My week started on Sunday evening with a 9pm skype conference call with one of my vendors in China. The next day, I had several exchanges with a vendor of one of my clients in India. Yesterday at 10am, I had a discussion with a potential business associate and his Korean vendor in Dunwoody, GA. If I included my almost daily communication with Guyana and the Mexican contractor team working on our home, I would have completed business interactions with nationals from 6 nations within 72hrs. For the cost of my monthly internet access where available and sadly enough high long-distance phone rates to Guyana, I was able to save myself hours of traveling while accomplishing major business tasks mostly from my home office. The world has surely changed. 20 years ago, much of this communication would have been impossible or prohibitively expensive.
My foray into the internet world began back in 1990 with a 2400 baud modem and a subscription to Prodigy. Back in those days, I found the information available online to be mind-blowing, but even more amazing was the immediacy of the email application.
Unfortunately, finding friends to exchange emails with was very rare back in 1990. Later on after working in the IT Industry for 10 years and having a front row seat to the development of then extraordinary applications like instant messenger, customization of home pages, free email accounts by yahoo, gmail, hotmail, low cost internet access, high speed internet access, the birth of web 2.0 applications like facebook, myspace and hi5 among others; not to mention the euphoric days of rising internet stock prices and the heartbreaking days of the internet bubble, the technology ride continues to be exciting, exhilarating and fascinating.
As developing nations like Guyana continue to grapple with issues like provision for their inhabitants of good health, adequate education, opportunities for advancement, adequate housing, employment, sufficient income to meet material needs, a sense of personal security within the law, and a sense of security as a nation, the internet continues to provide answers to these development issues.
George Sandowsky reports that “rapid expansion of the Internet holds substantial promise for developing nations, which can benefit greatly from the Internet’s communication and information delivery capabilities to help meet these needs. The accelerating transition of information to electronic media is making information resources of the world available to an increasingly global audience through the Internet. Developing countries have much to gain from that revolution in communication and information access”. He further states that, “The correlation between information, communication, and economic growth is well-known, making the usefulness of networks nearly self-evident. Electronic networking is a powerful, rapid, and inexpensive way to communicate and to exchange information”. Sandowsky says it well when he reports that, “when networks are available, previously unanticipated collaboration seems to come into being almost spontaneously. The underlying cause seems to involve a latent demand that remains latent as long as joint work requires either the disruption of waiting for the mail, the continual retyping of texts transmitted by mail or fax, or the need to secure large budgets and approvals for extensive international travel”.
With wide dispersion of internet access in Guyana, students can have access to countless numbers of resources to aid in the absorption and advancement of education, business owners can access any number of marketing, finance, management or other resources to help them to further develop their businesses and find new markets abroad, farmers can access international GPS resources to better predict weather conditions, determine prices for their goods on the world market, locate resources for higher yielding seeds, investigate the latest low cost technological advances that can serve to significantly increase production yields and people get to interact with nationals from cultures all over the world further disposing of notions of racial and ethnic superiority (As your world view and experience expands, you learn that race is the least important element in world economics, culture, politics).
In the United States, more than 90% of the population has access to the internet whether at home or at work. Consumers in the United States compare prices online before they make major purchases, they check their bank account balances, pay every conceivable bill online, check on weather, traffic, news in their local area daily. Small businesses advertise online and many like our party rental business get more than 40% of new customers from online advertising.
Knowledge truly is power and the internet does provide a window into a world of knowledge. As internet access in Guyana become more stable, affordable and accessible to both wealthy and poor communities, economic development will increase at a rapid pace. One day, almost every home will have a computer with internet access. People will have instant access to information which will drastically improve their lives in areas of health, education, entertainment and business. They will be able to spend their resources in a more efficient way as pricing options become more accessible to them. That day will approach more rapidly only if costs for fiber and thus IP access drops significantly in Guyana.
Affordable access means that computers must be cheap and widely available to all communities. Internet access will one day need to move to affordable flat rate pricing so that all communities can afford access. Internet cafes must continue to expand into rural communities, driving down the cost of usage. Even the elderly can benefit from online access.
In the United States, both my parents are over 70 years old and they both own computers and are online daily. My father checks cricket scores from around the world and reads communication from his old friends Mr Kippens and Uncle Pluto.
My mom shops for books and researches herbs and natural health vitamins and products almost daily. The point is that although my parents are retired and live in Georgia they are still involved and connected to their interests and friends around the world.
The rapid dispersion of affordable, available and reliable internet access will benefit developing nations in much the same way as it has more developed nations. Today, many consumers in Guyana have internet access and use that access in many of the same ways we do in the United States. The challenge is however to expand the penetration and usage of the internet to rural and poor communities. This will exponentially empower families and avail them of access to a world that will allow them to expand their frame of reference. When this occurs, the possibilities for advancement will become endless.