DOCUMENT RESUME ED 371 737 IR 016 789 Williams, Geoffrey J. AUTHOR Changing Communications for a Closer Commonwealth? TITLE St. Catharine's Conference Report No. 38 (Windsor, England, June 1993). King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Foundation of St. INSTITUTION Catharine's, Windsor (England). REPORT NJ ISSN-0955-3517 PUB DATE 93 NOTE 18p. AVAILABLE FROM Director of Studies, St. Catharine's, Cumberland Lodge, The Great Park, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 2HP United Kingdom (2 British pounds). PUB TYPE Conference Proceedings (021) -- Collected Works Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Business Communication; Change; *Economic Development; Educational Technology; Foreign Countries; Freedom of Information; Futures (of Society); International Studies; *Mass Media Effects; Policy Formation; *Technological Advancement; *Telecommunications; Trend Analysis IDENTIFIERS Asia Pacific Region; British Commonwealth; *Commonwealth of Nations ABSTRACT This conierence reviewed the past and likely future impact of advances in the technology of communications on the Commonwealth and the countries of the Commonwealth. There is potential gain in terms of economic development from the leap-frogging of technologies, but there is not a lot of optimism that the new technology will help to narrow the gap between developing and developed countries. Applications of new technology in education have been less effective than in the business world. It is in the media that some of the most significant impacts have ocLurred, as exemplified by the collapse of the Eastern bloc, which, as portrayed by the media, has been an example for change in other countries. Messages the world receives through the media are currently coming largely from the West, but the growing economic strength of the Asian Pacific countries, few of which axe in the Commonwealth, could bring about a change of focus. Improved communications technology could strengthen Commonwealth links. It is recommended that freedom of information be added to the Declaration of Commonwealth Principles. (Author/SLD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Off.ce ol Educabonee Reseetcn and impfissitastnt EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERIC1 r. Tens aoCumant haS 1011n mOroduCed as ,eCthwohl tram the person or wpm:soon nnomeong 0 M.not changes nave oeen mac* to envoys, fel:wee:Woven (loamy PmIS of move of ore rioOnaStahhiMINSOCCsh might do not nlecessetay mote-sent &howl OERI [Mo0r:U.0r pacy Changing Communications for a Closer Commonwealth? June 1993 St. Catherine's Conference Report #38 June 1993 Dr. G.J. Williams Cumberland Lodge The Great Park Windsor Berkshire SL4 2HP "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Dr. G.J. Williams BEST COPY AVAILABLE TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." 2 CHANGING COMMUNICATIONS FOR A CLOSER COMMONWEALTH? A ST CATHARINE'S CONFERENCE HELD AT CUMBERLAND LODGE JUNE 1993 St Catharine's Conference Report No. 38 Sir Kenneth Berrill, Pro-Chancellor of the Open St Catharine's Conferences are an important part University and Chairman of the Commonwealth of the work of the King George VI and Queen Equity Fund, was the Conference President. Elizabeth Foundation of St Catharine's and focus on a variety of contemporary issues. Delegates to the conference were honoured to be received by Her Majesty The Queen and Her This conference was concerned with the revolu- Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mothey, fol- tionary changes which are taking place in the lowing the service at the Royal Chapei on-Sunday technology of communications and how they 13th June. might influence particular areas of Common- education, business, culture wealth concern Introdudion and political processes. Would they contribute to widening the gap between the developed and Geoffrey Williams, Director of Studies at Cumber- land Lodge, welcomed participants to the con- developing countries, or might they be harnessed in the development of a closer Commonwealth ference and introduced the Conference President, relationship? Sir Kenneth Berrill. In his introduction, Sir Kenneth spoke of the two areas of communi- Summary cations in which there had been re- volutionary changes in our lifetime, The conference reviewed the past and likely future impact of physical communications and elec- advances in the technology of communications on the Com- tronic communications. Physical monwealth and the countries of the Commonwealth. communication had been revolu- In terms of economic development there is potential gain tionised first by the railways and then from the leap-frogging of technologies, but not a lot of by the internal combustion engine optimism that the new technology wili help to narrow the and the jet engine, had transformed gap between developing and developed countries. Appli- every country of the world, making cations of the new communications technology in education our societies much more mobile. has been ress effective than in the business world. It is in the Whilst we might anticipate a con- media that some of the most significant impacts have oc- tinuing decrease in journey times, it curred, with notable effects on the political and cultural life would seem that truly revolutionary of many countries. In particular, the collapse of the Eastern advance in this field might be at an bloc has, through the media, been an example for change in end. many other countries. Cultural imperialism and the threat which it poses to cultural diversity, continues