Social Computing for Development Dr. Ashok Rao Professor. Email ashokrao.mys@ gmail

1. Social Computing for DevelopmentDr. Ashok RaoProfessor. Email ashokrao.mys@gmail.com

2. Goals and perceptions of technology and its dimensions in III world • Nature and context of Information Technology and its implications • Social Computing: Its context and manifestations • Applications in Indian (III World) context and results • Road map of a relevant IT program and important issues in India.

3. Part I Goals and perceptions of technology and its dimensions in III world

4. Technology and development • The objective of every technological innovation is to ensure development of the contemporary society. • Development is achieved by impacting on the Quality of Life.

5. Characteristics of Technology • Some technologies retain their form through the ages. • Example: Agriculture and animal husbandry. • Some technologies become “professional and institutionalized.” • Example: Habitat building has grown on to become civil engineering.

6. Characteristics of Technology • A great majority of the population (close to 70%, mainly in the III world) continue to live and do things by themselves, in a manner little different from that of their ancestors, totally in an “unprofessional / non-institutionalized” framework. • They have their own notion of institutionalization & professional values.

7. Characteristics of Technology • many cases they do as good or better (more appropriate) than mainstream “modern life”. One excellent example is rainwater harvesting for domestic requirement of water, which today looks inevitable and very sensible (the only way?) for the entire world to be doing

8. Characteristics of Technology • a great majority of the population will & continue to live as they are, • Any technological innovation should be sensitive to this, then it is easy to accommodate this & SYNERGETICALLY support other supplementary & complementary efforts in development

9. Ethos of Technology • Technological innovations have an impact on the ethos of the society. • The rate of change in ethos (as reflected in the value system of the contemporary society) has been getting pronounced in the last century, significantly so in the last decade.

10. Ethos of Technology • The change in ethos of a society due to technology is a continuous process and requires a few generations to be felt. • The impact on individuals is more compressed in time and relates to the “flexibility/ adaptability / liberal or conservative outlook” of an individual. • The role of education in facilitating people to temper and effectively internalize these concerns is important.

11. Ethos of Technology Some typical ways in which people accept changes related to technology: • Get seduced by the “new fashion” (with assistance from advertisements) • Keeping up with the Jones syndrome • Willing to use it because it is western / modern / hi-tech

12. Ethos of Technology • Forced to accept it, because of regulations • Willing to use it, because nothing better/ appropriate is available • Supports “natural” human behavior (easy-going or addictive) • Possibility of getting empowered (economically, socially, technically)

13. Ethos of Technology • Really useful technological artifact • A great invention or design, which truly improves the “Quality of Life” Thus, it is very obvious that a great majority of people hardly ever evaluate the long-term consequence of a particular choice of technology.

14. Ethos of Technology • Some “policy makers” or other “experts” decide a particular choice of technology for the society. • Particularly in the III world, such an imposition of technology, without societal participation, can be both an economic and a social problem (most western technologies are very expensive, and many are socially/ culturally / ecologically incompatible).

15. Ethos of Technology • An average citizen in the III world quite understands the beneficial aspects of science and technology, but is very helpless when it comes to meaningfully articulating his/her need, modalities and relationships with respect to it. • This “alienation” of a sensitive common citizen over the years, unfortunately has had serious negative implications vis-à-vis technological (mainly western) percolation and acceptance.

16. Ethos of Technology • This has resulted in an extremely superficial internalization of modern scientific values and attitudes. • This has resulted in a great “by-pass” of a large population in terms of science and technology inputs and participation.

17. Ethos of Technology (III World) • Philosophy of 3R (Reduce, Renew and Reuse). • Harmony with nature ( Renewables and Organic products) • Primary focus on social advantages (not individual or economic) • Most of the III world still focuses on realizing a good public transport system (unlike in the west, where individual cars are preferred).

18. Ethos of Technology (III World) • Technology is viewed as a common property resource, just like rain, sunshine, air, etc. • In the long run, the III world ethos is more sustainable. • Western ethos of efficiency, cleanliness and orderliness needs to be built on top of the III world ethos.

19. Development: Practices and Trends • Development is one of the most misunderstood, misrepresented and misinterpreted words. • The question to be asked is “development for whom ?, and by what means ?” • Too often, development is a zero-sum game, where development of one is at the cost of another, or together they will end up spoiling the environment or the social / ecosystem.

