Value of the Internet (15)
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Source: AFRIK-IT@LISTSERV.HEA.IE
Greetings!
[...]
Fred Bukachi writes from Nairobi:
Needs that threaten survival have to be addressed first;
Agreed. And those who work in the medical profession are well placed
to determine whether the need for e-mail access or the need for a
sterilizer is greatest when patient survival is at issue.
We could value these "inputs" to medical care (or anything else, e.g.
agric. extension) sequentially, or use a different method.
Sequential or linear thinking might lead to this problem: A ster-
ilizer is of little use if knowledge is lacking in how to use it
properly. The Internet might provide that knowledge to a rural
clinic, for example, thereby enhancing the value of the sterilizer.
So a sterilizer might be valued singly at 2, the Internet at 1, but
together their joint value is 10 for a particular rural clinic. Add-
ing the Internet to a sterilizer would be worth 8, while the Internet
alone would be worth only 1.
(An integrated or systems or holistic way of looking at the problem,
my pocket paradigm...)
Cheers!
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