to worry some. By contrast, the electronic communi- The messages the world receives through the medium are cations revolution was continuing, currently coming largely from the West, but the growing and has already transformed our po- economic strength of the Asian-Pacific countries (few of litical, cultural and business life. which are in the Commonwealth) could bring about a Within minutes events taking place change of 'focus. IMproved communications technology in other parts of the world can be could strengthen Commonwealth links, and particularly aid the work of NGOs. The need was underlined for freedom of St Catharine's gratefully acknowledges the support of the Dulverton Trust and the information to be added to the Declaration of Common- Goldsmiths' Company in the funding of this wealth Principles. conference. projected into our offices and homes, made poss- economy can be traced to the 16th and 17th cen- ible by developments in computer and satellite turies and epidemics such as the 1918-19 flu epi- technology. Fibre optics offers the next leap for- demic spread world-wide. Intellectually the idea ward in a rapidly changing field. of one world is essential to the Christian tradition and is implicit in the idea of a single creation. It How changes in communications technology has further roots in the rational scientific approach might affect the Commonwealth of the future was to the study of the world which dates from the the focus of the conference: will it bring it closer Enlightenment of the mid-18th century, and which together or tear it apart? Will it widen or narrow has driven us to explore and to classify the things the gap between rich and poor? we observe. The Commonwealth, developing out of an earlier Communications and 1 empire, is often seen as illustrating the potential of Change in Retrosped networks of communication. One of the vision- aries in this tradition was the Oxford histonan Historians, suggested Andre Porter, were devel- Lionel Curtis who saw in the British Empire of the oping an interest in the relationship between com- inter-war years the germ of a world society under- munications, and especially the technology of pinned by technological advance, British cultural communications, and the development of em- traditions, and the English language. Sir Charles pire. Prominent in this field was the American Dilke expressed similar ideas as early as the 1860s, historian, Daniel Headrick, much of whose work impressed by the extent to which English had illustrates a traditional theme: that excitement become the language of international commerce about expansion and technological ingenuity and the common bond between countries. How- were seen in almost every decade to be character- ever, Dilke's vision faded and thirty years later he istic of the age. He highlighted four features: the amazing extension of rail, road and air links; the was writing The Problems of Greater Britain. One of the reasons for his disillusionment was dis- rapidly increasing speed at which people, goods and information can be conveyed; the increasing agreement over language. In the early 19th cen- tury the idea of a standard English began to reliability of communications, and finally (and per- develop and became an increasingly intolerant haps of greatest importance) the increasing cheap- ness of communications. concept as the century progressed, dismissive of dialects, of the transplanted English developing in Such developments have given us the prospect of the settler colonies, and even more of the creole 'one world': the increasingly close integration of or pidgin variants which had developed in West larger, multi-national states or associations. Mod- Africa, the Caribbean and Hong Kong. This lack of ern technology encourages this, Headrick noting agreement on acceptable forms of English, and that it "does not occur in isolated units, but as the prejudices associated with it, have not en- complex systems that require ever more wide- couraged closer links. spread interactions and interdependence . . . telecommunications are among the technologies The question 'Which English?' naturally leads on most involved in this process; they are very com- to 'Whose English?' The potential of English for plex, they readily form systems and networks, and communication on a world wide scale, suggested they both require and encourage global Andrew Porter, had been limited because most i nterdependence". spoke it as a second or third language and the It is easy to illustrate the development of tech- numbers who had sought to acquire it have been nology, but some of the assumptions commonly rather few. Only about 15% of the world's popu- made about its impact might be queried: that lation regularly used English, and the figure was technology makes control and centralisation steadily going down. Further, many who sought to easier; that its spread can be equated to the march master it did so for social or prestige reasons, so of progress; and that it enhances understanding of that it was seen as something which sets people other societies. apart from each other and cuts them off from their roots. Missionaries were amongst the first to realise Assumptions commonly made about these problems. Initially they promoted the use of the impact of technology might be English in preference to 'heathen' vernacular queried languages, but began to work through the ver- naculars when they realised that many were Firstly, however, whilst modern technological ad- interested in acquiring English not in order vance has made it