Geoff Walsham

Globalization is widely acknowledged to be an important current phenomenon, and information technology is thought to be deeply implicated in the changes taking place. However, the detailed ways in which global trends affect and are affected by local cultural contexts is not well understood. This paper will explore this issue, and will use an example of GIS in India for illustrative purposes. It will be argued that globalization does not necessarily imply homogeneity. We should celebrate cultural diversity, and try to design information systems which support alternative cultural identities. Some implications will be drawn for the conference themes of IS implementation and evaluation.

Per Lind

Information is a vital concept in the management of organisations and firms, on a par with other business assets such as capital and land. While the technological development has contributed to the quantification, and thereby also to the wide-spread use of information, much less attention is paid to the more qualitative aspects. This in spite of the well-known fact that vital information is generally not synonymous with much information. The growing use of information technology, capable of storing, processing and carrying large amounts of data, therefore lays increased responsibility on the users to distinguish between significant and less significant information.

Management Information Systems have been developed with the primary task of supporting decision makers in choosing among alternatives. With the help of so called expert data, selected and stored in data bases, these systems advice and recommend managers about actions and steps to be taken. In the Management Information Systems, implicit assumptions are made about infrastructure efficiency and rational behaviour that may be justified in Western contexts. In a great number of countries under economic and industrial transition many of these assumptions can not, however, be justified due to unreliable infrastructure, ambiguous legislation and uncertainty in resource supply.

With the ambition to design an information tool that act on realities in transition countries where managers are faced with considerably more uncertainty involved in decision making, a prototype for a Management Assistance System has been developed. The system seeks to integrate learning with management operation as a way to create awareness about the critical success factors in business.

Richard Heeks

Increased accountability is a key component of public sector reform in developing countries. This paper investigates the relationship between accountability and both information technology and information systems. It concludes that IT has had a very mixed impact, supporting accountability in some cases, but also skewing or undermining it in others. Information systems - computerised or not - are an essential part of public sector accountability. However, new IS have a flexible impact, with accountability outcomes being determined mainly by management decisions and by wider organisational and environmental factors. As such, the broader context must be conducive to accountability before accountability IS initiatives will work.

Jørn Braa

Mongolia is undergoing a rapid transition from a Soviet style planned economy to a liberal market economy. Within this context of change we present a three year follow-up case study on the introduction and use of IT in the remote parts of Mongolia, with a focus on the health sector. IT is seen as a crucial factor in the ongoing process towards decentralised management. Though, the ethos of the old Soviet system inscribed into the information and health systems still constitutes an important obstacle to change. In order to understand the resistance to change, health information systems are best understood as social systems. A main problem has been that the efforts to change the information system have been restricted to technical aspects and that the interventions had not been seen as part of a wider health sector reform. Information handling in the health sector was more deeply embedded in work practices and less separable from the social context than was the case in other sectors. This was one reason why the introduction of computers has been more difficult and less successful in the health sector than in other sectors. We outline a social system model, which we use both for interpreting the case and for designing a strategy for change based on the use of the health information system as a tool for instituting a decentralised health management structure.

Matthias Nicola and Matthias Jarke

In many developing countries there is a tremendous demand for communication and information services, but conventional wired infrastructure to implement them is lacking. Wireless communication is easier and cheaper to introduce and to maintain, especially in remote and less developed areas. Based on the analysis of a distributed health care information system in Tanzania, we derive the main requirements of wireless data communication in developing countries and discuss which wireless technologies may be appropriate. In order to cope with the limited bandwidth and unreliability of wireless communication links as well as to reduce communication costs, wireless information systems need to employ data replication. We propose replication strategies for such wireless health care information systems in developing countries like Tanzania, and assess their performance in terms of communication costs using workload characteristics from the Tanzanian case study.

