The Digital Divide among the Aboriginal Community in Australia - Article Example

The Dynamic Business Process Development Framework to Bridge the Digital Divide among the Aboriginal Community in Australia ABSTRACT The implementation of information systems in government organizations in Australia with specific reference to the aboriginal community is the major topic under study. This paper proposes a master plan titled Dynamic Business Process Development Network showing the stakeholders and their inter-related activities. The proposed framework includes the development, training and maintenance of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and information systems for local communities specially for the Indigenous community. It also reviews the digital divide that exists between indigenous and non-indigenous sections of the population. There are quite a few studies and reports have been published on this area and the rationale of the study is due to lack of money, remoteness, lack of education, and lack of trained manpower in the Indigenous community. Most of these studies recommend solutions in order to bridge the gap. These include community access centers, social inclusion, improving social capital and software packages that can provide custom solutions. However, unless more and more members of the indigenous community have access to and use the Internet and ICT, the fundamental objective of the government’s information systems implementation on communities will be lost. In order to bridge this gap the proposed framework attempts to enact as the integrated platform for the government organisations and other partners such as NGOs or public/private business sections to implement a dynamic business process model for social or community information development in the Indigenous community. The layout of the paper will be as follows. It will begin with the importance of ICT in governance followed by its impact on the indigenous community of Australia. It will focus on the gaps that exist with regard to its impact on the white population in the country and its indigenous population. It will then provide a Dynamic Business Process Development Framework (DBPD) which will form the backbone of a system where effective implementation of ICT can benefit the indigenous population of the country. It will the provide a separate section on the rationale behind the implementation of the DBPD and will end with a concluding paragraph. The Dynamic Business Process Development Framework to bridge the digital divide among the aboriginal community in Australia: 1.0 Introduction: Availability of data, and the resulting information and knowledge are essential components for any organization to be effective. This is true for any organization whether it is formed for profit or service. Modern day information systems using information technology can be effectively utilized for this purpose if the organization and its management are capable and sincere. Privately owned organizations formed for profit have their own agenda which motivates its management and employees to effectively develop an effective information system. But in the case of government organizations, apart from capability, the elected body has to be sincere and motivated in order to effectively develop information systems that can provide valuable service to different sections of the society. Running a country with diverse cultures and races can be challenging and an effective information system can be invaluable in achieving all round development. The study will focus on government organizations in Australia. It would be pertinent to define what a government organization with regard to the views of a government body in the country. According to The State Records Act 2000, of Western Australia, “government organizations includes tertiary institutions, parliamentary departments, State and local government agencies and corporations, Royal Commissions, the Cabinet and the Executive Council, Ministers of the Crown, Courts and Tribunals” (Henderson 2005). This definition will be taken as representative of such organizations in this paper. 2.0 Literature review: This research proposal is for a study of implementation of information systems in government organizations is Australia. The proposal will focus on the aboriginal population of the country and will focus on the service that the government provides to the Aboriginal community and how it impacts on them. It will also provide recommendations to improve the information systems for such a government organization to service all different cultures as a whole and the Aboriginal community in particular. Any of the government organizations as mentioned in the definition given above deemed as relevant will feature in the study. 3.0 Gaps identified: The rationale behind selecting the aboriginal community is given here. One is that they are the original inhabitants of the country. The second reason is that they are still lagging behind the white and other immigrant population in terms of social and economic development. