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Saving the world with technology

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Health Care,
WCIT

Tom Krazit CNET News

Published: 04 May 2006 17:05 BST

With all the complaining the developed world does about BlackBerry addiction and the blue screen of death, sometimes it's important to remember that billions of people around the world have no idea what you're talking about.

The rise of information technology has undoubtedly changed the world, according to speakers and panelists gathered this week for the 2006 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in Austin, Texas. But it has not changed everyone's world, and there are still plenty of places where IT has yet to impact.

The WCIT gathers every two years to debate what it considers the most pressing technology issues affecting the globe. This year, WCIT and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) chose access to technology, IT in heath care, and privacy and security as the hot-button issues for the conference.

On Thursday the 2,000-plus delegates from 80 countries voted on various proposals, and the results, to be announced Friday, will be implemented as official recommendations of the WCIT and the WITSA. Delegates can then go home with a list of what needs to be done to improve IT in their countries.

Unlike many sessions at the United Nations, this is a forum where most panelists seemed to agree on the issues discussed. Industry and government have to work together, they said. Global standards need to be implemented so programs and policies that work can be implemented in different regions. And information technology has the power to change the world for the better -- not that far-fetched a concept to emerge from a gathering of some of the world's elite IT executives and pundits.

"Some ask, 'How can we afford to do this?' I say, 'We can't afford not to do this,'" Hector Ruiz, chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices, said during his keynote speech kicking off the conference.

While the rhetoric is about improving people's lives, the IT industry is also thinking with its wallet. Only 10 percent of people with an annual income of less than $25,000 own a PC, said Paul Otellini, Intel's chief executive, during his address Wednesday. A faulty 50-cent seal on a shipping container has the potential to disrupt the global economy, said Joseph McGrath, boss of Unisys. Companies, health care institutions and patients could save millions of dollars with automated health care records, said Tommy Thompson, the former White House secretary of health and human services, who is an adviser to the Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions.

Improving access to PCs and the Internet is a frequent topic these days, with MIT's Nicholas Negroponte pitching a $100 PC for developing nations under his One Laptop Per Child plan. Microsoft's Bill Gates has touted a plan for a basic PC something like a mobile phone, while Otellini and Ruiz discussed their own projects Wednesday. Otellini's Eduwise design is targeted at students, while AMD wants to put "Personal Internet Communicators" in homes.

Yeongi Son, president and chief executive of the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion, had a broader perspective than most on this topic. South Korea is one of the more wired countries in the world, with 72 percent of the population online at broadband speeds, Son said. His government-funded agency has set up access centres in rural areas and distributed refurbished PCs to the poor.

Governments should be making it a priority to embrace technology within their organisations and introduce public sector workers to the possibilities of IT, said Don Tapscott, chief executive of think tank New Paradigm. And easing strict regulations on telecommunications helps to speed adoption of new technologies, said Steve Rohleder, Accenture's chief operating officer.