Christopher Westrup

This paper seeks to develop three points. First, to argue that, using arguments derived from the sociology of scientific knowledge, information technology should be seen as being a complex assemblage of material artefacts and solidified social relations. As a consequence, ‘successful’ information systems require certain social relations to be in place in the organisations in which they are implemented. Second, the experiences of a wide scale deployment of predominantly US designed nursing software in Britain are described and analysed to show the usefulness of this theoretic position and some similarities between developed and developing countries in implementing information technology. The CRISP project of India is analysed from a similar perspective. Finally, for those seeking to implement advanced information systems in developing countries, three simple but pertinent questions are raised to assist in the constructive questioning of the strengths and weakness of these sought after technologies.

S.Krishna, Abhoy K.Ojha, Michael Barrett

We analyze the context of the software industry in India to understand reasons for its success. It is argued that the framework of national competitive advantage developed by Michael Porter is unable to account for its global competitiveness. On the basis of an analysis of the components of the software development system we suggest that in India, social and historical contexts, which have hindered development of second wave industries, have contributed to the success of this information age industry.

Gert Nulens

The World Bank is an important actor with regard to the implementation of new information technologies (ITs) in Africa, by means of loans to governments and support to private companies. Its policy is mainly guided by techno-economical aspects. The intended target group’s socio-cultural context is hardly taken into consideration. Critics argue that the Bank’s policy has resulted in unappropriate technology, ignorance of the African user and a reinforcement of western elites. The World Bank’s approach is embedded in a western world view, in which privatization and liberalization are the key words. In this technology-driven view, IT is supposed to solve all kinds of problems, including socio-cultural problems. Nevertheless recent documents of the World Bank indicate a growing interest in socio-cultural aspects as such. Time will show whether we can label that discourse as a neo-liberal doctrine embellished with some socio-cultural hot topics.

Peter Malling

Information Technology (IT) is closely intertwined with culture. IT, as it is known today, is invented and developed in Western countries and therefore basically conveys Western culture. It is argued that IT is grounded in the need of Western countries for an active externalisation of meaning, while Nepal, being a developing country in Asia, has a culture with values very different from the Western, in which such a need is not prevalent. Hence, it is suggested that during implementation of IT in Nepal, there will arise some interesting problems, due to the paradox between Nepali culture and the culture conveyed by IT. The theoretical framework is applied to a case from a Nepali governmental department, giving a way to explain the resistance towards IT in the organisation. Finally suggestions for future research in the area are given.

Shirin Madon, and Sundeep Sahay

Rapid urbanisation is transforming the developing world creating cities that on the one hand offer opportunities for global economic activity, but on the other hand are beset with serious social and environmental shortcomings that seriously endanger the hopes and health of their swelling populations. This phenomenon is posing critical challenges to planners in developing countries, the most significant of which relates to the management of megacities.

This paper focuses on the role of information in the planning and management of megacities in developing countries. We first review the current use and implications of information technology for urban planning. Next we describe the complex planning and implementation context of Bangalore. Finally, in the light of challenges faced by urban planners, we discuss the potential role of information and communication technologies for managing megacities in developing countries.

Leo Van Audenhove

Africa has in the last few years seen an enormous activity in the field of ICT related conferences and initiatives on behalf of international and donor institutions. These initiatives became increasingly coloured by the rhetoric of an emerging Global Information Society and the need for an African answer to these developments. With regard to this Information Society two documents hold particular relevance: the ECAs Africa’s Information Society Initiative (AISI): An Action Framework to Build Africa’s Information and Communication Infrastructure and the ITUs African Green Paper. This paper sets out to question these policies and implementation initiatives, and their rethoric and practice.

Graham P. Pervan and Siritorn Akaphant

This paper presents some results from a study of the key issues facing 169 IS managers and professionals in the Thailand public sector. The most critical issues were revealed to be a mix of technology management issues (IT infrastructure, communications, IT integration), strategic management issues (information architecture, planning integration), people management issues (IS human resources, organisational learning, educating senior management in IT), systems development and data management issues (data integrity and quality assurance, executive and decision support systems), and end-user computing. This reflects the importance in developing countries of not focusing completely on the technology management issues and the need to maintain a balance of business, technical, and people skills in an IS executive. Non-critical issues were mostly related to systems development and the individual technologies which must be integrated and managed to ensure a responsive IT infrastructure, as well as a few strategic management issues (such as competitive advantage) which were not seen as particularly relevant to the Thailand public sector. Some issues were much more important than problematic (effectiveness of software development and BPR), which reflects a growing level of knowledge in handling these issues, while others were much more problematic than important (organisational learning and information security), and this reflects a continuing problem with their effective management. This descriptive survey has its limitations, but with so little previous research in developing countries in general and in the Thailand public sector in particular, it may provide valuable input to IT policy makers and managers in the government of Thailand.

