243 South Wabash Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60604-2301
email : yele@cs.depaul.edu

Phone: 312-362-8231
Fax: 312-362-6116

Olayele Adelakun, or “Yele” as he is commonly called has been a CTI assistant professor in Information Systems (IS) for four years. His research interests include qualitative research and global IS. In addition to teaching graduate level IS classes, Adelakun taught a class during spring break in Brazil. IS 596 introduces students to the issues involving information technology (IT) in developing countries. Specifically, the class covered IT issues in Brazil—including access, usage, management and policy development.

How did you choose Brazil?
I was in Brazil in the spring of 2002, and the experience was very educational for me. That was my first time in South America, and I liked it. So I thought a study abroad opportunity for CTI students might be educational and exciting for them. In addition, I teach a class on Global IT, and as part of that class, we do an assessment of IT in various countries. This study abroad class was an empirical version of the global IS class: the case study of Brazil.

What are some of the Internet-related challenges facing Brazil?
Brazil is a country of extreme contrasts. There are parts of Brazil that are highly sophisticated technologically, and there are parts of Brazil that are extremely poor. Internet access in Brazil is either very expensive or totally unavailable in very poor and rural places.

What types of themes did you cover?
We studied Brazil’s readiness for the networked economy. This theme covered issues including network access, learning, society, economy and policy, as well as offshore opportunity and IT operational management and strategy.

What made this trip exciting?
There were countless sites to visit. And there are many companies with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. For example, PetroBas, the largest oil company in Brazil, is based there.

How could access to technology change the landscape of Brazil?
Dramatically. Look at India, Singapore and Taiwan. The impact of technology on those developing countries has been huge. Part of what we learned while in Brazil was the current impact of IT on the performance and productivity of the companies we visited.