Nicaragua and the State of its Information and Communication Technology · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

When any of our countries is behind in digital development, its citizens have reasons to be worried. This is precisely what is going on with Carlos R. Fonseca M., who comments on his Guión Abajo (Underscore) about the reality Nicaragua faces when it comes to information and communications technology, coverage and Internet access.
Although Nicaragua was one of the first countries in the region to register a domain of its own (.ni) on the late 80s, as Fonseca notes, it's been lack of political will that has had an impact on the digital gap that the Central American country faces:
Podríamos discutir sobre, ¿cuántas personas utilizan los sistemas de banca en línea actualmente?
[…]
También se podría investigar sobre el uso que dan al Internet los estudiantes universitarios. La Universidad Centroamericana, por ejemplo, incluye en sus encuestas a estudiantes de nuevo ingreso preguntas sobre los conocimientos que tienen en informática, cómo realizan investigaciones en la Web, entre otros temas. Imaginaría que otras universidades privadas y estatales hacen investigaciones similares. Sino las hacen, ¿por qué no?
Más allá de esto, en el país existe un ecosistema, aunque no voy a negar que reducido, de empresas que se dedican a desarrollar sistemas Web para empresas, software, sitios Web institucionales, aplicaciones para teléfonos inteligentes, brindar servicios de marketing, capacitación y asesoría a empresas e instituciones (yo trabajo para una de ellas), etc., ¿cómo lo hacen? ¿qué locura los impulsa a seguir adelante entre tanta adversidad? ¿por qué mejor no siembran frijoles?
We could discuss, how many people use online banking systems today?
[…]
We could also investigate about how college students use the Internet. The Central American University, for instance, includes in its surveys recently admitted students who are asked about how much do they know about computers, how do they conduct researches on the web, among other issues. I think other private and public universities conduct similar surveys. And if they don't, why not?
Beyond this, in the country there is an ecosystem, I won't deny reduced though, of firms specialized in developing web systems for businesses, software, institutional websites, apps for smartphones, marketing services, training and consultancy to firms and institutions (I work with one of them), etc. How do they do it? What kind of madness drives them to keep going amidst that many setbacks? Why they don't grow beans instead?