Bridging the global digital divide

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

Tackling the global issue of bridging the digital divide, Eisenhower Fellow Brigitte Daniel was in Colombo for a couple of days as part of her tour of South East Asia, looking at various technology solutions and infrastructure models and different types of emerging technologies to address the digital divide issues in the United States.

“All around the world, we are sharing the vision of getting people connected, so why aren’t we talking more if we are all working on the same issues? I think that’s what the fellowship is doing by promoting that kind of world collaboration.  I think even the Eisenhower Fellowship is looking towards South East Asia as an engagement with the US is because we need to use this area more,” she stressed.

“There is so much we can both capitalise on together, whether you’re India, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh; there are partnerships and opportunities that we should be taking more advantage of and now that the war is over in Sri Lanka and there is more to just talk about, I think you’re going to see a lot more US businesses coming here to work with the Sri Lankan Government, businesses and people.”

A 2011 Eisenhower Fellow, a lawyer by profession and Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems Inc., Daniel was nominated for the task of visiting India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia when Wilco Electronic Systems Inc., a business owned by her family in Philadelphia, spearheaded an initiative to bring together a city-wide consortium in Philadelphia – a large public private partnership and offer broadband access, training and content for low income people in the city.  “I have been travelling for the last few months looking at various technology solutions and infrastructure models and different types of emerging technologies to address the digital divide issues in the United States because we have them and we’re trying as a nation to upgrade our systems so that we have more broadband access to underserved and low income people,” she explained during a quick chat with the Daily FT on her way to a meeting at Virtusa.

Commencing her tour in India in mid-October, Daniel arrived in Sri Lanka two days back to see for herself some of the interesting things going on in the country in terms of technology and mobile use and mobile applications.

She added that there are some things that Sri Lanka has that India does not have, which makes it a more interesting model to look at.

“Sri Lanka doesn’t have electricity problems which India does so when you put together a model of access, infrastructure and content and mobile wireless with electricity and throw in a device such as a tablet or a computer, then you have an interesting way of assessing how those things can work together to help people improve their lives and to also get online,” Daniel stated.

In just the space of a few days in Sri Lanka, Daniel met with ICTA, LIRNEAsia, Dialog, Virtusa and Etisalat and even found time to go to Parliament. She noted that she had gotten the chance to see a little bit of each in the industry and hoped to have a meeting with Sri Lanka Telecom and a mobile app developer, as it sets the framework for the Fellowship to come back. In fact, she revealed that the Eisenhower Fellowship may be back in Sri Lanka sooner than expected as the Fellowship is trying to set Sri Lanka as the destination for the organisation’s 2012 conference.  “We have a conference coming up and we are trying to set Sri Lanka as the destination for 2012 and if that happens, it would be fantastic.

Sri Lanka has a lot of possibilities and there are a lot of opportunities that haven’t been tapped into and I think we’re still at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the opportunities this country has,” she said positively. “Being an Eisenhower fellow and the fact that the Eisenhower programme itself somehow impacting that and helping progress Sri Lankan business – we are very proud to be a part of it.”

She described Sri Lanka as being like India as both countries have leapfrogged technology bringing about a greater opportunity in the development of mobile development and mobile infrastructure and wireless infrastructure.  She stated that this will be a great way for the country to rebuild itself and its telecommunications network.  “You are basically in a mobile wireless world that means you’re kind of ahead of the game in terms if where innovation is going because everywhere in the world innovation is leaning towards mobile and wireless devices,” Daniel said.

“What you do have is a growing framework in which innovation is alive and if you keep growing that, you’re right in step with everyone else in the world.  Time will tell how infrastructure will fare but I don’t see Sri Lanka having any limitations in terms of the telecommunications sector.”

During her time in India, Daniel said that one of the biggest things she learned about India is that the US needs to make sure that its trade and commerce has a stronger relationship with India than what they have now.  She cited India’s large, young and strong labour force as a great advantage to them and noted that it’s only going to get larger and larger.  “There are so many complexities with the culture and the country but I love being able to understand and get a chance to glimpse what’s going on in the technology and IT sector.  I think that there is a lot more opportunity for small businesses in the US to work with small businesses in India and that can promote more opportunities for business and jobs in both countries,” she added.  While admitting that the US doesn’t have the scale of 1.2 billion people, Daniel pointed out that there are a lot of interesting models that Indian businesses are doing with American businesses, which of course will continue because BPO services and back office support is going to be there, but she explained that there is more opportunities to do business with smaller business. “I think it would prove to be a crucial point as to where India wants to position itself; I think they are still deciding where they want to play, whether to go with the US or China and they are still feeling it out and they don’t necessarily need to say one way or the other but I think it behoves the US that we engage fully with India and I think the Fellowship is another example of a way to hit a sector that is very important, that is a large part of the GNP but that we also can work with them rather than work against them.”