possible to envisage and organ- that they might be converted, but so that they ise global communities, global networks go back much earlier, probably long before people were might obtain employment in commercial offices, conscious of them. Thus the roots ot the world or read subversive literature. In the use of the vernaculars missionaries promoted Speakers fragmentation, rather than closer communication. Professor Shamsher Ali, Vice-Chancellor of the Bangladesh Open University The use of English as the language of law and government in Britain.'s col- Sir Kenneth Berrill, Pro-Chancellor of the Open University onial territories also provoked resjst- (Conference President) ance and non co-operation from Catherine Distler, Assistant Director, PROMETHEE, Paris, an those who saw it as forced anglicis- international think tank focussing on the global net- ation. This was particularly true9f the worked society. Afrikaners in South Africa and the French in Quebec. Professor Andrew Porter, Head of the Department of History, King's College London Some contemporary African novelists Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, West Africa Correspondent for the such as Chinua Achebe are worried that to write in English constrains BBC World Service their authenticity and the Kenyan Elizabeth Smith, Controller English Services, BBC World novelist Ngugi Wa Thiongo has taken Service the decision to write no longer in Peter Unwin, Deputy Secretary-General (Economic) of the English. Nationalist leaders, of whom Commonwealth, 1989-93 Gandhi is an example, used English effectively in their exchanges with the to control the media, but that technology can be British government, but felt that in doing so they were llienating themselves and collaborating with used to subvert these centralising tendencies. those who were corrupting their own traditions. The experience of history is not necessarily going to be repeated, but two themes might give food These examples show that use of a particular for thought today: that advances in technology language can be profoundly alienating and that have always gone with optimism and vision, but to choice of a language and the availability of edu- a considerable extent that vision has faded quite cation and technology raise fundamental issues of rapidly; and that the extension of communication power and control in any society or association. is essentially two-sided, capable of both s.ip- Can those who possess the power to influence porting and extending the status quo and of sub- access to information, or to educational and tech- verting it. nological opportunity, be trusted to exercise that power in any interest but their own? Challenged in discussion as to the relevance of what he had to say to a Commonwealth which Governments have welcomed the technological had "transcended its origins", Andrew Porter ar- advances which gave improved communication, gued that it was indeed very relevant. Many in seeing it as a means of strengthening power and Commonwealth countries carry with them a control, although Colonial governors were some- vision of the past which influences their behaviour times able, as in the case of Lord Milner in South towards other countries, not least towards Britain, Africa, to turn it to their own advantage. In World and for this reason it is important to draw attention War II radio was used in British colonial territories to some of the ingredients of the historical legacy. to damp down possible unrest and to provide loyalty-inducing programmes. However, the com- It was noted that different models of the relation- petition from alternative transmitters soon ship between the media and the state had been changed this, to the point that Oliver Lyttelton, exported. In the one, the media was closely linked Colonial Secretary in the early 1950s, complained with the state and government organisations and that improved communications were actually con- had limited international credibility. In the other, straining the ability of the imperial government to free market conditions were espoused, but run its colonies. Increasingly people were made powerful proprietors, advertising, commercial aware of what was going on in other parts of the and political interests could wield a pernicious world and no longer could a blind eye be turned to influence. repression. Taking up the point that in many countries, in- cluding India, English was the language of the Governments will try to control the minority, and noting that countries such as media, but technology can be used to Cameroon and Mozambique, which did not share subvert these centralising tendencies in its linguistic heritage, were seeking to join the Commonwealth, it was questioned whether we Thus the lessons to be drawn from the historical should continue to assume that English would in record are that governments (and others) will try future hold its dominant position. countnts are still determined to control infor- A Ten Year Prosped mation: this year Nigeria, for example, introduced the death penalty for speaking out against the government. Most Commonwealth countries, Taking as her starting point the Declaration of however, see free communication as contributing Commonwealth Principles, the Singapore Declar- very positively to development. Advanced tech- ation of 1971, Elizabeth Smith noted that it con- nology for 'phones and faxes, banking, airline tained no mention of freedom of information. Nor booking, taxation systems, etc., are seen as pre- did freedom of information, or of the press, fea- requisites