Research Report
by Kim van Haaster

After doing fieldwork in Santiago de Cuba in 2003, I recently revisited Cuba for a new research project in Havana with an emphasis on ICT for development issues. I studied the current situation on ICT for Development in Cuba, and focused on a new university called la Universidad de las Ciencias Informaticas, the University of Informatics Sciences, also known as ‘La UCI’. It is a huge project that is dedicated to Cuban software development. In the folder, that has been specially designed to promote the university, it is says UCI aims on the teaching of thousands of software developers who will be working all over the country to serve the Informatization of Cuban Society program . The other aim is to create a technology park where software is being produced for the national and international market. The director of international cooperation assured me both national and international market are equally important. Furthermore UCI objectives are explained in its folder:

“UCI will play a decisive role in the development of the Cuban software industry, and in the execution of projects tied to the nationwide computerization program. The university is developing and producing software for sectors like health care, education, and services for the public and the government, through the use of a modern technological infrastructure and novel organisational methods.
This university will soon become the country’s largest center of higher studies and will undoubtedly constitute a new alternative for the formation of human capital in informatics and the accelerated development of products and services, based on a flexible process of teaching and production, in which teachers and students are directly linked to the demands of society in the midst of a process of computerization and an ever more demanding market.
UCI is meant as a strategic centre from where the Cuban software market will have to be organised and led. A rumour goes saying Cuba wants to conquer 1% of the world market on software. The Cuban model of ICT for development is very much orientated at a national and collective level and is meant to be generated by legal political state-owned institutions of which UCI is a prominent one.

Entrance sign at La UCI

Research Focus and Methodology
In Cuba I looked into the daily practice at UCI (with all its rumors and objectives) and made a case study of UCI in the context of the Cuban model of development. In the first week I wanted to contact as many informants as possible and decided my focus after this first week so I would be able to focus on one theme the next two weeks.

Due to the political context of the research setting I have adopted a view on doing fieldwork that is somewhat flexible and open and it does not fit general assumptions on what fieldwork should be about (see [Pole: 2005] for an overview on traditional concepts of fieldwork). I use the description of qualitative research, as fieldwork could be described, by Saint-Germain, professor at the California State University Long Beach, to make this clear: “Qualitative research (…) is more flexible in that it can adjust to the setting. Concepts, data collection tools, and data collection methods can be adjusted as the research progresses” .

Spying and lying
I entered Cuba on a tourist visa. Doing research in Cuban public space is prohibited, acting like a researcher is not a smart thing to do. Sitting down and taking notes of the conversations or just walking into places and filming were therefore impossible. Many times I just had to act like a tourist with a lot of interest in the school and its computer facilities. I only took notes when talking with confidential contacts. Many times I decided to not write down anything because I did not want to make people think I would be using information for certain purposes other than natural interest. In other cases I would take notes. With every conversation I had to go through the same considerations.
So I didn’t do semi-structured interviews, but simply had conversations. I did record one of the conversations on a tape recorder. With this person I felt really comfortable and before our conversation he said I could take notes if I wanted. He was one of the two persons who told me I could do this. Furthermore, I asked one other person if I could take notes. But in most cases I felt more comfortable just having informal conversations with people (for example with the UCI-students), because they tend to ‘shut off’ once you pull out a pen and a piece of paper. This has to do with the sensitiveness of the exchange of information that is implicit to social life in Cuba. I was doing something illegal like all the Cubans do; this was a way to convince both myself and others it was alright what I was doing. This also helped me to understand better the ways Cubans live and think. However doing research illegally was not easy. I have not told people the complete story of my visit, except for two people. All the others have heard half the truth or less. This also felt like a form of lying that I did with this easiness and in this way I was confronted with a self I am not that proud of. It seemed very easy to simply not say everything while knowing you were not being completely honest. The liar in me as well as the spy had been awoken and this could be approved as being an implication of my presence and acting fitting into the functioning of Cuban socio-political society; the Cuban ‘toleration policy’.

