Giladon-line » third world http://giladlotan.com/blog culture technology: bridging the gap Tue, 18 May 2010 00:29:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Analog Blogging http://giladlotan.com/blog/2009/03/analog-blogging/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2009/03/analog-blogging/#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:03:04 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=416 In Monrovia, Liberia a unique form of journalism exists where the news is written out daily on a chalk board for everyone to read as they pass by. Alfred Sirleaf established his chalkboard news service called “Daily Talk” in May of 2000, when he saw a need for direct, free and accessible reporting. Because of [...]]]> In Monrovia, Liberia a unique form of journalism exists where the news is written out daily on a chalk board for everyone to read as they pass by. Alfred Sirleaf established his chalkboard news service called “Daily Talk” in May of 2000, when he saw a need for direct, free and accessible reporting. Because of his provocative style of reporting the truth, the Daily Talk was destroyed twice before he finally fled into exile in Ghana. As peace returned to the region, so did the Daily Talk, and today it is one of the most read News Sources in the capital with thousands everyday taking the time to stop as they walk or drive by to get the breaking news. The Daily Talk in not only a board, but includes a small news room in the back, where he works on the next set of “articles” as viewers read the current set (using a rotating double-sided chalk board). (link)

Alfred Sirleaf is the managing editor of The Daily Talk, a white plywood shed trumpeting the latest headlines along Tubman Boulevard, one of Monrovia main thoroughfares. “Those who don’t have opportunity to buy newspaper, go on the Internet, who can’t afford to buy generator to buy TV,” he said, describing just about everyone in this battered city, “I do all the dirty work for them, and I just give them exactly what they want.”

Alfred’s solution to dispersing information to the people around him is simple yet highly effective. He also seems to have made a business model out of this board, charging for advertisement space on the bottom. Alfred wants to make sure every Liberian can keep up with the news and play a part in the country’s young democratic government, but in a way that wholly depends on what type of information he displays.

But there are so many advantages to providing “analog” news:

Alfred serves as a reminder to the rest of us, that simple is often better, just because it works. The lack of electricity never throws him off. The lack of funding means he’s creative in ways that he recruits people from around the city and country to report news to him. He uses his cell phone as the major point of connection between him and the 10,000 (he says) that read his blackboard daily. (link)

[tags]mobile, development, blogger, analog, africa,news[/tags]

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2009/03/analog-blogging/feed/ 0 charitywater.org http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/05/charitywaterorg/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/05/charitywaterorg/#comments Sun, 11 May 2008 07:58:11 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=336 I saw this video by charitywater during one of the Pangea day commercial breaks today and simply could not get it out of my head. After checking out their site and some of the amazing work they do around the world, I was sold on donating $20 for one of their projects. Clip and info [...]]]> I saw this video by charitywater during one of the Pangea day commercial breaks today and simply could not get it out of my head. After checking out their site and some of the amazing work they do around the world, I was sold on donating $20 for one of their projects. Clip and info below:

Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water.
It’s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without.
Here, we’d like to introduce you to a few of those billion people. They are very real, and they need our help. They didn’t choose to be born into a village where the only source of water is a polluted swamp. And I didn’t choose to be born in a country where even the homeless have access to clean water and a toilet.
I invite you to put yourself in their shoes. Follow them on their daily journey. Carry 80 pounds of water in yellow fuel cans. Dig with their children in sand for water. Line up at a well and wait 8 hours for a turn.
Now, make a decision to help. We’re not offering grand solutions and billion dollar schemes, but instead, simple things that work. Things like freshwater wells, rainwater catchments and sand filters. For about $20 a person, we know how to help millions of people.

Start by helping one.

[tags]charitywater,pangea day,donation,development,water[/tags]

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/05/charitywaterorg/feed/ 3 Mobile Phones, Third World and User Centered Design http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/04/mobile-phones-third-world-and-user-centered-design/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/04/mobile-phones-third-world-and-user-centered-design/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:40:48 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=324 If I could be anyone at this moment, it would definitely be Jan Chipchase, Nokia researcher extraordinaire. Chipchase travels around the world and focuses on user centered design for mobile phone in third world countries. I’ve been following his blog for a while now, and was excited to read Sara Corbett’s article ‘Can the Cellphone [...]]]> If I could be anyone at this moment, it would definitely be Jan Chipchase, Nokia researcher extraordinaire. Chipchase travels around the world and focuses on user centered design for mobile phone in third world countries. I’ve been following his blog for a while now, and was excited to read Sara Corbett’s article ‘Can the Cellphone Help End World Poverty?‘ published yesterday on the NYT website.

