Information Research Weblog

A little while ago I commented on an article in Guardian Online about hospital information systems - to my surprise, the item was quoted in this week's issue, in the Blog-back feature. Perhaps we should try to get infinite recursion going!

This week, there's another interesting story about the development of Ethiopia's broadband infrastructure. Yes - you read aright - Ethiopia is investing public money in a broadband infrastructure that will put Internet connection within a 'few kilometers' of every one of its 74 million inhabitants.

To put this in context: at present, only 0.1% of inhabitants have access, while the UK (by no means the highest in the world) has 52% of its households connected. However, Ethiopia has a land area of 1,119,683 sq.km., while the UK has only 241,590 sq.km. At present, with its reliance upon the vagaries of the market, there seems to be little chance that anyone in the UK will be within only a few kms. of an Internet connection, while, through public funding, Ethiopia is going to make sure that everyone is.

The difference of course, lies in the imagination employed. Ethiopia may be one of the poorest countries in the world, but the imagination of its politicians is clearly unbounded by economic dogma. Technology provides it with the potential to leapfrog the development process, while Britain and other rich countries are locked into a belief system that lauds the market above other mechanisms - a strategy that will surely lead to economic decline.