CHANGE AND THE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK ENVIRONMENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN TERTIARY SECTOR
Marinus Swanepoel
Library, Technikon Pretoria
Pretoria 0001, Republic of South Africa
E-mail: marinus@libmain.ls.techpta.ac.za
South Africa is undergoing a major transition in economic, political and social life. The information arena has been undergoing major changes at an international level over the last number of decades. These changes include technological innovations and a shift in understanding of the nature of information, and therefore of information work. It is meaningful that the vision of global villages and information highways is not only about extending the geographical scope and speed of information delivery. The information age is also concerned with communicating information to improve the overall quality of life.1. INTRODUCTIONAs far as networks are concerned, it is imperative that Africa should keep up with the current technologies of the world. The major question is what is our vision of the South African communication infrastructure as far as libraries and information centra are concerned. The AT&T Corporation proposed encircling Africa with a 18,000-mile undersea cable that would bring modern overseas communications to every country on the continent.
We should realise that we are living in a changing world and that technological change has complicated our lives as well provided a range of opportunities ready to be grasped.
South Africa is undergoing a major transition in economic, political and social life. The need for the transformation is acknowledged by almost everyone. Living it through will be the most important task in the life of most South Africans.
The information arena has been undergoing major changes at an international level over the last number of decades. These changes include technological innovations and a shift in understanding of the nature of information, and therefore of information work. As a result information has come to assume a far more prominent role in international consciousness. Information technology has been praised for it role in allowing us to soar with thoughts and ideas that were previously trapped by more inhibiting systems and processes (Lee, 1994, p. 2). It can be argued, however, that the modern electronic media is more inhibiting than traditional media.
The vital role of information in decision-making processes is appreciated by most players, ranging from big business, labor and governments to community organizations operating at grassroots. It is increasingly understood that information is a valuable resource that enables people to make informed decisions and to participate more fully in shaping their environments and their futures. Technologically, there has been an uncoordinated effort to improve the flow of information through the participating in the Internet (Lee, 1994, p. 3). The penetration of the Internet in the African continent has however been a frustratingly slow process.
Underlying these developments is the ancient principle that information is a form of power. This conceptualization of information has certain implications. Among these is the shift away from the notion of the neutrality of information towards a view of its role in advancing ideologies, systems and programs. Of further significance is the commer-cialization of information as an attempt to control its free flow. This means nothing other than the fact that brokers sell information for profit. This trend towards commercialization is also prevalent on the Internet where the commercial addresses outnumbered the educational already in 19. It also means that information is censored for political or "moral" reasons to uphold certain systems and beliefs and to ward off others. We need to understand these realities, and to capitalize on the advances in information technology to bring more information to more people more quickly (Lee, 1994:3). This is however a paradox because the same technology has become a barrier to those who do not have access thereto. It can be stated that never before has so much information been withheld from so many, exactly because of the technology barrier.
It is meaningful that the vision of global villages and information highways is not only about extending the geographical scope and speed of information delivery. The information age is also concerned with communicating information to improve the overall quality of life. This raises a dominant argument within the "value of information" paradigm, namely that information is integrally related to development (Lee, 1994, p. 3). For instance, it can be argued that in order for a society to advance, it requires an informed citizenry. This understanding of the link between information and development is further enriched by an integration of the education and information spheres. Internationally, education methodology is embracing the information technology field to promote interactive learning, a trend that is supportive of the move away from teaching.
The profound change that took place in South Africa during the last three to four years was preempted by some in the library and information profession. Examples of such prophecies can be found articles such as: Change, innovation, and renewal in professional work life: the challenge for library and information service (Malan, 1991) and Socio-economic determinants of the future of libraries in South Africa (Shillinglaw, 1990).
These changes in South Africa and the success South Africans have had in handling the change brought home the idea that success is not doing it a little better. Success is managing change better. This consists of two parts: identification of what should be changed, and better management of change itself (Barnes, 1993, p. 16).
All this to show that the arena, library and information workers find themselves in, is a very dynamic one that is prone to change. In dealing with change however we often do not take into consideration the dynamics and essence of change.
2. THE PHENOMENON OF CHANGE
2.1. Continuous Change
In talking to people one comes to realize that many think of life as one continuous line, sloping upwards with luck (Handy, 1990, p. 5). When talking to older people in the corporate environment companies clearly saw the future as largely predictable, to be planned for and managed. Overall, change was viewed as more of the same, only better. That change was incremental and to be welcomed. It is also a fact that change has accelerated. Faster change on it self is quite at home with the:
"More only better school".
