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developed within Asian settings, the
provision of geocomputing education is
not without problems. The following is
an attempt to elucidate the issue.
The problem easiest to be identified is
money. Hong Kong's economic success
lies in its past manufacturing and
recent financial roles in Pacific Asia.
High technology is still a "foreign"
term for Hong Kong. In fact, among the
Four Little Dragons in Asia, Hong Kong
is the least developed in high
technology. Therefore, both the quality
and quantity of this development do not
commensurate with its economic status.
For any innovation, its initial startup
cost is high. This is- particularly
burdensome in the education sector.
The money for. hardware is not an one-
time expenditure. Maintenance cost
should also be counted, perhaps as a
recurrent. expenditure. Likewise, added
towards the purchase cost of software
are the upgrade and license renewal
fees. In most cases, a lab for such
setups require at least the hiring of a
technician to take over mundane daily
maintenace of the system. A lab
director should devote full attention to
management decisions and planning
instead. Therefore, justifications of
such heavy spending must be given for
asking approval. Within the geography
department route, such requests have to
compete against other equally appealling
ones. When budgets are tight, the
success of getting large funds really
hinges upon the full understanding and
support by heads of departments.
Another problem is the shortage of
knowledgeable staff in geocomputing.
Given the paucity of .local training in
the past, people who knows about the
technology are usually trained overseas
and are recent holders of higher
degrees. Scarcity plus high demand will
likely lead to higher pay requests, thus
inducing the cost issue again. Given
the fact that such expertise is still in
rising demand in North America and
elsewhere, together with the uncertainty
of Hong Kong's political future beyond
the year 1997, the outflow of such
personnel is a likely prediction. In
terms of seniority, most of these
personnel are junior staff, thus weaken
their arguments and say in more
aggressive plans. In a nutshell, the
"humanware" issue is a greater hurdle to
overcome.
The third problem to face concerns with
technology diffusion. Hong Kong's
geographic situation is excellent for
147
being a trade intermediary for China and
other southeast Asian countries.
However, in terms of high technology,
Hong Kong's . location is, at best,
mediocre. Without doubt, the mecca of
computer technology is either the United
States or Japan. Even for Japan, Hong
Kong is three to four hours flying time
away. For an industry such as computer
technology, new products appears on the
market with great speed. Technology may
diffuse contagiously (i.e. innovations
are spread out faster with shorter
distances). However, in most cases, it
is transferred elsewhere in a hierarchi-
cal fashion. In other words, places of
similar development levels will have
greater contact probabilities for new
inventions. Therefore, the likelihood
of quicker adoption of new products is
greater there. Luckily, as English is
commonly used in Hong Kong, contacts
with the: U.S.. is. not .a. problem.
However, distance and cost factors may
partially constrain Hong Kong's adoption
of the latest innovation in the shortest
possible time. If educationists in the
field is not fully alert on the latest
developments across the Pacific, the lag
problem in technology sophistication
will persist.
A fourth problem to tackle is the
ambivalence of the nature of geography.
In the long run, the excellence in
status for geocomputing may be hurt.
Is geography an arts, a science, or a
social science subject? The debate has
lingered for long. From experiences
worldwide, geography departments have
occupied positions in all the three
types of faculties. Locally, - the
department at the University of Hong
Kong is located at the Arts Faculty. On
the other hand, Baptist College’s and
Chinese University's departments are
members of the Social Sciences Faculty.
The department at National Taiwan
University is housed within the Science
Faculty instead. In securing large
funding for high technology equipment, a
geography department located in the Arts
Or: Social Science faculties may
encounter problems. This is especially
the case when top administrators are
unaware of the dual or trine nature of
the discipline. Thus, the fight for
money is sometimes a long and arduous
one. More often than not, a defensive
position is usually taken.
Lastly, the fate of geocomputing lies
very much on the background of students
enrolled in the programs. Within geo-
graphy enrollments, the usual student
intake comes from those who selected an