The Director, Widernet project of international center, University of Iowa, United States of America, Professor Cliff Missen has said that Internet connection is not the only solution to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in modern day business and learning.

Prof. Missen, told IT World that: "There is no evidence that Internet connection is improving the information and communication technologies in the university system or other businesses, adding that ICTs is not all about internet connection, its about how to get your computers connected to each other for effective communication uses.

He said that, the use of internet is all about e-mail and some browsing, adding that, during his investigation for the uses of internet in Nigeria, he found out that for most of the searching in Internet by Nigerians, they look for education and job opportunities outside the country. So, in this case, he said, one could argue that internet is fueling brain drain.

Prof Missen added that, "my encouragement is that organizations should look for alternatives of setting up Local Area Network (LAN) so that people that are working with computers in an organization or universities can communicate to each other.

According to him, people misunderstood the concept of ICTs in developing countries, adding that "we think ICTs are not all about internet connection. My point is that, that is not true, and that is one of the components that business and university managers are not involving fully in ICTs due to expensive cost involved in internet connection.

He pointed out that, many companies in the country are spending the bulk of their money for Internet without identifying the value of it to their goals, while their employees are becoming unproductive and busy searching for love and job opportunities outside the nation.

He revealed that in his university, about 80 per cent e-mails are sent and received within the university and some 90 per cent of the network traffic at the university stay within the university, adding that, "this shows that the bulk of work we do with computer is internally."

When asked on the use of Internet for the research especially at the universities and colleges, Missen said, universities need access to the Internet, but asked how much of a professor's time is spent doing a research. "The truth is, its very little time. Most of their times are spent in attending lectures, committee meetings and marking exams. All what a professor needs for ICT is for him to have a database for keeping their records, registering students, keeping minutes of meetings, and computer base exams, among others," he added.

Giving further insight into research on the campuses, Prof. Missen said, the most important thing is for the university to bring CD's that contained journals and textbooks so that students and teachers can use and get the information they need, stressing that "in my university there is a single CD that contains 5000 books inside and journals, that's how we conduct our research without internet connectivity."