Mobile communications change the way we lead our lives, yet have a substantially greater effect on third world users, where they serve as an introductory communications device. In the majority of these locations it makes more sense to implement mobile phone networks rather than a land-line alternative. It took about 20 years for the first billion mobile phones to sell worldwide. The second billion sold in four years, and the third billion sold in two. Eighty percent of the world’s population now lives within range of a cellular network, which is double the level in 2000. And figures from the International Telecommunications Union show that by the end of 2006, 68 percent of the world’s mobile subscriptions were in developing countries.

These numbers are just mind-boggling. And it is inspiring to see just how phones in developing nations are changing people’s lives for the better. It is remarkable that even very poor families invest a significant amount of money in ICT (information-communication technology). What they’re buying are cellphones and airtime, usually in the form of prepaid cards. Even more telling is the finding that as a family’s income grows — from $1 per day to $4, for example — their spending on ICT increases faster than spending in any other category, including health, education and housing. “It’s really quite striking,” Hammond says. “What people are voting for with their pocketbooks, as soon as they have more money and even before their basic needs are met, is telecommunications.”

Nokia is making all the right moves. Learning from its potential users and seeing how their technology is adapted within foreign contexts. The company is also working feverishly on a 5$ handset, which is planned to hit the African markets very soon. It is obvious that such a device will have a substantial effect in many parts of Africa and Asia, and help register an even larger slice of users and behaviours. In addition to hardware design, Nokia needs to put much work into its UI. Nokia’s menu systems are still difficult to navigate, clunky and hardly intuitive. The S60 platform very heavy on the phone’s memory, making the overall experience excruciatingly slow.

I am still a big Nokia fan, not necessarily for the current experience on its phones, but for its support and dedication to provide an open mobile development platform. Lets hope it keeps making the right decisions, as the company grows larger.

Below are quotes from the NYT article:

Chipchase gives example upon example of the cellphone’s ability to increase people’s productivity and well-being, mostly because of the simple fact that they can be reached. There’s the live-in housekeeper in China who was more or less an indentured servant until she got a cellphone so that new customers could call and book her services. Or the porter who spent his days hanging around outside of department stores and construction sites hoping to be hired to carry other people’s loads but now, with a cellphone, can go only where the jobs are. Having a call-back number, Chipchase likes to say, is having a fixed identity point, which, inside of populations that are constantly on the move — displaced by war, floods, drought or faltering economies — can be immensely valuable both as a means of keeping in touch with home communities and as a business tool. Over several years, his research team has spoken to rickshaw drivers, prostitutes, shopkeepers, day laborers and farmers, and all of them say more or less the same thing: their income gets a big boost when they have access to a cellphone.

Robert Jensen, an economics professor at Harvard University, tracked fishermen off the coast of Kerala in southern India, finding that when they invested in cellphones and started using them to call around to prospective buyers before they’d even got their catch to shore, their profits went up by an average of 8 percent while consumer prices in the local marketplace went down by 4 percent. Public health workers in South Africa now send text messages to tuberculosis patients with reminders to take their medication. In Kenya, people can use S.M.S. to ask anonymous questions about culturally taboo subjects like AIDS, breast cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, receiving prompt answers from health experts for no charge.

“For the first time, there are more people living in urban centers than in rural settings,” Chipchase explained as we sat in the shade outside the studio. “And in the next years, millions more will move to these places.” At current rates of migration, the United Nations Human Settlements Program has projected that one-quarter of the earth’s population will live in so-called slums by the year 2020. Slums, by sheer virtue of the numbers, are going to start mattering more and more, Chipchase postulated.

How do you make a phone that can be repaired by a streetside repairman who may not have access to new parts? How do you build a phone that won’t die a quick death in a monsoon or by falling off the back of a motorbike on a dusty road? Or a phone that picks up distant signals in a rural place, holds a charge off a car battery longer or that can double as a flashlight during power cuts? Influenced by Chipchase’s study on the practice of sharing cellphones inside of families or neighborhoods, Nokia has started producing phones with multiple address books for as many as seven users per phone. To enhance the phone’s usefulness to illiterate customers, the company has designed software that cues users with icons in addition to words. The biggest question remains one of price

Motorola now provides free solar-powered charging kiosks to female entrepreneurs in Uganda, who use them to sell airtime. The company is also testing wind- and solar-powered base stations in Namibia, which could bring down the cost of connecting remote areas to cellular networks. “Originally mobile-phone companies weren’t interested in power because it’s not their business,” Banks says. “But if a few hundred million people could buy their phones once they had it, they’re suddenly interested in power.”

