Please provide the source for this referenced "new paper" as it deserves closer scrutiny.
"Plenty of evidence suggests that the mobile phone is the technology with the greatest impact on development. A new paper finds that mobile phones raise long-term growth rates, that their impact is twice as big in developing nations as in developed ones, and that an extra ten phones per 100 people in a typical developing country increases GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points." --- Tom Abeles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Andy > > The mobile phone and radio, as others, here, have suggested seems to > have been spot on. What we must also realize is that the many emerging > features of the mobile phone, including txt msgs, gps and even pda > capabilities are being actively deployed in the developed world for a > number of commercial uses that, in the past, would have required a pc. > Some applications, of course, require reading skills. But for many it is > not needed. A colleague has been in a car where four different > occupants were on cells in four different languages. The claim that > phone access is not available in some remote locations is less of a > problem than the regulatory issues within a country > > As I have said elsewhere, the issues are at the institutional levels > more than in the technology arena. It seems that eager hands/minds in > the NGO and foundation community find it easier to embrace a village > project and rationalize it when a combined macro effort, with the stroke > of a pen could release more opportunity and allow those who want to work > in the field to be much more effective. > > The other issue in the DD which relates to this is where exactly to > attack the problem. For example, working in a remote village is > interesting: but when compared to the number of disenfranchised who are > living on the streets of major urban areas driven out of the economc > dearth of the remote villages to the city, then bringing the digital > world to the urban poor seems to have leverage. Why in a remote village > in Bangladesh when the urban poor in the streets of Dhaka mean you could > begin right after landing. > > thoughts? > > tom abeles > > Andy Carvin wrote: > > > From the latest issue of The Economist.... -ac > > > > > > The real digital divide > > > > IT WAS an idea born in those far-off days of the internet bubble: the > > worry that as people in the rich world embraced new computing and > > communications technologies, people in the poor world would be left > > stranded on the wrong side of a �digital divide�. Five years after the > > technology bubble burst, many ideas from the time�that �eyeballs� > > matter more than profits or that internet traffic was doubling every > > 100 days�have been sensibly shelved. But the idea of the digital > > divide persists. On March 14th, after years of debate, the United > > Nations will launch a �Digital Solidarity Fund� to finance projects > > that address �the uneven distribution and use of new information and > > communication technologies� and �enable excluded people and countries > > to enter the new era of the information society�. Yet the debate over > > the digital divide is founded on a myth�that plugging poor countries > > into the internet will help them to become rich rapidly. > > > > <snip> > > > > Plenty of evidence suggests that the mobile phone is the technology > > with the greatest impact on development. A new paper finds that mobile > > phones raise long-term growth rates, that their impact is twice as big > > in developing nations as in developed ones, and that an extra ten > > phones per 100 people in a typical developing country increases GDP > > growth by 0.6 percentage points. > > > > And when it comes to mobile phones, there is no need for intervention > > or funding from the UN: even the world's poorest people are already > > rushing to embrace mobile phones, because their economic benefits are > > so apparent. Mobile phones do not rely on a permanent electricity > > supply and can be used by people who cannot read or write. > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list _______________________________________________ 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.