It is only when the graph goes off the chart that we need to start to worry. It is then that things get less predictable and less manageable. This is the point where continuous change suddenly becomes discontinuous. Mathematicians call it catastrophe theory: the study of discontinuous curves in observed phenomena where graphs loop back on themselves or go into precipitous falls or unsuspected plateau. That is naturally because trends cannot accelerate forever on a graph without forming a loop.
2.2. Discontinuous Change
Discontinuous change need not be catastrophic (Handy, 1990, p. 7). Fact is that continuous change very well can be catastrophic. For example if one would put a frog in cold water and slowly heat it (it will amount to continuous change from the frog's point of view), the frog will allow itself to be boiled alive. On the other hand if one were to drop the frog in very hot or boiling water (that will be discontinuous change from the frog's perspective) it will surely at least try to escape.
In a world of incremental change it is sensible to take over where your predecessor has left off. However, under conditions of discontinuity it may not be the sensible thing to do. The problem is that discontinuity is often very difficult to recognize. At what point did the frog's situation became discontinuous? At 50 C? Or 70 C or at 100 C, when the water started to boil? If discontinuity is perceived or assumed and acted upon, the consequent behavior is often viewed as disrespectful or even rebellious because it would threaten the authority of the holders of knowledge. That is because we are taught in school that others already know what we need to learn. The challenge is that discontinuous change needs discontinuous thinking. If the new way of things is going to be different from the old, not just an improvement on it, then we shall need to look at everything in a new way. Naturally, discontinuous upside-down thinking has never been popular with the upholders of continuity and the status quo. Copernicus and Galileo, arch-exponents of upside-down thinking, were not thanked for their pains.
2.3. Factors Conducive to Change
This is a responsible selfishness. Those who learn best and most, and change most comfortably, are those who
(a) take responsibility for themselves and for their future,
(b) have a clear view of what they want that future to be,
(c) want to make sure that they get it, and
(d) believe that they can.
It looks easy. It seldom is. Taking a view of one's future requires, first, that one believe that there will be a future. The question is: what sort of future would we like it to be, for us? Sensibly, selfishly, it should fit our talents and our abilities.
• A way of re-framing (Handy, 1990, p. 52)
The second of the lubricants or necessary conditions is particularly useful in the second stage of the wheel of learning. Re-framing is the ability to see things, problems, situations or people in other ways, to look at them sideways, or upside down; to put them in another perspective or another context, to think of them as opportunities not problems, as hiccups rather than disasters.
Business, at their best, re-frame all the time, rethinking what they now call their portfolios of mini-businesses, redefining those businesses, and their markets, checking to make sure that there are as many growing businesses as declining ones. Individuals need to do the same, looking at their portfolios of talents, recognizing that what might be a disadvantage in one situation could be an asset in another.
• A negative capability ( Handy, 1990, p. 54)
Keats defined "negative capability" in his letters in 1817, as "when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries and doubts". I would extent the meaning to include the capability to live with mistakes and failures without being downhearted or dismayed. Learning and changing are never clear and never sure. Whenever we change, we step out into the unknown a little more.
Entrepreneurs, the successful ones, have on average nine failures for every success. One will hear about only the successes, the failures they credit to experience.
Too many delegate their futures and their questions to some mysterious "they". "They will set the syllabus for life" just as "they" set the syllabus for our courses at school. "They" know what is best, "they" must know what they are doing. "They" are in charge, leave it to "them". The phrases and excuses are endless. One of the strange things about growing older is the gradual realization that "they" don't know, that the Treasury is not all-wise, that "they" are on the whole just like you, muddling through, and not very interested in you anyway.
• Futility/humility (Handy, 1990, p. 57)
Learning starts with a belief in oneself. It is for all of us a fragile belief, easily shattered. One can easily work out why it is that the unemployed or the newly redundant have little urge or energy to turn that wheel of learning. All they want is to turn the clock back, and to have the same job again.
Self-doubters often fear success. Success puts more pressure on them to take more responsibility for even more action. Failure for some is easier to handle, particularly if one plan for it.
• The theft of purpose (Handy, 1990, p. 59)
Proper, responsible selfishness, involves a purpose and a goal. It is that goal that pulls out the energy to move the wheel. Diminish that goal, displace it or, worst of all, disallow it and one remove all incentive to learn or to change. Proper selfishness, however, recognizes that the goal needs to be turned to the goals of the group, or of the organization, or society, and being in line with our own needs and our own talents. Only improper selfishness sets goals at odds with the bits of humanity that matter to oneself.
