Local Development and Information Technologies
The age of mechanization, mass production technologies and automation solutions that started with Industry 2 and 3 caused people to flock to the centers of production, resulting in the formation of large metropolises. These structures have brought along brand new problems that we have never encountered before. Polluted air, congested traffic, neighbors who do not know each other, intense individualization, people who are constantly working, stress, etc. countless problems have entered our agenda and new ones are constantly being added to them. In the new process called Industry 4.0, the rules are set to change. Structures where everything used to be in one place are completely changing. Developments in communication technologies make it possible to use separate locations as part of a single system and it is time to stop thinking with the old mentality.
From a local development perspective, the contribution of information technologies to the process should be considered under two different headings. The first is to use the opportunities offered by ICTs to change traditional business models and enable people to participate in the production process in their own cities. The second approach is to prepare the codes and content required by the IT world, especially software development, locally.
SUPPLY OF MICRO-PRODUCTION TO MARKETS
You no longer need a distribution network to supply local production to the national or international market. It is now very easy for a handicraft or dried fruit produced by villagers to be presented to the world over the internet. This opportunity created by the widespread use of the internet is available for all products, from the most basic production to the most complex system. Establishing a widespread broadband internet network and making people able to use information systems are essential requirements for utilizing this opportunity. Young people are rapidly adapting to new technologies and are able to create their own opportunities. The main shortcoming here is that people do not recognize the opportunities and do not have the software infrastructure. This problem will only be solved if non-governmental organizations and the public sector carry out information and awareness raising activities and establish fast usable IT infrastructures.
Recent investments in fiber optic cables and 4.5 G infrastructure seem to have removed the constraints on internet access. The basic requirement, especially for micro-productions, is the preparation of a virtual marketplace to deliver products to markets. Although many shopping sites offer this opportunity to people, the best approach is to make a focused, attractive and locally known infrastructure available for general use. A solution that combines PTT’s distribution capability with informatics will yield highly effective results. A version of PTT’s shopping website (http://www.epttavm.com/) focused on local products and micro-productions could be considered, while a virtual marketplace concept where anyone can open their own shop could also be very successful.
SHIFTING INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION TO ANATOLIA
In addition to micro-production, information technologies offer serious facilities for the expansion of industrial production to rural areas. Since it is now possible to plan production in different areas, let alone moving sales and production to separate locations, shifting production from big cities to rural areas will make significant contributions to local development. Of course, localization of industrial production is not only a matter of IT infrastructure. Other components such as transportation infrastructures, qualified human resources and access to raw materials should also be considered and needs should be met. However, the preparation of all the necessary infrastructure will only yield the desired results if the information systems are adequate and healthy. For example, solutions where qualified human resources are not necessarily employed locally will be possible with IT infrastructures. Considering that today training on how to perform an operation can be given by remote monitoring, it will be very easy to provide many services such as consultancy etc. remotely. Moreover, the maintenance of most of the systems that require qualified personnel can be provided with remote access and the entire repair process can be carried out remotely with the support of an intermediate level personnel in the field.
CALL CENTERS AND DIGITAL ARCHIVING
It is also an important development that call center services can be provided locally, even in one’s own home, with healthy communication infrastructures and IT solutions. Considering that the highest non-public employment in Erzurum today is provided in a call center, it is an indisputable fact that this opportunity can be an effective tool for local development. Likewise, moving archiving to small cities with digitized archives and providing both archiving and digitization services from these cities will help local development and provide more efficient and faster access to archives. Again, by utilizing the distribution and transmission capabilities of PTT, documents to be transferred to the permanent archive can be transported to a city with low earthquake risk instead of big cities such as Ankara and Istanbul, thus creating a new focus city. At this point, serious steps have been taken in the field of call centers and a significant number of facilities have been established and services have started to be provided, especially in cities designated as Region 6. While the private sector has taken steps in this direction in terms of archiving, no significant steps have yet been taken by the public sector. Considering that the public sector transports its documents from the provinces to Ankara, it is easy to see that these investments will not be an additional burden. The ease of access to documents will not only enable the institution to do its work faster, but will also speed up activities such as judicial proceedings where these documents will be used. At the end of the day, these investments will generate direct and indirect benefits far in excess of their costs.
