ABSTRACT
In 1983 the US Agency for International Development asked the Board on Science and Technology for International Development of the National Research Council to assess the implications of microcomputer technology for international development. Four symposia were conducted by the Board. The first symposium was on applications in energy, health, agriculture, and management, held in Sri Lanka; the second on applications in education, held in Mexico; the third on advanced applications of microcomputers, held in Portugal; and the fourth on policy issues in microcomputer applications, held in Washington, D.C. In the first three symposia, there was strong underlying concern with public policies dealing with microcomputers, for example, with imports and tariffs, hardware and software manufacture, use of computers in education and computer literacy, centralized or decentralized control of computer procurement in government, and similar issues.
