Office of Information Resources Management
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Dsalpini@usaid.gov;
phone: 202-712-5927

What do Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and Steve Forbes have in common? The 1998 World Congress on Information Technology (IT) which was held June 21-24th at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. From the performance by the World Children’s Choir to video clips from President Clinton and Vice President Gore, this event was truly global and information technology-focused.

For three days, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Information Officers (CIOs), senior level advisors, IT business partners, government officials and technologists (some 1700 from over 93 countries) converged to discuss and debate the state of information technology on the world stage. Although critical issues, like the Year 2000 Crisis, were prominently highlighted in this forum, the value of networking among IT providers, users and policy makers was evident as well. For example, Ecommerce Internet technology based solutions for firms such as Ford Motor Company, Etrade, Prudential, Kinko’s, etc were presented by Netscape, Inc. and others to meet today’s business needs. This internet-based market is projected to exceed $300 billion in revenue by 2002. The President of AT&T Labs strengthened the case for the network as the business by discussing virtual private global networks delivering paket-based voice, data and multimedia services over the same communication medium (perhaps optical fiber carrying a terabyte of data/color band spectrum).

Finally, the Taipei-based chairman of Acer Corporation stressed the changes in market from disintegration to brain intensive emphasis leading to consumers wanting simpler, easier-to-use application specific "XCs". These might do everything from driving your home appliances to satisfying your education or entertainment needs.

While acknowledging the tremendous pace of advancement in the IT sector, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, challenged attendees to garner “the widest possible audience for all information and ideas” through use of the Internet. Prime Minister Thatcher also indicated that the Internet was “morally neutral” like all instruments of science and its use depends on the “values of people who use it” rather than a specific software application. Finally, she lamented the breakdown in the “Rule of Law” as a stumbling block for some less than democratic societies to play in the worldwide electronic marketplace. Russia also offers some lessons on the rapid growth of IT among the newly emerging capitalistic world. He cautioned against “electronic colonialism” by the developed world and stated that Russia is not just a “source of cheap labor” for programmers, mathematicians and scientists. Gorbachev noted that Russian-originated staff developed approximately 30% of the computer-based application programs operating in the U.S. The right policies will treat human beings first, promote education, enhance democracy and reduce the “economic electronic gaps”.

Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University reminded us as well that ¼ of the world’s population still lives on $1/day and that there must be an emphasis on expanding the economic benefits of IT to all segments of society if our global village is to flourish.

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