Our underlying theme is investigating how ICTs affect human development. There are many who argue that connection to the internet and/or mobile phone technologies will increase people’s participation in government, in economies, in education and thus increase their standard of living.

Technology and access to internet has advanced so much in the past years, that some will argue that there is no longer a question of whether people in remote areas will soon communicate online. Rather, we should talk about what forms of communication will take place.

The UK-based blog Mainstreaming ICT, says the time to integrate the mobile phone and the computer is now.

The Internet and mobile phones are both communication and information technologies so it makes sense to try to integrate them. We’ve been trying to intergrate them for a number of years with limited success but finally the Internet is becoming widely available and usable on a large number of mobile devices and at a reasonably low cost in many countries.

Of course the mobile browser based Internet is a different experience. You have to think in a different way - for instance: -
• Instead of Email - Think SMS
• Instead of computer sized screen - Think Mobile Phone screen
• Instead of huge functionality - Think MOST IMPORTANT functionality and simplicity
• Instead of flashy stuff and high bandwidth - think SIMPLE design and low bandwidth

…It makes sense to initially look at linking in with the big social networks such as Facebook/My Space & Ning - they all have Mobile Internet Interfaces but .. the sites weren’t originally designed with mobile in mind and IMHO it really shows.

Low bandwidth? No problem

One major problem facing internet users in the developing world is the combination of slow connectivity (or, interrupted connections) and graphic-intensive websites. News websites and social networking sites are often the worst offenders. (Here’s a nice rundown on the popularity of various social networking sites in Africa and Asia.)

Christian Kreutz at the blog Crisscrossed has a theory that many of the world’s languages have not been widely translated for applications, because so many people can’t read popular websites. The reason? Page load times are too long for people with questionable connections.

Here's a few examples:

• Checking up a profile on Facebook or at least access the log in page, which has alone almost 800kb! In a cybercafe, where you have to pay fees per minute, it may take up to 3 minutes with a dial up modem connection.
• Video or audio upload is almost impossible with a low bandwidth connection and can cost you a lot when your tariff is measured in volume instead of time.
• This blog is based on Wordpress, which is a great open source tool, but unfortunately not made for a dial up connections. If you want to publish a new post on Wordpress (2.7.1), you have to download over 750kb first.

Unfortunately even the free and open source community has little activity around low bandwidth solutions.

The blog Aid Worker Daily, based out of the US, has found a solution to viewing these slow-loading websites:

I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Loband but it is one of the best options for viewing websites over low bandwidth connections. It strips out all images, formatting, etc and leaves you with a text only rendering of the page which is still quite legible. You can view Aid Worker Daily over Loband HERE. Loband is the offspring of the geniuses over at Aptivate. (Of course, if you are using Firefox you can always go to Tools -> Options -> Content and deselect ‘Load images automatically’.)

Here is the home page for Global Voices Online via Loband.

Crisscrossed lists other products for low-bandwidth connections.

One really great initiative is Maneno, which not only tries to provide a low bandwidth blogging solution in Africa, but also focuses on offering multilingual options emphasising on various African languages such as Bamanankan and Swahili, beside French, English, Arabic and Portuguese. I got in contact with Maneno recently and their team ensured me that their system is designed as low as 13 kb without images and 33 kb including images…
Twitter can make a difference as it lets you send and receive messages via mobile phone. But, unfortunately, Twitter gave up its free SMS service a while ago. I asked one of the Twitter founders, Jack Dorsey, at the e-stats conference when the free service is coming back, to which he replied ‘on mid year.’ This leaves the question, ‘what can be said in 140 characters?’ Quite a lot when you look at the Mobile Voices project just featured by the Netsquared N2Y2 challenge.

But one thing is for sure, just because you only have low bandwidth connection, does not mean you want to see dull, text based websites. There are various ways to make websites look appealing and still reduce the data size considerable. Aptivate has excellent Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth.

Full disclosure: Maneno, the multi-lingual, low-bandwidth blogging platform, is in part run by three Global Voices authors. Here is a GV post about it.

Micro-blogging for fun and profit

People like micro-blogging, popularized through sites like Twitter and the business-oriented Yammer, because it is fast and relatively low-bandwidth. It’s quicker and easier than email and often even more informal. Micro-blogging has changed the way groups conduct crisis management, event coverage and issue advocacy.

But not everyone wants to attempt to micro-blog on the big sites because of the lack of privacy. There are a number of technologies that allow organizations to put micro-blogging to their own use to facilitate community building online.

Louis Gray, a US-based blogger, explains the federated platform of Laconi.ca, which he describes as a “group Twitter” – speaking to a distinct community rather than to the whole world.