for a modern society, enabling things to ture in any subsequent communique of Heads of be done more efficiently and more cheaply. There Government Meetings. Yet it did feature in the UN is rage when, unable to make the necessary in- Charter and was the subject of the UN Declaration vestment, countries see themselves being ex- on Freedom of Information of 1946. cluded from the infrastructure essential for sophisticated societies. The 1971 Declaration of Commonwealth The Soviet Union's place as a role model for the Rinciples contains no mention of developing countries has been taken by the Asian- freedom of infonnation Pacific countries, notably Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and southern parts of China, which have This is because the issue has been sensitive and the fastest growing communications industries. divisive to the Commonwealth since the 1960s. It There is still objection to cultural dominance, but was pushed aside by more immediate areas of new ways are being found to use the new disagreement, such as Rhodesia and South Africa. technologies in 'culturally appropriate' ways. Changes in Southern Africa, along with the end of Many non-Latin scripts have been developed for the Cold War, have radically changed the situation computers and internationally understood sym- and the Commonwealth now has the opportunity bols are increasingly used in computer com- for new initiatives in this area. mands. There is also a growing understanding of people's ability to operate in more than one cul- It became an issue in the 1960s when developing ture simultaneously, handling complex relation- countries, many within the Commonwealth, came ships in different areas and languages, and under to see Western domination of communication as a different sorts of constraints. factor in their under-development. They felt that the Western media presented developing Elizabeth Smith did not believe that English was a countries in a negative way and posed threats to language in decline. Chinese had more first their political independence and cultural identity. language speakers, but if second language To counteract this there was a strong movement speakers were also counted, English came out for a 'New World Order' in information and com- first. Because so many were already using it, it munication, supported by the Soviet Union. It was would become even more dominant: there had opposed by the Western countries, who argued been a phenomenal eNplosion of English in Russia that the New World Order would curtail human and Eastern Europe. rights and the free flow of information, both es- It is no longer a language owned by Britain, and sential to any sophisticated and civilised society. with the development of a variety of indigenous The dispute culminated in the withdrawal of the forms elsewhere, 'English English' has become a USA and Britain, on this and other issues, from minority form. It is an enormous advantage that by UNESCO in 1984. an accident of history the Commonwealth has the linguistic skills necessary to operate in the In the 1960s there %vas a strong language of computers, aviation, diplomacy, etc. movement for a 'New World Order' in skills which the countries of the former Soviet infonnation and communication Union are trying to acquire in hard and expensive ways. The charge of negative bias is still there, but en- Commonwealth countries will also benefit from thusiasm for managed information has gone since the leap-frogging of technologies. For example, images of the people of East Germany tearing satellite television transmission is vastly cheaper down the Berlin Wall went around the world. With than terrestrial systems. Currently it is used mainly their bare hands they were voting against a system by international broadcasters (BBC World Service which stood for managed information and they Television, for example, now reaches the whole of have since rejoiced in the new-found freedom and Asia from China through to the Mediterranean diversity of their media. using just two satellites), and with levels of invest- So the heart has gone out of the drive for that kind ment much less than for terrestrial broadcasting, it of New World Order, even though individual can be developed for national services. 4 In this new world of satellite TV, a degree of p Whether the new communication technolo- cultural dominance is undoubtedly present, but as gies could narrow the gap between the developed more countries begin to transmit internationally, and developing countries was a major issue of this will not last. In future we will be receiving in discussion: many felt that the speaker had been our homes hundreds of channels in many too optimistic. The new technology was providing languages. cheap ways of acquiring and processing infor- mation within organisations, but gaining access to large markets and reaching mass audiences still Tying aid to human tights has had a required enormous investment. Whilst the advan- major impact and there is scope for tages of electronic networking and computer data tying it also to press freedom bases were extolled by some, they could benefit only a few. In many Commonwealth countries These are developments that Commonwealth only a very small fraction of the population even countries should welcome, arid the Common- had access to a telephone and phone systems wealth as an organisation is now in a position to were often overloaded and unreliable. Should we take a much firmer stand on the issue of freedom not first invest in upgrading basic infrastructure? of information. It