Can the Web 2.0 benefit the World’s poor?
June 13th, 2007 by Edward Addo-Dankwa
This has been some of the main questions on the minds of many internet users. The issues of whether Web 2.0 is a new development or a reparkaged set of already existing tools is not relevant to many people in the catagory if “the world’s poor”. To these people, the most important thing is whether these tools can realy help alleviate their poverty. Many of these people are themselves not interested in the tools, but how these tools can be used to help them out of their poverty. From my own point of view, working with the rural poor and exploring how ICT could be used to reduce their poverty, I think we should be exploring the possibilities of using these tools to effectively raise the livelihoods of the poor farmers and traders who are in the majority. Issues of poor connectivity in major towns and communities in developing countries bring up a serious challenge to the promoters of any new technological advancement in the world which in most cases are targeted at reducing poverty. Can we look again at the issue of connectivity, especially in areas where dial-up is even a problem. How can these people effectively use the wonderful features that Web 2.0 offers?
Food for thought
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You might be interested in an article with (almost) the same title on .net Magazine
Development 2.0: can the web save the world?
http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-culture/development-2-0-can-the-web-save-the-world
I feel that the discussion about “Can Web 2.0 benefit the World’s poor?” is often focussed too much on the idea of direct access of the poor to this new technology. Issues of connectivity, hardware etc. are then of course a big issue.
I am looking at this more in the framework of the service landscape in rural areas in general. And to me, a more impact oriented approach would be to support and promote access and usage to/of Web2.0 on the Meso-Level of rural service providers. They in turn could then improve their services to the “poor”.
With many problems in developing countries a conference focusing on Web2ForDev might appear a bit contradictory. But as Joachim is pointing out the view on the possibilities and of course challenges of Web 2.0 should be broader based. It this case the first target groups are not directly the “poor”. A lot of so called intermediaries can take advantage from the opportunities of Web 2.0 tools and the exchange that is possible within the networks that are built using Web 2.0. The conference Web2ForDev aims to bring together people that can share concrete experiences in using Web 2.0 with focus on the rural and agricultural development. In many ways that could benefit the “poor” at the end.
to add my two cents worth to this debate, personally i was asking the same question as edward. .. i must admit, its not always that we see the broader issues, and even when we do, we may not have the ‘exact answers’. recently, i came across a research article on a project based in rural uganda. the project combines online and offline information sharing to help rural farmers, mostly women. extention workers act as intermediaries (as anja mentions), by getting information from the web, and repackages and shares with the rural farmers .. .. not sure if the website incorporates any web 2.0 concepts, but to me this was a good example of what i was looking for in web4dev.. ..
I’ve only just discovered this blog today - thanks to PSD blog. It’s great to see discussions like this on the Internet and to to me that’s what Web 2.0 is all about - folks sharing knowledge, not just a list of their favourite bands but all sorts of knowledge. To use some Web 2.0 jargon, it’s the long tail. These technologies are the best hope we have right now for getting really important information to people who really, really need it.
Back in January I visted Nekemte in Ethiopia to see how viable it might be to deliver weather forecasts to subsistence farmers using mashups, mobile phones or whatever technology would do the trick. “Internet - rural Ethiopia, are you mad?” several folks said. But we went, we met people, we got sick, and what did we discover? Yes, they already have an Internet cafe, yes they have cell phones. No they’ve never had a newspaper, and yes they will soon have their own radio station - sometime next year.
So folks, the message from Ethiopia seems to be, it might not be perfect, but for now the Internet is the best hope subsistence farmers have to enter the Information Age. So now the challenge for my group is to deal with the last mile (or 50) to get weather forecasts from the Internet to the fields. Could be by local radio, or extension workers, or a girl on a bicyle. I don’t know yet, but it’s going to be a great adventure…..
Michael Saunby (wepoco)
The impact of web2.0 tools as we see today might not directly affect the rural poor as someone rightly put it.The bennefit of this tool to the rural poor who form the majority much depends on the issue of connectivity and access.The question i also ask is how do we solve the problem of rural connectivity in order to extend the benefits of web2.0 tools much wider beyond the scope of the cities. We can suggest very explicit solutions on this medium just for the sake of argument and discussion but how realistic will these suggestions be without dealing with the core issue of connectivity.I suggest we find some space for the topic” Promoting Rural Connectivity and Access”
I’m happy to join a discussion on rural connectivity issues and solutions. There are many different approaches. Here are some ideas that might suit some situations.
For the developers of Web2.0 sites consider Google Gears - http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/ This allows suitably built websites to work offline.
http://www.firstmilesolutions.com/ is an interesting new interpretation of what used to be called “sneaker-net” when data was carried between PCs on floppy disks.
Personally I think that cell/mobile phone are going to be really important for rural users. Even here in the UK family and friends who farm for a living don’t have time to use a PC most days.