Well, actually, it's more of a small community concept I'm refering to - your business can actually build communities off of this protocol, starting with the software that Identi.ca has provided. Identi.ca and Twitter are both very broad communities. People of all types and tastes are on those services. Those services are good for that - it's a great way to build relationships, meet new people, and find information. However, there is no way currently for me to associate only with those of like tastes and culture. For instance, if I am into college football and you are not, you aren't going to be interested in the details of the games I'm watching….

Now, what if [the US-based sports network] ESPN were to launch a version of Laconi.ca just for sports lovers? It would just take a simple install of Laconi.ca and a little cobranding of their logo, look, and feel and soon an entire community of sports lovers would be sharing their love for sports, communicating back and forth, and showing their other sports-loving friends what they're doing in their sports-loving life. At the same time, they could still follow all of those same friends they follow over on Identi.ca and even other interest communities, all while still on the ESPN sports community, remaining on the ESPN site. Imagine if this same technique was launched for Moms, Dads, religions, or even just your local city or town?

Here is a write-up on another open source micro-blogging platform: OpenMicroblogger.org

My mobile phone, my friend

The last post in this series began with the argument that we need to update the old story of the fisherman using his mobile phone to find the highest prices for his product. Back to the blog Crisscrossed, here is an update on what makes the mobile phone so important.

It is so special because it combines all former media, such as telephone, Internet, and even radio and television, and because one can:
1. Communicate and receive information (radio, television and Internet)
2. Document and collect information
3. Publish information in text, audio and video
4. Can network in different ways on a peer-to-peer basis

He also noted the mobile phone will help shape the public sphere by allowing citizen journalists to take photos. Phones allow people to participate in radio programs and through SMS-based campaigns. And they allow people to monitor elections.

Patrick Meier, from the group DigiActive, argues that people can now become activists simply by using a mobile phone. Portable telephones have been employed to organize and coordinate protests – specifically in the Philippines, Spain and Pakistan. Mobile phones have also been used to document human rights abuses, in Egypt, Tibet and Morocco.

But problems do exist. The cost of SMS communication is very high, especially in Africa. Mobile networks can be controlled by the government, Kreutz says. And, mobile providers are in businses to make money, not facilitate protest marches.

Sending hundreds of SMS texts

FrontlineSMS distributes a program allowing users to send and receive SMS messages in large groups without having to hook up to the internet.

Here is a write up in the blog Pulse + Signal about a FrontlineSMS project in Malawi, where they distributed mobile phones so doctors in hospitals can communicate with health workers in remote villages.

Despite all of the technological advancement surrounding these portable command centers of communication – all the bells and whistles that come equipped – we are at a point in the public/global health world hardly any of it matters.

A large amount of [moble technology for health] mHealth’s impact is being focused into developing, low-resource countries where there are numerous health issues needing to be addressed. The helpful technology that comes into play is SMS (Short Messaging Service). Fondly referred to as texting, SMS is one of the most basic aspects of the cell phone where data entered can be sent back and forth between phones. This service has been wildly useful in the implementation of more effective health initiatives around the world.

Finally, a video of FrontlineSMS staff training community health workers using SMS technology.

During my recent visit to his office in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, he chats with ease on Skype with another blind friend attending a conference in Los Angeles. When he opens an e-mail, the JAWS screen-reading software installed on his Lenovo laptop reads out the content in a robotic voice, which he seems quite accustomed to. When told that The Nut Graph is in the midst of incorporating disabled-friendly features into its website, he goes to the website to find out how accessible it is to his screen reader and keyboard navigation, and provides some helpful feedback.
Rahim relies on the internet for e-mail, to chat with friends and contacts on Yahoo! Messenger and Skype — which is much cheaper than on telephone — and to find out what's happening in the rest of the nation and world. He is also planning to develop a website to promote his family's body massage and foot reflexology centre, run by the blind, in Penang.

The World Health Organization estimates 600 million people live with disabilities — accounting for one in ten people on the planet. The World Bank claims three-out-of-four disabled people live in the developing world. In any corner of the globe, poverty and disability are often interrelated. For instance, more than 18 percent of disabled adults in the United States live below the poverty line. In Canada, the unemployment rate among persons living with disabilities recently jumped to nearly 15 percent.

Because technologies and communication devices help reduce physical barriers, ICTs provide a model to allow disabled people to better integrate socially and economically into their communities, argues Deepak Bhatia of the World Bank. Another promise of ICTs is they provide access to knowledge, the ability to organize and network. Perhaps most importantly, the education sector is being slowly transformed by technology, providing greater access to a variety of learning materials.

Human development and ICT use were discussed in general terms at a recent Harvard University conference. At the upcoming ITU Telecom World 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland, UNESCO will showcase flourishing ICT applications for people with disabilities.