needs more funding, though; The consequences for countries not able to keep its small media development fund (f200,000 annu- pace with the technological explosion were ally) and the £650,000 it spends on information and serious. In his book Future Shock (1970), Alvin communications are a fraction of the 03 milli 3n Tofler had spoken of the 'culture shock' of people which the EC spends in these areas. Tying aid to unable to adapt to this new technological world, human rights has had a major impact and there is because they had not got the basic understanding, scope for tying it also to press freedom. the education, or the inclination to cope with it. The most vulnerable link in the chain of free in- He saw a world divided between copers and non- formation is the individual journalist, who can be copers, and this could apply to countries. harassed, bullied, imprisoned and executed. To enable developing countries to keep abreast of Organisations like Amnesty International are these developments required money but events of active, but the Commonwealth too can apply the 1960s and 1970s had made aid organisations pressures in defence of threatened individuals or reluctant to be involved in this field; some (eg. organisations, and might create a Free Media CIDA, the Canadian aid agency), were reorient- Support Fund. The high proportion of the media ating their activities to focus on the countries of directed aid which goes into training is a reflection Eastern Europe. Similarly, the Commonwealth of the divided views of the past; the time has come for change. Secretariat was unlikely to be able to spend more in this area at a time when its budget was under Might we consider a Commonwealth Nobel-type attack. Overall, there was not much optimism that prize for the bravest individual journalist, the one the new technology would enable the poorer who did most for press freedom in a particular countries of the Commonwealth to narrow the year? It could provide an income and a status for gap. life and would be an example that there are some things which you cannot do without the rest of the world taking action. The consequences for countries not able to keep pace with the technological explosion are serious Wdhout free and efficient communications it is impossible to have Would the cheapening of technology really lessen a sophisticated and fair society the media cultural bias, particularly in TV? The current trend, towards a greater concentration of Technology is bringing down the cost of com- power, would not be helpful. Others thought the munication of all sorts printing, TV and radio, notion of cultural bias suspect, and pointed to the fax and phones, computers and modems and strength of the Indian film industry and the use of lower cost means more choice, more freedom. As new communication forms to promote a diversity the Asian-Pacific countries have shown, if the of messages. economic growth is there, any country can invest in modern communications. Without free and There was support for a proposal that the efficient communications it is impossible to have a Singapore Declaration should be revised to in- sophisticated and fair society. It is something be- clude a provision that free information should hind which the Commonwealth should put its be a basic human right throughout the weight. Commonwealth. 5 7 PROMETHEE defines a network as "a set of technical means, infrastruc- THE AGE OF "CUSTOMIZABLE" COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION tures, and strategic norms, info- structures, that actors with rights of INITIATIVES access can take the initiative to mobi- STRATEGIES lise as means to set up and manage INFOCIJLTURE value-adding relationships?' The word 'relationship' is very im- portant: the technologies allow INFRASTRUCTURE INFOSTRUCTURE people and institutions to relate to TECHNOLOGY I each other and to interact. The situ- Figure 1 ation may be shown diagrammatically (Fig 1). The network is made possible by technology, which provides the infrastructure; Instantaneous Information 3 the rules which govern its use provide the in- in World-Wide Business fostructure; and the initiatives and strategies which develop from its use establish an Cathedne Distler explained that the think tank infoculture. PROMETHEE, for which she works, was mainly interested in the impact of information and elec- The global effect of these networks is to move tronic networks on corporate strategies, markets, from the traditional industrial revolution type and international economic integration. economy to something which might be called the Goods, people, money and information are the network economy (Fig 2). The industrial revolution four main flows linking different parts of the brought in mass production: maximising the world. In the 1970s, although there was much number of items produced and lowering the debate about interdependence, in fact this price. The utility of the product is less than if it concept covered mainly the trading of goods. were customised, but as the price is low, it is a Finance, transportation and communications good deal. were seen essentially as supporting activities what might be called 'the world's back office'. The global effect is to move from the By the early 1980s international negotiations were traditional industrial revolution type trying to address the reality of the ever-growing economy to the network economy importance of the trade in services, but the pos- ition remained essentially traditional, with on the one side the trade in goods and on the other the With