Information and Education in the UAE - Report Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Introduction The internet is defined as a world system of computer networks which are interconnected and make use of the ‘standard Internet Protocol Suite’ to provide services to its world’s users. The internet is a global network with several other networks within it. These networks are owned by governments, business people, academic institutions and private individuals. These networks range from local to global magnitudes (Castells pp. 84). They are connected by a wide coverage of wireless, electronic and wireless networking technologies. The internet has helped to reshape many traditional media of communication such as music, telephone, television and film. The advent of the internet has given birth to a society with a lot of information. An information society is one where the making, sharing, diffusion, utilization, integration and manipulation of information is an important political, economic and cultural exercise (Fuchs pp 53).In such a society every human activity is strongly dependent on technological transfer of information. History of Internet The internet came about because of the visionary and creative thinking of some people in the 1960s. They had foreseen the possibility of sharing information about the development of research in military and scientific field through computers. In 1962 J.C.R Licklider was the first to suggest a world wide computer network. He later moved from MIT to ‘Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’ later in the same year to lead the way for its completion (Bell pp. 130). The packet switching theory which became the foundation of internet connection was developed by MIT’s Leornard Klienrock. A Californian computer was connected to a Massachusetts computer by telephone line in 1965. This experiment done by ‘Lawrence Roberts of MIT’ showed that there was a possibility of having networks over wide areas and also revealed the inadequacy of the switching of the telephone line circuit. A confirmation was made for Kleinrock’s theory of packet switching. In 1966 Roberts shifted to DARPA where he made his ARPANET plan (Clark pp. 68). The internet was actually founded by these people among others working during that time. In 1969 ARPANET presently called internet came online through the contract it was given by the ‘Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).’ ARPA connected 4 main computers at UCSB, Stanford Research Institute, University of Utah and UCLA in South Western part of the US. MA led by Bob Kahn and BBN from Cambridge carried out the contract which put them online in1969 December. Many other companies were involved in the development of online and internet net working (Castells pp. 84). “Charley Kline the first internet user at UCLA sent the first packets on ARPANet as he tried to connect to Stanford Research Institute on Oct 29, 1969. The system crashed as he reached the G in LOGIN!” Internet in the early ages was used by scientists, librarians, engineers and computer experts. Internet and computers were not use in homes and those using them were professionals who knew how to operate very complex systems (Clark pp. 68). Al Gore was credited to have been of great support to the growth of the internet since the 70s. In 1972 Ray Tomlinson of BBN adapted e-mail for ARPANET. He chose the symbols ‘@’ from other symbols to serve as the link between the address and username. “The telnet protocol, enabling logging on to a remote computer, was published as a Request for Comments (RFC) in 1972.” RFC’s provide a way of sharing work related development in a community. The publication of the ftp protocol which makes it possible for files to be transferred between internet sites was done in 1973. The publication made it an RFC which made RFCs available in electronic form to all users of ftp protocol (Clark pp. 68). The maturity of the internet was realized in the 1970s because of the TCP\IP architecture whose first proponent was Bob Kahn of BBN. It was developed further by Kahn among other people. The defense department adopted it to take the place of the ‘Network Control Protocol (NCP).’ Its universal adoption came in 1983. The invention of the ‘Unix to Unix Copy protocol’ (UUCP) was done in 1978. Usenet which was based on UUCP began in 1979. Discussion news groups started providing a way of information exchange in the world. Usenet is not recognized as a section of the internet because it has no share in TCP\IP. However it connected world Unix systems. Several groups on the internet sought to exploit the advantage of the presence of news groups (Bell pp. 130). In 1986 the NSFNet was funded by the National Science Foundation as the backbone of the internet. This funding was maintained for almost 10years. With the standardization of the FTP, telnet and e-mail non technical people found it easier to learn the use of the net. This door was opened to several people especially in universities. Sharing of information across the globe became a lot easier by people such as librarians, and scientists. “With internet sites it was easy to keep track of necessary resources.” However with the connection of more libraries to the internet it became hard to track the internet (Clark pp. 68). In order to index the available resources more tools were required. Apart from library catalogues the initial step to index the internet took place in 1989 when Peter Deutsch with others at McGill University in Montreal made an achiever called Archie. The software would occasionally link with ftp sites, make a list of their files and make an index for the software which could be searched. The Wider