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The
role of mobile technologies in fostering social and economic development
Report from the Maputo Conference- 1-2 April, 2009
W3C Mobile Web for Social Development Interest Group
April 02, 2009
http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html
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This document
presents the output of the W3C Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies
in Fostering Social and Economic Development, held in Maputo, Mozambique
on 1-2 April 2009. This workshop was organized by the W3C Mobile
Web for Social Development Interest Group, part of the EU FP7 project
Digital World Forum. During the two day event, the 70+ participants
held discussions regarding the potential of mobile technologies
in the development sector. The key outcomes that are expanded in
this document can be summarized as follow:
- SMS is the
technology that is the most easily accessible to NGOs, grassroots
organizations and people seeking to deliver mobile services. However,
in many cases, text can be a barrier (being inaccessible to people
with low reading skills and being too limited for richer applications)
and discovery is an issue.
- Voice applications
are now attracting attention as they are providing a more natural
way of interacting with people, and therefore lowering the barriers
of ICT adoption. However, expertise, tools, and training are still
lacking.
- Mobile browsing
is now becoming a viable option to deliver richer content and
develop more complex applications. Stable and reliable GPRS, when
available, offers a relatively more affordable way of providing
content to people. Richer applications, using images, and graphics
such as icons, are also offering increased added-value services
and easier access for underprivileged populations. Nevertheless,
the lack of awareness both on how to use web technologies and
build mobile web sites, and on the availability of tools is a
blocking factor for a wider adoption by NGOs, grassroots organizations,
and entrepreneurs. Roaming costs can also be seen as an obstacle
in reaching the poorest sectors of the population.
- The lack
of collaboration, cooperation, and sharing among people working
in the field (NGOs, grassroots organizations . . . ) is a major
issue leading to the appearance of many competing systems and
platforms to tackle similar issues. One - but not the only - major
reason of this situation is the lack of visibility and awareness
of what others are doing.
- Issues related
to scalability, replicability and sustainability of ongoing and
planned projects are quintessential and required the involvement
of all stakeholders (government, entrepreneurs, NGOs, local communities).
Providing services and information to the next billion users or
so can only be accomplished in this fashion.
The participants
acknowledged the importance of organizing such events gathering
people working in the field, including technologists, industry representatives,
and those working in international organizations. A future instance
of such events should integrate a pre-event session on demonstration,
to show what is possible, as well as what are the existing tools,
and how to use them. More focused themes might also be selected
for discussion.
This document
provides details on the audience, the organization of the sessions,
the list of key outcomes, and the messages for the different types
of actors in the domain.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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