– IT experts hail OLPF project
THE government’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project, which President Bharrat Jagdeo, has steadfastly defended against political and media critics, is designed to transform the national economy through significantly contributing to the development of rural communities – in other words “taking the economy to the people”.
Hailing the OLPF on Friday, several Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts said ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) will impact the lives of people – bringing them closer together, making differences less important and amplifying economic activity and growth.
“The overall goal of the e-Society Programme is to promote the innovative use of ICT to meet the social and economic needs of the communities, to develop approaches to scale up successful applications, and to empower civil society with affordable access to information, communication, and relevant local content”, one expert noted.
The experts agreed that development and maintenance of human and social capital represents an important factor for societies to not only generate prosperity, social cohesion, and peace, but first and foremost to manage the challenges and tensions of an increasingly interdependent, changing world.
The goal, one noted, is “to assist our people to develop the necessary skills for achieving health, wealth and well-being in their work, their families and communities.”
“An ICT-literate society and an ICT-skilled workforce will be the building blocks for an e-Guyana, leading to an improved quality of life for all its citizens. This links in well to the fibre optic efforts of internet connectivity”, he said.
Officials said key features of the OLPF are:
* It is a capacity building programme, with validation of skills through an OLPF certification programme that enables people to learn how to use computers, Internet and the basics of word processing and working with numbers.
* It has been designed to help people get the most out of the Internet by explaining how it works.
* It provides the essential skills that people need to actively access and engage in the information society.
* It is the solution for anyone who feels as though he is losing out because he lacks Internet skills.
* The impact of this project is headlined as using ICT as an enabler of rapid economic development.
* ICT as an enabler of government, administration and service delivery – where the public benefits from greater access to services and information.
* ICT as an engine of the service sector’s development – improving information and communication to customers.
*ICT as an enabler of industrial development – innovation and creativity, using ICT for productivity gains.
* ICT as an enabler of the agriculture sector – helping farmers, for example, research and get better information on weather, pests, procurement, etc.

Health
* It will promote collaborative efforts of the government, planners, health professionals, and other agencies to highlight reliable, timely, high quality health information where the Netbooks can be used to access information or where laptops can be pre-loaded with health training programmes, which require ICT skills to access.
* Facilitate knowledge access and content, resources for strengthening public health research and prevention programmes and promoting women and men’s health, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, by linking the needs of the general public with sharing and accessing information, in this way using  ICT skills and learning together at  individual and community levels.
*  Monitor and control the spread of communicable diseases, through the improvement of common information systems, where the laptop can be used to share and receive certain information and data, especially in the case of epidemics.

Employment
* It will promote new ways of organising work and business with the aim of raising productivity, growth and well-being through investment in ICTs and human resources.
* Promote teleworking to allow citizens to live in their societies and work anywhere, and to increase employment opportunities for women, and for those with disabilities. In promoting teleworking, special attention should be given to strategies promoting job creation and the retention of the skilled working force.
According to the officials, the impact of the OLPF is reflected in how the skills acquired impact on individuals, communities, and government to enable economic and social development.
End users will have the knowledge and skills to:
*     Access government, administration and service delivery.
*      Engage in industrial development through knowledge sharing and access.
*     Generate wealth through skills creation and new roles in emerging sectors.
*     Share knowledge with their community through participation and engagement.
“The most important thing to remember is that each person is an individual and will have their own reason for wanting to engage with the programme and improve their skills. Most will have the potential to learn and will need encouragement and support if they are to be motivated and succeed. The programme is designed to help those who have no or limited skills,” an official explained.
He noted, “Many people will be anxious about learning new skills because of feelings of low self-esteem and failure, fear and apprehension. As adults, it may also be difficult to return to learning because of the pressures of life. We have to ensure that learning is centred on each person, in a non-threatening context.”
Guyana’s national ICT strategy is a plan to facilitate and ensure the dramatic increase in its social and economic wealth at all levels: individual, organisational and national.
The strategy is geared to leverage and enhance Guyana’s human resources, innovation, education, and infrastructure and information technology to accelerate economic and social development. It is also designed to play a critical role in achieving the national development goals and in facilitating and promoting prosperity and well-being.
The strategy, in addition, is grounded in the vision of all Guyanese having the opportunity to fully participate in the information and knowledge society in order to accelerate national development and prosperity.
According to one official, the government recognises that in order to accelerate the reduction of the digital divide in Guyana, and to increase the accessibility levels to the Information Society, it is necessary to have a coordinated plan for effective development of ICT.
“The Office of President will lead the strategy in terms of ensuring the programme cuts across all segments of the population”, he said.

Netbooks allow broad reach
The netbooks to be used in the OLPF project are mobile and so can be accessed by a wide audience. Netbooks will be used at family and community levels to support knowledge sharing, as well as access to government and other information resources. The inherent flexibility of netbooks, through their mobility, makes them accessible to groups and individuals alike to maximise potential, one expert said.
He added, “The use of netbooks complements the approach to information technology studied at school, around the ‘computer lab’ which focuses on students only. The Government of Guyana has acknowledged that to move an industrial and agriculture-based economy towards an information and knowledge economy, there is a need to develop and implement comprehensive and integrated ICT-led socio-economic development policy, strategies and plans.
“Netbooks, which are computers, will be internet enabled, and will be linked to ICT hubs which are the internet access points for communities. This method allows end users and groups, families, and communities to share and engage in information and knowledge dissemination by accessing information on a far wider basis than static computer labs.
The programme will empower local communities, especially those in rural areas, in ICT use and promote the production of useful and socially meaningful content for the benefit of all.
“It addition, it will launch education and training programmes, where possible using information networks of traditional and indigenous peoples, which provide opportunities to fully participate in the Information Society”, he said.
According to another official, volunteering in harmony with national policies and local cultures can be a valuable asset for raising human capacity to make productive use of ICT tools and build a more inclusive Information Society.
The OLPF project will activate volunteer programmes to provide capacity building on ICT for development.
The project will also identify free online programmes and information which the population can access for self-learning and self-development.
A budgetary allocation of $1.8B is provided for the OLPF which will be implemented over the next two years, targeting mostly less fortunate families.
President Jagdeo has said several factors are being taken into consideration to determine less fortunate sections of society, including an income test and groups such as single parents.
At the launch, it was announced that a public tender process will be applied for the purchase of the laptops and President Jagdeo said the engineer’s estimate, based on the features, suggests that the cost for a single device is likely to be US$300.
He, however, made it clear that such an aggregate is not final since the tender process will make the determination.
Outside of the public tender, President Jagdeo said the Guyana government has approached China for the sourcing of Lenovo computers and estimates that if such an endeavour is pursued, it will cost US$8M. (GINA)