African Information Society Initiative [AISI] - Connectivity in Africa

IMPACT OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS ON AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

REPORT OF THE FIRST PHASE

by Omar DIOP(Senegal)

0.)ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

We would like, to acknowledge, the cooperation provided by M.Menou and the PADIS’staff. We have also appreciated all information we got from INIMCAS-L , from SYSOPS and from our collegues of Zambia, Ouganda and Ethiopia during this first run of our study.

1.)IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STUDY

1-1 )Methodology.-

Our study was done using two methods of collecting data

a)QUESTIONAIRE for baseline data and,

b)INTERVIEWS for analytical/historical data.(including testimonies from users )

c)DEFINITION.The term electronic communication frequently is used todescribe a number of applications and systems.During the first step of the study, the term has caused a great deal of confusion because it got a wide variety of definitions .In this study we understand the concept as follows : E.Mail applications and full access to information:highways. (INTERNET) according the country situation

1-2 ) Schedule of activities

One of the priorities is to pay attention to our TENTATIVE WORKPLAN.Comment to coodinator regarding the workplan was done at the e nd of March 1995, after contacting sysops of the two networks operating in Senegal at that time (RIO,FIDONET ) in order to find out what kind of data is available in their a.mail systems about users .

The results, we are very late to establish and send, by e.mail, to coordinator ,:number of entry points per frequency of use; appropriate threshold for low ,medium ,high, and very high use;average number of users per entry point; and list of main categories (institutional /sector groups) to be interviewed (.e.g. Academic/Research group, Governmental group, Non governmental group, Intergovernmental goup and Individual/Pivate group )

After two progress reports, the structure of the final sample and the draft of survey instruments have been formulate

-Distribution of the questionnaire, for the small scale tests, in August 1995, have not replay, because we are in french.

speaking country and the questionnaire was given in English .After this first communication difficulty, questionnaire was translated into french version and distributed by e.mail to 106end users who are identified through the 5 categories of our sampling.

In other respect, for the interviews, 50 users have been drawn out of the population of the106 end users; interview draft was first tested at the African Regional Center of Technology ( A R CT ) and the Centre de Suivi Ecologique ( CSE ) to see how they would react to different points.10 users have been interviewed between July and september 1995, and 40 between october 1995 and march 1996

We have to indicate the new situation in SENEGAL. REFER, a francophone a.mail network, dedicated mainly to academic and research sectors, is now included in our sampling .Since December 1995, date of it implementation in the country, REFER is progressing on an average of 4 to 6 new users by day. SONATEL, senegalese provider to full INTERNET access, through its filial, TELECOM PLUS, also is modifying the national context. Without altering our sampling, new users, from REFER, have been targeted in the questionnaire and interviews. We also have to avow that academic and research users become more important in the postulate of our study (.what is the current situation in SENEGAL, in RIO and REFER networks. )

1-3)Problems encountered

We have many problems, among which absence of sysops is major one; events they are in place; they are not ready to give adequat information. They seem to be afraid to give data on subscribers and traffic. Users, also, are not always in good temper to fill questionnaire; many of them cannot use adequatly their computer. We have also problem of communication: :questionnaire and interview tools have to be translated from english into french version. Between July and September many users are not in place; people in different sectors are on long vacations and away from office. At all events they give you rendez-vous, for interview, when you are present, they beg you pardon and said they are too busy. This situation, to our mind, give us good reason to proceed in a more deliberate and orderly fashion through hierarchical channel. Directory of users’address is useful in the phase of interview, sysops consider information from there top secret.

1.)ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF BASELINE QUESTIONNAIRE.

Results obtened from baseline questionnaire as it can be seen in tables indicate:

- out of 98 respondents, 66 come from Academic/Research group, 12 from Governmental Organization, 10 from Inter Governmental group, 6 from Non Governmental group, and likewise, 6 from Individual and private group; 86respondents are male, 12 are female;

- it was found an average of 16 users per entry point, with a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 100.

- respondents are 72 Senegaleses, 29 expatriates ( among them 15 are permanent residents and 14 are temporary residents (less than 5 years).

According to their educational qualification, 30 respondents hold a «Maitrise», 45 hold a «DEA» ,15 hold a «Doctorat »(Etat and 3è cycle) and 8 respondents did not give their academic qualification. 20,4% who answered the questionnaire, indicated that they are experienced, 36,7% are intermediates 42,5% are beginners. An average of 40% of users are fluent in english, 45% say they can read and write but speak wery slowly in English. The 98 users who answered the questionnaire are all indicated that communication was very essential in there activities. 70% of them affirm that information facilities in there office were adequate, while 30% said they were inadequate.

Most of the respondants affirm they have communication and information facilities in there institutions like phone, telex. Computer facilities are available in 87% of organizations. 12 repondants say they are connected to Telesystemes Questels via Senpac and Transpac. 34% of respondants have been practizing e.mail since 2 years.

