RE: Reports on few conferences in Africa

Dear Ken, Stephane, CCs,

Good to get a discussion going on this matter, as it is not of minor
importance.

I agree with Ken that it's hard to make general statements, or that it's
possible to make a checklist with do's and don'ts. Not being an
antropologist myself, I believe that if you're going to rural Africa,
the Look/Listen/Learn approach works. Perhaps a L3C body would make
sense :-)

Stephane: coming back to your question about reports with findings, I
haven't got such reports lying around, but I can briefly share another
example with you. It's the story of a chicken-farm project which was
funded and executed by the EU. 

The story is short and simple: educate a family in rural Zambia about
how to hold a chicken-farm, start this farm together with them, and the
whole town should be able eat meat shortly. This project failed, as the
family that was involved became social outcasts: local culture did not
permit private ownership or simply keeping things for yourself, and was
based (as many rural African environments) on a community principle
where everything is shared. The family even had to move as they became
so isolated that it wasn't possible to live there normally anymore.

TNO is in the process of writing a report with a 'system approach' for
innovation in rural environments. It won't provide the answers to the
topics I've mentioned, but it will contain a lot of questions to get you
started. Running a project in rural Africa is unlike anything you've
implemented in the west for sure. 

When the report is finised I'll be happy to share it with those who'd be
interested in it.

Regards,
Gjalt


-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Banks, kiwanja.net [mailto:ken.banks@kiwanja.net] 
Sent: dinsdag 19 juni 2007 22:18
To: 'stephane boyera'; Loots, G. (Gjalt)
Cc: public-mwi-ec@w3.org
Subject: Reports on few conferences in Africa

Hi Stephane, Gjalt, all

Digging into cultural issues is always an interesting one, and it's no
surprise that there are differences here. I have recently returned from
a mobile workshop in Nairobi and it was very interesting to hear how
strong many of the Africans felt about the cultural barriers, and how
much they felt they weren't truly understood beyond their own
boundaries. One female delegate, for example, works with women's groups
in Uganda where it is forbidden for women in the rural areas she works
to own a mobile. She is keen to use the technology in her education and
health outreach, but the best technology in the world won't unlock her
particular situation, at least not in the short term.

Many rural areas in Africa are quite distinct from others, and it's hard
to make blanket statements, the kinds you can 'generally' make when
talking of Americans or British people, for example. Understanding this
is key, and examples of successes and failures would be a start, for
sure.

This area is of huge interest to me, and others like Jan Chipchase spend
a lot of their time trying to understand cultural dynamics.

Ken



-----Original Message-----
From: public-mwi-ec-request@w3.org [mailto:public-mwi-ec-request@w3.org]
On Behalf Of stephane boyera
Sent: 19 June 2007 02:40
To: Loots, G. (Gjalt)
Cc: public-mwi-ec@w3.org
Subject: Re: Reports on few conferences in Africa


Hi Gjalt,

Thanks for your answer. It triggers lots of interesting questions.

 > Thanks for sharing these insights. Your finding that many projects
share  > PC+internet approach (and not going for a mobile data service
platform)  > also is similar with TNO's capacity building through ICT
project.
 > Important for rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa is always the
> issue with 'ownership' of a service: PC's plus a VSAT internet  >
connection present a tangible solution that can be adopted by local  >
people. A mobile phone service is still something 'far away' and mostly
> 'built by people that haven't shown their faces here'.

What you are saying is very interesting. I would be happy to understand
that. I was in Uganda 2 weeks ago, and what i heard was exactly at the
opposite: i was in a rural community, 600 km/12hours away from Kampala
the capital, in the mountain without sealed road. One NGOs installed a
while ago a tele-center with few PC+VSAT.
People rapidly understood that using some services on the web saves time
and money. That said, the cost of the minute was just twice the price of
1mn airtime. But then, they had to go for a training, they had to queue
for an available PC, they have to rely on electricity and so on. So
having access to the same services from their phone, even if it is twice
the price (which is really close) would help them a lot.

So for now, in my own view, there are 2 worlds those believing in 
PC+VSAT and those believing in mobile platform. My own opinion is that
there are probably use cases for both approaches, and it could be very
interesting to understand in which conditions one approach is better
than the other.
So as i trust TNO experience, i would be happy to understand more in
details both assertions you made:
"PC's plus a VSAT internet connection present a tangible solution that
can be adopted by local": are you talking about sustainable business ? 
or are you just considering the infrastructure ? what do you mean by
"adopted" ?  can a community afford it ?
I recently read an interesting article ([1]) on the nokia-siemens
Networks village connection. In my view this is somehow the same
approach as PC+VSAT for mobile phones. What do you think ?

[1]
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/information_technology/re
port
-83669.html
http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Microsites/Entry_Event/Materials/Nokia_
Siem
ens_Networks_Village_Connection.pdf

Then "A mobile phone service is still something 'far away' and mostly
  'built by people that haven't shown their faces here'."
I need also to understand that. Are you talking also about ICT services
on mobile or infrastructure ? So far all the users i met were really
happy with mobile phones, and adopted the device. But i agree that if an
area is not connected, then building the infrastructure in terms on
mobile telephony may be harder except with the above mentionned
solution.

