The Mobile Web to bridge the Digital Divide
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W3C: Leading the Web to its Full Potential
Founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee in 1994
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- W3C Vision: Universal Web Access: The Web Anywhere, for
Everyone, at Anytime, on Everything :
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- 1994: Creation of W3C for standardization and
interoperability of Web technologies
- 1997: Creation of the Web Accessibility
Initiative (WAI): To make the Web Accessible
- 2005: Creation of the Mobile Web Initiative
(MWI): To Access the Web from Mobile Phones
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W3C Mobile Web Initiative
A joint work between the Web community and the Mobile community
- W3C Goal:
- Extend the Web and its accessibility
- Fight against fragmentation towards a new Web for Mobile phones
- Mobile Players: Create a joint initiative to:
- Increase the ARPU
- Open and enable a new market
Challenges
Source: RusselBeattie.com
Challenges (2)
- As a Web designer, how to write Web content to fit with the
diversity?
- As a content adapter, what are the characteristics of the phone loading
my content?
- As a mobile browser maker, how can i check my implementation on 20+
mobile OS ?
- As a user, how can i know that a Web site is mobile friendly ?
Who's Involved?
19 Sponsors:
- WG Participants: AOL, France Telecom, Google, Microsoft, mTLD, Nokia,
NTT DoCoMo, Opera, Samsung, SK Telecom, T-Online, Telefonica, Vodafone,
...
One place to learn about MWI : http://www.w3.org/Mobile
Next Step: the Web for All
- 2007: W3C to explore how the Web on mobile phones
could be a potential solution to bridge the Digital Divide and leverage
Web access in Developing Countries
ICT to sustain development
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- Government services
- Education
- Health
- Banking
- Communities services
- Business
- ...
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| (Photo Source: Der
Spiegel) |
How to provide access to ICT?
- With cheap laptops and mesh networking: One Laptop Per Child?
- With specific/special phones: Microsoft FonePlus?
- With the Mobile Web:
- Taking advantage of the existing 2.4+billion of mobile phones
- Taking advantage of the GSM cover (80% of the world population)
- Taking advantage of the adoption and use of Mobile applications
- Overcoming the current limitations
Today: SMS Applications
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- Successful Mobile Applications
- Banking
- NGOs-run SMS based system: e-gov, business (market poll),
health, ...
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- But few problems:
- Interoperability problems
- Discoverability of services
- limited interaction
- costly/inappropriate infrastructure
- no standardized development kit
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| (Photo Source: Vodafone) |
Tomorrow?
- The Web: the platform to leverage services development, deployment and
adoption:
- No interoperability problems
- Discoverability through portals and search engine
- Enhanced interaction through forms/voice/multimodal interaction
- Cheap/free hosting
- Standardized technologies and development platform
Mobile Player Opportunities
Similar to the W3C Mobile Web Initiative:
- New market to enable
- for browser makers
- for service providers
- Potential for ARPU growth
- for handset manufacturers
- for network operators
- Leveraging the needs for higher-level network
W3C Roadmap
- Building the right community
- Enabling the Mobile Web
- Defining the minimal characteristics of a Web browser to be largely
deployed
- Identifying the usability factors and how to take them into account
- Working on the guidelines on how to deliver Mobile Web Applications
to under-privileged populations and rural communities
- Building local capacities
- Setting up a Mobile Web Applications curriculum
Conclusion
- W3C Goal: to make the Web accessible, relevant, usable and useful for
under-privileged populations and rural communities
- The Mobile Web is the most promising platform for low-cost large scale
development, deployment and adoption of ICTs
- There is a huge business opportunities for all mobile players to enable
the next generation of Mobile Applications
- Join the process of gathering the critical mass of experts to start the
work
