Title: DEVELOPMENT: Experts Urged to Join New Global
Information Resource
By Gumisai Mutume
MEXICO CITY (IPS World Desk) Feb 29 - Academics, think-tanks
and
other experts from developing countries are being urged to enlist
in a new Internet-based network created by the UN Development
Programme (UNDP) to promote the exchange of technical
information.
The system, known as WIDE, was launched by the UNDP's Special
Unit for Technical Co-operation among Developing Countries (TCDC)
last weekend to establish communication and co-operation among
information-poor developing countries and make information in
these
countries more visible and accessible.
Following on the heels of the launch, the creators of WIDE
issued a statement Monday calling on institutions and experts
across the globe to participate in the initiative.
"It is designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of
South-South expertise...and to enable partners to use the
electronic venue for the conduct of some of their work, build
parts
of their own information systems, and take advantage of its
capacities for greater collaboration," the UNDP/TCDC said in a
statement Monday.
"All information maintained in WIDE is in the public domain and
is available to anyone, anywhere, free of charge," the statement
said.
One of the goals of the UNDP is to reverse the widening
knowledge gap between rich and poor by ensuring that the
information revolution serves human development.
WIDE is part of this response. It is being financed by the
UNDP,
the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology and the Brazilian
Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CESAR).
It consists of WIDE On-Line - an Internet-based public access
database containing information on experts and institutions and
showcasing the "best" practices in the South. Another branch of
the
system is known as WIDE Inter-Link - a network of technical
specialists.
The system includes an experts registry where professionals can
log-on to the network. It also allows its databases to be searched
via the Internet.
Institutions affiliated with WIDE include scientific and
research institutions, governmental and non-governmental
organisations and private companies.
"WIDE works both on and off-line to cope with slow Internet
connections," notes Atsede Worede Kal of the UNDP/TCDC.
By June last year only 180 million of the world's six billion
people had full access to the Internet. In many developing
countries, people only have access to off-line services such as e-
mail.
"The availability of information on developing countries' needs
and their capacities to provide training and expertise are
fundamental to the process of technical co-operation among
developing countries," says Worede Kal.
The rules of globalisation have set off a technological race,
with developing countries scrambling to catch up. The UNDP says
that while a typical US medical library subscribes to 5,000
journals, the Nairobi University Medical School Library in Kenya,
regarded as a leading institution in East Africa, only receives 20
- down from 300 a decade ago.
The Internet, with its ability to link institutions across
national and international boundaries, is spurring efforts like
WIDE - a global knowledge base that poor countries can access
freely.
The UN Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing
Countries was established in 1974 by the General Assembly to
assist
countries with technical programmes.
One of its instruments, the Information Referral Service system
- which was launched in 1977 as a paper-based technical register -
has now evolved into the modern Internet-based system, WIDE.
Dr. Fabio Silva, director of CESAR, says that in "developing
countries, a wealth of information cannot be accessed because
there
is no way to interact with it because it is stored in paper,
books,
cabinets: nowhere where it is needed."
"WIDE aims to provide worldwide real-time information about
institutions and individuals in any way related to technical
co-operation among developing countries, serving as an interface
between UNDP/TCDC and similar institutions, countries and to the
Internet population," Silva says.
However, a major drawback for a large part of the population in
developing countries will be the language barrier. The network
operates in four languages - English, French, Spanish and
Portuguese.
Still, its creators are touting WIDE as an example of
sophisticated and appropriate technology being adapted to serve as
a simple, practical, and effective global information system for
development.
The WIDE Initiative has partnerships in three continents, with
some of its web pages hosted in New York, others in Brazil and the
rest in Canada. Its news service is based in the Republic of
Korea.
The Internet broadcast news service will also focus on issues
of South-South co-operation and development.
UNDP/TCDC says an important feature of WIDE is that users and
clients will supply and manage their own information.
"With the sheer amount and range of data, information and
knowledge that, at least theoretically, has to be stored,
processed
and retrieved in a system like WIDE for it to be useful, it is
impossible for anyone or group to have central control over such
a mass of information," UNDP/TCDC says. (END/IPS/DV/gm/ks/00)
Origin: Rome/DEVELOPMENT/
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[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
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