Area Information Server (WAIS) was developed almost that time by Brewster Kahle who was at Thinking machines Corp at that time (Castells pp. 84). “This server had the capacity to index the full text of files in a database and permit the files to be searched.” There were many types with different complexity levels and capability. The simplest among them were put on the net to be accesses by all internet users. At its optimum Thinking Machines continued having more than 600 databases over the world whose indexing had been done by WAIS. Among them were the files of Usenet containing the frequently asked questions. It also had working papers for the internet standard developers and many other things. Just like Archie it had a more complex interface which demanded more effort for one to learn how to use it (Bell pp. 130). Peter Scott from Saskatchewan University realized that it was necessary to assemble information concerning the library catalogues accessible through telnet together with other telnet resources. In 1990 he removed his Hytelnet catalogue. It provided one source of information on library catalogues together with other telnet resources with the procedure of using them. For several years he maintained and in 1997 he added to it Hy -Web Cat to avail information about web-based catalogues. The first internet friendly interface was made at the University of Minnesota in 1991. The goal of the University was to make a simple menu system to get information and files within the campus using the local network (Clark pp. 68). Mainframe adherents and the proponents of smaller systems with client-server architecture went into debate over this. That debate was won by mainframe adherents at first but because the advocates of the client server promised to develop a prototype they received permission to do ‘a demonstration system’ called gopher. Because of the prolific nature of the nature over 10,000 gophers had been developed in only a few years. One does not need unix knowledge or architectural computer know how to use it. It gopher system one just types or clicks on a specific number to select the desired menu (Bell pp. 130). The use of gopher was made better with the development of ‘Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide Index to Computerized Archives’ (VERONICA) by the ‘University of Nevada.’ This was a searchable index for gopher menus. It became popular that crowding made it difficult to connect to although many other sites had been made to assist it. Another Indexing software similar to it was made for the sake of single sites by the name JUGHEAD. The developer of Archie, Peter Deutsch maintained that the name was the short form of Achiever. In 1989 the nets were made easier when Tim Berners-Lee together with others at CERN ‘European Laboratory for Particle Physics’ suggested a new information distribution protocol (Castells pp. 84). This protocol later in 1991 became the World Wide Web. It founded on hypertext which was a bit slow to develop. The protocol was boosted in 1993 when a graphical browser called mosaic was developed by Marc Andreessen together with is team. He did this at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Andreessen came up with Nescape Corp which developed the browser of graphical type that became more successful than any other until when Microsoft came on the scene with Microsoft Internet Explorer (Clark pp. 68). Information society The knowledge economy is the economic counterpart of the information society in which wealth creation takes place through the exploitation of understanding in an economic way. People with the capacity to share in such a society are referred to as digital citizens. The appearance of such a society is signified by technology, culture, economies, occupations or some of them combined. There is a general belief that Information society came to succeed the industrial society. It is otherwise referred to as post industrial society, knowledge society or post modern society (Webster pp. 230). The information society concept was first developed by an economist called Fritz Machlup. In 1962 he introduced the knowledge industry concept. He identified five sections in the sector of knowledge thus: mass media, education, research and development, information services and information technology. Peter Drucker argues that a transition exists from a material goods based economy to that which is knowledge based. The number of workers producing information and services indicates the information character resident in a given society. Most of the employees in an information society do not produce tangible goods (Garnham pp. 200). The transition to an information society occurs when investments produce symbolic goods which can modify values, representations, needs far more than when material goods or services are produced. Communication and Information technologies bring about commercial, education, medical and governmental activities. This makes the ‘global village’ idea very real. However many countries are still left out of this information society. The global village dream therefore is not a reality for all at least at present. On telephones for example about 83 countries have below 10 lines of tele-density to every 100 people while25 countries have less than 1% of tele-density. On internet connection it is a bit serious because about 61 countries have not more than 1 internet user to every 100 people (Webster pp. 230). Many people are discouraged from using the services due to their high prices. Using the latest technology, calling from the US to Switzerland can cost 5 US cents or less a minute while the same call to Africa will require more $1 for every minute