Marcel M. Kaljee MSc.
The focus of development in electronic information exchange has been mainly on interactive communication. The sheer challenge to create a communication link with someone somewhere else in the world has fascinated both researcher and early adopter. The results in technological achievements have been impressive. Within a decade, not only electronic information exchange has been achieved but, the development has reached to interactive video conferencing, promising this kind of conference, we are having here today, to be ofdate in the near future.
That is, if the developing countries will find ways to bridge the gap in telematics between the rapid development in the industrialized countries and the status quo in theirs. Three key factors which obstruct rapid development are the lack of physical infrastructure, knowledge and the market push.
Clearly the technological revolution that took place once the benefits of access to the Internet became clear to the general public, has been limited to the developed countries only. The benefits are now becoming more and more clear to the industry as well. More and more the western industry is using the Internet as a cheap channel for PR activities and to release and obtain product information.
This last development gains momentum rapidly, moving the electronic transferred information away from consumer level to business level with large economic values at stake. The elec- tronic means are creating worldwide markets with unknown potentials in quantity and speed of development. Markets from which the developing countries should not have to be excluded, since physical borders and trade restrictions do not influence access to the information highways, once you have access.
With the capitalization of information as a mayor asset in industries, the cost of acquiring and controlling information became more important. The cost of electronic information retrieval, however has not been a major issue in the whole development of electronic information exchange. The cost of Internet access in the research and development stage has not been charged to the users, the use being only a small portion of the total infra-structural cost of the Internet backbone. And more important the development has taken and is taking place in developed countries like the United States and Northern European countries with an existing infrastructure. The issue of the cost of Internet access has become only an issue when the demand for access to electronic information created its own market with providers and consumers worldwide.
The World Telecommunication development report of ITU (1994) states that the uneven distribution in telephone lines has hardly changed the last decade. Adding to this, the unequal distribution of the new telematic development, makes it clear that there is a need to break this status quo and start a new trend to create more equal opportunities.
Development of the telematic infrastructure by economic incen- tives would be the best option. Unfortunately the economic feasible infrastructures seem to reach only the major cities in developing countries, against considerable operational cost. The public and small industries have difficult access to these scarce telematic resources either because of the high subscription costs or the limited capacity.
Development of the infrastructure will come only partly from private or industrial activities. The main incentive will have to come from government initiatives. Although considerable sources are obtained from the international community, it will not be sufficient to build an infrastructure that will make equal access to telecommunications equally worldwide. Even in the USA and Europe the Information Highway is suffering from considerable traffic jams, not keeping up with its growth in popularity.
This leads to the following conclusion. All countries and specially the de