MWI Team Blog

Check out article "The meek shall inherit the web"

W3C is proud to announce the organization of a public Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social Development.

We are currently in the process of launching a new Interest group on the topic of using mobile phones and Web technologies in socio-economic development projects in Developing Countries. This workshop will serve as input to this future group, which will aim at identifying the key challenges of mobile Web access in Developing Countries and the most promising way to resolve them.

It is also a follow-up of a first similar event we organized in December 2006 in Bangalore (W3C workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries)

All information about this new workshop at http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/

W3C current work and plans on this topic at http://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/public.html

Stephane

I was this week at a very interesting conference: Development and Cooperation 2.0 (finishing today). Despite the fact that it was mostly in spanish and that was quite hard for me given my very low level in this language, there were a lot of very good talks and discussion around the concept of ICT4D or how to use Information and Communication Technology in Social/Human Development. It is probably the first time for me to participate in a conference focusing on Development and not technology. I was moderating part of a session about ICT and the UN Millenium Development Goals. I heard many times already the mention of these goals which are very respectable by themselves, but typically, in the past, most of people i met were thinking that ICTs are solutions that will help reaching these goals. Here, it was rewarding to talk to people who are considering ICTs only as an opportunity and not a solution. This is an idea i've been pushing for quite a long time. It is not because you are bringing the Web to rural areas that it will solve people problems.

When i was at Africacom 2007 last november, i heard a speaker saying that indeed if a crop producer could use e.g. Google to look for solutions for the disease of his plants, then his life will improve, because he would get more food. I always thought that this was a very simplistic view that will never happen, and eventually i found here that around 200 people are sharing my opinion ! we spent half a day debating exactly these points, identifying the key challenges to transform the potential of ICTs into a tool that would really solve problems, and improve people lives.

Clearly, the major ideas coming out of the discussion are in some ways obvious: making usable and intuitive tools for those who never used a computer before, taking into account the specific needs and requirements at the targeted population, enabling and empowering people for them to develop their own content in their local language, integrating technology in daily lives, and not training people to change their lives to integrate ICTs, focusing on sustainability... So quite a huge task to start tackling these points, and developing expertise on how to take advantage of the power of ICTs to improve people lives in rural areas of Developing Countries.

This conference also underlines for me the importance of having those experts in social Development working and exchanging with those developing technologies. I hope that the future new interest group we may launch on this topic will be a first step in this direction.

Stephane