Subhash Bhatnagar

The paper presents results of a small survey on attitudes of chief executives and general managers towards IT investments in organisations. The results suggest that organisations are beginning to get concern about the value derived from IT investments but these concerns are not as strong in developing countries as they might be in countries where expenditure on IT are much larger. Two organisations which have publicly been recognised as having derived good value from their IT investments were studied. A brief description of their major application is presented and lessons are drawn on the factors that contribute to successful realisation of good value from IT investments.

Sherif Kamel

 This paper demonstrates the experience of the government of Egypt in spreading the awareness of information technology to support socio-economic development planning. The paper reflects the design and delivery of comprehensive human resource development strategies and programs focusing on leveraging education, learning, training and the sharing of knowledge in key related issues to management development, information, computing and communication technologies. The experience has been one of building a large number of information technology institutions (ITIs) and the formulation of comprehensive training and human resource development programs that would cater for the needs of today’s organizations. The paper shows the role of training institutions in the transfer, adoption, diffusion and adaptation of emerging technologies globally however localizing its different aspects to the local conditions, needs, values, cultures and norms of the developing countries.

Raslan Ahmad

Many developed countries have launched a information infrastructure (II) initiatives that reflect their economy, political environment, and other national circumstances. The common motives behind these initiatives is to stimulate economic growth and exploited the social opportunities arising from the II. Lately, more and more governments in developing countries are starting to follow the developed countries and preparing their own II national reports, describing and characterising their own information and communication situation. Despite these initiatives, the developing countries face many difficulties in implementing the II. The issue involve not only technological, but also political, social and cultural issues. This paper reviews the development and implementation of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in an attempt to create an ‘information-rich society’ in Malaysia. It is argued that despite this ambitious programme, there are other important issues which are still not resolved. Will there, for instance, be a balanced development of the II throughout the whole country? If not, there is a danger that a new divide will be created in Malaysia, between the information-rich, in the MSC and the information-poor general population. Secondly, will there is a national back-up to support and sustain the development of world-class IT expertise among the new generation of Malaysians or a high level of IT literacy among the general population?

Macias-Chapula, C.A., Alcantar, J., and Cruz-Aguilar, B.

This paper describes the experience in developing a technology information (intelligence) system at the Mexican Institute of Petroleum (IMP), a thirty year old decentralised research institute whose main goal is to generate, store and apply scientific and technological knowledge to support the development of the national oil industry.

In October 1996, a working group was set-up to co-ordinate the development of the information system. A soft systems approach was used to identify the analysis of the situation, i.e., problem situation regarding the access and use of information. By April 1997, the soft systems approach was questioned by the arriving new IMP authorities. As a result, a top-down approach was suggested and adopted which led to the accommodation of emergent elements.

A discussion regarding the socio-technical nature of information systems and technologies and the use of soft/hard approaches is presented by the authors. Finally, a summary of the challenges for the future of the project is outlined.

Kaewta ROHITRATANA

This article examines how Thai values shape and impact information system implementation projects. Some Thai values will be introduced including kinship, ‘bunkhun’, ‘face saving’, ‘criticism avoidance’, and ‘kreng jai’ values. These values are closely related to the working practice of Thais. In particular, when a computer system is introduced and implemented in an organisation, these values could be used in a complex analysis of ‘how’ the system could be shaped by the Thai social context and ‘why’ the Thai context has to be considered when the computer system is implemented. It presents the findings of such as analysis on an in-depth case study of a Thai manufacturing organisation in which an MRP based system has been implemented. The final section of this paper suggests implications and the significance of considering Thai values while doing business in Thailand

