Re: White paper on the potential next steps on mobile web in developing countries

[removing people from the to or cc who are in public-mwi-ec@w3.org list, 
just keeping Jan and Venkatesh who are not on the list. If they wish to 
be on it, they could drop me a mail]

I've the feeling that there are 2 separate discussions here, and each 
one is important

- About handsets and technology
The few messages i read on this subject here are reflecting the two 
major opinions i've been facing within W3C and also discussing with 
other organization. The 2 positions are :

there is nothing to do, just wait one or 2 years and then the average 
mobile phone in DEveloping countries will be the same as the one we have 
today in the developed world

VS

we should not expect the same process taking place in the developed 
world (as of today, almost nobody in eg europe have a phone older than 2 
or 3 years, and with very low capabilities ) to append in the developing 
world because of the grey/second hand market or because people would 
focus on products aimed at their market (cheap and reliable for hte 
specific condition). So we should expect to fit with the specific 
devices existing in the developing world.

Personnaly, i've no idea who is right and what is the right approach. If 
analogy would work, then looking at other products may help. Eg for 
cars, one travelling in the developing world would understand that the 
timeframe for new cars to come to the developing world is perhaps 20 to 
30 years, and even after that time, there is still half of the cars 
which are from the older cycles. But i'm pretty sure, we can't compare 
the two markets.

So eventually, i think that to have an idea on which of the two options 
we should bet to build on, it is very important to gather datas on what 
are the characteristics of eg 80% of the phone in eg few countries in 
south-east asia, africa and latin america.

If somebody has an idea on how we could proceed to gather such datas, i 
think it would be of primary importance.



- About services and audience

It think here the discussion triggered by Ken is a bit different. Since 
i started working on this subject about a year ago, i think that i have 
this approach : what are the needs for the population ? That said, if i 
agree that the point is not to provide web access to rural communities 
or under-priviledged population, i don't think that we should oppose 
technology vs social approach.
I think this is the 2 parts of the same approach, and we should tackle 
the problem by both ends. my view is that by providing technologies, you 
trigger needs : that sounds like liberal consumerist view, but this is 
not: example : who thought that sms may help rural communities before we 
saw the first applications providing services which are really useful, 
help people and imporve their daily lives ? nobody it think.
Now, i'm understanding that people are saying : well we have voice and 
sms service and this is enough to provide minimal services.
I agree that we can do something with such technology, but i do think 
that enabling a better technology, the web, would allow people to answer 
needs in a better way, or more approprietly. In few words, my view is 
that yes we should work on understanding the needs, and seeing how we 
could answer them with existing technology, and at the same time, we 
should also working at enabling better technologies for better answers.
So work for a better today and also work for an even better tomorrow at 
the same time :)

(if people are interested i wrote a paper i will present at ist-africa 
2007 conference in hwich i'm exposing my view on why i think the mobile 
web is a better technology than sms : the mobile web to bridge the 
digital divide ? 
http://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/ist-africa-final.pdf )


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

Received on Friday, 2 March 2007 08:44:56 UTC