[tags]mobile,jan,chipchase,design,third,world,development,phone,nokia[/tags]

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/04/mobile-phones-third-world-and-user-centered-design/feed/ 2 Obama’s mama http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/02/obamas-mama/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/02/obamas-mama/#comments Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:35:08 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=302 “As Barack works on bringing in the votes, she works on bringing in the crops…”

I actually picked up this story from an Israeli news site and was highly entertained. Apparently Obama’s grandmother in Kenya is becoming more and more popular. She does not speak English, and lives in a fairly poor town of Kogelo. As [...]]]> “As Barack works on bringing in the votes, she works on bringing in the crops…”

I actually picked up this story from an Israeli news site and was highly entertained. Apparently Obama’s grandmother in Kenya is becoming more and more popular. She does not speak English, and lives in a fairly poor town of Kogelo. As more news outlets are picking this link up, she is getting more and more requests for interviews. Fiercely proud of her grandson, she describes how he came one summer to help out in the farm.

obama.jpg

It is encouraging to see Barack’s widespread support, not because of his racial or class background, but because he is truly smart and a brilliant speaker. An excerpt I read summed this up nicely – the ever growing power that mobility has, powered by education, immigration and hard work!

I worry that enemies of Obama will seize upon details like his grandfather’s Islamic faith or his father’s polygamy to portray him as an alien or a threat to American values. But snobbishness and paranoia ill-become a nation of immigrants, where one of our truest values is to judge people by their own merits, not their pedigrees. If we call ourselves a land of opportunity, then Obama’s heritage doesn’t threaten American values but showcases them. The step-grandson of an illiterate, barefoot woman in this village of mud huts in Africa may be the next president of the United States. Such mobility – powered by education, immigration and hard work – is cause not for disparagement but for celebration. (source)

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/02/obamas-mama/feed/ 0 WiMAX – the technology and its implications http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/01/what-is-wimax/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/01/what-is-wimax/#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:36:29 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=179 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access – a new technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances for both point-to-point links and full mobile cellular access implementation. It is effective for enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL. For this reason, it is not surprising that [...]]]> Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access – a new technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances for both point-to-point links and full mobile cellular access implementation. It is effective for enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL. For this reason, it is not surprising that the technology is extra-useful in rural areas and developing nations – as Motorola is set to rollout with the largest WiMAX mobile network yet in Pakistan.
wimax.gif

In the United States, WiMAX remained largely a niche technology. A few fixed WiMAX providers, such as Clearwire, offered residential and business access in select areas, but there was never a wide-scale rollout.

Until now.

Sprint, already a provider of 3G wireless data service through its EVDO network, has decided to jump feet first into a mobile variant of WiMAX, 802.16e, as an early play in the world of 4G wireless data services—and even as a quick fix for the expensive municipal Wi-Fi plans that have crumbled across the country. The service, given the name of Xohm, will offer speeds on par with cable broadband (2-5mbps) that can be received at 3-5 miles from an antenna—far less than what was originally promised for fixed WiMAX, but still impressive. We’ll see a soft rollout of Xohm by the end of the year in Baltimore and Washington, D.C, and in Chicago. If all goes well, it will be extended to cities around the country after that. (source)

WiMax networks are also planned for the Australian continent, rural Canada and Taiwan, among several others, while it can already be found at sea in the gulf of Mexico (offshore oil platforms). The technology was one of the hottest displays at last week’s CES exhibit in Vegas, where Intel setup a WiMax network. Among its display was this networked van:
wimax-intel.jpg

with these embedded wireless screen display inside the car:
wimax-intel2.jpg

So why is this important and what implications will WiMAX have?

In the US:: A “big-bang” introduction of this technology in the states, with the impending launches in several international locations as well as a launch of Sprint Nextel XOHM and Clearwire services in the US, might provide a critical mass for prices to come down sufficiently. Just as WiFi changed the landscape first in the use of computers and now mobile phones in just a couple of years, I expect we will get to witness a similar shift with WiMAX over the next two years. It was not surprising to read that 70 percent of cell phone usage occurs within a building or the home. Why would we need services from a structurally closed and expensive cellular network if 70 percent of all calls are being done from inside a building, especially with the growing amount of WiFi access and WiFi enabled cellular devices?