or 20 times over. Reduction of these prices would make African citizens more able to enter the global village. A few years ago it was luxurious to afford a telephone in the house. However in the modern times a telephone has become a necessity. It is hard to work efficiently without a telephone; neither can one take part actively in the gains of a victorious economic life. People won’t live solely on information. However humanity has entered into an era while by information related economic activities form a big part of the GDP. “Information has become the key to competitive advantage both for businesses and modern states”(Garnham pp. 200). It is therefore necessary to make the infrastructure for telecommunication, to train human resources and to utilize well all information technologies for all human activities. The benefits of ‘information and telecommunication technologies’ should be taken to all people of the world. The digital divide should be closed up and turned into digital opportunity (Fitzpatrick pp. 100). In economic development countries have passed form the agricultural based economies to industrial ones. If all the countries have to go through these development stages the developing countries cannot bridge the gap. ICT has the capacity to make such countries to jump directly to the information society if proper steps are taken. In order to make the information society it is needless for us to have the things that were used to make the industrial revolution like wealth accumulation for mass production. What is required is a bunch of creative people coupled with a relatively smaller investment amount for ICT infrastructure (Webster pp. 230). Anybody working in any corner of the globe can produce something for the global market if there is ready and cheap communication. In an information society, big organizations that gain from ‘economies of scale’ have become an obstacle. In industrial economies dealing in mass production organizations expand their markets widely in order to benefit from economies of scale. In information societies though, a big chunk of the job is done by individuals making use of networks and computers to make the ‘power of scale economies’ lose its relevance. A complex system of distribution or several middlemen layers or a firm structure of hierarchy are unnecessary and may become a hindrance. At the information society threshold, the developing and developed worlds are at a common starting point (Garnham pp. 200). Success stories are already all over about a bout how to utilize in the best way technologies for information and communication for the sake of development. Among them is the Israel or Bangalore software industry, Singapore and Hong Kong, and the small village of Peru which sells its land produce through e-commerce to New York raising income for households that is 5 times more. Transition to information society will resemble in every instance the change from agriculture based to industrialized societies. In the days gone by this has resulted into the creation of losers and winners whereby others proper as others lag behind. If proper action is not taken then the present gaps can easily widen. Care should be taken so that the same fate does not befall the information society (Fitzpatrick pp.100). The leaders of the world should take the right steps to shape the way the information society will go in order to create a peaceful and just world. Although it may not be easy people can cooperate to get to an understanding with the political leaders about the information society and come up with a strategy to achieve victory for all. In order to establish a ‘win-win situation’ an elaboration on the information society vision which can enable people to prepare for and accommodate its positive benefits. Again there should be drawn a concrete and elaborate action plan for people to increasingly access ICT. “This is possible through conversion of the digital divide into a digital opportunity that can be implemented by all stake holders”(Garnham pp. 200). This focus of the effort should be on applications and not just technology. The goal goes beyond just acquiring more telephones and computers to extending to information accessibility, to have a guarantee for the right of communication and focus on the way through which ICTs may be used to get the bigger economic and social goals like poverty eradication. All stake holders’ minds from developing and developed countries should be brought together. Unique chances should be provided for UN agencies, regulators, civil society and NGOs, industry leaders and heads of state in order to assemble in discussions about important information society issues (Fitzpatrick pp.100). Information and Education in the UAE “The federal government of the UAE is yet to draw an elaborate national strategy for its information society; very advanced strategies have been in use at the local levels in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.” The UAE has a current infrastructure for telecommunications compared to other Middle East countries. Its residents can access many communication modes which can also be found in the advanced countries of the West. The government of the UAE is in the process of raising the awareness of its people to the importance of ICT and that of allowing all people to access knowledge and information. A number of ministries for example Labor use the e-signature and e-work permits systems. The UAE could possibly be required to improve on community center development. Such centers are not available or are in short supply. Their presence is useful to the marginalized section of the population (Souzer pp. 300-304). There are also no