As it can be read in tables, 38 respondants use currently RIO e.mail, 35 use currently FIDONET e.mail, and 25 respondants use currently REFER network.As indicate in tables only.42% of respondants log in and type their own messages; only 3% of respondants are connected at home and office.It is significant to find that the same percentage have to pay there cost e.mail. 97% of respondants have there e.mail cost paid by there organizations through a project of cooperation

11% of respondants send messages once per month, 21% send 1 to 4 messages per month, 39% 1 to 5 messages per week, and 26% send 1 or more per day .In others respects 22% receive messages once per month; 16% receive 1 to 4 me:ssages per month; 37 % receive 1 to 5 messages per week and 36,8% collect 1 or more per day. This testifies, an average of high level e.mail use .

48,6% of respondants use e.mail for echanging reseach ideas; 23% receiving technical advice; 21% arraging meeting ; 39,8 % providing technical advices ;30,2 % for personnel message and 12,8% for litterature searches.

87% of messages are send outside Africa, 10% within Africa outside the country and 12% within the country.

Respondant attribute to e.mail many improvements in their work; by order of importance we can cite speedy communication by 98(100%)respondants; cost saving from phone, telex, and traditional letter bills (100%); ability to get information from a colleague or a institution and easy storage and manipulation of received imformaton (78 %).

From another source, difficulties, which have been attributed to e.mail, are by order of importance: 94 users need national and international directories to reach adequatly their correspondants; 60 respondants think that there are too much information to manage.They spend time going through huge amount of messages,some of which are irelevant. They point out another problem :users have to pay at receipt and sending message: that is not going for cost saving bills.

60% of respondants think that obtening imformation is sometimes very easy; but documents retrieved can either be consulted on the screen or printed out on compatible lazer printer;they have always problems of decoding messages

81% of users (40% from REFER) say that the system is not always available and they have to wait sometimes ,hours ,days and during that time their correspondants try to send or to replay your last message :but, it was in vain, it bounced . 68 % of respondants, found lack of technical base also is constraint to full use of E.mail.

From basic data of the questionnaire we can, already, try to summarize first groups of significante remarks :

a ) About users :by the years 1996-1997 users stereotype will continu presenting following characteristics:they have an advanced university degree and they are beginners both in computer skillness and handling electronic communication tools .Their professionel specialization is research and teaching in academic environment, but, the trend is growing towards business and private group .It is expected from new legal dispositions, that private and liberal providers bring significant changes; for exemple,morecompetitive and marketing activities.

b )About communication and information facilities of the organizations and users:

97% of current users have their electronic communication supported by their organization through a project; and they all are able to get adequate information facilities from libraries, records unit ,and abroad data bases via SONATEL.

All respondants go on with phone, telex, telefax,..extras E.mail.

It was observed that there is generally a need to educate people about E.mail use, specially for research strategies.

c )Improvement brought by the use of electronic communication.

More than 80% of respondants have satisfaction with the cost of direct charges, response time, quality (coverage completeness, recall, precision, novelty, accuracy of data )cost-effectiveneveness (cost per relevant item).

These improvements can be considered as reasonable indicators to measure effectiveness of infomation service .

d )Post-conclusion.

We can already say that these improvement can be considered as reasonable indicators to measure effectiveness of information in development

In «Measuring the Impact of Information on Development.» M.Menou says about development «it would be unrealistic to expect any authoritative definition......development may be relate to quantitative and possibly qualitative growth...» We can say from basic indicators we got from questionnaire that electronic communication participate to effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of information. This should determine how well an information service satisfies the needs of its users. It may revel that information is time (also, but not only); time is money(not always); money has value then information has value(also, but not always ).

Viewed as means of improving performance, or allocating resources more effectively, electronic communication became an essential management tool for development rather than an expensive luxury for sophisticate societies.

3) INTERVIEWS AND TESTIMONIES: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION .

As part of important sequence of our methodology, we are expecting, from here, other basic data that have to be intersected with the results of basic questionnaire;

At the question. «Which of your professional activities do you consider is critical for your organization ?»

45 interviewed persons answer they have in their organization to promote teaching and research in the field of social and industrial activities. 3 other intervewed users have to promote the understanding of the earth science in the world ,specialy in Africa. 2 other interviewed people consider assistance in the collection on-going reaseach projects for inclusion in computerized data base is the main work of their office. In theirs activities they all considere information critical to achieve their goals; and the major problems in implementing information activities, is for them the growing diversification of sources of information; this makes it more and more difficult to have access to pertinente information from a single source:

They all affirm, directly or indirectly, this problem is related to communcaton; that means, how to reduce the difficulties encountered in the search for adequate informaion (in terms of information acquisiton and new technology transfert). We need more about what is happened in science and technology in Europ, Nord America and Asia than we do in African Countries . Most of scientific and technological information concerning the world (including Africa) is stored in libraries and data bases in Europ and United States of America.