Natalia Volkow

Vendors of information technology sell their products as solutions to the problems of the enterprises. In their marketing brochures they promote the idea that the use of information technology gives competitive advantage, productivity and responsiveness to the companies that use it. A more careful study of information systems breaks the myth of these assertions. It takes much more than using computers and telecommunication equipment to make a company perform successfully. The case-study developed in this paper analyses the way a successful middle sized company in Mexico learned its way to use information as a strategic resource. The company first started to use computers to process efficiently the big volume of data its operations needed. The paper describes the reorganisation of the company, not as the result of a strategic exercise, but as the need to adjust in an ad hoc way to be able to survive in a changing environment. The success of the company can be explained by the use of common sense, the application of management science knowledge and an appropriate exploitation of information with the use of information technology. The description of how the company incorporated the use of information technology considers the problems it faced in the social and economic environment of a developing country. The rich description of the case study includes both the adequate and mistaken actions of the process of implementing IT, seen from the perspective of its managers.

Anongnart Srivihok

Executive Information Systems (EIS) are computer-based information systems which are designed to serve the needs of executives. The purpose of this study is to identify which success factors from previous studies play key roles in the implementation process in Thailand. This study reports the three case studies of successful EIS implementation as well as identifying the factors which influence EIS implementation. Results indicate that some factors which were introduced by previous studies and include executive roles, the business and communication skills of EIS staff and EIS quality, are relevant to the success of EIS.

Salimah Mokhtar, and Hasmiah Kasimin

The paper presents the concept of inter-organizational information system (IOIS) that has been widely adopted by the private sector. It suggests the usage of such systems in the context of planning for development projects. A case example of an IOIS to be used in such context is presented.

Tanai Khiaonarong

This paper presents the results of a survey on technology transfer in Thai commercial banks. Two general points are made. First, Thai commercial banks have been technologically progressive. There is a wide usage and high level awareness of advanced bank technology and applications. Second, bank technological capabilities need to be strengthened. National under-investment in research and development and a strong reliance on foreign consultants may inhibit the building of indigenous capabilities of Thai banks. Alternative channels for acquiring technology and knowledge are discussed. The paper argues that the building of commercial bank capabilities depends on identifying and strengthening these sources of technology.

Abiodun O. Bada

As the use of information systems (IS) in developing countries (DCs) is becoming pervasive, there is an increasing focus on what is the appropriate role of institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, in facilitating successful IS adoption. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion by providing empirical findings on the nature and type of institutions and how they influence IS use within the Nigerian banking system.

Ada Wong and Frank H. Gregory

The paper presents the findings from a survey of information technology planning in the Chinese language newspaper industry in Hong Kong. The research attempted to apply well known Western models of strategy, organisational structure, organisational culture and stages of growth to this industry. It was found that the categorisation in these models did not always apply to the companies surveyed and where they did apply they had little explanatory power. The authors argue that a different approach to modelling may be required in order to develop models relevant in a non-western cultural environment.

Mohammed Lamin Mansaray

This is a "Work In Progress" paper that describes the data-flow problem that has persistently hindered five years effort in trying to implement an ECOWAS Trade Statistics Network (ETSN) within the framework of a wider EU funded trade promotion programme. The system gathers a Member State’s (MS) external trade data first captured by the Customs Administration Data Processing Systems in the sixteen (16) MSs of ECOWAS. In each MS, such data are then processed by the National Statistics Office to obtain National trade figures. Subsequently, all valid transactions are meant to be extracted on a monthly basis and transmitted to a central server at Central Project in the Community Computer Centre (CCC). It is at this stage that Community-wide trade figures are finally compiled.

The analysis attempts to discern how far the data-flow problem, combined with other critical IS delivery success variables, has impacted upon the implementation of the project as a whole. Here, a framework is proposed for examining four significant stages of the project’s life-cycle. Against this backdrop we consider the events, activities and setbacks that hindered progress at each stage as well as remedial actions taken to enable the project move forward. The core argument is that large scale IS implementation in the developing world are often fraught with bottlenecks and solution misfits[16] partly because of weak infrastructures and partly due to strong socio-cultural risks.