The Cellular Argument:: The crux of the mobile provider’s campaigns is that cellular coverage follows you as you exit the building without any need for re-authentication or reconnections. However, with the possibilities of municipal Wi-Fi networks (still waiting…) and now WiMAX, that argument would no longer be valid. There are no mobile operators in the world that are truly offering broadband to the home at the all-you-can-eat price points that are being offered by the fixed WiMAX carriers. This problem emerges out of the cellular’s narrow bandwidth, which carriers are desperately trying to stretch. The networks just aren’t optimized, and the mobile frequencies are expensive and scarce.

WiMAX vs. Cellular:: It is not clear if Mobile WiMAX is positioned to give 3G cellular a solid beating when it comes to broadband access. Even though the technology offers much faster broadband-class speeds and is set to support congested subscriber areas, there exist only few working mobile WiMAX trials. On the other hand, there is lots of data capacity now available on the cellular side, and metro-scale Wi-Fi systems are quickly emerging that could fill in any speed gaps that exist.

My Hopes:: Firstly, I hope mobile operators open up their networks, provide better self-suited plans, cheaper & faster data plans (perhaps by collaborating with municipal WiFi networks) and do not keep us locked down in years of contracts and ’service plans’ just because we have no other choice. Secondly, my hope is that with the experimentation and implementation of mobile WiMAX in the developed nations, its price will substantially come down, and enable the rapid development of rural data networks for the third world.

Finally, for all the MAC lovers out there, take a look at these rumors that Apple may include WiMax in an ultraportable 13″ notebook computer, and possibly across the entire MacBook Pro line.

[tags] WiMAX, mobile, cellular, WiFi. CES [/tags]

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2008/01/what-is-wimax/feed/ 0 One Laptop Per Teacher (re: to HJ) http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/10/one-laptop-per-teacher-re-to-hj/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/10/one-laptop-per-teacher-re-to-hj/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:17:45 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=214 I really enjoyed reading your post HJ, and myself, had too many thoughts which turned into a post.

I asked HJ, a friend and activist from Monterrey (Mexico), about his insights on the OLPC project, specifically on its possible impact in Mexico. He mentioned that Carlos Slim spent 70 million for 250,000 XOs, which will be [...]]]> I really enjoyed reading your post HJ, and myself, had too many thoughts which turned into a post.

I asked HJ, a friend and activist from Monterrey (Mexico), about his insights on the OLPC project, specifically on its possible impact in Mexico. He mentioned that Carlos Slim spent 70 million for 250,000 XOs, which will be delivered to Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico State, and Tuxtla Gutiérrez in Chiapas. (Carlos Slim controls 90% of the Mexican landline telephone market, and a big chunk of the cellphone market in Latin America. He is one of the richest people on earth – his wealth is equal to roughly 7% of Mexico’s annual economic output!) He also mentioned stories surrounding corrupt Mexican politicians, specifically in Education – Elba Esther Gordillo’s ways to misappropriate funds from the SNTE (Mexican National Educational Workers Union) for her own personal benefit. HJ noted four important points to remember when dealing with education in Mexico – 1) teach teachers how to teach 2) open source materials – to lower costs 3) information literacy 4) tech infrastructure

No matter how much we invest in tech, without a clear evolution of our education models, all similar efforts (tech related) will be pretty much a failure…

HJ suggests to invest all funds on basic education facilities and capabilities before getting the tech tools. Concentrate first on ways to engage teachers, before trying to reach the students. I agree completely to this point – teachers in the dev. world are far from motivated nor educated. How can they be expected to educate when they themselves do not have the tools? I say why not distribute the laptops to teachers? Why not give them access to the pools of information the device offers and let them use that as a way to be better motivated when teaching kids at schools.

On the other hand there’s something truly audacious about leaping over the existing hurdles – not dealing with the corrupt education system in Mexico, by trying to affect kids directly. Provide kids a chance to learn on their own without any dependencies on an existing failing system.

