Wednesday, June 20, 2012
La telefonía móvil en zonas rurales
Durante la última década, la telefonía móvil ha hecho una expansión enorme en los países en desarrollo. En varios paises en America Latina, la telefonía móvil se ha convertido en el principal modo de telecomunicaciones (UNCTAT 2007). La telefonía móvil se ha convertido, a partir de un gadget para la clase alta, a finales de 1990, la tecnología más transformadora del desarrollo económico de nuestro tiempo, de acuerdo con la especialista en desarrollo Jeffrey Sachs. En la actualidad, millones de paisanos poseen un teléfono móvil, incluyendo un gran número de personas pobres, tanto en zonas urbanas y rurales. El éxito de la telefonía móvil se debe a una necesidad urgente de comunicación, especialmente para aquellos que fueron privados previamente a partir de cualquier medio de comunicación a distancia. La telefonía fija y acceso a Internet tienen hasta el presente, siendo inasequibles para la gran mayoría. Para muchas personas pobres en America latina, el teléfono móvil es su primer paso en la sociedad de la información.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Downscale 2012 - First International Workshop on Downscaling the Semantic Web
First International Workshop on Downscaling the Semantic Web - Crete, May 28th, in the pre-conference of ESWC 2012. Organized by Christophe Guéret and Stefan Schlobach from VUA and Florent Pigout, from OLPC. 
The workshop brought together a group of computer scientists, experts in Semantic Web technologies. Although the general trend is upscaling, here, the notion is of downscaling, decentralizing, even reducing the Web of Data, for a special reason. The need for data sharing in the developing world is an important topic, especially the case of rural areas in Africa, and of schools in developing countries. Another area is disaster management, also presented here. In disaster, the amount of data is especially the issue, when rescue teams have to take fast decisions in situations that concern life and death. Here, downscaling is especially necessary to reduce the amount of data, and keep only what is relevant… For developing countries, three topics were presented, where Linked Data can be applied: (i) Linked Market Data from rural communities in the Sahel, (ii) SemanticXO, linked data to share accross children's computers that don't have access to the internet, but still want to share data, and (iii) the Web of Radios, currently only a dream, but one that can become reality, positioning community radio an important future content provider in Africa. I met interesting people with loads of interesting new ideas. Combine all and you get really cool stuff. Unfortunately most of the people I know like to speak with people with the same background, the same hobby or the same interests. Although it is much nicer to get a large number of smart people, from different backgrounds, different areas of expertise, and make them all work on different aspects of one big interesting problem, and let them do this for a quite a while. It is likely that they find new and awesome solutions to complicated problems. I think this is the way to have a really big impact!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Mobile telephony, access to information and African farmers
Over the last decade, mobile telephony has made an overwhelming expansion in developing countries. In Africa, mobile telephony has become the primary mode of telecommunication (UNCTAT 2007). Mobile telephony has become, from a nice-to-have gadget for the upper-class in the late 1990s, the single most transformative technology of economic development of our time, according to development specialist Jeffrey Sachs. Presently, over 300 million Africans own a mobile phone, including a great number of poor people, both in urban and in rural areas. The success of mobile telephony is due to an urgent need for communication, especially for those who were previously deprived from any means of remote communication. Fixed-line telephony and Internet access have up to present remained unaffordable for the great majority. For many poor people in Africa, the mobile phone is their first step into the information society.
Subsistence farming in the Sahel
One of the target countries in this project is Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West-Africa, with a population of about 15 million. Burkina Faso is part of the Sahel, an east-west oriented eco-climatic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the tropical savannas in the South. The Sahel forms a belt, 400 to 1000 km wide, spanning Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
Burkina Faso has one of the lowest Gross National Income per capita in the world: US$440 (World Bank 2008). More than 80 percent of the population relies on subsistence agriculture, i.e. self-sufficiency farming in which farmers grow only enough food to feed their families. Planting decisions are made based on survival strategies. Subsistence farmers use simple manual tools, without advanced techniques.
