Knowledge behind barriers: IT access as an enabler of Cuban development

Abstract

The Cuban economy after the revolution of 1959 had become virtually paralyzed. As most owners and managers of industrial units fled, the operational sustenance of the economy was at risk. Leaders of the Cuban revolution called upon the population to share their knowledge in order to uplift and regenerate a stuttering industrial infrastructure. Half a century later a unique set of circumstances have turned the vast majority of the Cuban workforce into an Internet illiterate population. In such circumstances any call for a second wave of knowledge sharing, application and reuse for the strengthening of the fragile economy of the country is not likely to receive the same response as 50 years ago. There are, however, reasons to believe that benefits of information technologies (IT) will be embraced by Cubans as they become available. This represents an opportunity for Cuba and the world. This paper explores how the principles of IT driven knowledge sharing and reuse can contribute to Cuban development.

Keywords:

• IT and the emergence of the knowledge society
• international ICT dialogues and discourses: implications for developed and transition economies
• adoption and diffusion of IT and rate of uptake

Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the contribution made by Dr Amit Mitra to the ideas leading to early versions of this paper.