[Sigiii-l] Plazza

[Eustache.MEGNIGBETO at cec.eu.int]

Information and communication technologies has changed many thinks both in
our private and professional lives : thinking and acting. What is regularly
said about ICTs is that they facilitate communication, they create and
maintain links between distance communities or men that don’t know
physically each other; ICTs also reduce communication costs and delay. These
advantages are known. 

But what is not said regularly is that ICTs are making man lazier. For
example, when analyzing messages from a professional discussion list, I was
surprised. Many members of the list used to ask for help about problems that
they could solve themselves. Normally, a few second of thinking are
sufficient. But, as their have a easy communications mean, they preferred to
be assisted or to get the solution in the easier way.

The second aspect I would like to share is the growing of the divide in ICts
uses. It seems that, again in this field, the “Richer you are, richer you’ll
be” law is also valid.  The North benefits from an easy, cheaper and very
high speed access to Internet and the South is suffering to give access to a
64 kbps Internet to his population. While in the North, people are connected
permanently to the internet, without worrying about phone costs, in the
South, it is very hard to be connected, because, the most used way is the
RTC; and phone infrastructures are not always reliable. Even though
cybercentres are numerous in the major towns and the connection costs are
decreasing, the speed of connection is not yet acceptable. The first time I
have gone to a cybercentre, I have regretted. Because I have spent one hour
without succeeding in making the research for which I paid for services.
Since then, I have never tried again to use a cybercenter services.
Obviously, I’m one of the privileged in internet access in my county. In
fact, at office, I have a VSAT connection to the net with 64 kbps for
outgoing traffic and 128, kpbs for incoming. So, I’m directly connected to
the net once my computer is put on.  When I have told my misadventure in a
cyber center to some of my friends, they were surprised by my deception. For
them, nothing was wrong. They were costumed to this situation. They taught
me that some time, you could go to a cybercentre and spend one hour without
succeeding in reading and replying to one mail. Not only, the speed is slow,
but also the materials are old.

I have decided to get more information on how this happen. A responsible the
Telecommunications office, the only access provider in the country, has
explained that cybercenters’ managers used to connect more PCs that they
have declared when asking for internet connection;  For example, a
connection for 10 PC may be shared by up to or more than 20 PC. 


Eustache Megnigbeto
Cotonou, Republic of Benin