By Karen Abrams
Karen Abrams is a Consultant for the Tech Industry. Her specialty is encouraging the participation of under-represented groups in creating technology startup ventures. She holds a MBA degree in Marketing.
As I engage in more discussions with Guyanese influencers about how we achieve a more technologically advanced Guyanese society, I’m often confronted with responses that detail the myriad of reasons why Guyana is not moving forward on ICT or STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) in a progressive, organized, committed way. More often than not, the responses include lack of reliable and inexpensive Internet infrastructure, fibre optics network challenges, illiteracy, lack of government’s commitment and lack of community or family resources.
In reality, there is no perfect time to embrace a STEAM focus in society, especially developing societies like ours. The whole point of the current global technology startup movement is to empower regular people to identify problems and fill those gaps using efficient technology and profit models. Facebook today reports that more than 200,000 Guyanese residing in Guyana have Facebook accounts, that is more than a third of the adult population and a significant market.
These people have friends and family members with whom they share Facebook content, so the influence of technology is already pervasive in Guyana; whether we recognize it or not. Clearly if more than a third of the adult Guyanese population use the Facebook internet application, then there must be opportunity for local talent to develop other application solutions that serve to meet the needs of local Guyanese through internet and mobile technologies.
While governments in countries like Estonia and Kenya have been particularly effective at creating policy and enacting plans to vastly embrace and develop STEM societies, in Guyana, IT development progress through government has been significantly less effective than the progress achieved through the private sector. Indeed, it is my belief that if the country is to move forward rapidly in STEAM, then it will have to be parents, students, communities and the private sector who will have to be tasked with creating the solutions, improving the infrastructural gaps and moving the society forward exponentially and quickly.
There is no reason today why students, regular citizens or private sector startup companies cannot build solutions for farmers so they can access up to the minute information on market prices for their crop, giving them better control and more power over the distribution, sale and even spoilage of their crops.
There is no reason why solutions do not exist that offer them immediate basic medical advice for attending to the needs of sick livestock, or giving them access to global feedback on solutions to diseases affecting their plants, or weather forecasts, etc. These solutions can be created today. These solutions exist in other countries today.
There is no reason today why we can’t use existing technology and infrastructure for identifying problems and providing solutions in crime management, domestic violence, medical reporting, community affairs, etc. Solutions driven by community members, solutions focused on service quality and effectiveness and solutions created by citizens. There are ways today to create mobile solutions to empower citizens, to improve communications all across the country, to help students and adults to read, to teach Math and Writing and Science, and to basically provide solutions across every service industry in Guyana and in cost effective and profitable way; thereby solving problems, stimulating local economies, fixing problems and creating jobs.
Guyana does not have the option of awaiting the rebound on the world market for our sugar, rice, bauxite, and gold or even awaiting the development of our potentially lucrative oil industry. We have to think today about using technology to create new products and markets for our natural resources. We have to think about diversifying our economy, by seriously promoting entrepreneurship and STEAM education. Our citizens, parents and private sector simply need to embrace a wild-west approach to creating solutions. We just need to DO IT!
There are citizens in Guyana and in the Diaspora today who have the talent to create these solutions and others who desperately want to learn. We need parents to seek out the necessary resources to help their children learn about creating solutions from the backside of technology. It is simply not enough for our children to play video games, listen to music apps and hang out on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat.
We need to encourage our children to learn how to create these tools, not only for Guyana, but for the Caribbean, the Diaspora or even the world market.
We must be willing to embrace risk and failure and to continue to be resilient. Today in the US, 9 out of 10 ‘startup’ ideas fail, but the movement persists and has spread worldwide and those that are successful impact countries; think about the impact of Whatsapp, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snapchat in the US or Skype in Estonia. Skype was created by Estonians and was sold to Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion. Whatsapp was a small company of 30 employees when it was sold to Facebook for $19 billion. Skype still provides jobs for thousands of Estonians. These folks aren’t rocket scientists, in fact, many of them are no more brilliant than many Guyanese.
To be sure, Guyana will always need farmers and manufacturers and a thriving service industry but all of those industries will need solid technological infrastructure offering technology solutions that make these industries more efficient. Our citizens must therefore prepare themselves to take advantage of these opportunities. There is no time like the present for parents, youth and the private sector to think about the STEAM space. Let us not wait on the government to save us when we have to tools in place to save ourselves.
