Feasibility study proposal

EJOURNAL ON INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES FOR DEVELOPING REGIONS (tentative title)

1.Requests

During the ICTP activities on wireless access technologies for research and training in developing countries, the participants have requested an electronic journal or data base ('ejournal') to be created, maintained and made easily accessible for all those interested. In their views, such an 'ejournal' would be a useful repository of articles, software, and educational and other material related to the school topics. Its contents would be produced mainly by scientists and engineers from emerging economies and developing countries and would address problems and needs of their fellow colleagues. It would be 'South-South' collaboration, open for contributions from around the world. Another aspect was related to facilitating the publication process for scientific staff. The participants suggested the ICTP should facilitate, administer, and finance that activity which would greatly facilitate their efforts to bridge the digital and knowledge gap.

That request is to be considered in a wider context. Bogota Declaration (1976) described best the issue stating that, at international conferences, delegates from (quote) developing countries could not count on adequate scientific advice and were thus not able to observe and evaluate the omissions, contradictions and consequences of the proposals which were prepared with great ability by the industrialized powers for their own benefit (unquote). Some people believe that such a situation continues also in the ICT access field, since a few, if any, scientists and universiteties/ research centers in developing countries are aware of current issues discussed/ negotiated at international fora such as, for instance, the Study Groups of ITU-D, ITU-R, or ITU-T.

2.Reaction

Some partial and 'ad-hoc' solution attempts were made in the past at ICTP in response to these requests. Probably the first one was the creation of radio propagation software repository organized in close collaboration with the ITU/CCIR when I was still there. Unfortunately, these attempts did not survive due to lack of necessary resources. Later, when I served as the Editor-in-Chef of Global Communications, I was inviting as many authors from developing countries as I could, but the publisher bankrupted after few years of success. Although the issue of 'ejournal' was discussed at various occasions, no viable solution has been found until now.

Many people expect that the new Technology Observatory and Training Unit for Developing Countries, a common initiative of ICTP and ITU/BDT, would respond positively to the request, and publishing of the proposed 'ejournal' would constitute one of its the basic functions. However, it is still unclear how the idea could practically be implemented.

3.Open questions

A number of questions arise in this connection. Why a new journal is needed if so many publications already exist? What new elements the proposed ejournal would offer that the existing publications could not? What mechanism would assure its sustainability? How would it be financed/ administered? No definitive answers to these questions are known at the present time. Many solutions are possible and many interests are involved.

Any decision in that matter will impact not only the Observatory, ICTP, and ITU/BDT, but mainly young scientists that were lucky enough to participate in the ICTP training and are now in their native countries. Even more: it will have impact on on thousands of those who applied for the training but were not accepted due to lack of resources, and on the army of all those who never applied for various reasons. It is clear that decision in this matter should be based on documented factual data, but such data have never been collected. In such a vague situation, some research seems necessary, and I would like to propose a study to be undertaken under the ICTP 'umbrella'.

4.Proposal

The proposed study would collect factual data, consult these with the intended audience, and propose further steps. It would be an international collaborative project, consisting of 3 major elements:

- a survey of views of the intended audience to identify (and document) their needs and preferences

- a review of best practices from other organizations so that the 'ejournal' could build on their experience

- a draft of principles and rules, organizational/administrative structure, partnership, and 'business model' of for the proposed 'ejournal', to be consulted with the intended audience and the decision-makers.

Prof. Dr. Ryszard Struzak <r.struzak@ieee.org>

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