At the G8 meeting in 2000, protesters set fire to a laptop computer on an Okinawa beach. "We can't eat computers", "people are dying", was the message in response to what was seen as a technology "fad" distracting from real priorities. But the Human Development Report of 2001 (UNDP) argues that information and communication technologies (ICT) "can make major contributions to reducing world poverty" and are "truly a breakthrough technology for democracy and expansion of knowledge for poor people" (HDR 2001, UNDP).

In this session, we will examine some evidence that both sides are right and briefly discuss what questions need to be asked in order to understand and solve this paradox.

Drawing from recent United Nations indicators and trends related with ICT, poverty and war; from research on the nature and consequences of recent ICT developments; and supported by examples extracted from research projects and case studies, we will briefly examine some elements of the following questions:

• - How the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, both at global and local levels, despite of, or in consequence of, ICT developments with current policies within the so-called "Washington consensus";

• - Why recent ICT developments represent a qualitative jump concerning its social-political-economic impacts;

• - What are the consequences of the market-driven ICT development models and strategies?

• - How ICT challenges the current institutional and regulatory framework;

• - Why simply "throwing in" technology to poor regions or neighborhoods is likely to fail reversing bad trends;

• - Which are the most promising areas where ICT may improve the planning process, and how to get there.

Global indicators from:

• - Human Development Reports (http://hdr.undp.org/)

• - United Nations Development Program

• - Centre for Responsive Politics

Research projects:

• - Intelligent Multimedia in Public Participation - Community assessment of environmental impact, S. Joao da Talha (www.citidep.net/ims/eindex.html)

• - Public Access to Environmental Information, Lisboa e Vale do Tejo (www.citidep.net/act/edraap.html)

• - PEOPLE "Population Exposure to Air Pollutants in Europe" (http://www.people-pt.net/eindex.html)

  References

  Talk slides

  The Qualitative Jump of Information and Communication Technologies by Pedro Ferraz de Abreu (PhD Thesis Chapter)

  e-Planning core document, by Pedro Ferraz de Abreu and Joseph Ferreira Jr.

  International Conference on Public Participation and Information technologies (ICPPIT03)http://web.mit.edu/uis/icppit03/ and http://www.citidep.net/icppit03/, USA< MIT, November 2003

  International Conference on Public Participation and Information technologies (ICPPIT99), Portugal, FCT-UNL, October 1999

  Pedro Ferraz de Abreu

  Pedro Ferraz de Abreu is a native of Lisboa, Portugal, who are called "alfacinhas" (something like "little lettuces"). With two engineering degrees from Portugal (Electronics and Telecommunications Eng., ISEL, Computer Eng., FCT-UNL), he arrived at MIT as a fellow of the Center for Advanced Engineering Studies in 1986, with a Fulbright grant, and stayed for a Master degree on "Intelligent Graphic Interfaces" at the recently created MIT Media Lab. After a one-year stunt at BU Biomedical Engineering Dept. with Lucia Vaina, he quickly returned to MIT, as a SPURS fellow, and then completed a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning. His thesis was on "New Information Technologies in Public Participation: A Challenge to Old Decision-making Institutional Frameworks", with Prof. Joseph Ferreira Jr., at DUSP-PSS.

  His original College degree was to be on Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, at the University of Lisbon, but the fascist dictatorship then in power expelled him from all Portuguese Universities and tried to put him in jail, as a "reward" for his leadership role in the democratic forces opposing the dictator. After two years eluding the fascist police, he took part on the bloodless revolution that put an end to the 48 year-old dictatorship, a colonial war in Africa and re-established a democratic regime in Portugal. Disenchanted with the emerging party politics climate, he worked 4 years as a blue-collar worker in a chemical industry plant, and then returned to his original passion, science and research, while keeping in close contact with civic and NGO circles.

  In 1996, he founded CITIDEP (http://www.citidep.net), a Research Center on Information Technology and Participatory Democracy, as an international non-profit now with 90 affiliates in 10 countries. CITIDEP recently co-organized with DUSP the 2003 edition of the International Conference on Public Participation and Information Technologies (http://web.mit.edu/uis/icppit03).

  Some of his publications are on-line at www.citidep.net/papers/pfa/

  Related Course: 11.950 "e-Planning Seminar" , T 6-7.30 PM, room 9-554 (Instructor: P. Ferraz de Abreu)

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