An interesting possibility: information tech expands and 'centers' in third-world/developing countries, since (1) they need to skip industrial techs to catch up to N.America, Europe, etc. (2) they aren't bogged down in older ways of doing business, communicating, etc. (3) 'emerging democracies' might embrace crypto tech as a safeguard against Orwellian practices, to use digital authentication to protect from fraud, etc. (4) cheaper costs for rent, wages, etc. [though in many cases exploitavily cheap] may outweigh building an infrastructure from scratch, (5) building an infrastructure from scratch has advantages of building in flexibility towards uses that were not built into older structures in N.Am, Eur., etc. (6) desire for investment (7) desire for skills or tech to drive education etc. in region ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: Edupage Editors <educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu> [..] DEVELOPING NATIONS SEE BRIGHT FUTURE IN SMART CARDS When it comes to full-scale trials of smart card technology, developing countries such as Zambia and Thailand are way ahead of the U.S. The new payment systems are finding greater acceptance in countries where traditional banking practices are not so firmly entrenched. "No one's in a hurry for a new payment system here because our system already works," says a U.S. programmer who designed Zambia's smart card system. "Our country is expanding, and we don't have enough banks and no automated teller machines... The lines are very long," says a spokesman for the Zambian embassy in Washington. And smart cards provide valuable access to other technological advances: "Developing nations are using smart cards to leapfrog the need to build telecommunications infrastructures," says a Visa VP. (Investor's Business Daily 25 Jun 96 A8) [..] Educom Update ... is our twice-a-month electronic summary of organizational news and events. To subscribe, send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe update Charles Revson (if your name is Charles Revson; otherwise, substitute your own name). [..] --- No-frills sig. Befriend my mail filter by sending a message with the subject "send help" Key-ID: 5D3F2E99 1996/04/22 wlkngowl@unix.asb.com (root@magneto) AB1F4831 1993/05/10 Deranged Mutant <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com> Send a message with the subject "send pgp-key" for a copy of my key.