When I studied Economics in Tel-Aviv, the most important concept that stuck to my mind was thinking about alternative potentials. Economic theory is based on the value of the alternatives – what else we could do with a sum of money dictates how much it is worth. And this is precisely where I’m torn. On the one side, I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if all the money used to develop the XOs was invested directly in food, clothing and shelter for rural areas. But economic theories don’t really deal well with exceptions. And even though corruption is NOT an exception in Mexico, it is still difficult to display within behavioral equations, along with innovation. I applaud OLPC as an initiative. I just hope there is a well-thought out plan to integrate the XOs within local culture. How will the OLPC movement make sure they are not sold for money or food?

I’m heading down to Mexico for a couple of days at the end of November. I would have loved to be able to visit schools on some of my days there, and show kids the values of having a laptop. Will that be possible in the near future? If I want to buy the XOs for kids I meet while traveling, how can I make sure they are used properly?

some kids we met at Zinacantan

In the picture above, kids I met while visiting the village of Zinacantan in Chiapas, Mexico. We sat together for a while, chatted and read the English book together.

To evolve our education system is a relevant issue against poverty, (its the only way we have to fight poverty) while we shouldn’t forget the basic need of our people, we cannot afford not to try to evolve it. I just hope we don’t leave it in hands of the wrong people. Maybe its time the private sector and civil society take problems in their hand instead of trusting our most valuable resource to the government… (HJ)

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/10/one-laptop-per-teacher-re-to-hj/feed/ 1 Manda Bala – “send a bullet” http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/09/manda-bala-send-a-bullet/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/09/manda-bala-send-a-bullet/#comments Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:37:17 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=204

These are the eyes of a present favela Robin Hood, from the documentary Manda Bala. A killer and a kidnapper. He robs Sao Paulo’s rich by kidnapping them, and disperses the cash to invest in the city slums – from food to paving the roads. Not the best documentary I’ve seen, but it definitely [...]]]>

mandabala.jpg

These are the eyes of a present favela Robin Hood, from the documentary Manda Bala. A killer and a kidnapper. He robs Sao Paulo’s rich by kidnapping them, and disperses the cash to invest in the city slums – from food to paving the roads. Not the best documentary I’ve seen, but it definitely does bring up many difficult issues – the well known class differences in Brazil and the ineffectiveness of its police forces. People do not feel secure, especially the rich. According to the World Bank, Brazil’s inequality pattern is only better than Sierra Leone’s and Central Africa Republic’s. Brazil’s richest 20 percent earns 62 percent of the nation’s income, while Brazil’s lowest 20 percent earns just 2.6 percent of the income. And Brazil’s inequality is even more relevant because of the size of Brazilian population (sixth in the world) and because Brazil’s GDP ranks amongst the ten biggest GDPs in the world.
Statistics show that kidnapping rates are at least 1 person per day. They usually target the very rich, upper class. These are targeted, well planned operations, where the person is often followed for days before having a gun pointed to his/her head. Yet the majority of people still hang out in the streets. People are cautious, but do not stop living their life. They carry only what they have to, never too much cash, or extra credit cards. I wonder what are the causes for these major differences between the Americas and Asia. Why the south American slums are so extremely violent compared to the East Asian slums. Perhaps it is due to religion, or slavery under colonialism.

I remember one powerful moment from an interview with a Brazilian woman who was previously kidnapped and had both her ears cut off. When asked if she forgives them for this act she actually took her time and answered compassionately. She did not show signs of hate at all, but realized that these people grow up with violence in the slums, and know nothing other than it. It is their way of life and how they were educated. And I wonder how I cannot feel compassionate at all about Palestinian suicide bombers, who also grow up on the other side of a wall, and have little opportunities in their lives.

Even with its occasional faults, Manda Bala does what documentaries do best—illuminate an intellectual or social situation that our otherwise narrow Western viewpoint would never even consider. The visual beauty in the film—Brazil is one of the most inviting looking regions in the entire world—contrasted with the cynical, almost comic approach to the problems, lends to moments of well earned epiphany, as well as frequently flops back into directorial self-indulgence. The story of how the influential of Sao Paolo came to this fraudulent conclusion makes for an incredibly insightful experience. Here’s hoping the eventual reform movement gets as much prescient attention. (source)

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/09/manda-bala-send-a-bullet/feed/ 1 One Laptop Per Child Goes into Commercial Production http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/07/one-laptop-per-child-goes-into-commercial-production/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/07/one-laptop-per-child-goes-into-commercial-production/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:16:48 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=184 Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production. Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. Previously, the organisation behind the scheme said that it required orders for [...]]]> Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production. Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. Previously, the organisation behind the scheme said that it required orders for 3 million laptops to make production viable.

