Mobile phones for human development – Stephane Boyera, W3C

Presentation of Stephane Boyera

Stephane Boyera:

• W3C mobile web for Social Development
• Web for Society Program of the Web Foundation
• EU-FP7 project Digital World Forum

Mobile phones:

• In December 2008: 4 bio. subscribers
• change the way people work, communicate, live
• People offer their work with their m.p. number – makes them flexible
• but no evidence that the development challenge is addressed

ICTs have changed the Developed World

• work, meeting, movement

ICT4D promises to bridge historical divides

Issues:

• Connectivity (devices, bandwidth)
• Information Availability (relevant & useful services)
• Information Accessibility (too expensive, language, illiteracy)
• Without addressing these issues, ICT4D is useless

Last 15 years:

• focus on connectivity – telecenters
• no sustainability
• hard to replicate (legal issues, hight cost)
• hard to scale up
• relying on unstable governments – limits the potential of ICTs

What can mobile phones bring?

Minimal connectivity & computing power worldwide

• it’s possible to focus on new, mobile, innovative services (e-agriculture, e-health)
• people start to think big – scalability

Bottom-up approach

• empowering people – now they can contribute and act instead of only consume

Why is that important?

• it’s the only way to make services scalable – few people in development agencies vs. thousands of NGOs
• people can start businesses themselves – entrepreneurship & innovation
• governments are not that important any more – there is put pressure on the government for transparency

Challenges:

• Capacity building – creating expertise on mobile phone technology locally
• Make tools available – free & open source, easy to use software
• Raise awareness about the potential of mobile technology and the easiness to create new content/tools

Current focus: on information availability

For sms, there have to be a lot of prerequisites fulfilles

To make all people benefit:

• Address the needs of illiterate people or low reading skills
• Local languages
• Digital literacy – teach people how to search & use content and services

Technologies:

Mobile phone: “Swiss army knive” – a lot of services

Today: sms

• easy setup, available, free reception
• issues: high cost of running services, only text, interoperability between operators

Next generation:

Mobile web:

• free & easy development, powerful interface, access to knowledge in the internet
• issues: availability on mobiles, cost

Voice:

• Natural way of communication, easy to use, everywhere available, flexible
• Issues: high expertise required, usability, technology

No “one-for-all” device

Next steps

Community building

• development agencies, local people, academics, NGOs, private sector

Explore local needs

• field studies, pilot projects

Lower access barriers

• illiteracy, usability, internationalization

Empowerment

• easier development & deployment

Mobile phones is a way to reach the people & they are available in the field

But:

• Expensive
• Constrained
• Also other devices necessary – low cost laptops, broadband infrastructure

Conclusion

• Mobile technology has the potential to meet the ICT4D hopes & make significant impact
• But next steps: concerted effort of all communities, focus on local needs, bridging the gaps between people, empowerment

Q & A:

Telecenters can also be a complementary service – let’s combine services. What about mobile services for internet access?

• I agree, inclusing approach is substantial
• Internet access: we have to understand what it means that people access the web via mobile phone – different interface, constrained
• Linking your PC to the internet via a mobile phone is possible, if there are PCs available

Comment – internet access & mobile technology are equally important because you need access at the institutional level, not just private level.

How big is the challenge of interoperability? Are there enough standards? Where should they be established?

• Each technology has a different level – moving from one platform to another is hard
• On the mobile: making the mobile browser an open standardized tool is a challenge
• It’s also an issue of power – monopolies
• Voice is already standardized, but is lacking the open source community
• Developing applications on the mobile – there is nothing standardized
• Middle layer: Java stack

One thing that is missing: a lot has to be invested in science and technology – high level innovations, not just applications. There is some kind of technology fetishism.

• It’s correct, work is primarily on application level.