 > people
 > Cultural aspects like those are very important for adoption by
Africans;  > we've seen projects fail simply because of this aspect.
Hopes this adds  > to your understanding!

That an interesting point. I've the feeling that we could develop
expertise in understanding both successes and failures. Do you have any
report/documentation/ressources that describe such failures and the
related analysis ?


Best Regards
Stephane

Loots, G. (Gjalt) wrote:
> Hi Stephane,
> 
> Thanks for sharing these insights. Your finding that many projects 
> share
> PC+internet approach (and not going for a mobile data service 
> PC+platform)
> also is similar with TNO's capacity building through ICT project.
> Important for rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa is always the 
> issue with 'ownership' of a service: PC's plus a VSAT internet 
> connection present a tangible solution that can be adopted by local 
> people. A mobile phone service is still something 'far away' and 
> mostly 'built by people that haven't shown their faces here'.
> 
> Cultural aspects like those are very important for adoption by 
> Africans; we've seen projects fail simply because of this aspect. 
> Hopes this adds to your understanding!
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Gjalt Loots
> TNO ICT
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-mwi-ec-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:public-mwi-ec-request@w3.org]
> On Behalf Of stephane boyera
> Sent: maandag 18 juni 2007 13:39
> To: public-mwi-ec@w3.org
> Subject: Reports on few conferences in Africa
> 
> 
> 
> Let me try to make this list a bit more active !
> 
> I'm just back from 4 weeks around africa going to different 
> conferences and events, and also meeting associations and visiting 
> people. So It is time to make a quick summary. (beware, long mail 
> ahead !). 4 parts: one about ist-africa conference, one about the W3C 
> Southern Africa Office Opening, one on the 3GSM east&central africa 
> conference, one about some data i gathered in Uganda about gsm cost
and connectivity.
> 
> 1-Ist-Africa Maputo, Mozambique
> (http://www.ist-africa.org/Conference2007/ )
> 
> Audience
> This conference is funded by the EU commission (this one was the 2nd
> edition) to gather representatives from all over Africa and Europe, 
> focusing on ICT for development.
> There were around 350 people.
> 
> Program
> 4 parrallel tracks during the 3 days, with a mix of technical 
> presentations, business presentations (about sustainability), research

> topics and use cases.
> Lots of different topics focused on how ICT can leverage countries 
> development, mostly: e-learning, e-government, e-health, 
> e-infrastucture (internet deployment) (also few other session of eu 
> opportunity for funding, environmental risk management,...)
> 
> My comments
> The biggest value of this event for me was about the networking. I met

> lots of very interesting people, representatives from governments, 
> universities, or NGOs from all over africa (mostly southern).
> About the technical aspects of the program, i was more than surprised.

> All the people i met in Bangalore workshop were believing hard in the 
> mobile platform, and its potential. They were all convinced that it 
> would be almost impossible to deploy PC and wired internet. So i 
> sincerely believed that this was a shared analysis. But this is not 
> the case. As of today, most of the presenter, particualrly those 
> representing governments, are still thinking that ICT=PC+wired 
> internet And there are lots of project specifically focusing on 
> developping tele-center with few PC around the countries. All those
projects always
>    emphasis on the limited impact of such solutions to reach rural 
> communities, and particularly nomad populations, and also the problem 
> of maintenance of PC, availability of wired internet,...
> Just few presentations are considering the mobile platform for the 
> future. Just 2 presentations were about using mobile phones but for 
> e-learning only.
> 
> About my talk (http://www.w3.org/2007/04/sb_ist/all.htm ), there were 
> about 40-50 participants in the room, but i didn't attract the right 
> crowd imho, because i was in a session called e-infrastructure, 
> burried between people talking about satellite networking and the 
> eu-africa research network. so clearly, nothing related to the topic i

> was addressing. However, the chair of the session was very interested,

> and, in order to seed the mobile web idea, i will explore how to 
> organize a track next year on the topic of using mobile phones for
ICT.
> 
> 
> 2-W3C Southern Africa Office Opening, Pretoria, South Africa
> (http://www.w3.org/News/2007#item94 )
> My talk: http://www.w3.org/2007/04/sb_saopening/all.htm
> 
> This event was organized by W3C as the launch event for its new office

> opened in South Africa, and covering the whole Southern region of 
> Africa.
> 
> Attendance: ~70-80 people, majority from Meraka Institute, but also 
> people from country around (Mozambique, Botswana,...) Industry and 
> academic.
> 
> The format was quite successful: 3 sessions: one on the opening 
> itself, then 2 more technical.
> For me it was the most successful office opening meeting, for the 
> format, but also because at the end of the day the office has a 
> roadmap defined by the discussion during the day (a workshop, with a 
> defined audience and defined set of topics).
> This successful output is imho due to the presence of a meeting 
> facilitator. I never heard before of such existing job, but the guy 
> drove all the discussion session and he was really good.
> 
> For me, i discovered lots of the activites taking place at the Meraka 
> Institute(http://www.meraka.org.za/ ), and i was impressed by the 
> whole organization, thier strengths, and their outgoing work. I dind't