20. Development: Practices and Trends • Development scholars like Daniel Lerner and Everett Rogers defined development in the 1950’s and 1960’s as “ a type of social change in which new ideas are introduced into a social system in order to produce higher per capita incomes and levels of living through more modern production methods and improved social organization”.

21. Development: Practices and Trends • Modernization, or the “development” of the individual, was seen as “the process by which individuals change from a traditional way of life to a more complex, technologically advanced, and rapidly changing style of life”. • This has the unfortunate but implicit assumption that “modern way of life” is superior.

22. Development: Practices and Trends • One of the main difficulties in ensuring a win-win situation is the extreme importance accorded to money / profit as the only indicator of economy. • It makes sense to include non-monetary factors also as economic indicators. • This has been the practice with the people of the III world, even if the governments, in imitation of the west, have been practicing monetary economics.

23. Development: Practices and Trends • Dr. Amartya Sen has shown that QoL related indices, like literacy levels, per-capita land, water, etc. are better indicators than GDP, GNP, per-capita income, etc. • In fact, even the World Bank / IMF now recognize the relevance of including non-monetary indices in economic evaluation.

24. Development: Practices and Trends • It is imperative that any new technology should not only address established issues (increased GDP, GNP etc.), but will also have to incorporate the newer indices. • The difficulty lies in the fact that most modern technologies were not designed keeping in view the newer indices against which their success and relevance can be measured.

25. Part II Nature and context of Information Technology (IT) and its implications

26. Issues in IT • Large scale utility of IT now looks inevitable. • What are the paradigm, choice, implementation, policies and impact (both intended and consequential) of the large scale utility of IT ? • Also, IT is dominated by “social perceptions” to a far greater extent than what is currently perceived and acknowledged.

27. Issues in IT • In evaluating any technology for its utility, factors like cost, power consumed, space occupied, natural and human resources needed, environmental impact, etc., dominate the considerations. • In case of IT, these factors hardly figure in at the first or even the higher levels of evaluation of the Appropriateness of IT.

28. Issues in IT • IT now challenges the very concept of technology for large industries, with small systems creating wealth comparable to or better than the traditional, large, people-resource-capital intensive establishment. • IT is the closest a hi-tech industry has come into the framework of “cottage / small scale industry”, which is the backbone of India’s manufacturing sector.

29. Issues in IT • The evolution of any technology turns up many artifacts: some useful, some harmful. • Some degree and period of utility has always shown that many technological issues have sustainability problems. • Example: Plastic carry bags, synthetic pesticides.

30. Issues in IT • With respect to IT and its enthusiastic utility, it is definitely premature to comment on its form and style and nature of use, and when it will mature and stabilize(if at all it does). • But one thing that contemporary practitioners can at least influence, if not decide, is the choice and range of applications of IT.

31. History of IT • Perhaps the oldest analog (positional) computer is the abacus, which was in use as early as 2000 BC in China. • The stonehedge near Salisbury was perhaps used to predict the change of seasons. • Different types of almanacs have been in use for a long time for astronomical calculations.

32. History of IT • The first step towards scientific analog computers was the invention of Napier’s bones by John Napier in the 17th century. • This was followed by the invention of the slide rule by William Oughtred. • Blaise Pascal invented the first mechanical adding machines, which used a series of connected wheels to do addition and subtraction.

33. History of IT • Charles Babbage, the father of modern computing, heralded the shift towards digital computers with his revolutionary design of the analytical engine which anticipated all the central features of the present day computer. • Joseph Jacquard introduced coded cards with punched holes to help automate the computing process.

34. History of IT • In 1896, Herman Hollerith founded the computing tabulating recording company, which later merged with two other companies to form the International Business Machines Corporations (IBM) • George Boole invented the binary logic which became the building block for modern computers. • In the 1930’s Konrad Zude developed the Z series of computing machines using binary arithmatic.

35. History of IT • During World War II, Alan Turing developed the universal machine concept, the forerunner of the computability theory. • In 1946, John Eckert and John Mauchly designed the electronic numerical integrator and calculator (ENIAC), the world’s first all electronic digital computer. • UNIVAC, the first general purpose digital computer, came in 1951.

