Digital Access to Knowledge without Internet
In Africa higher education encounters specific difficulties, namely the access to scientific knowledge be it in the form of printed material, books or journals. Good internet access is often limited to the capital and a few other urban centres and their institutions. University libraries are often insufficient, other public libraries are either non-existent or not up-to-date. The real costs of libraries are much higher than in industrialised countries with functional logistic chains.
So a revolution that is as least as important as the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg for the spread of knowledge, namely the digitisation of text, is not yet acknowledged in all its potential.
Even researchers and teaching staff have difficulties in accessing books, scientific journals, etc. Many have organised private informal networks to provide themselves with the necessary materials. These are costly and time-consuming to run.
The weak logistic chains make it very difficult to obtain books and other material from the global markets. So the digital divide is fairly serious. Numbers about internet access are to be treated with care, many users may have sporadic, weak and slow access which does not provide workable solutions.
This general shared idea that access to information is constrained through access to the internet is however no longer valid. Some movements that grow on the net and strive to make (scientific) information accessible to all, such as the open access movement, are still internet based, while others, such as the Wikipedia movement have made efforts to provide free access for everybody, even without internet access.
The rapid advance of several technologies has created a new potential for access to information, scientific and other, in geographical areas without reliable internet or electrical grids.
First, the digitisation of information, a necessary step for providing this type of content over the internet and for computers, etc., allows nearly free access to information (books and journals, etc.) even without libraries or internet, with a cost reduction by more than a factor of 1.000. The non-proprietary approach of much content, be that legal, like in the Wikipedia, etc. or in a legal grey zone (google books, etc.) can exclude costs nearly completely. The world wide open access movement will increase the share of freely accessible scientific material even further.
The reduction in space and weight is even more stunning and can reach a factor of 1.000.000. A library of 50.000 books fits easily onto a micro-sd-card or on a pen drive. Second, the specific characteristics of digitized material provide the user with additional advantages over classical libraries. The available search functions greatly reduce cost and time to locate and access relevant information.
Third, the combined rapid technical innovation in the area of the end user technology has cut costs in an impressive way. The nearly generalised access to smartphones, tablets or computers permits the storage and access to the digitised information.
Fourth, the innovation in solar technology provides near cost-free energy off-grid.
Fifth, the establishment of internet access points in all countries allows for the crucial links to provide the internet-based content for non-internet linked users that in many countries still vastly outnumber the internet users.
The digital libraries can be consulted by everyone with the end user technology, at any time, at any place, with no cost. The combination of these technological advances allows us to rethink the information revolution as well as the role it may play in higher education, and the role higher institutions may play in this new possibilities for providing and sharing information not just for the staff and students, but for the population in general. While the need for classical libraries can and should not be denied, the digitisation of information allow for nearly cost-free access for which no maintenance of libraries is required, and neither space nor personnel has to be increased.
To give just a few examples:
Full or partial university course materials, can be distributed in digitised form through the internet or through digital media where internet is not available. Digital libraries in the form of pendrives or sd-cards can be distributed through established channels, from professors to students, between students, through direct contact or through institutions, high schools, and so on.
African universities gain new opportunities of interacting with societies by providing structured and referenced quality information for the interested public, bridging the digital divide, broadening their recruitment base and provide information access for and beyond their student base. As a simple example: universities which admit students through exams could distribute the study material widely to potential candidates and thus increase interest in their courses while providing their potential customers with a solid base for their studies.
To provide a short and very incomplete list with material that can be distributed off-line:
- Libraries, produced in different areas of knowledge;
- Reference works (Wikipedia, etc.);
- Maps;
- Handbooks and manuals;
- Course material for specific university courses;
- Course material for specific professional courses;
The free distribution of scientific material in digitised form at first glance seems to contradict the proprietary model of most institutions of higher learning that allow access to their knowledge only through admission of students and against fees. There can be no doubt, however, that free access to information will be the future, be it online or offline.
The question is, if the business model of institutions of higher learning will still be adequate when scientific information flows freely. The reduction of their model to certification by providing diplomas to future elites is not only questionable in itself, it is also a game most universities have already lost through the branding exercises of the select few universities that dominate the global market and have forced all competitors into the same race they can only lose, through rankings and other mechanisms. In this winner-takes-all race, most African and many other universities have no chance to succeed.
Should the universities not instead try to concentrate on training the elites for their countries and provide the conditions for people to acquire knowledge and to form the personalities their countries and humanity need – just as Plato had in mind, when he founded the academy from which we all still derive our name?