Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Let's look at each of these in more detail by considering several
case studies. Although Case Study 2 is eight years old, the others
have occurred within the last three years or so. To protect privacy,
selective details have sometimes been omitted.
Computer and Internet Access Never Available:
Case Study 1
In a rural and isolated area of a thirdworld country, people have virtually no
computing equipment, and communities have no infrastructure for telephones
or other communication lines. This lack of technology has kept farmers reliant
upon outside brokers for sales of crops, and agricultural sales regularly are
well below market prices elsewhere. In one such community, farmers are ac
tively seeking a communal computer with a satellitebased connection to the
World Wide Web so they can interact with outside brokers and participate in
the world market. There is reasonable expectation that a single computer with
Internet access could provide the information needed to double or triple the
prices the farmers receive for their crops.
Case Study 1 identifies a setting in which computers are not
easily available at present. Relative to the local economy, com
puter technology is very expensive and thus beyond the reach of
most people. Even if a computer did become available, it would be
difficult to use it regularly, given the lack of supporting technol
ogy. The community does not have dependable electrical power,
so a desktop computer would continually crash and recharging
batteries on a laptop would be difficult, because to restore battery
power voltage fluctuations might destroy any equipment that is
plugged in.
Furthermore, if computer technology were obtained and prob
lems of power resolved, the community still has no telephone struc
ture or other wired communication network. This particular com
munity is also physically isolated by mountains, and establishing a
traditional telephone network would require spanning hundreds of
miles of rough terrain. Because of this location, a computer cannot
be plugged in to any existing network to gain Internet access at any
speed. Similarly, the community has no transmission towers or in
stalled networks for cellular telephones, making standard wireless
technology difficult.
