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- Session Notes from ICT in the Developing World
Session Notes from ICT in the Developing World
[Developing World]
[May 30 4:15]
[David Barnard, Partha Sarker], Presenters
[Brian Satterfield], Notetaker
- Web connectivity problems in Africa and other developing nations: Though 850 million people live in Africa, the country has just 0.2% of the world's phone lines. Presenter David Barnard said "There are more phones in Manhattan than in all of Africa. Over half of humanity has never made a phone call." Additionally, only 2.6% of Africans have access to the Internet. Barnard believes that Africans don't fully realize the benefits of technology because so few of them have access to it
- Suggestions for solving Africa's connectivity problems: Getting Africa connected will likely require a combination of technologies, including WiFi, satellite technology, radio frequency, and digital power lines. Barnard stated that ubiquitous broad band access across Africa will be the most important ingredient in wiring the continent; without it, Barnard thinks Africa will "miss the connectivity boat forever"
- How Web 2.0 technologies can be relevant to those who live in the developing world: Presenter Partha Sarker belives Web 2.0 tools are indeed useful to developing nations because of the underlying common principals of sharing, collaborating, and communicating. Sarker also points out that podcasting can be helpful in such cases because people can send their tech support questions in their own language to various computer labs. Examples of Web 2.0 technologies at work in the developing world include Voices in Bangalore India, which is podcasting Namma Dhwani radio, and UgaBytes in Uganda, which has set up a wiki
- Suggestions for overcoming connectivity problems in other parts of the developing world: Sarker suggested that RSS readers can be used so that users don't have to be online to access content. He also thinks that cell phones must be connected to the Web so people can recieve blog posts or update Wikis via SMS.
- Computer labs (telecenters) in the developing world: Although there are a number of telecenters set up in countries such as India, training the locals to use them is crucial in helping the labs sustain themselves without outside assistance.
