From: zewdou-AT-dolphin.upenn.edu (Fassil  Zewdou)
Subject: Re: Microsoft, Bill Gates and More
Date: Sat, 27 May 1995 19:58:25 -0400 (EDT)


 

 "...competition in the software market, new product development in 
 personal computers, and the state's role in developing the "information 
 superhighway" and anti-trust legislation.  How will these developments 
 affect capital accumulation, market structure and workers?  

Indeed, it is an interesting thread to discuss. To add one more thread to 
the discussion, since last month's symposium held in Africa concerning 
Telematics--the convergence of computing, telecommunication and broadcast 
technologies, I have been wondering what the impact of "information 
superhighway"  would play in the developing countries. The conference, 
organized by  UNESCO, ITU, UNECA and IDRC, concluded that the 
communication technology  must develope its products for the `conditions 
in Africa' which meant  language translation, text to voice 
translation, Interface for the  non-literate such as text to voice 
output, touch screen, image and voice services etc. Of course, the 
organizers claim to develope such products  is in the hope that these 
services could play in the social and economic  development--education, 
health, trade, and commerce--of the continent. But, is it? Or, is it 
primarly from concerns of capital and market structure? If so, given the 
small number of potential computer owners, what would be the likelyhood 
success of such market structure for the mission it has set out to do 
in the continent? More important, if it turn out to be a failure, what is 
the capital consequences? And, what would the social consequences be?

The proceedings of the symposium which covers the above issues and 
more can be accessed by 
<http://www.sas.upenn.edu/african_studies/as.html> go to HORNET and PADIS
and then go to `Direct feed from Africa'.


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