The act of entering places in Cuba is another thing to speak about, because this was different every time. Announcements of restricted entrance do not always apply. One time I was not allowed to enter to a computer lab, for no other reason than preventing contact between Cubans and foreigners, but when I tried by talking to the doorman pretending to be a curious tourist I could enter. This happened in a few other cases, which gave me courage for entrance to UCI; I thought I might be able to enter there if I could speak face-to-face to the doorman. But at some entries control seems to be stricter; the door was and kept closed. I felt misled by the other successful attempts.

La UCI’s security gate

Informants
As an anthropologist I like to look into the lives of people making use of the participant observation method. I have spent a period of time in the research setting that is characterized by intensive social interaction between me and my informants. I am mainly interested in the experiences of the students and teachers at la UCI and their vision on development and on their personal futures and that of their country. I would thus look for these people, identify possible interview partners through my already established contacts and the people I knew of my former visit: a few software developers already active at the Cuban (and international) market, a journalist who works for Cuba’s only digital magazine of the EICTV (The International School for Film and Television), some students from other Cuban universities and one student from UCI. From these people who are outside UCI I would talk about their relevant experiences with the Cuban software market or comparisons of their university with la UCI. I would try to get information on la UCI from their perspectives: what do they know about it, what have they heard about it, what is their opinion on it, and how do they see it’s future. Of course finding people at UCI was not as easy as I, against one’s better judgment, had thought.

During these three weeks I spoke to six UCI students, of whom one gave up his studies while I was there, I spoke to two UCI teachers and I e-mailed with another student and one ex-teacher. Then I had a conversation with the director of international cooperation of UCI and the general director of Avante, Cuba’s international promotion centre of Cuban software. It turned out to be difficult to get one single focus since I had too much trouble finding informants and arrange entrance to the university. So eventually this research has become an introduction to Cuba’s big software project. I presented my project at the Incommunicado conference as such: as a case study that should be seen as an introduction to this university and an opening to further research in the area of ICT for development in Cuba.

No entrance
It turned out to be impossible to visit la UCI. I had tried to avoid the official ways because Bert Hoffmann, a political scientist who has been doing research in Cuba on a tourist visa for years, had advised me on this (he had also warned me of the possibility that I would not get in). I would try to find a way in with the help of Cubans with ties to UCI. This resulted in knocking on closed doors several times during the first two weeks and eventually I got back to the director of international cooperation to whom I wrote before I left for Cuba and informed about paying a visit. She never replied to this e-mail (whereas she did reply to earlier e-mails) and thus I thought she was not going to be of much help. I got to speak to her on the phone three days before I would leave Cuba (that was after I had already driven past la UCI and asked for permission to enter with a nice letter of the institute of network cultures, without results), when she apologized for not replying. She said this was due to the fact she didn’t know what the possibilities where and she said she only found out two weeks ago and thought I had already come and gone without visiting UCI. Anyway, she said I could not visit. I had to ask an official permit via the Dutch embassy applying at the ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), to which la UCI belongs. It was too late for that. She knew this. I think she knew all along how I could have applied for a visit and she simply did not want to tell me. But she wanted to meet me and so we decided to meet this same afternoon at Avante, a Cuban company for the promotion of Cuban products at the international software market.

During my visit I did not just focus on the UCI. I also visited other educational institutions and spoke with a few students there to get an impression of these institutions so I could be able to compare them with UCI. I spoke to a cibernetica teacher at Universidad de Oriente (UO), a student of cibernetica (which is the science of processes of control and the organising of organisms, communities and technologies) at the University of Havana (UH) and a student of Informatica (which is the science and technology of the processing of information, automation of data and data processing by computers) at Cujae, who works at one of the Jovenclub departments in Havana. In Santiago I spoke to a few students of economics and to two ex-students of cibernetica, one is now working as system operator and the other is teaching cibernetica. Then I met three men who are currently working in the Cuban software sector and at the illegal market. These guys have experienced some of the early years of the Cuban software market. I will elaborate a bit more on the position of la UCI in the wider context of the market and history later. Now I will introduce to you la UCI.

Faculty building

Findings: UCI
Facts and Objectives
UCI currently houses 6.000 students and approximately 1.000 teachers and aims on 10.000 students and 5.000 teachers by the year 2007, people say. This will be the year when the university will be officially opened to the public according to the director of international cooperation. It is located in a former Russian military base that is situated 22 kilometers southwest of Havana. The students come from all provinces in the country and a lot of them will go back there to work in their province. Another part will stay at la UCI to teach and another group will stay to work at the technology park.

