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Process of Acceptance of Information Technologies in Central Europe Czech Example


Bozena Mannova and Pavel Slavik, Czech Technical University in Prague
Introduction
The term "high-tech information society" should be understood in the context of the use of technology. The use of new technologies does not necessarily mean that there has been a change in the way people think. The technological society is a thin patina over an underlying culture - one that changes more slowly than it appears on the surface. The acceptance of new technologies is the mutual influence of these two components. This formal statement can be transformed into more practical view that the technology acceptance may result from the level of research in the field and from general level of experience with technologies of industrial kind. 

Basic Assumptions
The first assumption is the level of experience with general industrial technologies. In the Czech Republic there has been long tradition of this kind. Majority of population had some kind training in technological skills. The general level of these skills has been influenced by lack of contact with new technological achievements in the second half of 20th century (embargo on modern technologies, lack of professional contacts with top research centres etc.). In certain sense this lack of contact was a sort of motivation how to overcome some obstacles in technology by means of some specific solutions.
The second important assumption was research in the field that created a group of experts who were acquainted with theoretical fundamentals of computers and related devices. In the mid of fifties the first computer SAPO was constructed by team led by Professor Svoboda who later emigrated to the US. The first commercially available computer MSP was introduced to market in 1963. 
The number of people that took part in these developments was relatively high. This means that the general notion about computer based (and related) technologies among industrial community was relatively high. This positive development was negatively influenced by trend that started about by end of sixties that was characterised by development of new sophisticated technologies abroad (first of all in the US). The local development of these technologies was impossible because of their high costs.

Introduction of New Technologies in Specific Environment
The technologies available (both local ones and imported ones from Eastern Europe) were characterised by low degree of reliability and low performance (in comparison with standard technologies used abroad). Nevertheless from the point of acceptance and use of new technologies the situation was relatively good. There was good idea about the potential of the use of computers both among the population and professionals in various fields. Moreover various developments based on inferior technologies continued creating thus a pool of people who knew both the theoretical principles and their practical applications in the field of computer science.
The lack of advanced computers forced local professionals to develop new sophisticated algorithms that were not based on brute force approach what in many cases contributed to the theory both in the field of computer science and in particular fields related to applications where computers were used. These approaches were quite unique and they had no counterpart in technologically developed countries. Many high quality programmers went through this sort of experience.
This situation was characteristic for seventies and beginning of eighties. The main problem was that computers were very expensive and not widely available. The solution was that computer centres around the country were established where various institutions could share the computers (either mainframes or minicomputers). In such a way the number of people who came across with computers grew steadily. Also the range of applications where computers were used was growing every year beginning from scientific computations to applications in accountancy and related disciplines. This fact had a very important impact on the organisation of enterprises and the use of management methods supported by computers. By that time most of population were acquainted with outputs from computers (state of bank accounts, phone fee accounts etc) and also with input for computers (like forms for census etc).
These activities prepared population for direct contact (and everyday use) with computers. The breakout came in the mid of eighties when Spectrum ZX personal computers became available. The people that worked with computers in frame of their duties (this means people belonging to certain age group) had the direct contact with computers up to this time. From this time on teenagers (and younger kids) got opportunity to work with computers directly. This resulted in second wave of experienced programmers who were later very successful. Due to their relatively easy availability the Spectrum computers were used also in small enterprises as a tool for solving specific tasks. Also in this case specific programming techniques had to be developed that coped with small memory and other limitations. A lot of specific solutions based either on specific programming techniques or on the use of specially developed algorithms were in use in that time. After political changes in Eastern Europe all technological limitations have been removed (embargo was lifted etc..). The fact that new information technologies were absorbed among population with remarkable speed was caused first of all by the fact that there were many previous activities that prepared population for the use of these new technologies. We can say that implementation of new technologies was not limited just for the use, but that there existed large segment of population that was acquainted with information technologies on various levels what allowed the people to understand and adopt quickly these technologies.

New Technologies and Education
The previous text described the environment in which the acceptance of information technologies took place. Another environment that played very important role was educational sector. Even the technology available was below standards used in developed countries many concepts have been developed that allowed the pupils and students to get acquainted with computers and their use. In such a way a generation of young people with acquaintance of computers was brought up. 
The introduction of computers into education in larger scale started on the beginning of seventies. The first stage was the use of computers for simulation of processes, testing of students, processing of student exams, university agenda etc. In such a way both students and university Staff came across with computers. This stage could be understood as a passive contact with computers. The next stage was active use of computers - mainly in the form of preparation of programs for them. This situation was typical for the second half of seventies and beginning of eighties. Especially on the beginning of this period there were not enough computers to install them in every single school (secondary school or high school). The solution was to create a network of computer centres that covered the need for the use of computers by students. The situation has been improved in the second half of eighties when small home computers of local production appeared. These computers were manufactured in small enterprises (in some cases the production was in tens of computers per year). The positive aspect was that there was a lot of people who were able to design computer and also software for such a computer. These people were able later on to employ more advanced technologies for specific applications using the experience gained. 
The nineties were characterised by wide availability of modern computer technologies. The recent numbers show that e.g. the number of internet users and mobile phone users is comparable with numbers from technologically advanced countries.
For societies like the Czech Republic that have been isolated from developments outside the Eastern Block, there is the great hope that the Internet will help to break down international barriers of status, class, politics and continents. The optimistic approach to human endeavour in world will depend on partnership between the makers of new technologies, the sellers, the politicians and the educator. These partners attitudes could be nurtured that will map the creation of "a brave new world" where politics, economics and social well being are shared responsibilities, rather than free market accidents or dictatorial precepts.

Conclusion
We tried to show that the acceptance of new technologies in countries where the usage of computers was below general standards could easily cope with their introduction. This has been achieved by means of measures and solutions that were different from measures and solutions used in other countries. In many cases these solutions helped to develop some skills and techniques that were applied with success in standard environment.