Networked Society

People & Organizations Online | Locally Relevant Content | ICTs in Everyday Life | ICTs in the Workplace | Recommendations for the Further Development of Costa Rica’s Networked Society | Appendix C

Judging by the Framework Costa Rica currently appears to have achieved a Stage Three level of “Networked Society.” Despite its interference with private telecom development the central government’s role in analyzing, directing, and fostering the spread of ICT use throughout Costa Rica’s various societal enclaves appears to have been a success. While more widespread adoption of ICT technologies has not occurred due to the nation’s overall rural displacement and modest economic means, the research and recommendations of the Costa Rican High-Tech Advisory Committee (CAATEC) has addressed change vis-à-vie a few main societal drivers. These proposals were included in the recent work Costa Rica: Towards the Knowledge-Based Economy (2002) which reflects on the need to enhance the countries overall access, training, and orientation to ICTs. From these recommendations, Costa Rica should recognize many additional benefits of a networked society “In societies-at-large, ICTs can have a profound effect upon people’s professional and personal lives by providing easier access to information, more efficient ways to communicate and powerful organizational tools” (Information Technologies Group 7).

People and Organizations Online

Personal and household access of the Internet is on the rise in Costa Rica, but has not approached levels near those of a first-tier ICT society (see Appendix C-1). As originally reported in CAATEC’s year 2000 survey “…only 3.4% of [households] has this service…” (Monge xli). In 2002, on-line households rose to 5.6% (Monge xli), with access inordinately skewed to youth; at least once in a lifetime access is true for 84% of the countries youth, while only 23% true for adults (Monge 215). Here, youth is defined as eighteen years or younger. This development has not occurred by mistake as the Costa Rican government has been very proactive in the development of IT curriculum in its primary and secondary school systems “Costa Rica [has] established comprehensive programs for general education on and using information technology. The presence of such programs, along with indicators like school attendance and completion rates, and literacy rate, predicts Internet success” (Press 8). This process of education portends high future utilization of the Internet and the potential for more equalized access as compared to other Western societies “Users who are aware of the Internet and its applications are particularly important because they drive demand. User education and awareness are stimulated by general news and education as well as policies focused on information technology” (Press 8). The policies of fixing access in these educational settings may have strongly influenced recent survey results about household Internet access. A March 2003 poll conducted by CID-Gallup and posted by RACSA (the division of Costa Rica’s telecommunication monopoly in charge of Internet access) suggests that Internet penetration may have reached 22% of households (RACSA). If this polling represents a true sample set, it would suggest that the efforts of ICT education have begun to work their way into the broader societal fabric.

Domain registration in Costa Rica lags other ICT rich societies, but it is not non-existent comprising about a 1% coverage to the total population (Network Information Center). As with all other telecommunications functions domain registration is transacted through a Costa Rican government agency, in this case, the Network Information Center or NIC. NIC recently published fourth quarter 2002 statistics showing the number of .cr domains totaling 3,944 (Network Information Center, see also Appendix C-3 for the stratification of domains by organizational type). Another, but more difficult development to document, is the use of non-domestic domains by Costa Rican businesses, interest groups, and individuals. This migration has occurred due to several factors including the prestige of .com or .net extensions, the inefficiency of NIC in registering interest parties, and the potential for generating more traffic if content is hosted by a large portal provider such as Yahoo! or Lycos. Whatever the case, there are a number of Web-sites that provide for information about Costa Rica, its social life, business presence, and interests that are hosted in the United States and use the .com/.net extensions. Examples include Teletica, The Costa Rican Outpost, and The Costa Rican Tourism Board. These sites show that important content including media, commerce, and tourism information, emanate from .com domains.

Similar to the limited number of .cr domains traditional Costa Rican media provides a limited number of direct references to the Web-sites of domestic companies. As an example, from the on-line version of one of Costa Rica’s leading newspapers La Nacion S.A., a user can find references to a small number of sites hosted by domestic businesses. As suggested in trends analyzed earlier, these sites often end-up with .com locators. References in traditional media to business-to-consumer sites are overwhelmingly of the US-based variety including the likes of Amazon, GAP, Barnes & Noble, etc. This suggests that the strong influence and efficiency of US B-to-C purveyors has to date crowded out Costa Rican companies who might sell like goods online. For an example, see the .cr content site: http://www.terra.co.cr/compras/. Here, despite the sites use of a .cr domain, the aforementioned online sellers occupy prominent ad placement positions.