With their IT infrastructure and the opportunities it offers, it will be possible to shift a lot of work, especially service-oriented work, to the provinces. Such projects to employ people in their own hometowns should be added to the list of expenditures to make life in metropolitan areas bearable, and population growth should at least be halted. Many more can be added to the jobs we have exemplified above. All this will require a well-planned and effective fiber infrastructure, IT literacy and some courage.
BEING AN INFORMATION PRODUCER
When defining producers and consumers in the IT community, a classification is made as mouse users and keyboard users. Mouse users are consumers and keyboard users are producers. Of course, there may be exceptions to this, but in general it is a correct classification. Unfortunately, a significant portion of computer or equivalent product users in our country are mouse users and spend their time using software, content and products prepared by others. With a proper planning, we should direct our people to become keyboard users. With the arrangements to be made in the education curriculum, our people should be trained as IT producers. If this can be achieved, even a citizen in the remotest village where the internet can reach can be employed as a software developer for an international company. It would be erroneous to perceive IT production as only software development. There are hundreds of different production opportunities such as graphics, videos, writings, websites, etc. and millions of people around the world participate in the production process through these activities.
Software development activities are carried out both as a single work and as a group work. Many international software companies manage this process with teams formed in different parts of the world. With well-documented processes and simplified techniques, it is possible for very different people to develop the same code together. In fact, taking into account the time differences around the world, the same code is developed non-stop by teams in different countries on a 24-hour basis. It is possible to turn our country into a software development base, and plans for this should be made urgently. Considering the development of distance education techniques, spatial distance has lost its importance and effective training of a large number of people with a small number of educators has become possible. Just as vocational high schools provided qualified human resources in the industrial breakthrough, the human resources of the information age should be trained in high schools with a similar modeling.
Once the software development culture is established, entrepreneurial spirits will realize very different expansions. Today, especially the possibilities offered by smartphones and new generation operating systems have made it no longer a dream for even single individuals to sell their software to millions and created a brand new market. A simple game can earn its developer millions of dollars in an instant, or an add-on developed for an existing application can generate very serious profits.
Apart from software development, serious manpower is needed for many different areas such as graphic designs, content preparation, small videos, etc. These works, both artistic and content-oriented, will create a source of income for local human resources. Areas other than software development should also be considered in training planning. Preparing a web page, managing social media accounts, preparing texts to be presented, selecting or preparing visuals such as photographs, providing remote support to existing software, translating content into different languages, etc. dozens, perhaps hundreds of new business lines are being formed and the future is evolving here. Considering the new generation’s predisposition to technology, it is obvious that this field is an opportunity that must be seized.
In order to reduce unemployment in our country, serious steps have been taken in the service sector. Private security, call center, valet, parking attendant, etc. very serious employment has been created in many business lines. These steps played an important role especially in the participation of newly graduated high school graduates who were raised with the closure of vocational high schools and could not do anything. However, since these types of jobs do not offer a progression map, many people will have to work for many years with low salaries. Without mastery, income growth will be more difficult. However, if these people can be trained in areas such as software development, they will be able to increase their income incomparably with their first salary after a certain experience. If it is not possible to solve a problem in the first move, it is inevitable for administrators to mitigate it with temporary measures. Today, the steps taken against unemployment have significantly reduced the fever. We now need plans to direct people to permanent areas that offer them social dignity and improve their comfort.
In the information age, it is not possible to be a director without being a producer. Our country has very serious needs especially in software development. It is a basic requirement that software related to both data and system security be indigenous. The outsourcing of encryption software or anti-virus software, or even SCADA software that manages critical processes, will keep a constant suspicion alive. The question of whether someone has put a back door into the system will always occupy the minds. Just as in industrial production, what you can do in this field is related to what you have already done. Just as you need to be able to make components such as seats, carpets, wings, engines, etc. to build an airplane, you need to have made or be able to make simpler components for complex software systems. In every crisis we experience, we constantly postpone the answers to the questions that come to our minds. A cyber attack, a data flow, a coup or a scandal triggers the question of whether the systems we use are toys in someone’s hands, but we always postpone the permanent solution. Today, domestic software is a higher priority than domestic automobiles. We need urgent solutions, especially in data security, system security and communication. These steps to be taken for local development will enable our people to produce complex systems, and after a certain stage, we will go from being an informatics producer to a country that can shape informatics.