the networked economy one can offer both a trade in services. low price and a customised product. In Japan, the Nissan car company, for example, can offer 15,000 Today we have a different situation in which cor- different models, although many are not pro- porations are managing global networks which duced. The customer can choose the car type, manage simultaneously flows of goods, people, features, colour etc, and can take delivery within money and information. A good example is the eight days of doing so. Another international com- airline industry, where networks pass information about ticketing, reservations, payments and pany, Benetton has sales information arriving daily from their retail outlets so they will send, for passenger movements on a global basis. There are networks of all sorts, from the computer reser- example, to New York only clothes in the style, vation network to the Open University network, and even the old boy net- work, but we need to understand what The Networked The Industrial is common to all of them. The Western Economy Revolution MASS-CUSTOMIZATION World tends to emphasise the techno- / ..---. logical dimension of networks, but BUYER'S VIEWPOINT 2. Expansion PROMETHEE is more interested in the Customtud type of strategy that develops along rsluci I them. Apart from technology and strat- I. Adapfat/to. n egy, there are rules, developed by val-I Western corporations or countries to Standard fit their own needs, which developing Mas4 Clot inn Ein I -41-1,0m.1 production prorniCtiOn countries have little choice other than Figure 2 SELLER'S VIEW-POINT to accept. oped considerably since then. They THE NETWORK LIFECYCLE: have enabled established airlines to from I-tech to R-tech compete with price cutting new en- trants such as People's Express by of- functions fering more flights and improved INTEGRATION Arid mteration rkets Rcrosrnomw. reservation systems. The efficiency of nett/competitive arena reservation systems, allowing the relat:onal Innovation % ALIA ADDING companies to optimise the number of product Innotutron seats sold for each flight, is critical in a process InnozotIon outbound OGISTICAL sector as competitive as the airline FUNCTIONS trans-corporate rn..tuctsvtly1 industry. Continual improvements in back office and Intra-corporate productivity are possible by adding Figure 3 1970s 1980s 1990s new functionalities to networks. To time survive, a company must have en:, y colours and sizes that they know are selling in New to these networks, and at a global level only the York at that time. biggest do. In the distribution field the main impact of net- PROMETHEE suggests that corporations are dev- works was not on productivity, but on relation- eloping four different types of network to manage internal and external relationships: in the Intra- ships with suppliers. For example, at one time it was impossible for major distributors to handle corporate Network information is managed at the level of the company, as in computer integrated produce which was saleable for only three or four manufacturing; at the Trans-corporate level links days after picking, because it could take that long are developed between independent institutions, to get it onto the shelves. Electronic data exchange mainly using electronic data exchange between producers and distributors now makes it as in the case of Benetton. Inter-corporate networks occur possible to get it onto the shelves in just one day, when alliances, or joint venture activities develop although it helps to have a source of supply which between otherwise independent entities. Meta- is geographically close. More generally, the distri- corporate networks occur when a large number of bution system in France has been able to make a separate organisations come together, often to try quick strategic response to the current economic to modify the environment in which they work: depression by offering less expensive types of many business organisations are of this nature. goods. Companies may develop ail of these networks, The main point is that the relationship between holding them in portfolio and comparing the ad- suppliers and distributors has radically changed. vantages of one with another. No more do suppliers supply what they want and A network life cycle may be suggested (Fig. 3). distributors distribute what they can get. Rather a When corporations first develop information net- partnership has developed in which suppliers are works their main target is productivity gains. This, advised of the product types which are selling and however, is just the beginning because the intro- which will be acceptable. duction of information technology can change not In the 1970s the developing countries were pro- only the logistics of the corporation, but the type moting a New World Order that would have been of innovation it will be able to develop and the less unfair to them than the prevailing one. Today nature of the market. In those cases information the problem is not to change the rules of the technology translates into relationship manage- international economy but not to be left out by an ment technology, what PROMETHEE calls Rtech. integration trend based on information and elec- First the corporation can capitalise on these tronic networks: networks which can be used as technologies to produce what is sold rather than tools of exclusion and barriers to protect markets. sell what has been produced. It is also possible to propose new products (product innovation) which would not have been possible without in- Networks can