It is meant to build a small community; there are as many men as women at the university to create a ‘natural environment’, as the director of international cooperation commented. UCI has the conditions that fit ones imagination. They are building a small city with apartments, banks, a hospital is being built, stores and computers, thousands of computers (Pentium 3 and 4 processors). All students and teachers have computers in their rooms with access to the blackboard system called intranet. This is a big difference with all the other educational institutions in Cuba. Furthermore it is important to know private computers and Internet connections are illegal. Apart from this luxury the students have many leisure possibilities: a sports area, a swimming pool and concerts are being organized. The entire place is very attractive to the Cuban youth, because there is very little to do for them these days. They are being told they will get a good education at la UCI.

All students and teachers are being given a monthly packet of dollar products, which is called an estímulo, like shampoo, soap, detergent, oil and washing powder so they don’t have to buy this. And they don’t have money to buy this themselves. They are being paid 60 Cuban pesos, which is a little less than 2.5 dollars, a month. So they are being given the basics they need to live. The people studying and working at UCI are in a luxurious position compared to the rest of the Cubans who have to engage in illegal practices in order to earn their dollars since these cannot be earned legally.
They live with four students in an apartment sharing a kitchen. They have air-conditioning in the rooms, which is an other luxury in Cuba, but one of the teachers there told me the air-con is only working one day per week. They cut off the electricity or something. Cuba is well known for its calls for saving electricity. Billboards standing alongside the roads are saying that people should save electricity, and everyday the power is cut off in different areas in the Cuban towns.

Secret
The UCI seems to be a big secret. This is visible at different levels of information flow. Firstly the national: The students and teachers can not leave the campus during the week without official permission. They have to stay there. In the weekends they can travel to Havana by transport that has been arranged by the school. Their relatives cannot visit them and the school offers them a paid visit to their family twice a year. And there is little information in the Cuban media on UCI. Secondly, there is little info on a international level; there is an article by Marc Eisenstadt, one of the authors of Corrante, a quality website in the scene of computer technology. He went to Cuba to attend a conference and was invited to visit UCI and authorized to publish and article at the website. There is also a folder that I mentioned earlier, that was given to me by the director of international cooperation. The website is written down in the folder but is not on-line. They don’t let anyone (tourists, journalists and researchers) in just like that. Thirdly, there is limited information on the plans of ‘la UCI’ within the same institution; students have signed a contract but they don’t know how long they will have to be working for UCI after graduation, to give an example .
The control is ubiquitous, from the gates at the entrance to the lunchrooms. Students all have an UCI-ID they need to have on them all the time. They probably also have to keep quiet about the things happening inside UCI, but this I don’t know for sure.

Organization
Students are being taught the following subjects: math, database, computers, physics, web design, programming languages, foreign languages, and they can do extra courses like searching on the web and an introductory course in the use and application of Linux. One of the teachers I spoke to had difficulty with getting a room with Internet connection to be able to teach students how to search the web. This is contradictory because they want to teach students how to search, but they won’t allow teachers to teach it!

There are approximately 10 faculties related to the different Cuban ministries (tourism, healthcare, education etcetera). They don’t have names yet, and a few are still under construction. So in this stadium the faculties have not been determined. This has been reflected in the answers of my informants who come from UCI; they don’t know exactly which faculty has what name, and yet another says they are still numbered. One says there are 5 faculties, the other says there are ten. So the number, the names and the content of the faculties are not very clear at all.
Students from all levels work for national and international projects at the technology park during their studies. They are being chosen to work in projects. The different companies at the technology park direct these projects, and some have been done for foreign companies from countries like Venezuela and Brazil. The informants didn’t know the content of these projects. There are some cooperations in the making with foreign companies but also with foreign educational institutions in Spain, Brazil and probably also with Venezuela. Then they are establishing business relationships with the same countries as well as with China and some European countries. It is hard to get information on these projects as long as the authorities are keeping everything quiet.

