IBM advocates ‘open’ education

IBM suggested creation of a vast Education Collaboration Network (ECN) using existing infrastructure to share knowledge across regional and language barriers.

It will consider new models to design relevant curricula, provide access to teaching aids, going beyond providing just the technology to run such a system.

‘‘We have worked hard to identify how we can contribute best to social development goals in preparing these reports. We are in the process of identifying partner organisations to draw up an implementation plan to execute some recommendations,’’ said Shanker Annaswamy, MD, IBM Global Services India.

On healthcare, IBM’s reports suggests a single National Health Data Network allow health information sharing. Data can be stored, regularly updated and used by healthcare agencies, based on privately-owned standards.

Benefits of the switch to information-sharing will include greater efficiency, lower costs, enhanced use of analytical methods, and a more ‘‘open’’ health system.

In the long-term, the analytical tools can assist in disease surveillance and enable pre-emptive measures to counteract epidemics.