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, “many of Australia's Indigenous people experience conditions of economic and social disadvantage. There has been recent renewed focus on monitoring progress in reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage, and the ABS is committed to improving the quality and comprehensiveness of data to assist governments to report against such indicator developments” (Australian Bureau of Statistics). This disadvantage is worth studying. The third reason is that the Government is now looking at implementation of information systems to better the social and economic conditions of the community. The overall purpose of this study is the implementation of information systems in government organizations in Australia with particular focus on the indigenous community in the country. The research questions that will be addressed in the study are given below 1. What are the essential factors that are necessary in the implementation of information systems in any organization 2. Do government organizations in Australia make effective use of information systems in their functioning 3. Does the implementation of the information systems in government organizations help in bettering the lives of the aboriginal community in Australia This section will develop and explain a master plan titled Dynamic Business Process Development Network showing the stakeholders and their inter-related activities. They include developing, training and maintain the ICT infrastructure. It also deals with the digital divide that exists between indigenous and non-indigenous population and possible solutions for bridging the gap. 4.0 The Dynamic Business Process Development Framework (DBPDF): Any business process whether it is for profit or not necessarily needs a master plan or framework upon which it should be based. Addressing the problems faced by the aboriginal community and the betterment of their lives should be a fundamental aim of the government. This can be achieved to a large extent by implementing the DBPDF model that is given below DYNAMIC BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK It required comprehensive inclusion of IT and IS and should also address the problem of the digital divide that exists in the country between indigenous and non-indigenous people. The development of the Rural ICT Infrastructure is primarily a task that involves two sets of stakeholders. On the one hand it needs financing and overall support and on the other hand it needs a set of developers. In the former instance (support and finance) the major stakeholders are the federal and state governments along with concerned departments. Other indirect stakeholders are NGOs, aid agencies, finance and donations from philanthropic individuals/organizations. They are treated as indirect as they may not be directly involved in the process and their help is limited to providing finance or giving donations. The concept of social inclusion which will be mentioned later in this paper is also taken to be a part of this set of stakeholders. Finally, the aboriginal organizations and its members in each area will also be active in providing support and if possible collect finance from among themselves. They may not be able to help much in this regard, but any contribution from within the community can help to bring about a sense of belonging and responsibility. They can play an active role in helping to collect donations through appeals, and even through sale and exhibitions of their artifacts and culture. The next primary set involves the developers of the program. They will be primarily software and hardware exports either working for the government or in the private sector. In the latter case, they will have to be paid accordingly and will be much more expensive. But their help is an essential component in the whole process. This set will also need the assistance of government staff working in departments related to tribal affairs. Finally, the end users and beneficiaries, the aboriginals should be brought in to customize the programs as per their requirements. These aboriginals should also be provided IT training (with different skill levels) depending upon individual attitude and aptitude. It can be seen later in this paper that a common program implemented for the country as a whole might not be effective. Both the supporters and developers will also have an interactive relationship with each others. It is estimated that a workable structure will be ready in about six month’s time from inception. The Rural ICT Infrastructure will have the aboriginals as the end beneficiary and primary stakeholders. It will also have the government and its departments, trainers, developers, and community access centers (explained later in the paper) as other stakeholders. All of them will need to interact with the developers because fine tuning and additional requirements maybe required. In a dynamic environment, new ideas and requirements may come up that have to be incorporated in the program. They will also have to interact with the support/finance group in order to communicate additional financial needs and other forms of support. The developers group will also be involved in training the members of the community to understand and make use of the system. Some of them can also be taught to become local trainers. This can solve the problem of non-availability of trainers in remote areas. But a separate training section will be required since the area covered is huge and a lot of people will have to be trained in the above areas. Training will also be provided to government staff involved in the program. For this purpose, the services of the TAFE colleges in the country can be used along with participation from public and private sector agencies. Those from the private sector may have to be compensated at a higher level and this should be used only in case whether TAFE colleges, aboriginal trainers, and government officials are not available. This group of trainers is shown in a separate box because they are only involved in a part of the program, namely training. It should be noted that teaching English language will be a part of the training program. There will also be regular interaction between the training section, the support and finance section and the stakeholders in the Rural