local content development in nigeria: social impact of information technology a paper presented at...
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Local Content Development in Nigeria: Social Impact of Information Technology
A paper presented at eNigeria 2013December 3-5, 2013
Abuja
Professor Patience Akpan-ObongAssociate Professor, Science Technology and Society
School of Letters and SciencesArizona State [email protected]
Introduction• The social impact of information technology on local
content development is discussed from three perspectives-- Perspective #1: Influence of social and cultural contexts on the development of technology -- Perspective #2: Functions of the “I” in ICT-- Perspective #3: The informational element of “local content”
• Local content as tool for national self-sufficiency• Conclusion
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #1: Context Matters!
• Technology is an ideology (Ellul, 1964; Kalu, 2006; Akpan-Obong, 2009)-- the ideology or set of ideas in the site of design and production influences the form and functionality of technology-- this partially explains the failure of the technology transfer development model of the 1960s and 1970s
• Context shapes technology particularly at the site of utilization
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #1: Context Matters!
• Increasing local content in technology in Nigeria transcends raw numbers – percentage of staff and management that are Nigerians; percentage of locally sourced raw materials, etc.-- local content must begin with a shift in particular ideologies and how Nigerians 1) view technologies 2) view locally made products generally
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #1: Context Matters!
• Increasing local content also involves an understanding of:
-- Who is expected to use the technology and for what purpose?-- What kinds of technologies address the needs of the people in their own lived experiences and geopolitical context?
• Current usage patterns provide innovative ideas in the design and production of related, peripheral and entirely different technologies
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #1: Context Matters!
• Local content in the development of ICTs is therefore not merely a reproduction of existing technologies by Nigerians in Nigeria
• The push toward increased local content in ICT should stress the production of innovative technologies that address specific and existing needs
• Technologies designed and produced by Nigerians in Nigeria could also solve problems not yet in existence …
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #2: Functions of the ‘I’ in ICT
• Information can be understood as technology in the “triumvirate of information, communication and technology”-- separate but equal and convergent, though discussions often focus on ICTs in their various permutations as hardware, software and services, but rarely as information
• “Information” seems to be the qualifier for “technology” – the silent partner, as it were-- However, information, I argue, is the object of technology; the “thing” that technology does
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #2: Functions of the ‘I’ in ICT
• The “I” in ICT is a significant aspect of the assumptions that frame the narratives of socioeconomic development through ICTs: -- Knowledge is power – the power to do, to act and to think-- Knowledge is based on information-- Information is a set of discrete data that morph into knowledge, etc.This relationship can be graphically depicted as a progressive process with a caveat: linear and hierarchical patterns are counterintuitive in a globally/nationally networked society
Akpan-Obong (2013)
•
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The arrow represents the technologies that drive the process of transforming bits and pieces of information toward achieving national goals in various issue areas and sectors
Perspective #2: Functions of the ‘I’ in ICT
• Information is power/capacity/influence to achieve stated goals and objectives-- this is even more so in an informational mode of production (also referred to as the knowledge economy) such as is prevalent today
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #2: Functions of the ‘I’ in ICT
• While the “I” in ICT is considered important, it must still be interrogated:-- information for what purpose?-- what message is being communicated? (what is the content of the information?)-- to whom is the message directed? (who is the audience/customer/consumer/client/citizen?)-- what kinds of information processes should ICTs facilitate?
• These questions highlight the “social impact of local content development” and the point that technologies do not exist in a vacuumAkpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• (Nigerian) local content from an information perspective can be defined as:
• Content about Nigeria for Nigerians and by Nigerians-- the content can be informative, educative or entertaining, but must be relevant and immediate to the lived experiences of Nigerians in Nigeria
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• However, there’s no deficit of Nigerian content• A Google search of “local content development
in IT” produced 623,000,000 results in 0.22 seconds.
• The top 20 links were related to Nigeria though Nigeria was not listed in the search keywords (Blame it on the magic of geotagging!)
• Most of the top 20 links were on the Local Content Act in the oil and gas industry
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• Not too long ago, Nigerians were mostly downloaders rather than uploaders – consumers of content rather than creators
• That has changed as social media ensure that oga-at-the-top and go-and-die contents go quickly viral on the Internet moments after the words come out of the mouth of an ignorant or compassion-deficient public official
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Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• Nigerians, especially the youth, are constantly tweeting, YouTubing, Facebooking and blogging
• A Google search of “Nigerian blog sites” produced 156,000,000 results in 0.26 seconds
• The top link was “Miss Petite Nigeria” described as a blog that serves “entertainment, fashion and lifestyle gists faster than Usain Bolt..lol..It's Hot..its Fresh..it's Original..its (sic) Miss Petite Nigeria”
•
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• Another blog provides “News..Exclusives..Relationships..Everything You Need To Know & YES The Word of God”
• The blogs that I reviewed are more or less the same with many of the bloggers hyperlinking to the same news sources, interspersed with lolzzz …
• Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• Besides the blogs, many Nigerian newspapers, companies, ministries, departments and agencies have Internet presence in varying degrees – from static single-page website to rich, hyperlinked and interactive pages
• The problem then is not that there is no Nigerian content but the nature and quality of the information
•
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Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• Incidentally, the arguments that I made concerning local content when I wrote Information and Communication Technologies: Prospects and Challenges for Development (a book that comes highly recommended especially for this audience) are still valid today
• I argued then, and do so again today, that information should be viewed as technology on the same level as hardware and software given the ideological dimension of technology itself
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Perspective #3: The informational element of ‘local content’
• There needs to be greater intentionality in creating and providing information about-- government practices and politics-- cultural practices-- economic processes-- healthcare, agriculture and other sectors
• These can be achieved through:-- government and business websites that are rich, searchable, interactive and hyperlinked -- newspapers that have accessible and searchable archives-- public and school libraries that are accessible and searchable
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Conclusion
• Many presenters at this conference have stressed the need for Nigerians to be competitive in the global market-- I disagree-- Every innovator, producer, designer, manufacturer or market woman out there has a customer base of 170 million people
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Conclusion• “Local content” should therefore also mean
producing technologies (in every dimension) for Nigerians-- someone once noted that the tragedy of Africans is that they produce what they do not consume and consume what they do not produce
• It is often argued that ICTs provide opportunities for Nigeria and other similarly situated countries to leap-frog several stages of development
• However, we also know that the growth processes in economically advanced countries have not stagnated-- those countries are not waiting for Nigeria to catch up with or leap-frog them
Akpan-Obong (2013)
Conclusion
• I argue that we have two options:• We can apply every resource to strive to
compete with the rest of the world and against their shifting goal posts
Or• We can innovate and produce for Nigerians,
promote Nigerian not because it is Nigerian but because it is great product/service locally accessible, available and affordable.
Akpan-Obong (2013)