In 1960s and 1980s the Sahel region was struck by several periods of drought, which caused wide-spread famines. Currently, the rural conditions seem to be improved. Recently, studies using satellite data have revealed a considerable improve in vegetation and in number of trees, since the last twenty years, in an extensive part of the Sahel (Hermann et al. 2005). Amongst the causes for this extensive re-greening, human intervention is believed to be one of the contributing factors. Adoption of sustainable land management techniques, by innovative farmers, in Burkina Faso, but also in Niger and Mali, have resulted in soil fertility, rising groundwater tables, an increase in the number of trees and in crops. These activities together have had a considerable positive impact on living conditions of rural communities, largely improving their food security. The increased number of trees in the Sahel might have an additional positive side-effect in term of CO2 mitigation.
Re-greening activities
Re-greening of the Sahel has recently been attributed to improved land management by subsistence farmers, including natural regeneration of trees. Natural regeneration employs techniques to promote natural growth of trees sprouts by preserving the scare water resources, applying natural fertilizers (like animal manure), stone banding, pruning appropriately, — all simple manual techniques that use available resources. These Re-greening activities are grass-root initiatives of farmers in small-scale areas, occurring without large external (international development) interventions. The success of re-greening activities depends on the scale in which it is adopted. Farmer-to-farmer communication, exchange of (indigenous) knowledge and spread of information are therefore essential.
Recently, re-greening activities have been supported by local NGOs. The importance of communication amongst farmers is becoming evident. With help of the NGOs new channels of communication are being deployed, amongst others, agriculture extension workers, community radios, farmer-to-farmer visits, mobile telephony. As in the whole of Africa, mobile telephones are available in these farmer communities. Almost every household in rural communities in Burkina Faso owns a phone or has access to one. The situation in Niger and Mali is similar to Burkina Faso’s.
Still, channels of communication and access to information should be improved. Currently, there is growing awareness of the value of indigenous knowledge, owned by farmers. This knowledge should be stored and made accessible for more people. The knowledge of e.g. re-greening could be expanded with the use of innovative ICTs, which are adapted to the local situation.
Opportunities and constraints
The existence of mobile telephony, including the wide coverage of the mobile networks over the country, the wide-spread availability of community radios, the emergence of cybercafés with computers and access to the Internet in many villages all over the country, all represent opportunities for access to information and to better communication in rural areas in the Sahel. There is a growing awareness amongst the local communities on the importance of ICTs. In Burkina Faso a number of small and medium enterprises exist, which already provide web services and other ICT services in the country. Especially amongst the Burkinabe youth interest in ICTs, the Internet and the World Wide Web exists. Community radios have many listeners. This channel of communication is already successfully used by the supporting NGOs for awareness creation and information sharing amongst farmer communities.
Still, many constrains exist, preventing successful deployment of communication services in the benefit small scale farmers. Many farmers speak local languages only, and are not able to read and write, and rely on voice communication only. Several local languages are spoken in Burkina Faso, which complicates communication.
From the technical point of view, the mobile phones used by farmers are very simple handsets, without any functionality to access Web services. Infrastructure for Internet connectivity at local community cyber cafés is poor. Bandwidth is very limited, and the costs of Internet access are high for the people in the region. There is much to gain in the provisioning of innovative technologies, if adapted to the local needs of theses rural communities in the Sahel.
Innovation
Information and communication needs and constraints of farmers in the Sahel, are very similar to those of other poor communities in developing countries. Generally speaking, it is their necessity to create, store, process and share knowledge. Up to present, ICTs have been created for the context of rich industrialized countries. Adaptations are needed to make ICTs usable in the context of the developing world. This will help bridge the digital divide.
Innovations which remove barriers to information and communication technologies will therefore serve, not only the farmer communities in the Sahel, but also a much broader context of people in the developing world.
Subsistence farming in the Sahel
One of the target countries in this project is Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West-Africa, with a population of about 15 million. Burkina Faso is part of the Sahel, an east-west oriented eco-climatic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the tropical savannas in the South. The Sahel forms a belt, 400 to 1000 km wide, spanning Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
Burkina Faso has one of the lowest Gross National Income per capita in the world: US$440 (World Bank 2008). More than 80 percent of the population relies on subsistence agriculture, i.e. self-sufficiency farming in which farmers grow only enough food to feed their families. Planting decisions are made based on survival strategies. Subsistence farmers use simple manual tools, without advanced techniques.
