Picture source: The Economist
Occasionally I've included posts about mobile phones and economic development, pointing to their much greater impact than networked PCs. See for example this 2005 article from the Economist. On 5 and 6 December the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) will hold a Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries. Here is the "background" section of the conference call in full:
"The "Digital Divide" is defined as the gap between those with regular, effective access and ability to use digital technologies and those without. An important step in the direction of filling this gap has been the deployment of mobile networks all around the world. For example, as of today, more than 80% of the world's population is covered by GSM, and more than 2 billions of people own a mobile phone (source: World Bank). With one million additional people newly subscribed every day, it is expected that by the end of 2010, almost 4 billions will have a mobile phone."
"However, even if accessing phone services is very important, the gap will be more completely filled when access to a higher level of information technologies will be widespread. Now, with the availability of high speed mobile data networks, and the appearance of increasingly-affordable web-enabled phones, one can imagine that the potential to help bridge of the divide has increased, in that people with access to a mobile phone would be able to access the Internet and the Web. However, it is fundamental to understand the needs and the expectations of the people, and the specific challenges and issues of accessing the Web from a mobile phone as a primary and often sole platform, so that the potential of resolving the gap becomes reality."
"The aim of this workshop is to gather experts in Mobile Web technologies and experts in Developing Countries and on the Digital Divide so that challenges and issues are clearly identified and tackled appropriately in a near future with the help of standardization bodies like W3C and its Mobile Web Initiative".
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