Students produce profits for Cuba in the same way as sportsmen do. They will be paid little money and instead will get things like laptops, cars, and houses (according to the vastness and income of the project). This, like the estímulos I mentioned earlier, is a way of paying that is very characteristic of the Cuban economy; they are not given money, but are being rewarded with things, they are paid in-kind.

MIC
Because UCI is a subsidiary of the ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and thus is not a subsidiary of the ministry of higher education, they can experiment with their educational program. MIC is responsible for all that is happening at UCI and decides who can visit the institution, the organization is regulated by it and so on. UCI differs a lot from the other universities, which mainly has to do with the fact that production is the main objective. In the UCI folder the other form of education is explained as:

“(…) all of the students will have educational and professional experience in secondary fields, and this has lead to adopt novel methods of teaching and a flexible approach, meeting with the highest international standards of research and development” .

The director of international cooperation has told me they are still experimenting a lot and have not yet developed these novel methods yet! This is also one of the reasons the school is not officially open. As long as they have not determined their educational program, they will not be official. Furthermore, because UCI belongs to MIC there will possibly not be much money for research and value of diploma’s can be questioned.

OSS
They have Linux on every machine, but they also have unlicensed Microsoft software on thousands of computers. Of course Microsoft is being used more than Linux. Not all students know how or don’t like to use Linux and prefer Microsoft. The authorities want all students to use OSS in the future, because they need to work with free software in order to sell their software at the international market. The introduction of OSS is slow; at the time of my visit courses on Linux were still optional. I have heard of a project of the introduction of Linux at la UCI, but I could not get hold of information on the content of the program.

Quantity more important than quality
The fact that the project is this massive, the quality of the education at UCI is failing according to people who have completed a study at a Cuban university. This project has to score on an international level and Fidel likes to impress with big projects. UCI has to put Cuba on the world map.
The first two years everybody could enter UCI after finishing high school, because they needed thousands of students in a short period of time. Many students went there, also the ones that did not necessarily have an interest in software production, but who might have been attracted by the good conditions. The university exists for three years now and only since the third year the incoming students have done entrance examinations.
Like students, many teachers were needed in a very short period of time so many graduates at Cuban universities were sent to teach at UCI, these people have hardly any teaching skills. UCI has also taken away many good teachers from the Cuban universities.

A characteristic of UCI being a state-owned institution is that the students will have to be politically correct students with a clean dossier. I expect all students have gone through some revolutionary filter at admission, but I have no evidence on this. I can only base this on rumors of Cubans from all backgrounds who have had similar experiences with admission to and working for state institutions. People are only taken employed at important state-jobs when they are politically correct. Having a relative abroad, a religious background, family history with reported anti-socialist behavior are disadvantages. So if a personal dossier reports any of these things the chance for admission will diminish increasingly if not be impossible.

All the students have to graduate and therefore the level and quality of knowledge has diminished. The exams are adjusted to the achievements of the students. And the attitude of the students, who have entered easily, is worsened by the easiness of passing exams. A lot of students there, who are friends of the informants I have spoken to, are not very dedicated to their studies and don’t like to sit behind computers so much. Also because of the workings of the Cuban economy, the students know they will not be paid for their work and this will diminish their motivation, as it does in its other sectors. The massiveness of the project thus supports quantity and not quality that and can not be compared to other Cuban educational institutions.

Revolutionary project
La UCI is directed by a governmental organism, which means that everybody is working for the government for as long and for all purposes needed. Personal development is related to that objective. For example: students haven’t elected their own faculty, but have been placed on healthcare, tourism or other and will have to be working in the projects in which they will be needed. Working hard will of course help them to make a better career with possibilities to work abroad for example on the pre-condition you have a clean dossier (if you have a relative living abroad the change you will be able to work abroad is very, very small). Furthermore, students and workers have to attend revolutionary events like processions, art projects, sports contests and such.

UCI is Cuba’s international status symbol. Every important formal visit to Cuba is being taken to UCI to be shown how great a project UCI is. The university is also used for other purposes; Venezuelans who had to be treated for a certain disease in Cuba were lodged in the campus buildings. I think the fact that everything in this projects happens for the sake of the country makes it very fragile. Decisions are made for students and teaching staff and they are not being paid. One of the students quit his studies at UCI while I was there, he didn’t like the political atmosphere at the school. He feels like being imprisoned and wanted to escape.