source: BBCÂ

olpc

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/07/one-laptop-per-child-goes-into-commercial-production/feed/ 0 Mobile Phones for the Dev. World http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/04/mobile-phones-for-the-dev-world/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/04/mobile-phones-for-the-dev-world/#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2007 06:29:06 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=154 Mobile phones hold the potential to empower local communities in the developing world, lowering the entrance barrier and providing innovative services, especially when linked to the web. Indigi-Net uses the mobile phone network to its advantage, realizing two important points. The first acknowledges the fact that most tourists nowadays travel with their mobile phones. More [...]]]> Mobile phones hold the potential to empower local communities in the developing world, lowering the entrance barrier and providing innovative services, especially when linked to the web. Indigi-Net uses the mobile phone network to its advantage, realizing two important points. The first acknowledges the fact that most tourists nowadays travel with their mobile phones. More than 80% of the world’s population is covered by the GSM cellular networks. It is an effective method of communications, even when visiting a foreign country, since roaming services are becoming cheaper worldwide. The second point emphasizes the fact that mobile phones support ad-hoc, grassroots local participation. In this case, when an SMS service is linked with a web application, participation does not require the user to have a computer. This way, one can obtain some of the many benefits of browsing the web, for instance posting and accessing data.

mobile phones in Lhasa

This is a picture I took in Lhasa, Tibet, two years ago. An older Tibetan woman holding a prayer wheel, while a young Chinese lady talks on her mobile phone. It is a common sight, and most probably did not even occur to me as anything out of the ordinary when there. It is remarkable to see the pace at which cities such as Lhasa are developing. To stand on one of the balconies of the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace, send out an SMS home and receive a reply within minutes.

Following is some basic research I conducted on mobile phone usage in the developing world:
There are currently 3.5 billion mobile phones worldwide (source: mobile activism website). In Africa alone, there is an excess of 60% growth over the past year. In many cases mobile telephony has become people’s only means of telecommunication. China Mobile, the worlds largest mobile network, has been adding subscribers at a rate of almost 5 million users a month this past year. (source) It is estimated that by the year 2015, mobile communications will deliver affordable voice, data and Internet services to more than 5 billion people. (source: gsmworld)
In many countries mobile phones are the easiest and least expensive way to get a phone line. They are far more pervasive in developing countries, when compared to the Internet. The growing infrastructure in even highly remote and rural locations makes the mobile phone network an accessible means of communication in the developing world, especially as prices of hardware and services continue to drop. In addition, there is a relatively low learning curve when using a phone, making it far more accessible than computers to a wider range of possible users. Prepaid services enable those who lack the funding or credit for monetary deposits to also own a phone. When using prepaid cards, one pays for a bulk of airtime, and does not need to pay for any monthly fee or deposit. 4.58 million of China Mobile’s new customers in February were prepaid subscribers and only 328,000 were contract customers. (source) Prepaid considerably lowers the entrance barrier and raises the potential participation level, especially for the developing world. Mobile phones are not as restrained by illiteracy as one would think. It is a much more substantial barrier for computer usage. Therefore, mobile phones provides millions new opportunities to exchange information and engage in entrepreneurial activities.
Renting out mobile phones is a common solution in many poor regions, where people can’t afford to own a private phone. An article on Forbes describes Sukhriya Hassani’s work for a cell company called Roshan in Afghanistan, rention out cellular phone service by the call minute. Roshan has spread across 175 cities and villages and provides mobile phone service to 1.2 million customers – half the Afghan market. This model works for many of the African nations. Grameen phone in Bangladesh provides similar services for its rural and poor communities.

In India, what is truly wonderful about what is recognized as the “mobile miracle”, is that it has accomplished something India’s old socialist policies talked about but did little to achieve: It has empowered the less fortunate. Beneficiaries of mobile phones are not just the affluent, but those who in the old days would not even have dreamt of joining the 20-year-long waiting lists.”

Text messaging has allowed people to exchange information and communicate efficiently at both national and international levels. Patients can now receive reminders to take their medicine, saving time and money traveling to local clinics. As farmers in india receive market demand and pricing data for their products, young teens from the slums of Nairobi receive messages alerting them regarding job opportunities in the city. It has become clear that SMS use has great potential in campaigning, public awareness, disaster alerts and for NGO work in developing nations. /however, most ICT-inspired organizations concentrate on designing and developing ‘top-end’ systems for SMS-based services, while the door is often shut to the grassroots possibilities.

