The opportunity of ICT to dramatically shift the fortunes of underserved communities is a major theme of the oneVillage Foundation. However, it is not something that should be considered in isolation of the many other factors that need to be considered in any authentic approach to sustainable development. We are not simply talking about virtual/ICT tools but the integration of those tools into a sustainable and socially just built environment centered around communities rather than large mega scale urban projects—holistic ICT. The development of the tools themselves will require a great networking effort an effort that will involve many groups. To make ICT technology work we have to improve the quality of the user experience as well as their effectiveness but we ourselves need a more effective set of tools to create this Holistic ICT platform.

We are developing this Holistic ICT platform to promote and integrate the kind of tools being developed by technologists with all the other components creating sustainable communities and maximizing the replication of these systems throughout the world. The reason for this is probably clear to most of you: the ecological as well as the socioeconomic window for change is short and growing shorter. There is an understandable sense of urgency among us, but we must however remain patient and not be overcome with anxiety despite the great challenges we face collectively as a species. We need to ask ourselves honestly…what are the blockages…what is holding us back and keeping us from our full potential as innovators and designers of a new sustainable and socially just global system of doing things?

One thing I envision is a TECHNOLOGY portal to enable one stop shopping and help towards developing the right ICT solutions for each particular group user. Possibly there are already sites like this in existence. Yet obviously there is still much work to be done in this area. We need to condense our knowledge and focus on open source solutions that are not limited to those who know how to program. Open source is on the verge of dominating the server market but is still lagging in the retail markets. It is hardly a mystery as to why this is.

One of the things we talked about when Joy and I were meeting with some people who are involved with the Global Women’s Leadership Center, project here in San Jose is some of the problems with existing ICT and the Grand Canyon like divide between designers and users. We see this in every aspect of modern design and the overall dismal level of interactivity between professional and laypeople. To sum up the conventional thinking technologists are too much in love with their designs and their jargon to really create easily accessible user-friendly interfaces that empower the user instead of imprisoning him/her. Computers as they are designed today are a source of much grief and they only add to our sense of being overwhelmed by too much data. If ICT is to be a real solution not just for developing countries, but for the world, this must change. Are we up to this challenge?

One of the most important movements towards sustainability involves the redesign of the ICT sector. Sustainability is not just about solar panels and sustainable agriculture it is about how we design the systems that we rely on. Are they efficient in the use of our resources, time and energy? An efficient and highly integrated set of computer programs can make a great contribution to sustainable development by themselves by reducing the amount of time wasted on the computer and the amount energy used by the computer to do tasks.

Most modern systems in our world today are highly productive in stand-alone form, but as integrated systems, they are abysmal failures. The conventional economist/wall street driven notion of productivity because it focuses on individual technologies and not integrated systems is an inaccurate measure of the technologies themselves and their effectiveness as tools that we can use towards achieving progress in the quality of our lives. In fact conventional economic measures, in fact mask the fact that much the technology and the consumer products being developed are actually moving us in reverse in terms of both personal and collective issues relating to human development, quality of life and a sense of personal empowerment.