An interesting article. But I was wondering when we are "LeapFrogging", are we landing into a higher plateau or stepping right into a muddy pond?! How do we design a 'landing platform' so that all this breakneck development does not derail the most pressing issue of poverty alleviation and can really be an inclusive socio-economic development for the majority population of the world.
|||||||||||||||||||| Leapfrogging the technology gap Wireless, computers and other innovations are quietly eliminating huge barriers to development in poor parts of the world. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1105917010481&call_pageid=970599119419 ALEXANDRA SAMUEL In Robib, Cambodia, villagers are getting medical advice from the world's best doctors. Schoolchildren are seeing their country's most famous landmarks for the first time. And the village economy is taking off, fueled by the sale of its handmade silk scarves on the global market. [scip] In highly developed countries like Canada, the information economy has emerged from long evolution � farm economies made room for craftsmen and artisans, who gave way to industrial production, and manufacturing has yielded to the rise of an information and service-based economy. Economists and development experts wonder whether the developing world can � or should � follow the same path. Widespread industrial development would still leave much of Africa, Asia or Latin America a generation behind Europe and North America. [scip] Cellphones have emerged as a leading leapfrog technology. Many developing countries have very limited landline penetration, in part due to the economic incentives for digging up copper wire and selling it. These same countries are now experiencing a cellphone explosion, due in part to the way that cellphones become what Fuchs describes as a "common property resource:" a resource that can be shared among an entire community or village. The best-known example is Bangladesh's GrameenPhone, which has established a network of pay-per-use cellphones throughout the country. A similar network in South Africa has created a network of over 1,800 entrepreneurs, operating "phone shops" in over 4,400 locations across the country. Information gathered by cellphone lets farmers in Senegal double the price they get for their crops, and herders in Angola track their cattle via GPS. Source: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1105917010481&call_pageid=970599119419 ===== Miraj Khaled ============ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mindexplorer.blogspot.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
