham <mail2mayil-/[email protected]> wrote: Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT --------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/54godfathers/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > ATTACHMENT part 2 message/rfc822 To: [email protected] From: "Sreedhar" Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:28:28 -0000 Subject: [ROSHNIasu] Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits by Atanu Dey Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits In late February, immediately upon my return from my brief trip to California, I went to attend what is called the Baramati Conference in Baramati. Baramati is a small town in Sharad Pawar's constituency. {One of these days I will put up some pictures of the VIIT campus where the conference took place.} The conference was on "Information Kiosks and Sustainability". I sat through the presentations. After a while it gets mighty boring to hear about ICT- this and ICT-that and all the wonderful things that computers and the internet are going to do for development of poor people. My mind wanders when I get bored. So I sat there wondering what motivates these people who wish to push computers and internet as the solution to all problems. Why? The banners all over the place proclaimed proudly the sponsors of the conference. Intel, Microsoft, HP, and a bunch of others. The makers of hammers promoting the notion that every problem is a nail and the best thing one can do is to stock up on hammers. Never mind that what you may really need is a bottle-opener and that a hammer on a bottle will result in a mess that you will have to pay to clean up. When bored I also become cynical. Selling hardware is hard in a world that can barely afford decent square meals. Roping in NGOs to push hardware seems like an excellent marketing strategy and so these conferences get funded. Almost every presentation in these sort of meetings is about PCs and internet. There is practically zero mention of radio and TV. Radio and TV make more sense in a lot of contexts for developing countries. Telephones, radio, and TV (TRTV, henceforth) are orders of magnitude cheaper, easy to use, and in many aspects more robust than PCs. So what explains the neglect of TRTVs? Two factors explain the neglect of TRTVs as a solution to the information and communications needs of the poor. First, the TVTR industry is fragmented compared to the industry for computers. The computer industry is a virtual monopoly of the Intel-Microsoft behemoths. Monopolists have market power and therefore they capture all the profits (or, rents) that are generated by increased demand for their products. Compared to the computer industry, the TRTV market is more competitive. No single entity there controls any significant part of the market, and therefore economic profits are non-existent. Consequently, no entity has an incentive to push TRTVs as a solution for the information and communications needs of the poor. The second factor for the neglect of TRTV is that TRTVs deliver services that have public goods characteristics and have major positive externalities that cannot be captured by the firms in the market. The market therefore underprovides the amount of TRTV as would be predicted by economic theory. The classical response to the second factor is of course to subsidize TRTVs so that the socially optimal quantity is delivered and consumed. The first factor can only be confronted by regulation. Courts have been routinely trying to break Microsoft's monopoly in the US an Europe. Perhaps one of these days with a little bit of luck, the stranglehold will be broken. India has to adopt the most cost-effective means of delivering information and education. Computers and the internet are an expensive solution that most of India cannot afford. The money available for subsidizing the information and communications solutions can be more efficiently used in the TVTR sector than the computer/internet sector. Is anyone paying attention? La vie.. http://www.stanford.edu/~yamanoor http://yamanoor.tblog.com --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway - Enter today --0-451033007-1080882485=:22091 Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <html><body> <DIV>The article is intriguing. However, some assumptions are wrong. One of them is the cost factor. What the person obviously misses is ICT will be tools that will be provided to the NGOs, Primary Health Care workers and others, and they will use them to increase the efficiency of their operations.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We are working on a huge project involving palmtops and cell phones for vaccination programs in Andhra Pradesh. The previous version, worked on, without our intervention failed. However, there is an IAS officer here on a Reuters scholarship who is collaborating with Stanford, and IIIT Hyderabad and we are writing up a sound business plan. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Implementation of such projects need a lot of government goodwill. Such goodwill is available in abundance in Andhra Pradesh. We were indeed surprised to find that all the 7 crore people in Andhra Pradesh have social security numbers !!! which the government plans to integrate into all their documents. The entire state is wired with fiber optics...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>All these things are available in AP and there are not enough projects that use these resources optimally. That is where things are wrong. We don't need nay sayers for India. We need people with creative ideas. Then India will "shine" (these days it is really poor to write anything about India, without the shining cliche!).