In 1960s and 1980s the Sahel region was struck by several periods of drought, which caused wide-spread famines. Currently, the rural conditions seem to be improved. Recently, studies using satellite data have revealed a considerable improve in vegetation and in number of trees, since the last twenty years, in an extensive part of the Sahel (Hermann et al. 2005). Amongst the causes for this extensive re-greening, human intervention is believed to be one of the contributing factors. Adoption of sustainable land management techniques, by innovative farmers, in Burkina Faso, but also in Niger and Mali, have resulted in soil fertility, rising groundwater tables, an increase in the number of trees and in crops. These activities together have had a considerable positive impact on living conditions of rural communities, largely improving their food security. The increased number of trees in the Sahel might have an additional positive side-effect in term of CO2 mitigation.
Re-greening activities
Re-greening of the Sahel has recently been attributed to improved land management by subsistence farmers, including natural regeneration of trees. Natural regeneration employs techniques to promote natural growth of trees sprouts by preserving the scare water resources, applying natural fertilizers (like animal manure), stone banding, pruning appropriately, — all simple manual techniques that use available resources. These Re-greening activities are grass-root initiatives of farmers in small-scale areas, occurring without large external (international development) interventions. The success of re-greening activities depends on the scale in which it is adopted. Farmer-to-farmer communication, exchange of (indigenous) knowledge and spread of information are therefore essential.
Recently, re-greening activities have been supported by local NGOs. The importance of communication amongst farmers is becoming evident. With help of the NGOs new channels of communication are being deployed, amongst others, agriculture extension workers, community radios, farmer-to-farmer visits, mobile telephony. As in the whole of Africa, mobile telephones are available in these farmer communities. Almost every household in rural communities in Burkina Faso owns a phone or has access to one. The situation in Niger and Mali is similar to Burkina Faso’s.
Still, channels of communication and access to information should be improved. Currently, there is growing awareness of the value of indigenous knowledge, owned by farmers. This knowledge should be stored and made accessible for more people. The knowledge of e.g. re-greening could be expanded with the use of innovative ICTs, which are adapted to the local situation.
Opportunities and constraints
The existence of mobile telephony, including the wide coverage of the mobile networks over the country, the wide-spread availability of community radios, the emergence of cybercafés with computers and access to the Internet in many villages all over the country, all represent opportunities for access to information and to better communication in rural areas in the Sahel. There is a growing awareness amongst the local communities on the importance of ICTs. In Burkina Faso a number of small and medium enterprises exist, which already provide web services and other ICT services in the country. Especially amongst the Burkinabe youth interest in ICTs, the Internet and the World Wide Web exists. Community radios have many listeners. This channel of communication is already successfully used by the supporting NGOs for awareness creation and information sharing amongst farmer communities.
Still, many constrains exist, preventing successful deployment of communication services in the benefit small scale farmers. Many farmers speak local languages only, and are not able to read and write, and rely on voice communication only. Several local languages are spoken in Burkina Faso, which complicates communication.
From the technical point of view, the mobile phones used by farmers are very simple handsets, without any functionality to access Web services. Infrastructure for Internet connectivity at local community cyber cafés is poor. Bandwidth is very limited, and the costs of Internet access are high for the people in the region. There is much to gain in the provisioning of innovative technologies, if adapted to the local needs of theses rural communities in the Sahel.
Innovation
Information and communication needs and constraints of farmers in the Sahel, are very similar to those of other poor communities in developing countries. Generally speaking, it is their necessity to create, store, process and share knowledge. Up to present, ICTs have been created for the context of rich industrialized countries. Adaptations are needed to make ICTs usable in the context of the developing world. This will help bridge the digital divide.
Innovations which remove barriers to information and communication technologies will therefore serve, not only the farmer communities in the Sahel, but also a much broader context of people in the developing world.
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