News Release: W3C Workshop in Africa to Explore the Role of Mobile Technologies For Development

W3C Workshop in Africa to Explore the Role of Mobile Technologies For 
Development

Participants to Examine the Potential of Innovation in Emerging Markets


Web Resources:
==============
This press release:
  - in English:
     http://www.w3.org/2008/11/mw4dafrica-pressrelease.html.en
  - in French:
     http://www.w3.org/2008/11/mw4dafrica-pressrelease.html.fr
  - in Portuguese:
     http://www.w3.org/2008/11/mw4dafrica-pressrelease.html.pt-br

W3C Workshop on the Africa Perspective on the Role of Mobile 
Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development:
     http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/

Digital World Forum EC project:
     http://www.digitalworldforum.eu/

W3C Mobile Web Initiative:
     http://www.w3.org/Mobile/


http://www.w3.org/ -- 25 November 2008 -- As part of its mission to 
ensure that the Web is available to all, W3C invites participation in a 
public Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social 
and Economic Development in Africa in Maputo, Mozambique, on 1-2 April 
2009. Participants will explore ways to fulfill the potential of mobile 
phones as a platform for deploying development-oriented ICT services 
towards the poorest segments of populations in developing countries, 
with an emphasis on the African context.

"The penetration and low cost of mobile telephony in developing 
countries, combined with its ability to provide Internet access, gives 
us the possibility of providing Internet-based services to billions of 
people who would not otherwise be able to afford it," explains George 
Sadowsky, co-chair of the Workshop. "The potential to use the mobile 
Internet for providing real social and economic benefits to such people 
is immense, and deserves to be explored and exploited."

Participants will explore ways to lower existing barriers faced by both 
content providers — grassroots, NGOs, governments, and local 
entrepreneurs seeking to develop and deploy services, and users who face 
issues related to illiteracy, internationalization, accessibility, and 
usability.

Anyone may attend and must provide a statement of interest in order to 
participate due to limited space; more information about participation 
is available. The meeting will feature real-time simultaneous 
translation in Portuguese, English and French.

Sponsorship Opportunities Seek to Enable Broad Participation

W3C invites all stakeholders who wish to support the event to become 
Workshop Sponsors. A three-tier Sponsorship Program has been designed 
both to showcase the sponsor organization and to support the 
participation of those with expertise who might not otherwise be able to 
attend due to travel or other costs.

The Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Mozambique 
will host this Workshop. This Workshop is organized as part of the the 
Digital World Forum project (European Union's 7th Research Framework 
Programme - FP7) which seeks to understand how low-cost technologies can 
help bridge the digital divide.

The event is the third organized by W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) 
about the mobile Web and social development; see previous meetings in 
Bangalore, India, and continued in São Paulo, Brazil. MWI aims to 
identify and resolve challenges and issues of accessing the Web when on 
the move.

Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East -- (on site at ICT 2008)
     Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33 6 76 86 33 41
Contact Americas, Australia --
     Ian Jacobs, <ij@w3.org>, +1.718.260.9447
Contact Asia --
     Fumihiro Kato <fumi@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170


About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where 
Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to 
develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the 
creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term 
growth for the Web. Over 440 organizations are Members of the 
Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and 
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European 
Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) 
headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan, and has additional 
Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

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Received on Tuesday, 25 November 2008 08:20:46 UTC