Mikko Korpela, H.A. Soriya, K.C. Olufokunbi, Anja Mursu

Existing literature indicates that the Information Systems Development (ISD) methodologies used in industrialised countries are not applicable in Africa or other developing countries without modification. A Nigerian-Finnish collaborative research project has been established to study the criteria for an ISD methodology appropriate to the special requirements of the African health care sector in particular, and to develop such a methodology. Various Participatory Design (PD) approaches and methods will be experimented with and adjusted in an action research manner within a real-life host project. This paper presents the project’s initial understanding of the African requirements, a review of potentially applicable "Northern" ISD methodologies, and a blueprint of the adjustments needed to achieve a more appropriate ISD methodology for Africa. First results of community participation in ISD are discussed.

Jacob Adu Aryeetey

Ghana, as a developing country has made substantial and significant investments on Information Technology Resources for the past thirty years. By now the impact of information technology should be apparent and must have had some radical effects on the socio-economic development, office productivity, Education, Entertainment and home computer ownership in Ghana.

The article is a modest contribution on the identification of the factors responsible for the low impact and improper use of the Information Technology Resources and to find answers to such pertinent questions like.

ii. What should we do that we have not done.

ii. What present opportunities are opened to us.

iv. What is the best way forward towards brighter future in Information Technology.

G.Beqiraj and N. Frasheri

There are two periods of Information Systems applications in Albania, "pre-1990" and "post-1990". These periods are influenced by political and economical factors, which have determined the directions and extension of applications, as consequence their social impact. In the past there were political factors "in extremis" that conditioned orientation of informatics to be applied in technical domains, and actually a kind of democracy "in extremis" represents an obstacle for development of distributed applications. In this context the Internet may represent a factor of integration between different organizations and communities.

Networks of firms and regional IT diffusion policies for SMEs^*

Renata Lèbre La Rovere

Studies about IT diffusion in SMEs suggest that there are several difficulties related to this process. The literature suggests that a good IT infrastructure is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition to enhance the competitiveness of SMEs. Results of IT diffusion are more successful when the IT strategy of the firm is inserted in a more general competitive strategy, which includes re-organisation of the firms and training of workers. In other words, in order to be competitive firms must not only adopt information technologies, but also devise ways to use these technologies according to the conditions of their markets. Accordingly, a policy to support IT diffusion in SMEs must target not only their technological capabilities but also their competitive capabilities.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the challenges involved in defining a regional IT diffusion policy for SMEs. After a discussion of the main elements of this policy, the paper will analyse how the utilisation of the concept of networks of firms may be useful to define the main initiatives that must be taken in each region. As a conclusion, different models of policy implementation will be analysed.

Dade Sadare

This paper presents on-going efforts at the study of IT implementation decisions of industries in the developing Nigerian environment where several and peculiar odds abound. The environment clearly diverges from the western world scene with respect to culture, politics, socio-economic and organisational orientations, and the rate of intellectual, technological and industrial advancement. Of central importance to this paper is the understanding of how industries, under the special complexities posed by these perspectives that have shaped the environment, are able or not to implement IT. To study IT implementation by industries, the paper uses a brief survey to derive a rigorous model as framework for analysing the disposition of industries to IT and the concomitant expectations of implementation. Empirical tests of the model come in case studies on Nigerian companies which fit the theoretical Industry IT model at the organisation level and results are discussed. The conclusion gives explanation for the results and points to the need for a larger survey to amass data covering key industries, to further provide empirical proofs of the model and then serve as a basis for insights and conclusions at the industry-level.

Pat Hall

This paper surveys the extent to which software works in local languages ("vernacular software") in South Asia, focusing on India and Nepal. The use of vernacular software is seen to be limited, delayed for a number of social and political reasons, though the use is likely to increase significantly over the next few years as both consumer demand and government regulation dictate it. Progress will depend upon the acceptance of some regional standard for encoding the languages and on the actions taken by the major transnational suppliers of software to the region, particularly Microsoft. Some deep linguistic and technical issues underlie the decision as to what is the most appropriate approach, and guidance from experts within the South Asian region is essential. An enhancement of the Indian standard ISCII, and the Unicode versions of this, is seen as the way ahead, but its adoption must be fostered by making freely available not just a large range of fonts for South Asian languages, but also the technology to use the ISCII approach for data interchange and printing.