• The missing forgiveness (Handy, 1990, p. 60)
Too many organizations use their appraisal schemes and their confidential files to record our errors and our small disasters. They use them to chastise us with, hoping to inspire us, or to frighten us to do better. It might work once but in future we will make sure that we do not venture far enough from the beaten track to make any mistake. Yet no experiment, no test of new ideas, means no learning and no change. As in organizations, so it can be in families. More difficult than forgiving others is to forgive oneself. That turns out to be one of the real blocks to change. We as individuals need to accept our past but then to turn our backs on it. Organizations often do it by changing their name.
The discrepancies and paradoxes of real life make for some interesting reading, the discrepancies, as far as management is concerned, are especially interesting (Institute for Future Research, 1992, p. 96):
PRACTICED: Do not try to recruit minorities but give those that apply equal treatment.
PREACHED: Diversity through product innovation.
PRACTICED: Diversity through product imitation or acquisition.
PREACHED: Strategic planning with a five-year horizon.
PRACTICED: Crisis management.
PREACHED: Keep the operation up-to-date and in mint condition.
PRACTICED: Maintain and replace equipment only when absolutely necessary.
To maintain a product of good quality it is essential that the parameters should remain the same. Unchanging uniformity is the key. Still the organization has to change, if it does not change the chances if its survival is slim.
Thus if the organization change, it is in trouble and if it does not change it is also in trouble.
As far as networks are concerned, it is imperative
that Africa should keep up with the current technologies of the world.
Already it has fallen behind, in 1994 Africa north of the Limpopo made
use largely of Fidonet for e-mail transmission (Levey, 1994, p. 8), an
unsophisticated technology in comparison with modern Internet e-mail facilities.
Clearly, change is needed in the African connectivity and that it should
keep up customer demand as Africa becomes ever more part of the international
information network.
4. THE GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
FROM A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE.
At the 7th NIT Conference held in Alexandria, VA, USA during November 1994, delegates from different countries were requested to provide information about how their different countries view the global information infrastructure and what their requirements are. In preparation I did a small survey among colleagues and come up with the following result (Swanepoel, 1994, p. 5):
1. Provision of an infrastructure, e.g. power, telephone lines, satellites.
2. In the first instance provide access to bulletin boards and E-mail.
3. We require an affordable infrastructure.
4. Infrastructures should be standardized, both internally and externally, i.e. it should comply with ISO standards.
5. Our needs are dichotomous - on the one hand we need fast, efficient first world infrastructures with computers and super highways, on the other we need basic information channels like the radio powered with batteries or solar power (first and third worlds).
6. We need infrastructures that are easy to maintain and infrastructures that require a minimum of training.
7. The infrastructure should be flexible and adaptable to changing needs and increased sophisticated needs.
8. INTERNET should be expanded to include all major libraries.
9. Libraries should allow smaller libraries in their communities to have access to INTERNET via them (i.e. by means of LANS)."
The question of how to establish such an infrastructure was also looked into and the following suggestions/prerequisites come to the fore:
2. Existing infrastructure must be used as a starting point and expanded because of a lack of funds
3. Funding is a problem - the private sector must also be approached
4. There is a long-standing lack of coordination and cooperation between the many different institutions concerned with the provision of library services in South Africa. This situation will have to be rectified.
5. The existing mutual mistrust must disappear to allow people to cooperate more easily.
5. THE STATUS OF SOUTH AFRICA'S NETWORK FOR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS
The tertiary sector in South Africa is reasonably well provided with Internet connectivity by means of Uninet. Uninet started in 1987 as a result of joint action by the computer and network subcommittees of the Committee of University Principals (CUP) and the FRD. By agreement, the FRD was requested to undertake the development and management of the network. For this purpose, it operates the Uninet Office that gets collaborative support from staff, both academic and technical, at several participating organizations (Foundation for Research Development).
The Uninet network is fully accepted as part of the worldwide Internet. It operates to the standards of the Internet. Uninet is linked to the USA via a one Mb/s circuit, and has local interconnections to all of the commercial IP networks in South Africa (Foundation for Research Development).
The Uninet academic and research network is a collaborative project among South African tertiary institutions, research councils and the FRD. Uninet's aim is the development, implementation and promotion of an academic and research network of computers in southern Africa, where it is needed as an essential link in the region's infrastructure.
The objectives of Uninet are:
2. To provide access to the Internet for every scholar in South Africa.
3. To help neighboring countries to link their academics, researchers and students to the Internet.
4. To encourage the development in South Africa of
people that are fully competent in the use of international computer networks
(Foundation for Research Develop-ment).
2. File Transfer. Participating institutions are encouraged to arrange to mirror the FTP archives of the Internet, to reduce the load on the international circuit.
3. Remote Log-in, via Telnet and TN3270.
4. World-Wide Web Access, allowing both access to international sites and the sharing of South African information on an international scale.
