Digital Divide
07 November 2007
to: Vava'u play host to ICT regional meeting Tonga Now
Communications officers from throughout the pacific gathered in the Island of Vava'u last week to dialogue on issues pertaining to the development of communications and information technology. In her keynote speech, Chief secretary and secretary to Cabinet 'Eseta Fusitu'a says the Commonwealth countries for the Pacific Regions meeting in Vava'u was to formulate and integrate ICT in their national plans is a major catalyst to social and economic development.
06 November 2007
Africa to get multi-billion dollar Internet injection IOL Technology
Africa will receive investment worth US$55-billion to boost its goal of securing universal Internet access by 2012, the International Telecommunication Union said on Wednesday. The international commitments were made at the two-day "Connect Africa" summit that ended in Rwandan capital on Tuesday, with a pledge to speed up technology in the continent, the ITU said in a statement.
Africa: Do Everything to Ensure We Have a Digital Miracle AllAfrica.com
Africa is alive with possibility. The speed with which Africans have embraced mobile telephones provides an opportunity for rapid transformation and the potential of bridging the so-called digital divide.
ICT Summit Emphasizes Information Technology Age AllAfrica.com
The Information Technology Age has changed man's 'nature and nurture' in the world today and this week, it took the Connect Africa Summit to emphasize this. President Paul Kagame who hosted the meeting said, "In just ten years, what was once an object of luxury and privilege, the mobile phone has become a basic necessity in urban and rural Africa."
04 November 2007
rw: Bridging the digital divide to reduce the dependence on aid Reuters AlertNet
More than US$50 billion of largely private sector investment has been pledged to develop Africa's burgeoning ICT sector at a summit attended by African heads of state and more than 1,000 representatives from the industry.
Africa: ITU And Microsoft Unite AllAfrica.com
The United Nation's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Microsoft have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 'Connect Africa Summit' outlining how they will work together to build a safe, inclusive and networked information society.
01 November 2007
Africa: Continent Ready for Information Technology Investment, UN Summit Told UN News Service
As a two-day summit on improving Africa's information technology infrastructure wrapped up today in Rwanda, the head of the United Nations telecommunications agency reminded investors that Africa is "open for business and looking for partnerships." The Connect Africa Summit, held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, brought together some 1,000 participants, including political leaders, executives of information and ICT companies and heads of development banks. Also includes "Intel backs wireless Africa plan" from the BBC.
31 October 2007
Africa: Small Countries Easier to Connect to ICTs - NSN Official AllAfrica.com
Countries that span over a small geographical area such as Rwanda can easily be wired up using the latest technologies compared to larger ones - probably explaining why Rwanda is catching up the information age fastest, a Nokia Siemens Networks senior executive said on Tuesday.
30 October 2007
Uruguay buys first US$100 laptops BBC
The first official order for the so-called "$100 laptop" has been placed by the government of Uruguay. Also, "Negroponte: Windows key to OLPC philosophy" and from Reuters, "'$100 laptop' hits $200".
africa: Address Electricity Shortfall to Achieve Connectivity - Experts AllAfrica.com
The lack of access to electricity must be addressed comprehensively by African governments if any meaningful improvements in ICT connectivity are to occur, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has pointed out.
Upwardly mobile Africa: key to development lies in their hands The Guardian
In the barren surroundings of Kwa Phake in the north-east of South Africa, students from the town used to have to leave the families they often support and travel many miles to attend the University of South Africa. They can now study from home, even receiving exam results, using their mobile phones.
29 October 2007
Africa waiting for net revolution BBC
More than a third of Africa's citizens should have access to broadband internet by 2012, a conference of technology leaders is set to hear. Fewer than four out of 100 Africans currently use the internet, and broadband penetration is below 1%. The barriers to broadband access are key talking points at the Connect Africa meeting in Kigali, in Rwanda.