Internet access
The students, like all Cubans in the rest of the country, don’t have access to Internet unless they work in a project, then his or her correo (e-mail address at the intranet) is activated for use outside the university. When a student has access this is controlled and regulated; students only have a certain amount of information they can download per month. Then they cannot surf to certain sites like the ones showing pornography and politically sensitive subjects. Thus the use of Internet in la UCI and in Cuba in general is focused on collective use and not on individual use and is very well controlled.

In theory, the students can make and put on-line everything they want, but the content has to be revised by the authorities first. They don’t have full access to the Internet (when they do have access to the Internet), but they make use of e-mail and chat, where they meet mostly Spanish people and some Mexicans.

Faculty building

New ways of living
The thing students liked most about UCI and the fact that they are living there was that they get to travel and meet people from all over Cuba. They have the sense of leaving some place and coming back. Something that is quite uncommon for Cubans since they can hardly move. The other more special thing about their position compared to the majority of the Cubans is that they get to live on their own. The one girl said she really likes living by herself. We spoke about the fact this not a common thing in Cuba. The aunt in the house said she didn’t like it that all that families separate like in the Netherlands and recalled that family is a very important thing in Cuba. So UCI also evokes a very modern way of living in Cuba: independent and with other students of your age.

Uncertain future
Two UCI-students said there is a plan for the students after graduation. They are sure to find a job in Cuba because the authorities are arranging workplaces in all the different provinces and the development of software will be spread throughout the country. They could possibly be working for foreign companies in the future. But their future is uncertain because of the many fragilities of the project as it is now.
Meanwhile, students will increase their knowledge and expectations of other worlds in using new technologies, additionally they will work in foreign projects and learn about foreign ways of working. Some of them will be working abroad, but they won’t get paid while they will see foreigners earn more doing the same job.

During their study students will find ways to use the ICTs at UCI for other purposes than allowed. In Boniato, Santiago’s prison a ex UCI-student is being kept. He had business in the sale of (politically) sensitive information employed by a Spanish company. He is 22 years old. Pornographic pictures of UCI students are circulating on portable hardware through the country. The students also search illegal connections to the Internet in their apartments.

As I learned from people already working in the software market, they have a lot of under the table jobs to earn the dollars they need. This is something the graduates will be doing after they leave UCI as well. Once they are working for the government they won’t be earning dollars they need, so they will have to go and earn these elsewhere. They need personal computers and Internet in order do to these ‘on the left’ jobs. What they really want is to get paid for their legal work, but they don’t so they organize things for themselves. They will start inventar or try to leave the country, a very frequent situation young Cubans find themselves in .

Changes in the Cuban software market
In the beginning of the 90s Cuba was in a big crisis that has changed the software market in that it started to allow foreign companies to invest in the Cuban economy. As a result a lot of joint ventures were created. Since last year Cuba has started to close down its free trade zones and companies are being sent away. For example Softel, a formerly Cuban-Canadian company, is now inside UCI and the Canadian part has been sent away. The current trend is that the whole software sector is being pulled into the technology of la UCI.

I also got information on the Cuban software market as it existed in the years before la UCI and what has been left over after the creation of la UCI and about how this market is changing at the moment. The biggest problems here are the diminishing of the black job market because of the closing of the free trade zones and the impossibility of having a private computer or Internet connection. I also have some information on the existence and the workings of the black market in computers and Internet connections that are mostly established via companies. This is very expensive (computers cost thousands of dollars and Internet costs up to 50$ per month).

Conclusion
I guess the reasons for keeping UCI a secret are the following. Its future up to this day is too insecure. Cuba has been taking many risks with big investments and they have many problems with proprietary software, the educational program and the establishment of international relations. On a international level they thus avoid negative publicity in order to create a good reputation at the international software market. Their biggest struggle is that they need to limit information exchange in order to be able to develop their project secretly, but at the same time they need to exchange information in order to develop the educational program and keep up with the knowledge of the fast developing world of ICTs. On a national level there is a lack of information because of problems at UCI, but also due to the workings of the Cuban system; the people are never informed about the plans of the government. I think they restrict access to ICTs for students, because UCI can’t afford to lose its students and they have to keep them close to the revolutionary ideology.