ICT Infrastructure. The training is divided according to three skill levels, basic, intermediate, and advanced. Basic level training is provided for making use of the program and will include training to operate a computer and accessing information from the internet. Intermediate training is provided to aboriginals and other staff to provide the basic training mentioned above. Advanced training is provided to select stakeholders (aboriginals and other staff) primarily to deal with repairs and maintenance of software and hardware. This is essential since a lot of training will take place in remote areas where regular technical personnel may not be available. This group will be equipped to deal with software bugs, system enhancement and basic repair of hardware. They will also be responsible for transporting equipment for service in case major repairs are needed. One of the most important components of the DBPDF will be monitoring the whole program. For this purpose, a separate monitoring department will have to be created comprising aboriginals, state and federal government staff, and other community members (voluntary service) belonging to the non-indigenous population. This department will interact with every other single component of the whole program. They will monitor the quality of training, the commitment of the support group, the support provided by the developers and any other matter that is required for the smooth running of the whole program. The two headed arrows that connects the monitoring department with every other component makes this point clear. The Rural ICT Infrastructure and the training will form the foundation for the aim (or target) of the whole program, which is bridging the digital divide and sustainable development of the aboriginal community. But this does not in any way reduce the responsibility or involvement of the other sections. In effect it has to be a committed team effort from all stakeholders in the program to make it viable, effective, and successful. 5.0 Rationale behind the DBPDF: One factor that should be considered in such a study is the concept of digital divide, a situation whereby sections of the population have no or little access to information technology in its various forms. The state of Victoria in Australia has defined this factor as “the lack of access to information and communications technologies by segments of the community. The digital divide is a generic term used to describe this lack of access due to linguistic, economic, educational, social and geographic reasons” (Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee). Another definition is as follows – “The digital divide is therefore defined as the separation between those (individuals, social groups, regions, countries) who use ICTs in an efficiently way and those who do not use them or use them inefficiently” (Brousseau & Curien, 2007, p. 696). A third definition that specifically states four components is given by Fink and Kenny. The four components are non-availability of equipment like telephones and computers, lack of suitable skills and training to make use of available systems, the lack of availability of suitable technology (for example internet access or software) and economic viability of the whole project (Fink & Kenny, 2003, p. 2). Radoll, referring to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) 2001 confirms this observation that there exists a digital divide between indigenous and non-indigenous sections of the population (Radoll, 2006, p. 197). (Home computer use and home internet use by Indigenous status, 2002) As mentioned earlier, income is directly proportionate to IT usage and the lowest earners use it the least. The average income of a non-indigenous Australian is $665 while it is only $394 for indigenous people. This indicates that the usage of IT by aboriginals is also directly related to their earnings. This is also true with regard to education. It is interesting to note that post-Year 11 education brings about a significant change in computer usage especially among the aboriginal population. A publication by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, and Curriculum Corporation states that only about 39% of children move on to year 12 which is crucial to IT usage as mentioned above. (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment and Youth Affairs, 2006, p 4). The report also states that the language spoken by them is Aboriginal English and not Australian English, and they could have problems understanding the content of websites and other published materials. But it is creditable that the government has put in efforts to correct the problem of language and literacy through programs like the National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. The report also claims that many aboriginals are subject to ridicule and racism which could also come in the way of this digital divide. (Australian Government – Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations). According to Daly, this digital divide can be brought down to a large extent through use of community access centers. “These centers provide public multi-terminal access to information and communications technologies including the internet, e-business facilities, fax and photocopy machines, and video-conferencing (Daly, 2005, p. 9). This could be a practical approach since aboriginals may not be in a position to own their own systems and such centers can be a common training and IT usage center for the whole community. This will also bring about more interaction in learning from within the community making it more effective. Notley and Foth, quotes Lloyd and Bill who in 2004 had written that “use