ICCM '96 Session Notes

"North-South Differences in Technological Capabilities -- How Do We Collaborate?" (Roundtable)

Mark Patterson, Global Mapping International, and Don McIntosh, Ministry Systems Inc.

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Ephesians 4:16 = Christ is the collaborative force!

We want to do some real-time collaboration this afternoon. By way of definition: the "A world" has easy Internet connection, the "B world" does not have reasonable access to E-Mail but has telephone, and the "C world" does not even have telephones. Look at this as an individual rather than an organization.

Questionnaire

Answer them as an individual rather than an organization.

E-Mail:

  1. In a month's time, how many pieces of E-Mail do you initiate?
  2. How many additional pieces might need only a short paragraph for a response?
  3. How many times a month do you send E-Mail (broken down by the number of recipients.
  4. In that same month, how many pieces of E-Mail might you receive?
  5. From the mail you send, in general, how long do you normally wait to get a response in days?
  6. If the message is perceived to be urgent by the receiver & they have the needed information, how long do you normally wait for a response?

Files:

  1. How many files might you receive each month?
  2. How many files might you generate & send?
  3. Just how big were they?
  4. How many files did you retrieve from some sort of file library or Web site on a remote computer?

Research:

  1. How many of you, using your computer, have gone looking for data/information needed for a work related project that was not currently available in your office?
  2. How many times, on average, do you do this each month?
  3. How many of you have a real need to use your computer to obtain data/information needed for a work related project & cannot because of training, access (technical issues) or cost (which one)?
  4. In general, how fast do you really need the information for a research answer?
  5. For those who do research, what are your favorite information sources?
  6. On a CD-ROM, what kind of information do you look for & why might you not be using a CD-ROM?

Other:

  1. How much are my monthly IT service charges?
  2. Where do you get your technical support for hardware, how to use your software, where to find information, & an E-Mail address that you might need?

How do We Collaborate?

Two forces that are causal of collaboration:
  1. passive or internal pressure - e.g. organization's missionary
  2. active or external pressure - another organization does an action & you decide that your organization should do it also.
We need to move from a North-North collaboration that gives handouts to the South, to a truly North-South collaboration.

To collaborate effectively, we must need to know what the people using the products are saying. Is the equipment in the country physically & financially available for the people (e.g. in India a quad-speed CD-ROM drive costs $1,000)? As well, people cannot use a CD if they do not even have a computer.

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