Talking this morning with Dr. Álvaro Morales, Administrative Director of the Fundación Norte-Sur, we were dealing with the concept of technology transfer. I think that, in general, but even more important in terms of cooperation for development, there’s no use talking about technology transfer but knowledge transfer. And the whole thing is about my eternal speech of content and services driven infrastructures and not infrastructures as a good for themselves.
When providing an intranet or an online learning environment, as we do, the point is not whether we give some platform or some web applications for free but:
- the knowledge enclosed within
- the training or knowledge transfer to appropriate the tools and optimize their use on your own
Thus, this is the reason why, when giving an intranet away, we previously have assessment sessions on what the intranet would mean to the inner organization of the NGO, the hierarchy architecture changes, the information and communication skills and requirements, the pros and cons of web interaction, etc, etc, etc.
And this is also the reason why, when planning online courses (with or without online volunteers), we usually plan previous training for e-trainers sessions so we can “brainwash” traditional teachers and show them what e-learning is all about.
Dr. Morales and I agreed that bridging the digital divide starts much before any technology transfer is even planned, and that it should begin with a serious knowledge transfer on what you are, what you need and, in the end, how could ICT based content and services help you out.
If you need to cite this article in a formal way (i.e. for bibliographical purposes) I dare suggest:
Peña-López, I. (2004) “Technology transfer but Knowledge transfer” In ICTlogy,
#5, February 2004. Barcelona: ICTlogy.
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