Building Bridges across Papua New Guinea's Digital Divide in Growing the ICT Industry

TL;DR

This paper discusses how open source software and collaborative efforts can help Papua New Guinea overcome digital divides, enhance ICT development, and promote equitable access to technology in the emerging economy.

Contribution

It highlights the role of open source software and international collaboration in bridging digital gaps and advancing ICT capabilities in Papua New Guinea.

Findings

Open source software can facilitate ICT growth in PNG.

International workshops promote knowledge sharing and capacity building.

Collaborative approaches are key to overcoming digital inequalities.

Abstract

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is an emerging tech society with an opportunity to overcome geographic and social boundaries, in order to engage with the global market. However, the current tech landscape, dominated by Big Tech in Silicon Valley and other multinational companies in the Global North, tends to overlook the requirements of emerging economies such as PNG. This is becoming more obvious as issues such as algorithmic bias (in tech product deployments) and the digital divide (as in the case of non-affordable commercial software) are affecting PNG users. The Open Source Software (OSS) movement, based on extant research, is seen as a way to level the playing field in the digitalization and adoption of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in PNG. This perspectives paper documents the outcome of the second International Workshop on BRIdging the Divides with Globally Engineered Software} (BRIDGES2023) in the hopes of proposing ideas for future research into ICT education, uplifting software engineering (SE) capability, and OSS adoption in promoting a more equitable digital future for PNG.