Oliver Bell’s weblog

As I travel around Asia the term “Creative Economy” is one that comes up more and more frequently, it is a concept that has been around for a while but only recently seems to have earned a place in discussions around information and communication technology here in the region.

The concept of the Creative Economy is a straight forward enough one, the Wikipedia article I have linked above describes the concept as;

The phrase Creative Industries (or sometimes Creative Economy) refers to a set of interlocking industry sectors, and are often cited as being a growing part of the global economy. The creative industries are often defined as those that focus on creating and exploiting intellectual property products; such as Music, books, film, and games, or providing business-to-business creative services such as Advertising, Public Relations and Direct Marketing.

This definition is a very western one and clearly applies well to industry sectors you would expect to find a clear focus around in Europe and North America. In conventional terms it is, of course, also applicable to Asia but when I hear it used here there is also a more relevant local meaning.

One of the challenges that many of the emergent economies appear to share at the moment is around finding ways to protect and capitalize on their traditional industries, including handicrafts, artistry, performance and so on. Many of these traditional industries can be quickly copied and mass produced elsewhere, an ongoing risk for local businesses and livelihoods.

As a result discussions often revolve around how countries in the region might protect both the ownership and integrity of these traditional industries while at the same time planning for the future. In many cases this involves looking at the policy that is needed to help these traditional industries thrive and grow, and the legal framework that has evolve to protect them.

We are left with the question “What has all this got to do with Information and Communication Technology?”

An interesting point of evolution. A common theme appears to be that the work that many countries are undertaking today to build their Creative Economies is being done with the goal of laying the foundations for the development of new industries including ICT.

A strong understanding of the countries business structures, protection of intellectual property, mentorship and solid investment frameworks all helping protect the existing industries that are important today, and prepare countries for the industries that they want to build for tomorrow.

The principal here is pretty straight forward, beginning with a framework that supports the growth of existing industries in the region makes a lot more sense than trying to create a framework for an industrial sector, such as ICT, that represents future as apposed to current growth. At the same time legal and policy frameworks being built today are already taking future needs into account and preparing countries for the exciting future ahead…

Several news organizations are reporting that the One Laptop Per Child project and Microsoft have reached an agreement to offer Windows XP as an option for countries choosing the OLPC platform for the classroom.

Fortune Magazine’s online site for example;

Making Windows available on the XO could make it far more palatable for developing-world governments to make the huge investment necessary to purchase large numbers of XOs for their children. “It’s a very big deal,” said OLPC chairman Nicholas Negroponte in an interview.

He has for three years unsuccessfully attempted to get governments to buy the laptop in lots of a million or more. Governments have so far put in firm orders for a total of 600,000 machines, and several hundred thousand are now in use. The greatest number is in Peru, followed by Uruguay, Mexico, with fewer in Rwanda, Cambodia, Mongolia and Haiti, among other countries.

Stephen McGibbon has linked a video demonstrating XP running on the XO, using a number of the unique features of the device, and performing well.

Here Bohdan Raciborski from Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group demos Windows and Office running on the XO, and mentions that performance seems reasonable - starting in a quarter of the time the original OS did. Bohdan also shows the electronic book mode.

And James Utzschnider has more details on his blog;

Following the Gates meeting and a series of conversations with Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, Microsoft made a key concession. It will enable what’s called a “dual boot,” which means Windows will work alongside the XO’s original Linux operating system. Users will be able to choose which one to use. That required a big change in Microsoft’s approach, given its longstanding aversion of open source.

From my own conversations with government folks around the region here in Asia, I think that overall this will be a welcome addition to the project, offering more choice to users of the device as they learn about the technology and use the device for education in the classroom.

As an industry we have a lot more work to do to close the aptly named Digital Divide, some great work has taken place around a number of under served groups, but we need to work out how we help all areas of society in all parts of the world get access to the technology that they need to live their lives, compete for business, to learn and to grow.

The Digital Divide has been a focus of many projects over the last two decades, looking at broadband connectivity to rural areas, access to information for disenfranchised individuals and more recently projects such as the “One Laptop per Child” (OLPC) project which has been looking at the provision of hardware for educational purposes.

Microsoft has done a lot of work in this area as well, examples such as Windows Starter Edition which provides a low cost version of Windows for those who need it, or the Local Language Program, a project that works with local communities to localize our products into many more languages than we would ever reach on a regular commercial basis.

Finally the Digital Divide is a huge area of focus for the NGOs here in the region, many of whom are administering projects to provide technology to individuals or establishing funding programs that allow individuals to provide their own access to technology that most of us take for granted.

In many of these instances the divide is defined around the individual, and very often that definition is carried in terms of the developing world and the access to technology that individuals have a right to, enabling them to learn, work, play and live in the same way as those living in any other part of the world.

I’m of the opinion that in the world that we live in today we should be thinking about the scope of this definition and considering that there are several areas where we should expand that scope. It is a given that every one of the 6bn individuals around the globe have a right to the same level and type of information, but there are several ways of delivering on this vision.

There is no question that we need to continue the push everything thta is currently underway around the individual, but we can do more.

Thinking beyond the individual we should also be looking at solutions to the problems faced by emerging companies, established companies, city administrations, government agencies and even entire national governments.

The examples here are common to the current scenarios that we work with today, but need to be expanded to think about this issue in new ways, providing creative new solutions.

As a child the technology coupled with improved teaching techniques help you learn faster, and in parallel with other students elsewhere in the world.

As an emerging business you need access to the same information, along with management and logistical technology as other businesses elsewhere in the world. Companies and commerce are just as reliant on the availability of broadband, and access to the Internet as individuals.

As a government, at city, state or federal level, access to technology helps run a more efficient administration, using new technologies to reach citizens, integrate with your local businesses and communicate with other parts of your own government.

As we race towards 2010 we need to see more projects addressing the whole of society at all levels, we need to provide connectivity, transactional capability, common training and user education to any part of society that needs it regardless of the demographic of the area in question.

Access to many aspects of technology today is seen as a mediating factor, enabling financial growth, education, healthcare and general human well being.

As an industry and as a society we need to be ready to provide these same opportunities to all of the 6bn people on the planet. Explanation of the definition of the Digital Divide will push us to think about how one European city competes with another European city, how a business in Thailand competes with a business in New Zealand, how a city in the United States provides the same standard of living, education and healthcare to its citizens as any other city on the continent.

We can’t rest here, we have work to do.