Luis G. Rodríguez and Irene Plaz Power

This paper exposes a methodology to evaluate networking projects. This methodology is based on using the users perspective to characterise those organisational and individual factors affecting the socio-technical process of change that goes along with any networking process. The methodology was applied to the Venezuelan research community in order to evaluate the networking process on the higher education sector. Some results are presented and some conclusions are also included.

Shamsul Chowdhury, Mats Helander^, Shahed Latif, Per Lind

Sharifah M. Syed-Mohamad, Suhailin Louis, Sodhy G.C.

This paper gives an overview of the methodology and technologies in developing the World Wide Web information system. It further discusses The Tourist Information Systems for Northern Malaysia, a Web-based and user oriented tourist information system. Finally, it addresses some issues in developing Web-based information systems.

Frank Land

Making changes to existing information systems, technology based or otherwise, or introducing new information systems based on information technology, involves the investment of substantial resources. Before making an investment in a particular information systems (an application) or in information system infrastructure, the management of the organisation, whether is a commercial or administrative organisation needs to know:

• what is the expected life of the implemented system - how long before the system has to be changed substantially or replaced?
• does the projected investment yield a return at least as good as using the resources on a different project altogether, or on an alternative information systems project
• how certain is the expected outcome - or how much risk does the project involve? What are the obstacles which may prevent successful implementation of the project?
• do all stakeholders concur that the value of the expected outcome reflects their values, and hence they are willing to lend the project their support, even if it results in some disruption and anxiety?
• what other changes have to be implemented successfully if the information systems project is to yield its hoped for return?
• has the organisation the requisite resources and skills to implement the project successfully, taking note of the risks involved and the need to make allowances for unexpected contingencies?
• a detailed analysis of expected costs which the project will incur, and the expected benefits - both tangible and intangible - which will result, to provide benchmarks for later checking of project progress and outcomes, and for the management of the project and its benefits.
• what action may be needed to ensure that all projected benefits are actually ‘harvested'?

During the development and implementation of the project management needs to know:

• actual expenditures of time and resources against those projected in the project proposals and the impact of any differences on the expected costs and benefit.
• changes to the projects specification arising from changes in circumstances, and the identification of mistakes in the original specification, and the expected impact of these changes on costs and benefits.
• is the project still viable or should its continuance be questioned?

After the completion of the project and during its operational life,management needs to know:

• are the costs and benefits in line with those projected, and if not what are the consequences of the differences?
• are there any unexpected costs and benefits and what action needs to follow?
• what can the organisation learn from its experience with the project?
• is the implemented system still meeting the needs of the organisation, or is it time to consider its replacement or substantial alterations?

There are, of course many other questions which require an evaluation:

• what aspects of systems development should be carried out in-house or outsourced
• how effective is the in-house (or outsourced) development and operational work?
• should resources be concentrated on bespoke application software, or on the use of generalised application systems such as SAP?

Evaluation can be an expensive and time consuming activity. No single evaluation technique or methodology is suitable for answering all the management questions. And different situations require different levels of evaluation. A system which is mandatory - it has to be developed for regulatory or legal reasons requires a different level of evaluation then a system which is discretionary. A system (or infrastructure) whose impact can be precisely estimated requires a different evaluation strategy than one whose outcome is difficult to estimate or depends for its success on the outcome of a range of other activities.

Hence a further choice management has to make is to determine which of the many available evaluation techniques to apply.

The tutorial will review different techniques and suggest a method of matching evaluation technique against a range of contingencies.

Dimitrios Tsoubelis and Angeliki Poulymenakou

The aim of this tutorial is to discuss the technological and organisational issues related to the successful introduction of a developed system to real use.

Successful development of a software application, with due attention given to issues of technical quality, does not by itself guarantee that the application will ever reach the state of productive use in the organisation. In a typical life cyle of an information system the main stages of development are analysis, design, programming, followed by implementation, and maintenance activities . As such, systems implementation comes after the software needed for an information system has been developed and tested (for bugs and other logical errors) and it is the time to "go live". It covers therefore the transition period from a developed system to a system in use.