Yam TW is an automotive engineer from Malaysia who lost his vision last year. At his blog, My Blind Sight, he writes about the importance of technical advances to help people living with disabilities.

Malaysia O Malaysia.. The rapid technological advances today have changed and impacted the lives of so many people, particularly the disabled. For the blind and the visually impaired, medical scientists and researchers, particularly from the west, are excited about the vast opportunities that can be explored and tapped in helping the blind to restore some level of sight. While it is important to create awareness in preventing sight loss among the rakyat(citizens), it is equally important too that more research work to be done in helping those already inflicted, blind due to various medical illness and causes. It is good to have modern assistive, both physical and ICT tools, which undoubtedly will enhance the independence of those concerned in their daily lives.

A few more examples of appropriate technology come from the blog Public dreams of a blind ICT user:

Sometimes dreams become reality, but first they must be dreamed. Hopefully I can find other active eInclusion dreamers in Europe.

I am dreaming of a fully accessible and usable Wikipedia for all. I am working for an accessibility project at the German Wikipedia and for example, on a Wikipedia help page for blind users. Wikipedia is an important part of the information society and should be supported:
http://www.epractice.eu/blog/154
I am dreaming of an independent and multi-lingual Blind Wiki with optimized user interface for blind readers and contributors:
http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Blind_Wiki:About
I am dreaming of an accessible and affordable mobile ICT device for the needs of blind persons. In the last 8 months, I have written hundreds of direct mails and posted lots of blog comments to inform disseminators and decision makers about the topic but it's a hard and sometimes demotivating work:
http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Letter_Initiative

The list goes on.

From the United States, Wheel Chair Kamikaze explains the importance of voice recognition tools to help him type and blog.

Multiple Sclerosis is a thief. It is indiscriminate in its larceny, robbing its victims of both the profound and the trivial. The disease has stolen from me elements that were once the very foundations of my life (my career, a large part of my social life, the expectation that I would one day learn to juggle), and things that by comparison might seem somewhat slight, like the ability to type.

Since my right hand now has about as much strength and dexterity as a latke, typing has become a strictly one-handed affair. I was never that great a typist to begin with…

When MS robbed me of the use of my right hand, it made typing, which had always been an arduous two fingered affair anyway, into a one fingered nightmare. My ability to communicate via the QWERTY keyboard was virtually eliminated, a major handicap in this day of Internet bulletin boards, e-mail, and instant messaging. How then, the astute reader may ask, am I able to compose the drivel that I post to this blog?

The answer comes in the form of an amazing piece of technology, a voice recognition software program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This wonder allows me to simply speak my thoughts, and see them magically transcribed onto my computer screen. It's like something out of Harry Potter, but without all of the crazy protesters claiming that it promotes Satan.

Without Dragon, I would have been rendered mute to the world of the Internet, and instead would have been left only to rant at Melvin, the giant Kleenex who is my invisible friend. The program has relieved me entirely of the need to type, and if I were to wake up 100% healthy tomorrow, I'd continue using it.

Deaf communities in most developing countries face similar problems, writes Lourdes Pietrosemoli. “One of them is the lack of programmes specifically designed for the local Sign Languages of their communities.”

In Venezuela for example, although the Constitution states the right of linguistic minorities (and the deaf community is globally regarded as such) to receive education in their own language, in practice this is rarely accomplished because, on the one hand, there are no professionals who appropriately handle the two languages involved: Spanish and Venezuelan Sign Language (LSV) and, on the other hand, there are no curricula tailored to the needs of the deaf.

However, Pietrosemoli describes how six deaf participants took part in a IT Essentials training by the Cisco Networking Academy in Merida, Venezuela. It went so well, Pietrosemoli says the idea could be exported abroad.

This course was a milestone for the deaf in our city, who not only acquired basic tools for their individual development, but also the mechanisms to transmit the acquired knowledge to other deaf people in the community.

At the time of this report, the certified deaf students are highly committed to the project of transmitting knowledge to others in the deaf community and a training course to acquire the necessary tools to teach IT Essentials in the community has already been scheduled. With this last step, the potential future problems with (hearing) interpreters are circumvented. Moreover, researchers from the Impairment and Communication project have planned a training workshop on the use of the voice synthesis software which will take place next week. In short, this experience has represented what real human networking is about. More than a happy ending, it is an excellent start.

Maureen de la Cruz, who blogs at Law and ICT reports how common it is now for people living with disabilities to become acquainted with technology, making it easier to bridge the digital divide.