Locally Relevant Content

From the Costa Rican Government’s perspective the lack of local content is apparent and problematic: “…there are not enough Internet Content Providers (ICPs) in Costa Rica…In fact, most Internet content is in English and it is developed by ICPs in English-speaking countries.” (Monge xli) Here, the author, who chairs CAATEC, may simply be missing the relevance of offshore domains that ultimately provide for local content. As an example, youth are often attracted to http://www.terra.co.cr/gentetica/ a site devoted to local social happenings. For a user to access this site, they would need to pass through the portal of US-based Terra networks (Lycos). This issue is more thoroughly discussed above, but its results may have raised the ire of officials for nationalistic reasons. In addition, the use of globally prevalent languages (Spanish and English) may have also inadvertently promoted a delay in the development of local content.

As content providers, government agencies in Costa Rica are more visible than their business counterparts: 86% of all government institutions sponsor a Web-site (Monge 226), where only 4% of small and medium enterprises host sites (Monge 188). Currently, small and medium sized enterprises represent 95% of all businesses in Costa Rica (Monge 178). The large businesses of Costa Rica including banks in particular have a strong Web presence and lend themselves to broad information about accounts, services, and locations. The availability of training and telecenters around the country almost creates a secondary usernet group itself “…there are fifty-two telecenters already operating, and 120,000 e-mail users. The Omar Dengo Foundation is charged with preparing teaching materials and training plans to create a national culture for using ICTs” (Monge 224). This effort will most likely produce positive long-term results in the form of greater use of the Internet and the authorship of deeper Internet content. The development of telecommunication services and infrastructure should also draw additional content interest and provision, as increased bandwidth will help to overcome current page load limitations.

ICTs in Everyday Life

ICT use in daily life is strong and growing in Costa Rica. Here, though an assumed slow approach, the Costa Rican telecommunications authority (ICE) has made progress with developing the number of fixed- line phones throughout the country. The statistics show that “…the number of phones per 100 inhabitants having risen approximately 45% between 1996 and the first weeks of 2002” (Monge 27). In addition, use of ICTs in everyday life is evidenced by the spread of cellular phone use (see Appendix C-4 for year 1996 – 2002 growth of fixed line and cellular phones). This development clearly shows telecommunications superiority when comparing Costa Rica to its neighbors and draws conclusions about the ability of the country to continue with its trend towards greater Internet use “In comparative terms, Costa Rica had the highest penetration of fixed-line telephony in Central America in 1999, along with Argentina, Chile, and Brazil…” (Monge 27). This adds to other positive factors when considering Costa Rica’s ICT preparedness and competitive advantage.

Telecenters throughout the country fill-in many of the gaps for those who cannot afford individual ICT access. This development has been achieved by a willful decision of the Costa Rican government in creating the Communications Without Borders Program. This program is described as “…a national project to promote access to and use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) by Costa Rican citizens, regardless of their social status and geographic location; it also seeks to strengthen a national culture for the use of electronic mail and the Internet as tools to support democracy, accountability and social administration.” (Monge 223) Fixed-line access combined with the support of telecenters and cell-phone usage suggests that a 65.5% level of penetration for phone service has been achieved (Monge 209). Despite this achievement, a bureaucratic state model deters some high-tech foreign interests who might otherwise find Costa Rica as an ideal offshore base “Companies frequently cite as a negative factor the difficulties of working with the slow and legalistic government bureaucracy and regulatory agencies. …Some companies cite problems with the cost and quality of telecommunications services provided by the state telecommunications monopoly (ICE)” (United States Commercial Service Economic Trends and Outlooks 2, 3). As an example, the queue for cell phone service shows ICE’s inability to meet user demand and its deterrent effect on more widespread ICT usage “A one-year or longer waiting list for cellular telephone connection is indicate of the public sector’s inability to keep pace with the demand for new technology in the telecommunications sector” (United States Commercial Service Economic Trends and Outlooks 5). These issues will need to be resolved in order for broader ICT usage to become apparent. Finally, other venues are utilized for the ICT access. Amongst others these include Internet cafes, work, and schools (as an example of places for receipt/transmission of email see Appendix C-2).