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Whats more important is that internet and computers can be made cost effective. Without going into details, I invite you to look at Simputer and the work done by Nilgiri Networks in Tamil Nadu. Of course, MIT Media Lab's ego - blown attitude (the lab is sort of independent from MIT) which of course became news in the past, pulled down their project - very similar to what we are trying to implement in AP. Imagine MIT Media Lab and IIT Bombay, what a horrible ego clash among two organizations that became famous without ever actually doing anyone any good...so thats the kind of people and attitude we don't want. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>People are thinking about India and ICT quite a lot...I hope the author's question is only rhetoric and not effacing other people's intelligence....</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Srihari<BR><BR><B><I>Jai Sivanantham <mail2mayil-/[email protected]></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"><TT><BR>Note: forwarded message attached.<BR><BR><BR>__________________________________<BR>Do you Yahoo!?<BR>Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.<BR><A href="http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html">http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html</A></TT> <BR><BR><BR>> ATTACHMENT part 2 message/rfc822 <BR>To: [email protected]<BR>From: "Sreedhar" <[email protected]><BR>Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:28:28 -0000<BR>Subject: [ROSHNIasu] Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits by Atanu Dey<BR><BR><TT>Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits <BR>In late February, immediately upon my return from my brief trip to <BR>California, I went to attend what is called the Baramati Conference <BR>in Baramati. Baramati is a small town in Sharad Paw ar's <BR>constituency. {One of these days I will put up some pictures of the <BR>VIIT campus where the conference took place.} The conference was <BR>on "Information Kiosks and Sustainability". I sat through the <BR>presentations. After a while it gets mighty boring to hear about ICT-<BR>this and ICT-that and all the wonderful things that computers and <BR>the internet are going to do for development of poor people. My mind <BR>wanders when I get bored. So I sat there wondering what motivates <BR>these people who wish to push computers and internet as the solution <BR>to all problems. Why? <BR><BR>The banners all over the place proclaimed proudly the sponsors of <BR>the conference. Intel, Microsoft, HP, and a bunch of others. The <BR>makers of hammers promoting the notion that every problem is a nail <BR>and the best thing one can do is to stock up on hammers. Never mind <BR>that what you may really need is a bottle-opener and that a hammer <BR>on a bottle will result in a mess that you will have to pay to clean <BR>up. <BR><BR>When bored I also become cynical. Selling hardware is hard in a <BR>world that can barely afford decent square meals. Roping in NGOs to <BR>push hardware seems like an excellent marketing strategy and so <BR>these conferences get funded. Almost every presentation in these <BR>sort of meetings is about PCs and internet. There is practically <BR>zero mention of radio and TV. Radio and TV make more sense in a lot <BR>of contexts for developing countries. Telephones, radio, and TV <BR>(TRTV, henceforth) are orders of magnitude cheaper, easy to use, and <BR>in many aspects more robust than PCs. So what explains the neglect <BR>of TRTVs? <BR><BR>Two factors explain the neglect of TRTVs as a solution to the <BR>information and communications needs of the poor. First, the TVTR <BR>industry is fragmented compared to the industry for computers. The <BR>computer industry is a virtual monopoly of the Intel-Microsoft <BR>behemoths. Monopolists have market power and therefore they capture <BR>all the profits (or, rents) that are generated by increased demand <BR>for their products. Compared to the computer industry, the TRTV <BR>market is more competitive. No single entity there controls any <BR>significant part of the market, and therefore economic profits are <BR>non-existent. Consequently, no entity has an incentive to push TRTVs <BR>as a solution for the information and communications needs of the <BR>poor. <BR><BR>The second factor for the neglect of TRTV is that TRTVs deliver <BR>services that have public goods characteristics and have major <BR>positive externalities that cannot be captured by the firms in the <BR>market. The market therefore underprovides the amount of TRTV as <BR>would be predicted by economic theory. <BR><BR>The classical response to the second factor is of course to <BR>subsidize TRTVs so that the socially optimal quantity is delivered <BR>and consumed. The first factor can only be confronted by regulation. <BR>Courts have been routinely trying to break Microsoft's monopoly in <BR>the US an Europe. Perhaps one of these days with a little bit of <BR>luck, the stranglehold wi ll be broken. <BR><BR>India has to adopt the most cost-effective means of delivering <BR>information and education. Computers and the internet are an <BR>expensive solution that most of India cannot afford. The money <BR>available for subsidizing the information and communications <BR>solutions can be more efficiently used in the TVTR sector than the <BR>computer/internet sector. Is anyone paying attention? <BR><BR><BR><BR></TT></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><DIV> <DIV> <DIV><FONT color=darkblue> <P align=left>La vie..</P> <P align=left><A href="http://www.stanford.edu/~yamanoor">http://www.stanford.edu/~yamanoor</A></P> <P align=left><A href="http://yamanoor.tblog.com">http://yamanoor.tblog.com</A></P> <P align=left> </P> <P align=left> </P></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV><p><hr size=1><font face=arial size=-1>Do you Yahoo!?<br> <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=23609/*http://promotions.yahoo.com/design_giveaway/static/index2.html">Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway</a> - Enter today </body></html> --0-451033007-1080882485=:22091--