of the Internet is rapidly becoming an increasingly common and critical part of commerce, education and social participation. Groups that do not have the opportunity to participate in the services provided by new telecommunications technology will be increasingly disadvantaged socially and economically” (Notley & Foth, 2008, p.3). Notley and Foth also state that the concept of social inclusion originally developed to help underprivileged people in France is now being taken up in Australia also. It has been shown to bring about better cohesion and solidarity among diverse cultures and groups (Smyth, Reddel & Jones, 2005, p. 41). The authors also state that the implementation of the concept is yet to take off seriously in Australia. But some states like South Australia have taken this concept seriously and its implementation can be taken as a model by other states (Hayes, Grey & Edwards, 2008, p.2). The concept of developing better social capital through better communication and IT is also argued by some authors. Putnam, for example states that communities in the United States are becoming isolated within themselves and the quality of social capital in the country is going down drastically (Notley & Foth, 2008, p.14). He states that ICT and the internet have the ability to reach out to different communities irrespective of color, caste or nationality. Hewitson also concurs with other researchers regarding bringing down the digital divide. But the author states that while the reasons for this state of affairs may be common everywhere, the actual implementation of IT should according to the needs of each specific community. In other words, a universal plan that is applied to every setting may not work out. The words he uses are culturally appropriate models. Hewitson who is employed with Cicada, a software solutions firm says that they have developed software called Online Documentary Training (ODT) that can provide solutions to the particular needs of a community. (Hewitson, p.5). Another aspect that needs to be considered is the commercial exploitation of the knowledge wealth and skills of the aboriginal community. It is a matter of concern that aboriginals may never get ownership of their collective knowledge according to Ludlow. Referring to Pamela Anderson, a copyright expert, the author states that “Western countries may legally appropriate the music, designs, and biomedical lore of aboriginal people without compensation to their tribe of origin since that tribe is not an “author or “inventor”” (Ludlow, 1996, p. 22). Coupled with the concept of digital divide, this could be more disadvantageous to the aboriginal community in the country. Unless steps are taken legally to protect this collective knowledge, it might end up being owned as patents or copyrights the more educated individuals or corporations. 6.0 Conclusion: A detailed explanation about the implementation of the Dynamic Business Process Development Framework (DBPDF) has been provided here. The role of the diverse departments or sections, the role of individual stakeholders, and the interaction between all of them have also been discussed. The problem of the digital divide that exists between indigenous and non-indigenous people in the country has also been discussed along with several proposals as a solution to bride the gap. Unless the program effectively provides access to ICT and the internet, the basic purpose behind it will be lost. All these provide a basic rationale for implementing the DBPDF for a sustainable development of the aboriginal community in Australia. References Australian Bureau of Statistics, Themes – Indigenous, ABS, viewed 17 June 2009, < http://www.abs.gov.au/Websitedbs/c311215.nsf/20564c23f3183fdaca25672100813ef1/0179c2b24398e077ca2570a8000945d2!OpenDocument> Australia’s digital divide, Home computer use and home internet use by indigenous status, 2002, Australian National University, Viewed 14 October 2009, Australian Government – Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations, National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (NIELNS), Viewed 14 October 2009, Brousseau, É., & Curien, N. (2007). Internet and digital economics. Cambridge University Press Daly, A.E 2005. Bridging the Digital Divide: The Role of Community Online Access Centres in Indigenous Communities, Australian National University, Provided by student. Fink, C. & Kenny, C.J 2003. W(h)ither the Digital Divide, Viewed 14 October 2009, Hayes, A., Grey, M. & Edwards, B 2008, Social inclusions – Origins, concepts, and key themes, Australian Government, Viewed 14 October 2009, Henderson, Kandy-Jane 2005, ASA Archives & Communities Conference October 6-8, 2005, Presentation: Regulating recordkeeping in Western Australia – The State Records Act 2000 – two perspectives, four years on, viewed 17 June 2009, < http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/pdfs/KJHpaper.pdf> Hewitson, J. A New Model in Online Training for Developing and Indigenous Communities, Cicada.net.au. Provided by student Ludlow, P. (1996). High noon on the electronic frontier. MIT Press Ministerial Council on Education, Employment and Youth Affairs 2005, Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005-2008, Viewed 14 October 2009, Notley, T. & Foth 2008, M. Extending Australia’s digital divide policy: an examination of the value of social inclusion and social capital policy frameworks, Queensland University of Technology, Provided by student Radoll, P. (2006). Assessing the evidence on indigenous socioeconomic outcomes (Hunter Boyd Ed). ANU E Press  Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee – Parliament of Victoria, Digital divide, Viewed 14 October 2009, Read More