LINCOS is a project for sustainable development in Costa Rica. The LINCOS program was initiated in late 1998 as a joint initiative between the Costa Rican Foundation for Sustainable Development, the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Costa Rica Institute of Technology. LINCOS concentrated its efforts on expanding the opportunities for community development by prioritizing access and utilization of information and communication technologies, mainly in isolated and rural communities.
Recognizing an enormous business and development opportunity, Hewlett-Packard Company has articulated a vision of “world e-inclusion,” with a focus on providing technology, products, and services appropriate to the needs of the world’s poor. As part of this strategy, HP has entered into a venture with the MIT Media Lab and the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Costa Rica — led by former President Jose Maria Figueres Olsen — to develop and implement “telecenters” for villages in remote areas. These digital town centers provide modern information technology equipment with a high-speed Internet connection at a price that is affordable, through credit vehicles, at the village level.
Bringing such technology to villages in Tier 4 makes possible a number of applications, including tele-education, telemedicine, microbanking, agricultural extension services, and environmental monitoring, all of which help to spur microenterprise, economic development, and access to world markets. This project, named Lincos, is expected to spread from today’s pilot sites in Central America and the Caribbean to Asia, Africa, and Central Europe.
The project has been criticized by experts in development communication as an example of inappropriate top-down development. The telecenters come in a shipping container which has a gee-whiz factor (all that in one little box) but which has to be protected from the Central American sun by a large canopy that costs about the same as a locally constructed house. The telecenters are simply dropped into place and have no organic relation to the community or local organizations. The evidence is that they are not used much, though the big screen is popular for watching soccer on television.