Literature on information systems project failure alerts us to the criticality of the implementation stage, and particularly on the interplay between parameters related to the technical system (software, hardware, etc) and factors related to the social context in which it is introduced. On this basis the tutorial will identify some interesting cases where particular details become critical not only within the stage of systems implementation but for the whole project of the introduction of an information system.

Robert Davison - (Co-Chair), Dept of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong, Email: isrobert@is.cityu.edu.hk, Tel: 852-2788-7534

Roger Harris - (Co-Chair) Dept of Information Technology Services, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Email: itroger@polyu.edu.hk, Tel: 852-2766-5496

Noel Jones - The World Bank

Doug Vogel - Dept of Information Systems, University of Arizona

The Co-Chairs will introduce the topic and the panel members, lead discussion and later make concluding remarks. Each panel member will give a brief presentation on his area of expertise. The total time spent on presenting information should not be more than 50% of the time allocated.

Technology leapfrogging refers to the implementation of a new and up-to-date technology in an application area in which at least the previous generation of that technology has not been deployed. Whilst new technologies are often used in developed economies as replacements for earlier, obsolete, versions of the same or similar technologies, it is often said that developing countries which are starting from an earlier phase in their technological development are able to adopt the latest versions of a technology without having to proceed through the successive phases of using its earlier incarnations. As an example, the newly industrialised countries of East Asia have invested heavily in telecommunications and specialized networks and in so doing have leapfrogged several generations of communications technologies.

As a global information infrastructure emerges, developing countries must ensure they are not isolated. In this regard, it is sometimes argued that latecomers are better placed than the developed countries to take advantage of IT as they are not hindered by investments in obsolete technology which they cannot afford to abandon. Furthermore, as IT has been recognized as a means for accelerating development, and as the cost of obtaining IT continues to fall, most developing countries are now anxious to acquire and adopt IT for their development endeavours.

In the conventional view, developing countries passively adopt technology as standard products which have been developed in the industrialised countries and which can be put to useful work immediately. However, successful use of IT involves more than just its installation. Achieving the full benefits of IT involves more than the mere application of systematised knowledge. It also requires the application of implied knowledge regarding the organisation and management of the technology and its application to the contextual environment in which it is to be used. The gaining of such implied knowledge of IT is often the result of accumulated experience with the deployment of previous technology, and such experiences may even contribute towards the shaping of the new generations. The absence of the earlier experiences may therefore inhibit the accumulation of the knowledge which is required to make the new generations successful. Furthermore, new techniques frequently require modifications if they are to be applied successfully to a new environment, and such modifications generally require a high level of skill. The learning processes of organisations and societies are often constrained by their past practices, their existing knowledge base and their propensity for innovation. Consequently, while leapfrogging may appear as an attractive option for the late adopoters, it may not provide the intended results in all circumstances. The greatest danger is that of a new "cargo cult" by which the developed economies observe the benefits which later and succeeding generations of IT bring to the industrialised nations, and hurry to acquire the same technology in the blind belief that similar benefits will quickly accrue to themselves. Such opportunites may exist, but a reality check is now appropriate in order to protect the investment of the scarce resources available for IT in most developing nations and to expose the circumstances under which leapfrogging can be successful and distinguish them from those under which it might not be.

Such questions arise as: Does leapfrogging always imply jumping from a state of obsolescence to state-of-the-art technology? As leapfrogging implies a rapid evolution from older to considerably newer technology, at what rate of evolution can leapfrogging avoid the dangers of suffering from insufficient implied knowledge to make the new technology work successfully? Which technologies offer the most favourable opportunities for successful diffusion in developing societies, and which technologies might be less appropriate? Will developing nations be able to compete internationally without leapfrogging, and if not, what measures are required in addition to the acquisition of technology to make it successful in the new environment? To what extent is it necessary to integrate the learning achieved from experiences with past practices in order to make a rapid transition to much newer ones ?