My friends Jay and Rene are quintessential geeks, with one interesting difference: they surf the Internet, use computers and access all their features through a special text-to-speech software. With their virtuoso touch-typing skills and sometimes with the monitor turned off (they don't need it anyway!), they have become expert programmers and have even experimented with web design and adapting compatible open-source software for use with text-to-speech programs. Jay is the first totally blind Computer Science graduate in the Philippines and works from home as a web content writer, and Rene now instructs other low-vision students as a member of ATRIEV's [Adaptive Technology for the Rehabilitation, Integration, and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired] staff. Both of them have attended and given training sessions and specialized courses on adaptive technology locally and abroad.

…Schools and companies often think they have to buy expensive equipment or make extensive technical and logistical adjustments to accommodate PWDs [Persons with disabilities]. As pointed out by blind architect Jaime Silva, buildings and public transportation facilities do not even comply with basic legal requirements such as providing wheelchair ramps or granting discounted fares to people with disabilities. Technology, however, is constantly opening up new doors for people like my cool, talented visually impaired friends. I certainly hope that the digital divide may yet be bridged not just for the economically disadvantaged, but that ICT may help to break down the barriers caused by physical limitations as well.

From the ICTDev Dot Org blog comes a story about Dipendra Manocha, a software developer who created open-source screen reading software in Hindi and other South East Asian languages.

Based on the premise that computer technology was not meant only for the wealthy, Dipendra has changed the way people with print disability read and write. Accessible multimedia is ideal for people with disabilities as well as for the general public to share information and knowledge world wide. The technology is now being introduced in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal as well as India, which provides the exciting challenge of working in 22 languages as well as amongst vast geographical and cultural diversities. Dipendra is deeply dedicated to continue using technology as a catalyst to support the global sharing of human knowledge in the information society, and because of his focus on low-cost and open source technology, his work is highly replicable.

For all the anecdotes and blog posts on the role ICTs play in providing disabled people more access to technologies, I failed to find any statistics detailing the penetration of ICTs into this global community. Participants of the Harvard conference debated the merits of private enterprise pushing and governments and international organizations pulling the development of ICTs forward. Yet we still don’t know what’s driving ICTs into this field or their efficacy in increasing the scale of human and economic development for people living with disabilities. If you do, we’d like to hear from you.

The story goes back to August 2008, when Marwa filed a defamation case against her killer, Axel, a 28-year unemployed German, after he called her a “terrorist” because she wears the hijab (Islamic veil).

However last Wednesday, Alex stabbed her 18 times to death in a German courtroom after the judges announced she won the case against him, and that he had to pay 2,800 Euros as a fine for his previous insults.

Marwa, 32-year-old Egyptian, was the wife of an Egyptian academic, who was on a scholarship in Germany. Her husband was also hurt in the incident and is now in critical condition in hospital, between life and death.

Zeinobia expressed her anger in a post titled “What If She Were A Lesbian“, and said:

The woman is 32 years Marwa El-Sherbini , she was a pregnant in her second child when she was was stabbed.
[…]
This is for sure a hate crime but unlike other hate crimes like homophobic crimes or anti-Semitic crimes, it did not make the headlines abroad and I do not know why !! This is a racism crime , a woman is shot down stabbed like that so simple in the court room for God sake and it is not important to be covered in the media as it should !! She was a mother who was a pregnant for God sake !!
May Allah bless her soul , she is a martyr of racism and hate.

Ahmed esmat questioned on Twitter

The same thought was echoed by Hisham Maged on his blog, playing the What if game:

Let us play the What IF game, just imagine if the situation was reversed and the victim was a westerner who was stabbed anywhere in the world or -God Heaven- in any Middle Eastern country by Muslim extremists, or even what the media used to call ‘minorities’ in Egypt! You definitely would have heard the world’s buzzing and the internet goes down too!

Bikya Masr, who was closely following the incident, asked if Marwa can be the symbol to bring people together. He demanded an immediate action on the diplomatic and national levels:

Across the Middle East, anger is high. This anger, however, cannot fall into random diatribes against Germans, or Germany. It must maintain some semblance of coherence for any campaign that should be established to succeed. And it will if Sherbini truly is a symbol that can bring people together much like Neda in Iran did.
[…]
Do people believe Sherbini is a symbol? […] Egyptians should be outraged that a woman was verbally abused for wearing the veil and being Egyptian in the first place. The government should be sending a strong signal to Europe that this behavior is unacceptable, but they remain silent. That leaves it to the Egyptian population to take action.
[…]
Let us walk the streets in front of the German Embassy and demand a full investigation and report. Because if Germany cannot do this, then it once more proves that European hate for Muslims and Arabs is stronger than their so-called “freedom.” Yes, Marwa is a symbol, but she should be a symbol to bring people together, not divide them.

Another blogger Sadafat wrote:

Egyptian bloggers commenting or venting out their frustrations on Twitter.

As for myself, I found myself writing these lines on my blog Lasto Adri: