This is just very, very sad: CNN.com - Official: Africans pay $1,800 for 1GB of data - May 18, 2006.
Just in case you're still missing something regarding the $100 laptop: RED HERRING | Q&A: Nicholas Negroponte
There was a fair amount of disappointment with the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). As far as the two primary issues that were expected to be addressed by the summit, internet governance and the Digital Solidarity Fund, are concerned, nothing really happened. But, since the summit ended there have been some things trickling down the pipeline - some more interesting than others. The newest announcement related to the WSIS is the launch of the GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND DEVELOPMENT. The announcement for this alliance is actually quite interesting for several reasons. First of all it emphasizes that the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be achieved unless ICTs are effectively integrated into development activities across the board. This may not seem new - the MDGs do mention ICTs and the need for ICTs in development efforts. But, this announcement goes further in stating that the success of development efforts depends on the integration of ICTs. Secondly is the makeup of the alliance. It is meant to be a "multi-stakeholder" collaboration that goes far beyond the traditional make-up of groups working on development in that it should include non- and under-represented groups and that these groups are intended to collaborate.
It will certainly be interesting to see what comes out of this.
Seems like there's a lot of talk about open source software in regards to development these days.
The BBC's Bill Thompson has an interesting story on open source software in India: BBC NEWS | Technology | India lays down 'open' challenge
Among other things, he touches on the isolation of Indian coders. There are Indian special interest groups, coders are doing much more than simply localising existing software and there is a lot of government support, but there is a lack of project that are really focused on solving Indian problems. This seems like it could be a sort of chicken-or-the-egg question similar to the "who gets ICT first, student or the teacher?" I mention in a previous post. Especially when we consider that open source software relies on the voluntary feedback of real users to identify problems. Maybe the issue is that they need more users rather than government support...
This sounds very interesting. Too bad I don't get BBC World! Maybe it'll be available for free download after the BBC airing...
Coming Soon: The Code Breakers - a BBC World Documentary on FOSS and Development
A very insightful article on the BBC website today about how ICTs are being used in rapidly changing India: BBC NEWS | Technology | India aims to be hi-tech heaven
Intel to design a cheap laptop and put $1 billion into teacher training worldwide. Intel to Offer Its Own Plan for Global Internet Access - New York Times
At some point sometime, Negroponte, of the $100 laptop project, said that he didn't feel that teacher training was the right way to go in a development sense, better to target the children. I agree with him up to a certain point. I wouldn't rule out the teacher training route because I feel that to maximize the benefits of ICTs as a learning technology for a learning society they need to be integrated into the classroom and therefore teachers will be an issue sooner or later. I think that as long as people are aware of the difficulties and time factors involved in targeting the teachers they should be able to design programmes that work.
Intel's site about the World Ahead programme is here: Intel - World Ahead.
This article on BBC News considers how perceptions of the media are changing in an information age. Interesting read. BBC NEWS | Technology | Media holds its own in trust poll