initiatives at the federal government level for addressing affordability and accessibility of ICT to the elderly, children and those people suffering disabilities. However there exist some initiatives at the emirates levels (Nasir pp. 136). “An example is the one at Sharjah City of Humanitarian Services where top of the line ICT equipment are made available to teacher and students who are mentally and physically challenged.” Institutional mechanisms have been built so that citizens can develop confidence in using ICTs. The UAE is a pioneer of the creation of the ‘rule of Law’ governing electronic transactions in the Middle East. Law number 2 has 29 articles (Dijk pp.11). The law is against any deliberate act that can cause the destruction or release of secrets or republishing official or personal information as a criminal offense. People who log into information systems or website will be jailed or required to give a fine. Again, anyone found involving a female or male into prostitution or adultery via internet risked going to jail for 5 years and also being fined. Several efforts have been done to foster the transition from a paper base to an environment that is paperless. The UAE has the commitment to transform the society in to one that is based on knowledge and information whereby the penetration of computers and the rate of diffusion of the internet will compare to that in the Western European developed countries.(Souzer pp. 300-304). The government is stepping up every other activity that relates to distribution of knowledge and growth of awareness by giving support to conferences and national media. The government has an initiative called e-Library 22 whose services are available by cooperation between Dubai municipality-Library section and Dubai e Government. The library does integration for all the nine libraries in Dubai and serves as an interface that users can utilize to search for documents and publications through accessible databases like Dubai police, civil defense and Dubai Municipality among others (Nasir pp. 136). “The Department of Health and Medical Services - Government of Dubai, has also launched a Medical E-Library23 containing a wealth of Medical related documents and publications accessible to its staff and customers.” More work needs to be done to make many more citizens access this technology. Free internet is present in many schools, public libraries and universities. However a lot of work should be done to bring about more diffusion and infusion of internet into public places (Souzer pp. 300-304). There are several different models of software that are in use mostly by private enterprises in UAE. Experiments on open sourcing are underway in the ‘United Arab Emirates University’ and the ‘American University of Sharjah.’ “The availability of government online services in the UAE has made it easier to get information and has also reduced the time needed by individuals and businesses to transact with government bodies.” The government benefits by getting high level efficiency as well as lower expenses incurred in public services provision. This is indicated by availability of public services (Nasir pp. 136). The government of the UAE is involved seriously into the inclusion of ICT into education and training. So far an elaborate program for the incorporation of ICT into education has been developed. Many emirates have their own programs for ICT training mostly in their public sectors although there is no elaborate strategy at the level of the Federal Government. There are several partnerships between public and private sectors which are working on such programs. For example in 1997 the ‘Dubai Internet City’ announced that a new IT group would be formed to strengthen links between the private sector and the government. Technology development in the economy of the UAE is being boosted by Dubai IT Association which was founded by Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft (Souzer pp. 300-304). The Association will also increase the role Information Technology to students, the unemployed, women and other groups in the society. It will also work on combating piracy, IT professional local work force development and increase in penetration rates of broad bands. The Education Ministry and the Government of the UAE are working on ICT promotion to be used in education in the whole of the supply chain beginning in K-12 to vocational up to higher education. Many initiatives in education with the support of the private sector are under implementation. More is expected with companies like Oracle, Microsoft, HP, Intel and Cisco involved in initiatives to increase awareness on ICT use in economic and social spheres (Nasir pp. 136). The UAE is the leading country in the region in the connectivity of ICT. Almost every public or private school is wired. Universities and schools alike offer their exams online. Application for college education is also accomplished online. In several universities and even high schools and colleges have embraced and mandated Laptop use among students. “Al Mawakeb School in Dubai has been a pioneer in this area mandating the use of laptops for all students in grade 9 through 12 since 200.” ‘Zayed University in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, American University of Sharjar and UAE University in Al Ain’ (AUS) expect all their students to have lap tops. Some like AUS use iLean during testing and examinations as a system for learning and management (Dijk pp.11). At the Emirates levels there ahs been development of training programs aimed at capacity building for ICT use. This has already taken place in Sharja, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Some