ITR: A Scalable Enabling IT Infrastructure for Developing Countries

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

EIA- 0326582 Brewer, Eric University of California-Berkeley Title: ITR: A Scalable Enabling IT Infrastructure for Developing Countries We propose to initiate a program, ICT4B (Information and Communication Technology for Billions), aimed at making the benefits of ICT available and useful for all areas of the world. Our interdisciplinary team will focus on developing a hardware/software infrastructure explicitly designed for the physical, political and economic realities of developing areas. The transformative potential of ICT creates new kinds of opportunities to gain leverage on development problems that have been intransigent. The potential lies within the tools that ICT provides to all economic and political sectors. These tools can affect every activity in which organization, can be achieved across a wide range of industries and public enterprises. Most important, they drive economies in the broadest sense of that term. Using ICT to challenge suboptimal institutions and particularly corrupt and inefficient "markets" provides a rare chance to fashion new, socially beneficial equilibria that contribute to the broader development goals of countries and goals.