Interviews and testimonies certify that the nature of the difficulty before we access to electronic communication is technological nature.And the real cause of the difficulty can be found in the quality of the Post and Telecommunication infrastructure ;they all conclude that the problem of information, (most particularly acquisition and dissemination) is seriously aggravated by the effects of negative quality of technology .related to communication.

Testimonies and interviews point out 4 kinds of effect:

a) cost effects (direct charges,effort involved);

b)response time effects;

c) quality effects;

----coverage(completeness),

----recall (e.g 80% recall--80 % relevant documents were found),

----precision (signal-to-recall ratio ),

----novelty,

----accuracy of data,

d) cost-effectiveness effects:

---cost per relevant item,

At the question «what were the possible solutions to the difficulty ?»

All interview and testimonies documents from scattered centres affirm to be limited in their resources and capability for possible solutions .They all, in addition to the facilities at the Centre National de Documentation ,try to minimize their difficulties through sectorial networking where they adapt and adopt a strategy of sharing all risks: (financial and technologic)

For example in academic network, they have been promoting cooperation in acquisition of all kind of information supports and appropriate information technologies related to their current situation to reduce cost of direct charges, responses-time, quality of services, etc..

Ex :Europriodique and Dawson-France (French document providers) etablish linkage among national focal point and french publishers in order to reduce direct charges and prize of documents ( periodics, books etc...); CD.ROM technology also can reduce telecommunication problems.

All scientists who answered ,in order to solve some difficulties of technical nature (acquisition ,processing and dissemination etc..), take profit of the normal development of international and regional cooperation .One user says « our solution is simple,developped countries are in leading position in many respects in science and technology and economic development, and they are obliged to help underequiped countries for solution of their problems.»

A young manager of infomation society affirms, with strong conviction ,that duriing the first-electronic period ,only donors have many ways to help public institutions they manage their difficlties; UNESCO, IDRC, FRENCH-COOPERATION...etc, early are involved in basic activities related to information to reduce developping countries difficulties in this area .

Interview and testimony papers reported that during the years before access to electronic communication ,major problems including:(information supply from various sources,lack of local capability to process and disseminate pertinente information to users with the required time limits) found relevant solutions in cooperation .Many difficulties remain but many things were changed .They say that a new and more liberal society are taking place. They have to look for others strategies , more economic and more competitive than technological.

If we ask ,now that you are access to electronic communications, what is the nature of the difficulty,what happen ?

What was the cause of the difficulty? What was the effects and the possible solutions of the difficulty ?

Many persons think that the nature of the difficulty is economic.They answer,only institutions supported by a project can support the cost of their electronic communcation .A young manager handling his own society says he is ready to continu using electronic communication because it provides range of facilties like adequate response time,acceptable direct charges,quality occuracy of data and produce,and cost-effectiveness per relevant item. Current providers ,in very near future,have to face with marketing problems.Senegal was one of the first African.countries to begin digitalization of its telecommunication network .The quality and modernity of public telecommunication network makes it possible to offer users an important range of new services.

An other private user says that communication cost are very expensive in our country ,but,thank to liberalisation of telecommunication sector by new legal dispositions (and full Internet access), competitive situation is implementing in Senegal new kinds providers.

If, however, we ask, what would these solutions changed? Many users, particularly business people ,say that the effets can be found in the competitive prizes offered by new providers

At present, demonopolization.of the Senegalese P T T ,will have an effet on national market structure .SONATEL is trying to take its place on the competitive market.Anoter private provider, RAPID ,is looking to the regional market for its expertise and technology about multimediat services

Other effects, as observed during what i havecalled’’ marketing meeting’’(ref.our CABUS-report 18 Mars 1996 to Inimcas-l) may occur in the investment of SONATEL, e.g in the sens that SONATEL, through its new filial ,TELECOM-PLUS will have access to the capital market of providers .

4-CONCLUTIONS AND RECOMMANDATIONS.

Comparing our results, from questionnaires, to that we have found from interviews and testimonies, we can conclude by saying :

- At this level of using electronic communication,most of those who are connected are supported by a projet ;what is the meaning of this? This is comprehensible as electronic communication cost are wery expensive in our country for african private and individual users .

- However that may be, our study attests from the results of, ours sampling many advantages and benefits of electronic communication. More than 80% of currents users have relative satisfaction when comparing cost, response-time, quality and cost-effectiveness with the fomer situation;

- In near future user stereotype of electronic communication will continu presenting following characteristics : they have advanced university degree;and the trend will be growing towards business and private group

New legal dispositions will demopolize communication sector and will provide competitive environment favorable to marketing. It would be more significant to handle a new study for this new scenario, the sampling will be 50% business group and 50% sectorial groups supported by a project .

Omar DIOP Consultant

C.E A (PADIS)