Limited Social Impact of Information Technology Initiatives

Unless you work for a telecommunications, network, hardware or software company, the development or deployment of technology should not be a project or a goal by itself. Networks, web portals, communication and information systems, tele-centers or even digital communities, virtual learning environments and on-line markets do not guarantee any social impact other than the availability of these technologies to the people around them.

Information Technologies can only have a significant impact on human development if they address the needs, interests, ways, desires and limitations of its users and are used to empower them and enable them to take ownership and control of the tools that are meant to serve them. They will be only as good as the measure on which they are inspired by the people and inspire the people they serve and by how much of the building process is carried on by the people themselves.

Many IT projects labeled as successful when measured by the number of computers deployed, the number of people connected or communities “served” in reality turn out to have a null effect on the empowerment of people to build their own paths to better living conditions and to contribute to the human development of their communities and immediate environment.

If viewed as technology projects, defined, deployed and supervised by technicians, IT projects will be just that: “technology projects” with random impact on the potential of people and the danger of creating division, inequalities and second class citizenships in the global Information Society.

Give people access to technology, even teach them to use it and you end up with just one end of what’s needed to promote human development: users and consumers of technology, with access to services, information and content created by others, often alien to the nature of those we seek to serve.

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