In order to be part of Uninet, it is a prerequisite for an institution to have the resources to manage its own internal network. This network must run the TCP/IP protocols, and must meet the standards of the Internet. Uninet provides an IP router that connects to the institution's network. Uninet also contracts with the necessary parties to have the data communication circuits installed. It also takes care of what is needed to allow the IP data packets to be routed across Uninet and across the Internet (Foundation for Research Development).
However, not all tertiary institutions make use of Uninet. Others like the Port Elizabeth Technikon find it more convenient to use commercial service providers. Even so, the fact is that South Africa can provide in its own connectivity needs. The challenge would be to provide in that of Africa.
6. THE VISION
The Association of Research Libraries has a clear vision of what its future must look like and the future of that of its members: "By the beginning of the 21st century, ARL libraries will have made significant progress towards building a seamless web of interconnected, coordinated, and interdependent research collections that are electronically accessible to geographically distributed users. ARL libraries will play central roles as both providers of global research materials as well as access points for users to these resources that will be increasingly in electronic form. Through shared planning and action, the libraries will broaden the breadth and coverage of global information resources in North American research libraries and serve as electronic gateways for ubiquitous access to these information resources." (Association of Research Libraries, 1994, p. 2)
The question is what is our vision of the South African communication infrastructure as far as libraries and information center are concerned. In one of its objectives Uninet states that it wants to: "...provide access to the Internet for every scholar in South Africa." This has the makings of an excellent vision statement, especially if it is extended to Africa and not South Africa.
An article published in The Washington Post (26 April 1994) provides food for thought in this regard:
More good news for an information starved African population is that African countries are planning a regional satellite communications system in partnership with the Washington-based Intelsat consortium. Global satellite systems such as Motorola's Iridium and one backed by chief executives Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation and Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. is aimed in part at Africa (Burgess, 1996).
One of AT&T's Atlantic cables now can carry 80,000 simultaneous conversations as bursts of light. The capacity can be used for fax, data and video transmissions. To date, fibre has been laid along heavily traveled routes of communications. Countries on the African continent that generates relatively little phone traffic continue to use satellite communi-cations. AT&T proposes to reverse that order - to build fiber-optic links to low traffic locales, on the expectation that they will generate traffic and general economic growth. "What they really need to do is connect to the global marketplace," said William B. Carter, president of AT&T Submarine Systems IC (Burgess, 1996).
Coastal African countries would be able to hook up to the cable offshore. Countries in the interior could tap it through the planned satellite system or microwave links. The cable would be laid under water but at the Suez Canal. There it would travel overland rather than go in the narrow waterway (Burgess, 1996).
8. CONCLUSION
While realizing that we are living in a changing world and that technological change, also as far as network technology are concerned, complicate our lives as well provides a range of opportunities to grasped.
To make the most of the changing situation the following characteristics of change must to be kept in mind:
• The cumulative and interactive effect of change precludes the prediction of a long-term future
• Change are open to influence by people, therefore it is possible to produce a future.
• The ability to cause change and produce a desired future is highly dependent on perspectives, perceptions, leadership and (organizational) culture.
REFERENCES
Association of Research Libraries. (1994). Strategic Plan for Improving Access to Global Information Resources in US and Canadian Research Libraries. (Unpublished draft).
Barnes, Martin. (1993). The way to get ahead. Professional Manager, (2): 16-18.
Burgess, John. (1996, April 26). AT&T Asks Fiber-Optics For Africa: Network would link hard-to-reach regions. The Washington Post. (LEGI-SLATE Article No. 203044).
Foundation for Research Development. (1996). http://www.frd.ac.za/
Handy, Charles. (1990). The Age of Unreason. London: Arrow Books.
Institute for Future Research. (1992). Measuring and making the future/Meet en skep die toekoms. Unpublished notes.
Lee, Robin. (1994). Library and information Services as part of South Africa's transition to democracy. Unpublished keynote address to the Annual Conference of the South African Institute of Library and Information Science, Kempton Park.
Levey, Lisbeth. (1994). Acute or chronic? Scientific information in African research libraries: ailments and remedies. Paper delivered at the 7th NIT Conference, 18-20 November, 1994, Alexandria, VA, USA. In Planning Global Information Infrastructure, ed. Ching-chih Chen. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1995. pp. 299-310.
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Shillinglaw, N. (1990). Socio-economic determinants of the future of libraries in South Africa. South African Journal for Library and Information Science, 58 (1): 108-117.
Swanepoel, M. (1994). Getting in from the cold: Connecting
the new democratic South Africa to the global information community. Paper
delivered at the 7th NIT conference, 18 - 20 November, 1994, Alexandria,
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