east vs west

American politician Christopher Bond believes that "Advances in technology will continue to reach far into every sector of our economy. Future job and economic growth in industry, defense, transportation, agriculture, health care, and life sciences is directly related to scientific advancement." This statement resonates with people not only from America but also from every part of the world. Even under-developed nations have surrounded their society around technology and modern communication.

Before the revolution of information, countries that held the most colonial or industrial power were the most successful, but the concept of power in this century has drastically shifted. Now, the countries that control the access to most information are the ones that are the most influential. Of the seven companies that control the largest amounts of data in the world are all based in the United States including IBM, Amazon, Facebook and Google. It is startling that while internet and technology is consumed by users from all parts of the world, a majority of the top tech giants are based either in America or Europe. The Asian region is the largest consumer of technology yet the ratio of data ownership and control of information is significantly lower than the west.

This technological disparity is not only harmful in terms of the economy but also in the control of our personal information by someone writing a code in California. And the divide will continue to grow if we don't begin addressing this information gap.

In our opinion, there are certain obstacles for Eastern countries currently, that can be overcome with changes to the way we learn and what we learn. There is no lack of human resource, or suitable technologies in the East, however, there is a lack of proper education and awareness about technology. Today's generation needs to be provided with the resources and knowledge to think outside the box and create the next big idea like Google or become the next Asian Mark Zuckerberg. This sort of creativity comes from free-flowing knowledge and the liberty to learn things beyond the school curriculum.

Currently in Malaysia, Kidocode is trying to bridge the technological gap between east and west. We are trying to equip every Malaysian child with necessary skills of coding, computational thinking and self-learning. Over the past three years, we've had thousands of students who have taken the risk of stepping beyond conventional education and have created innovative apps and websites at ages as young as 7! Our ultimate mission is to ensure every child in Asia has equal opportunities for knowledge and control of their own future as a child in Western countries might have. Today we change our education, tomorrow we change the world!