36. History of IT • Looking back, the invention of silicon transistors in late 40’s, which now manifest as microprocessors and other chips (memory, etc.), could perhaps be regarded, as one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind. • From the point of view of today’s topic, an important landmark is the DARPA/ARPA funded successful attempt at computer networking in late 60’s - early 70’s.

37. History of IT • In the 80’s, Microsoft launched Windows as a graphical interface for PC’s. • The human element started dominating technology. • Intel came up with the first Pentium chip in the 90’s, making computing super fast.

38. Popularity of networked culture • Earlier (50’s - 70’s), “huge centralized mainframes” dominated, with 100’s of “dumb” terminals providing access to central resources. • It was a typical centralized (powerful and all encompassing) and organization oriented type of structure, where users were not empowered to “do anything they wanted”.

39. Popularity of networked culture • Late 70’s - 80’s saw a swing to the other extreme, with advent of individual, interactive PC’s (personal, owned, low power, low capacity, tremendous empowerment but little possibility). • The limitations were soon realized, as “power to do anything” was limited even though the individual freedom to do was inherent.

40. Popularity of networked culture • Finally the pendulum shifted to the middle path, where people had PC’s, but strategically preferred to get empowered through networking. • This enabled people to have the power of organization and yet the empowerment at the individual level. • This lead to the notion of groupware based computing.

41. Popularity of networked culture • Another great synthesis to happen was the fusion of telecom with computer systems. • A computer network has to be seen as a social / service structure. • The recent trend of multi utility hand held devices (like PDA, Simputer, Mobile phones, etc) • Heterogeneous and seamlessly connected networks, both wired and wireless is another strong factor in favor

42. IT: Perceptions and Myths • IT fitted very well in the first world which was trying to manage surplus resources, provide faster responses to queries, provide information access to remote locations, minimize the role of a system (corporate, government, service providers, etc.) by downsizing and allowing individuals to make the choice by providing all the necessary information. • Thus, IT was very compatible with the needs of an individual in the first world.

43. IT: Perceptions and Myths • Historically, all IT applications were focused, triggered by and targeted only on value addition and sometimes newer way of doing things. • IT helped make civil engineering plans faster and more flexible. • While IT helped in managing the inventory and distribution of food grains, it is very essential to recognize that it cannot make food grains grow faster or better.

44. IT: Perceptions and Myths • The clarity about limitations of what a computer can and cannot do is lacking (mainly in the III world). • IT is unfortunately being seen as magic pill for all ills. • For every limitation in the contemporary situation, it is common to hear the standard answer: once we computerize, all problems will get automatically solved.

45. IT: Perceptions and Myths • Never in history has so much faith and expectation been placed on a technology to solve such a wide range of problems. • More interestingly, this expectation is shared by a large number of technologists, scientists, economists, planners, the common man, the lettered and the unlettered, in both First and III world. • This is both scary and challenging.

46. IT: Perceptions and Myths • Scary, because this technology has created such unreasonable demands and expectations, about which there does not seem to be any leveling, let alone an end. • This can easily lead to distortion, frustration, false expectations and technology backlash. • Challenging, because the world expects so much from this technology.

47. Dynamics • Every system (social,economic, political, religious, biological, or a combination of these), reacts to inputs, and generates outputs (both or one of which could be internal). • In a very broad sense one can see the society as a system with inputs and outputs, having a system model, which governs the response. • Such analyses are common in economics, ecology, transportation, etc.

48. Dynamics • We will use such system models for analyzing case studies related to IT. • we will see the response of the system as the change resulting from the proper choice and use of IT (computerization) in the existing situation. • Thus our input to the system is the IT component, and output is the result “measured “ in terms of some parameters (both quantitative and qualitative).

49. Dynamics • At the societal level, dramatic changes take place when a choice of technology is made for the society. • Industrial revolution helped England and France replace Spain and Portugal as prime societies. • Printing technology made information available cheap and fast in printed form, and thus had a strong influence on the Protestant movement and French revolution.

50. Dynamics • Earlier, the impact of a technology was slow and intermittent (from industrial revolution in the 17th century to nuclear power in 1950’s) • The impact of the subsequent technologies (Electronics in 1950’s, TV and communication in 1960’s, microprocessors in 1980’s, PC’s and networking and Internet in 1995’s, biotechnology / genetic Engineering in 1998’s) have been quick and powerful.