> know before that there was a research center of this quality. That's 
> encouraging to have contacts with people that will play an important 
> role of relay between W3C and local activities. This relay will be 
> bi-directionnal, promoting the usage of W3C standards and also to 
> provide requirements, uses case, applications to W3C. Relying on such 
> strong players locally is, imho, a key success for any work we will do

> in the area of the digital divide.
> 
> 
> 3-3GSM east & central Africa, Nairobi, Kenya 
> (http://www.gsm-3gworldseries.com/newt/l/gsm/events/ecafrica/ ) My
talk:
> http://www.w3.org/2007/04/sb_3gsm/all.htm
> Attendance:
> quite a small audience
> *about 250 people-almost 90% salesman afaik, around 100 people in the 
> conf room (plenary) and about 50 people in my session (2 tracks the 
> second day)
> 
> *about 20-30 booths: 80% on network technologies(tower, antennas, sim 
> card producers, how to place the relay,...), nobody from the content 
> providers side (except music as such or as ringtone and games). mobile

> web browsing is almost 0%.
> 
> Overall comments
> Some of the talks, particularly the plenary were very interesting to 
> get the picture.
> An interesting talk from the Africa chairman of GSMA V. Olunga. few 
> excerpt from his talk:
> -integration of internet access in strategic plans -africa mobile
> subscribers: fixed line vs mobile ration 1:10 -a tool of business and 
> administration -60% of africa covered - 70% by the end of the year 10 
> countries has more than 90% coverage -problem is still rural africa
> 
> Another one from Mrs Mbongue (research analyst) -200 millions 
> subcribed reached 1Q07 (1 year from 100 to 200): nigeria, SA, Algeria 
> top 3 big markets -growth drivers is mobile browsing
> 
>  From Marc Rennard (orange, responsible for Africa Asia & middle
east):
> - the trend is to go to free simcard (free subscription) and charge on

> service use
> - 95% of revenue from africa is voice and SMS
> 
> Except these plenary talks, in terms of contacts, it is disappointing.

> No real interest now, despite what said in plenary talks, on 
> developing internet access from mobile phones among participants. Just

> one very interesting (ie relevant to the mobile web topic) 
> presentation made by Dr Fisseha Mekuria, head of telecom engineering 
> dept, GSTIT (telecom
> schools) in Ethiopia, about specific usability context in Africa, and 
> usability of mobile applications in rural areas .
> 
> What was really disappointing for me was the current trend of 
> considering mobile browsing only for high-end phones and 3G network.
> People may be interested to read mu thought on this topic in an 
> article i wrote last week :
> http://www.w3.org/blog/MWITeam/2007/06/06/enabling_web_browsing_on_eme
> rg
> ing_market
> 
> 
> Eventually i made one very interesting contact with someone working 
> exactly on the same area of the work i presented :  Dr Fisseha 
> Mekuria,head of telecom engineering dept, GSTIT (telecom schools), 
> Ethiopia fisseha.mekuria@gstit.edu.et . He is a potential host of one 
> of our workshop in africa. He is focusing on usability of mobile 
> applications in rural areas.
> My overall feeling is that it is not really worth the cost and the 
> time to participate to such localized event. I will focus on the big 
> 3GSM Africa event taking place once a year in Cape Town. I will give a

> talk there next november.
> 
> 
> 4-Uganda
> I was there mostly for vacation but i found lots of very intersting 
> data i wanted to report. I was amazed to see that almost 100% of the 
> zone i visited (the whole west uganda) was served by gsm, including 
> national park !
> What was also a discover is the most widespread phone is the motorola 
> c113, the one who won the GSMA emerging market handset program, sold 
> at 25$ (i thought about buying one for myself !) in phones shops 
> (without any operator deal).
> I was also interested to see the price of internet cafe in rural area:

> around 100shilling/minutes (0.05eur) while phone credit is around 
> 200shilling /mn (0.1eur) so this is not a so huge difference. In town,

> internet cafe are around 20shilling/minute (0.01) and here the phone 
> cost is then 10 times higher.
> 
> 
> I will try in the future to make this list more active by posting 
> information about future events, or new relevant to this topic.
> 
> I will also in the next few weeks rework the wiki and try to make 
> different sections as i've a bunch of ressources to share on different

> subject (some events, emerging market handsets, ...).
> 
> I encourage also other participants to also post information, comments

> they have !
> 
> Feel also free to tell me if you think that such report are useful or 
> useless.
> 
> cheers
> Stephane

-- 
Stephane Boyera		stephane@w3.org
W3C				+33 (0) 4 92 38 78 34
BP 93				fax: +33 (0) 4 92 38 78 22
F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex,		
France


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Received on Wednesday, 20 June 2007 06:09:19 UTC