“Texting works where wires can’t reach, and often functions even when regular cell phone service fails. Because mobile telephony is leapfrogging the constraints of fixed telco infrastructure, the mobile phone is now the key technology platform to focus on for service delivery and development. The stats speak volumes: growth of mobile phone usage in Africa alone was 140% in the last 12 months.” (source: worldchanging.org)

Here is a list of some interesting mobile phone initiatives, thinking about solutions for the developing world:

FrontlineSMS is a communications solution for NGOs working in the developing world. Their system encorporates a mobile phone hub, connected to a PC or laptop computer. This hub receives, saves and replies to incoming SMS messages. They explain that certain logics can be applied to this system, such as programming so that it serves as a way to access information remotely. For example, it is possible to send an SMS message with a bus number, and get a reply with the times and location of that bus.

CAM is a mobile application framework for the rural developing world, being developed in the computer science department at the University of Washington. They use semacodes with mobile phones, aiding the process of filling out forms for local entities in the third world.

MobileActive - a global network of people, tools, projects and resources focused on the use of mobile phones for activism, campaigns, and civic engagement. This is a great source of information regarding different mobile phone initiatives, looking at this technology as an emerging tool for use in social change campaigns.

Textually.org is another fantastic portal to get information regarding mobile phone usage in the developing world.

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/04/mobile-phones-for-the-dev-world/feed/ 2 Technology in the Developing World – making sense locally… http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/04/technology-in-the-developing-world-making-sense-locally/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/04/technology-in-the-developing-world-making-sense-locally/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2007 22:56:06 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=147 Even though many villages in the developing world lack basic amenities, where people live through a vicious cycle, suspended in between life and death on a daily basis, technology can still have unexpectedly useful applications. Especially in locations which lack land-line telecommunications, you see more and more people carrying and sharing cellphones. “A few years ago, [...]]]> 351291656_99bc5b7b6d_b.jpg
Even though many villages in the developing world lack basic amenities, where people live through a vicious cycle, suspended in between life and death on a daily basis, technology can still have unexpectedly useful applications. Especially in locations which lack land-line telecommunications, you see more and more people carrying and sharing cellphones.
“A few years ago, no one had heard of the Internet. But now, Mayan priests travel on busses loaded with livestock so they can get to towns where they can checkc their e-mails.” source: Guatemala Reports:NPR

It is extremely important to make use of new technology in the developing world in a way that makes sense locally. There are so many possible uses which can’t even make sense to foreigners. It is necessary for foreigners to provide resources or training, while local people develop solutions on their own, not becoming dependent on foreigners, but self-sustaining. In an interview about her Guatemala travels, Xeni Tech, co-editor of boing boing, states that there is still substantial discrimination facing many Mayan people. The law limits usage of their native tongue, giving way to the possibility of them forgetting their cultural roots. By using online teaching tools and documentation methods, it is possible to save the language and other cultural relics for the younger generation.

Xela Teco, a workshop in the town of Quetzaltenango, is a place where tech-minded Guatemalans build eco-friendly devices. The workshop is a small business supported by the U.S.-based nonprofit Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group. Xela Teco builds environmentally friendly technology that can be used to provide survival basics to poverty-stricken villages in the Mayan highlands: clean water, electricity and fuel. While American foreigners are currently part of the Xela Teco initiative, their goal is to eventually step aside. They hope that by arming rural communities with certain skill sets, they can help break a cycle of poverty, disease and malnutrition. (Their Indigi-Net entry: link)

Google Earth and the Holocaust Museum have a unique partnership, based on their assumption that technology can be a catalyst for education and action. “Crisis in Darfur” enables Google Earth users to visualize and learn about the destruction in Darfur and join the museum’s efforts in responding to this continuing international catastophe.

YouTourist.net is an Internet-based Trusted Social Network for the tourism industry with the objective of promoting and encouraging sustainable tourism based on the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. The website is not active yet, but seems like secure participation will be a key element of this future service. Their take at poverty alleviation is through providing special communication opportunities for local communities and travel companies.

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2007/04/technology-in-the-developing-world-making-sense-locally/feed/ 0