Informatics policy for the third world
Abstract
Information Technology for Development Volume 3 Number 4. © 1988 Oxford University Press. Uptal K. Banerjee Chief Executive All India Management Association New Delhi 110003 Introduction The gradual emergence of complex scientific, engineering and other technological disciplines today are helped by management techniques to cope with data and information more systematically, without losing sight of their wider social, economic and cultural contexts. This complex of disciplines is referred to as informatics which can be described as 'totalit y of disciplines and technologies for the systematic treatment (particularly by computer) of data and information scene as th e medium for knowledg e with a view to its conservatio n in time and its communicatio n in space'. Informatics can be regarded as a technology where human energy is transferred in physical form using mainly computer as a tool to produce the change needed in the society. According to Yohan Galtung (1978), informatics can be visualised to have techniques plus structure as follows: (a) Techniques (i) Hardware components (computers as tools); (ii) Software components (human skills and programming knowledge) (b) Structure (i) Economic structure (in terms of capital intensive, labour extensive, research intensive and organisation intensive factors); (ii) Socio structure (in