institutions of education and Universities have already been singled out as centers for training and testing for ICDL. At Federal levels some initiatives have been considered though (Souzer pp. 300-304). There is also vocational training going on away from the normal education frame work but it is still far from maturity. Some entities in the public and private sectors have started developing ICT trainings within their frame work for employees. Others do out sourcing for this function to institutions that offer training all over the country. Dubai media has already decreed that all journalists should have computer literacy so that they can submit reports in by electronic means (Nasir pp. 136). The challenge is how to identify the needed scarce skills as well as the development of the required programs of training. Development and research efforts in the information and communication sectors are so many in Universities and research centers. Added to these major education institutions are the many universities and colleges in Dubai Knowledge Village. Majority of them are satellite campuses to well known Australian, European and American institutions of education. ‘Dubai Internet City’ has made a cheap strategic platform available to ICT companies that target up coming markets in a wide area ranging from Middle East to India and from the African continent to Central Asia (Nasir pp. 136). The use of the internet in the present society has become an important part of ordinary life. Information technology being an important aspect of the world economy is supposed to receive the highest investments by the governments of all countries. At present the developing world is lagging behind in technology as compared to the developed nations. This imbalance needs to be addressed urgently by the technologically advanced countries so that the information society that is evolving will cover the whole globe. Remote parts of the globe should be encouraged to embrace the use of ICT in all operations for it to be marketable. When many more people adopt the use of the internet in their business systems then it will easily advance in technology from what is there now to more complex technologies (Souzer pp. 300-304). Various governments of countries especially in the developing world should be encouraged to adopt internet technology. From the level of the government it should now be allowed to infuse into education and training institutions. Training in various professions should be done by use of the net so that when the professionals get into practice they will integrate ICT into their jobs and businesses. The adoption of the internet has the capacity to transform economies from poor to wealthy ones just like what we are experiencing in the developed world (Dijk pp.11). Conclusion The vision of the internet was born in the 1960s. Since that time many people have gone into the books of history as contributors to the development of the internet. It has taken many innovative discoveries from the original ARPANET to what is known today as the internet. The knowledge society concept has been in use since the early 60s when it was coined by Fritz Machlup. It is a concept that relates to the discovery of the internet since the internet has facilitated the transfer of information from one part of the world to the other to a great extent (Fitzpatrick pp.100). The ‘information society’ symbolizes the present state of the world in which information has become as abundant as never before. The adoption of the internet in the education system of the UAE is one of its own in the whole of Middle East. Many universities and colleges have adopted the use of the internet in their programs. However the federal government does not have an elaborate strategy for Information Technology in the country. The internet has been received well by governments at the federal level and many training programs have been initiated to further the use of Information and Communication Technology (Garnham pp. 200). For there to be uniformity in the adoption and use of ICT around the globe, the technologically advanced nations need to forge cooperation efforts with the less developed world to achieve the ‘global village’ dream. Global leaders have a responsibility of taking the information Technology idea to the next level. Infrastructural development in the developing countries has to be improved upon to help spread the use of the internet and communication technology around the world (Fitzpatrick pp.100). Works Cited Frank Webster; Theories of the Information Society; London: Routledge, 2002 pp. 230 Manuel Castells; The Rise of the Network Society. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume 1. Malden: Blackwell. Second Edition,2000 pp. 82-85 Nicholas Garnham, Information Society Theory as Ideology; In: Frank Webster (Ed.) The Information Society Reader. London: Routledge.2004 pp 200. Christian Fuchs; Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age. New York: Routledge 2008.pp. 52-55. Jan Van Dijk; The Network Society London: Sage, Second Edition 2006 pp.11 Nasir Sharrif; The United Arab Emirates adventure into Technology for Academic Institutions; London, Routledge pp. 136. Clark, David D. "The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols" Computer Communications Review 18:4, August 1988, pp. 68 Tony Fitzpatrick, Critical Theory, Information Society and Surveillance Technologies In: Information, Communication and Society 2002; pp 100-110. Daniel Bell; The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. New York: Basic Books, 127, 348 1976.pp. 130-135. Ahmed Souzer; The coming of technology in the Arab world; London pp. 300 Read More