There is no doubting that modern ICTs are reaching more and more people in the developing world. There will be 6 billion cell phones in use by 2012, there are currently over 1.5 billion Internet users, and the World Summit on the Information Society set 2015 as the target year for the entire world to be connected through ICT. What is more difficult to specifically identify is just how impactful these ICTs are for the world, particularly for the billions across the globe who reside in what is known as the Bottom of the Pyramid. The Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) is made up of the world’s poorest, who in this new age are often representing a potential market for new information and communication technologies. These technologies allow for more efficiency and mobility in the professional and personal lives of those at the BOP, and the advent of the ICTs has lead to the blurring of the divisions between one’s professional and personal lives as discussed by Jonathan Donner in the reading Blurring Livelihoods and Lives. For example, a farmer in India can one minute be taking a call from an agricultural supplier about an incoming shipment, and the next minute be answering a cell phone from his wife about what time the family meal will start at. New technologies are helping to enhance both the professional and personal aspects of the lives of those at the BOP, and I believe the professional and personal impacts of technologies like computers, cell phones and the internet can be made even more powerful if universities in the developed world (such as Cornell) use their resources to be a sort of facilitating middleman between workers in the developed and developing world.
Below is how I see a university facilitating personal and professional growth among people at both the bottom of the pyramid and the working class of the developed world. We will be using Cornell University for this example. Along with being one of, if not the leading agricultural institution in the world, Cornell is located in an agriculturally rich region of the United States. Surrounding the Ithaca campus is hundreds of local farmers who produce a myriad of crops in the Finger Lakes region. Through the resources of the University and modern ICTs, the farmers of the Finger Lakes region could be connected to the farmers of the developing world to form a type of foreign exchange for farmers. This exchange will benefit both parties personally and professionally. Professionally, the two parties can share information about different agricultural production techniques or technology uses. With the agriculture department of Cornell providing research on the newest information and innovations in farming, the farmers in Central New York and the farmers in the developing world (say a rural town in India) can share their experiences with the new innovations from the University. This sharing of information and techniques has the potential to teach both parties how to better produce their crops. Yet in the way ICTs fuse the components of lives and livelihoods together, this farmers-exchange between two cultures can go beyond business to benefit both parties. Connecting farmers from different worlds can promote a more comprehensive cultural and societal understanding, and this understanding of different peoples daily ways of life can make the people participating in the exchange more complete individuals overall. The decisions of the farmers in the exchange may be altered in a positive way due to their being exposed to similar peoples half way across the map.
The world is becoming more global, and ICTs are paving the way for more and more people to become connected. By serving as a liaison between the farmers of North America and the farmers of the developing world, Cornell University has the ability to foster the state of global agriculture. Moving beyond the specific example of farming and Cornell University, any number of higher-level educational institutions within the core nations can act as a middleman between two groups of peoples. Combining the research capabilities of the school with the ever developing ICTs can help better the working and living conditions for millions of people living within a more connected globe.
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