ICTs in the Workplace

As described previously, the Costa Rican business community is highly defined by what is known as the Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSME). The employers of less than 100 account for 95% of the private businesses in the country (Monge 178). Obviously, following their development and use of ICTs is particularly important in determining the overall preparedness of the workplace. Here, the record points to a low overall penetration of computer use and Internet access/content. The most basic platform for business communications –the fixed-line phone—is high at 91.8% (Monge 187), but from here the modernity of the business place is less apparent. In fact, it is reported that 59.7% of MSME businesses do not employ the use of computers in their work process (Monge 186). Furthermore, access to the Internet and email is counted quite low with 70.4% of the same group claiming no access or use (Monge 187). Finally, only 4.7% claim to have made available a company Web-site (Monge 188). Businesses that maintain computer infrastructure are doing so for the purposes of creating electronic documents, accounting/record keeping, and Internet access with some limited forms of electronic commerce. Most business-to-business transactions are held to some form of electronic banking, with only about 10% of businesses utilizing bank access by wire (Monge 191). Incidents of more advanced distributive systems/software such as client-server networks, Enterprise Resource Planning software, and Intranets is less common. Large multinational corporations who have relocated facilities to Costa Rica have internal infrastructure far in advance of those considered in the MSME sample. These businesses are most likely to be in the electronics, medical device, or service industries and borrow heavily from infrastructure setup in other countries where their parent firms are located. Overall, between the MSME and the satellite operations of much larger corporations the country exhibits between Stage Two and Stage Three ICT readiness.

Recommendations for the Further Development of Costa Rica’s Networked Society

One can anticipate that the main societal drivers for any one country include its families, schools, churches, businesses, and government. In Costa Rica, the central government seemingly outweighs or overwhelms these other social agents in respect to influencing ICT development and preparedness. This is due to the fact that they have a stranglehold on telecommunications services, and as a result of their very activist role in managing the countries educational networks. Therefore, promoting ICT readiness through the societal network falls squarely on their shoulders. To date, it appears that contributing to a long-term trend towards ICT readiness and use can not be achieved by the government alone. The country and its legislature must consider helping to change course from the one currently taken “The legislative Assembly considered legal amendments to permit the restructuring of the state-owned telephone and electricity monopoly (ICE), which if enacted, would have significantly expanded possibilities for establishing joint ventures in the telecommunications and energy sectors. The Assembly passed the legislation in the first of two required votes, but the bill was struck down in April [2000] by the Supreme Court…” (United States Commercial Service Economic Trends and Outlooks 3). Quite simply, the development of ICT and its spread throughout society must be considered with the help of other potentially more efficient external service providers. Costa Rica’s ability to move to a Stage Four level of networked society may depend upon such change.

APPENDIX C

Appendix C-1 – A comparative of Internet access by first-tier ICT societies as compared with lesser developed countries and neighbors of Costa Rica. The comparative does not use the sample survey as provided for by CAATEC or RACSA (see Networked Society), although its results for CR are similar.

Comparative of Internet Users in Developed Countries vs. Costa Rica & Neighbors
Country	Population		Internet Users	IP Ratio	Sample Dates
United States	280,562,489		166,000,000	59%	X, X
Canada	31,902,268		14,440,000	45%	X, X
Israel	6,029,529		1,940,000	32%	X, X
Brazil	176,029,560		11,940,000	7%	X, X
Costa Rica	3,834,934		250,000	7%	X, X
Mexico	103,400,165		3,420,000	3%	X, X
Panama	2,882,329		45,000	2%	X, Y
India	1,045,845,226		5,000,000	Less than 1%	X, X
Nicaragua	5,023,818		20,000	Less than 1%	X, Y
Legend: X -		Population estimate as of July 2002
X -		Internet users estimate as of 2001
Y -		Internet users estimate as of 2000
Source: The World Factbook 2002

Appendix C-2 – Places where Internet email is accessed by Costa Rican citizens (Monge 217):

Where Internet email is Accessed by Costa Ricans
Venue	Percentage Access
In the Home	33.6%
Internet Cafes, Other Rental	25.9
Work	21.8
Schools, Colleges or Universities	19.4
Post Offices or Other Public Institutions	10.3
Homes of Family Members or Friends	5.9
In a Course	0.5
Outside the Country	0.4

Appendix C-3 – Costa Rican domains by organizational classification (Network Information Center):

Costa Rican Domains by Type and Extension
Type	Extension	Number*
Academic	ac.cr	80
Business	co.cr	3391
Educational	ed.cr	37
Financial	fi.cr	112
Government	go.cr	124
Organization	or.cr	179
Health	sa.cr	21
As of Date: November 23, 2002.

Appendix C-4 – Penetration of fixed-line service and cellular phone usage between 1996 and 2002:

Fixed-Line Phone Service Throughout Costa Rica (per 100 inhabitants from 1996 – 2002)
1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002*
17.89	19.50	20.5	21.5	23.5	24.7	26.1
*Projected

Cellular Phone Service Throughout Costa Rica (per 100 inhabitants from 1996 – 2002)
1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002*
1.4	2.0	3.0	3.9	5.4	7.5	11.5
*Projected

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