22 October 2007
Emerging market governments are getting smarter at using technology to support policy objectives, according to Economist Intelligence Unit report Economist Intelligence Unit
Governments in the emerging world are increasingly turning to technology to support their economic and social development goals, including things like strengthening competitiveness, improving quality of life, supporting disenfranchised population segments and ultimately boosting economic growth. While in the past the focus of technology access programmes was largely on narrowing the "digital divide" -- which in practice usually meant boosting personal computer (PC) penetration -- a new generation of programmes is taking a significantly different approach, according to Wiring up: technology-led development in the emerging world, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit sponsored by Microsoft and AMD.
17 October 2007
Kenya awards internet cable deal BBC
Kenya has awarded an US$82m undersea internet cable project to the French-American company Alcatel-Lucent.
12 October 2007
Internet revolution reaches India's poor International Herald Tribune
Manohar Lakshmipathi does not own a computer. In fact, workmen like Manohar, a house painter, are usually forbidden to touch clients' computers on the job here. So you can imagine Manohar's wonder as he sat dictating his date of birth, phone number and work history to a secretary who entered them into a computer. Afterward, a man took his photo. Then, with a click of a mouse, Manohar's very own social-networking page popped onto the World Wide Web, the newest profile on Babajob.com.
10 October 2007
Mobile Phones Help Narrow Digital Divide PC World
Increased computer usage and better e-mail and Web access may narrow the digital divide, although globalization critics may perceive such changes as a threat to local cultures and economies, a new Pew Research Center study suggests.
05 October 2007
ps: Nablus' online link to the world The Guardian
The internet is a vital source of contact for businesses, families and lovers living with the daily difficulties of Israeli occupation in the West Bank city, reports Clare Simon
04 October 2007
Mobile phones and development: The future in new hands? ID21 Insights
'Explosive' is the only way to describe mobile phone growth. Half the world's 6.5 billion people now use a mobile (up from two billion just two years ago). There are more than twice as many mobile owners in developing countries as in industrialised countries. Subscriber growth rates in developing countries are 25 percent per year - and double that in Africa.
02 October 2007
Broadband Connectivity: Intel's Big Goal in India E-Commerce Times
Developing countries -- virgin markets without the historical load of copper landlines -- are the perfect places for experimenting. That's why Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, has added India to the list of more than 250 trials and commercial deployments in more than 12 countries worldwide, where he's running pilot WiMAX projects in schools and hospitals.
30 September 2007
A PC for peasant farmers? China targets digital divide. Christian Science Monitor
Reporter Peter Ford says the goal of putting a computer into tens-of-millions of Chinese households is a grand goal, but not such a far-fetched one.
27 September 2007
Phone credit low? Africans go for "beeping" Reuters
If you are in Sudan it is a "missed call." In Ethiopia it is a "miskin" or a "pitiful" call. In other parts of Africa it is a case of "flashing," "beeping" or in French-speaking areas "bipage." Wherever you are, it is one of the fastest-growing phenomena in the continent's booming mobile telephone markets -- and it's a headache for mobile operators who are trying to figure out how to make some money out of it.
CONFERENCE: Harnessing the Web to speed rural development Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
An international conference on how to help rural communities harness new Internet technology for rural development and natural resource management opens on 25 September at FAO headquarters in Rome.
26 September 2007
Swiss work to bridge Africa's digital divide SwissInfo
Switzerland has backed a project to boost high-speed internet access in Africa to help bridge the digital divide with the rest of the world. The Connect Africa initiative will officially be launched in Rwanda next month and aims to make internet connectivity widely and cheaply accessible.
25 September 2007
Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free - OLPC New York Times
One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world, seems to have stirred more interest than it has orders. Marketers are now offering a "Give 1 Get 1" deal, in which Americans and Canadians can buy two laptops for $399.
23 September 2007
Remote Vietnamese village gets Internet access via WiMax InfoWorld
WiMax and a satellite connection are bringing broadband Internet access to a remote Vietnamese village, part of a collaboration between the public and private sector to narrow the digital divide in rural Vietnam.
