While I don’t care for the general concept of this article (solving complex issues like poverty requires more than just a new technological tool – it requires a political/ideological shift in thinking) – Can the cellphone help end global poverty – the impact of mobile phones on developing worlds is touch to over emphasize. The author cites “a growing number of economists who maintain that cellphones can restructure developing countries…Today, there are more than 3.3 billion mobile-phone subscriptions worldwide, which means that there are at least three billion people who don’t own cellphones, the bulk of them to be found in Africa and Asia. Even the smallest improvements in efficiency, amplified across those additional three billion people, could reshape the global economy in ways that we are just beginning to understand.” This is likely true. But the bigger issue for me relates to where the money flows and who will have control over the new infrastructure. As I was reminded by a participant in an online presentation I delivered this morning, technology cuts both ways. It opens and it closes. It frees and it imprisons. That’s why we an ideological shift in how we interact with developing nations.
The article provides a valuable look at how mobile phones are being adopted in developing countries, with growth in ICT expenditures out pacing basics such health and education.
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3 Comments
It will be interesting to see after all the ‘politics’ involved with the development of the One Laptop per Child project, whether the huge growth of business in any mobile phone related company in a developing nation, will reduce the need for them…by the time they can distribute them to every child (if that does happen), they might already be using a mobile phone or a local mobile phone ‘service’ to do these things…
> solving complex issues like poverty requires more than just a new technological tool – it requires a political/ideological shift in thinking
This is the most important point.
And it is important to keep in mind that much of the publicity surrounding the use of mobile phones in the developing world is intended specifically to distract us from the fact that we must make a political and ideological shift in our thinking.
This coverage is intended to make us think that “everything is OK” and that no other changes are needed. That could not be further from the truth.
Hi, do you think it is worth pursuing / encouraging adoption of mobile technologies – I am struggling with the shift in thinking – I’m not sure exactly what you were both referring to – have attempted to explain with a conclusion that maybe its not as worthwhile as I thought it might be, because I can’t see ways to prevent or fix existing issues ?