Resources

Eisenstadt, Marc. 2004. Cuba’s Other Revolution
http://www.corante.com/getreal/archives/2004/12/07/cubas_other_revolution.php. (20 – 06 – 2005)
Folder UCI. University of the Future. UCI

Hoffmann, Bert. 2004. The Politics of the Internet in Third World Development. Challenges in Contrasting Regimes with Case Studies of Costa Rica and Cuba. New York. Routledge.

Saint-Germain, M. A. PPA 696 Research Methods. Data Collection Strategies II: Qualitiative Research. http://www.csulb.edu/%7Emsaintg/ppa696/696quali.htm#qualitative. (03-07-2005).

Essential Readings

Bomkamp, Dana & Soler, Maria. Information Technology in Cuba.
http://www.american.edu/carmel/ms4917a/Internet%20Diffusion.htm (11 – 05 – 2004).

Carmona Báez, Geoffrey Antonio. 2002. Global Trends and the Remnants of
Socialism: Social Political and economic Restructuring of Cuba. Thesis. Faculty of Maatsschappij en Gedragswetenschappen, University of Amsterdam.

Casacó, Luis. 2002. The Cuban Software Industry. In: Cuban Studies Vol. 33. 172 – 180.

CEDLA. Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation. www.cedla.nl Amsterdam.

Centeno, Miguel Angel & Font, Mauricio. 1997. Toward a New Cuba? Legacies of a Revolution. London. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Colomer, Joseph M. 2002. Watching Neighbours: The Cuban Model of Social Control. In: Cuban Studies. Vol. 33, pp 118- 38.

Dominguez, Jorge I. 1982. Cuba: Internal and International Affairs. Londen. Sage Publications.

Eckstein, Susan Eva. 2003. Back From the Future. Cuba under Castro. Great Britain. Routledge.

Fernández, Damián & Betancourt, Madeline Cámara. 2000. Cuba, the Elusive Nation. Interpretations of National Identity. Gainesville. University Press of Florida.

Fusco, Coco. 1998. Hustling for Dollars: Jineterismo in Cuba. In: Kempadoo, Kamala & Doezema, Jo. Global Sex Workers. Rights Resistance, and Redefinition. New York. Routledge.

Halebsky, Sandor & Kirk, M. 1992. Cuba in Transition. Crisis and Transformation. Colorado. Westview Press.

Harvey, David, Alan. 1999. Cuba. Washington. National Geographic Society.

Human Rights Watch 1999. Cuba’s Repressive Machinery: Human Rights
Forty Years after the Revolution. [Written by Decosse, Sarah A. et al.]Human Rights Watch. New York.

Hoffmann, Bert. 2004. The Politics of the Internet in Third World Development. Challenges in Contrasting Regimes with Case Studies of Costa Rica and Cuba. New York. Routledge.

Jatar-Hausmann, Ana Julia. 1999. The Cuban Way. Capitalism, Communism
and Confrontation. West Hartford: Kumarian Press.

Jovenclub. 2002. Red Nacional de los Joven Club de Computación y Electrónica www.jovenclub.cu/jovenclub/index.asp (10 – 01 – 2004).

Kalathil, Shanthi & Boas, Taylor C. 2001. The Internet and State Control in Authoritarian Regimes: China, Cuba, and the counterrevolution. Washington. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Koppes, Dirk. 2003. Het Verloren Paradijs. Op zoek naar het andere Cuba. Amsterdam. Vassalucci.

Luis, William. 2001. Culture and Customs of Cuba. Westport. Greenwood Press.

Linux in Cuba. www.linux.cu

Matías, Enrique. 2004 Una introducción al software libre.
http://laventana.casa.cult.cu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2272
Enviado por editor el Viernes, 10 de _December del 2004 (23 – 04 – 2005).

Perez, Alberto. D. 2001. Infomed. New Information technologies at the service of development
http://granmai.cubaweb.com/ingles/octu5/44infom-i.html (24 – 04 – 2005).