be used as tools of formation technologies. In a further stage, the exclusion company might propose new types of interactions to the final customer, perhaps cutting out inter- The likely impact of network development on mediaries; or they may merge markets at one time the developing countries was a theme running seen as different. through the discussion. Networks had the poten- Travel and tourism was the first sector to experi- tial to allow producers in these countries to com- ence the impact of networks. Computer reser- municate quickly with the main markets, but there vation systems were introduced in the early 1970s were features of the network based economy not for internal purposes but they have been devel- in their interest. For many, low cost labour was one 7 of the few production advantages they could offer, and the business world and its potential has not but this was better adapted to mass production, been fully exploited to spread education. not mass customisation. A high degree of supplier Although countries such as Britain had used infor- efficiency and flexibility was now required and this mation technology in the educational field, an put a premium on the education and training of effort should be made, suggested Professor Ali, to the labour force, as well as tight delivery sched- identify great teachers and use them globally. This ules. A considerable investment in technology need not result in a 'one way traffic' because was required, both to operate as a supplier within teachers of this quality are to be found in both the network and to produce goods of the requisite poor and rich countries, and Commonwealth standard and specification. countries have the advantage that English is so Entry into these networks and the development of widely used. Nor should it result in cultural infil- the rules which govern their operation was con- tration; in any case, should we be quite so con- trolled by the Western World, and countries and cerned about cultural influences in educational organisations which did not have network access programmes when pop figures like Madonna and are disadvantaged. It was suggested that there is a Michael Jackson reign supreme on a global and link between the development of networks and trans-cultural basis? the growing proportion of international trade which takes place within multinational A note of caution is necessary about computers, corporations. which should not be used in a way which denies the capabilities of the human brain: we should be able to say when they should, or should not, be Education in the Commonwealth: used. New Ways to Deliver? It is also necessary to underline the importance of non-formal education, which takes place in the The educational challenge for the Common- areas of health and hygiene, nutrition, and the wealth, suggested Professor Shamsher Ali, was that environment. It does not come from a textbook, a large section of its population was illiterate, and but it is the area in which peoples of the Common- of those who were literate, only very few could be wealth would benefit most. considered scientifically literate. Yet we were just seven years from the start of the 21st century, The new technologies also need to be used more which is going to witness unprecedented ad- effectively to promote understanding between vances in science and technology. peoples. In the case of his own country, Bangladesh, although images of flooding and pov- Although education is today the common de- erty Were common, there was a lack of appreci- nominator of all development problems, its key ation of how these things came about and just how position in the development process should have interdependent the world had become. Until the been recognised long ago. Today poverty, illit- energy crisis of the 1970s the Western World, and eracy and under-development are part of a vicious particularly America, had used energy resources circle: countries are poor because its peoples are at a rate which would have used up all our oil uneducated, they are uneducated because proper reserves before we were far into the 21st century. It investment has not been made in education, be- is said that this energy is used in 'development' cause they are poor . At the same time, we . . but one might legitimately ask, development for have never been better placed, thanks to develop- what? It has not simply satisfied the basic necessi- ments in science and technology, o break these ties of life but has offered luxuries to a favoured vicious circles. sector of the world population. The result has been environmental pollution and countries such as Bangladesh are paying the price. Worse is to Unfortunately, the new communications come, as the greenhouse effect develops and sea technology is being used primarily by levels rise. Life styles must be changed in order to the entertainment community and the promote sustainable development, and it is ironic business world that this is being asked OT the developing, rather than the developed, countries. Thanks to the discovery of the transistor in 1943, There is wisdom in asking the developing we have now reached the stage where the elec- tronic assembly density has reached one third of countries not to copy the lifestyles of the West, but that of the cells in the human brain. Unfortunately, rather to aim at a simpler, more sustainable way of the new communications technology is being life. At the same time the West should be asked to used primarily by the entertainment community change a lifestyle which is depleting the planet's 8 10