Usually, when I talk to USA citizens about information technology that the rest of the world can use, I run into some variant of the "walk before you run" argument. People wonder what good information technology is to a goatherd, or a taxi driver, or a subsistence farmer.
I have theoretical answers to that, but here are some real-world concrete answers. I've spent the last couple of months in Ecuador and Peru. In Quito, Riobamba, and Guayaquil, there are literally internet access centers on every commercial block. They're fewer and further between in Loja, Piura, and Trujillo --- you might have to walk two or three blocks in downtown to reach one. There are also phone-booth stores, where you use a metered phone and then pay an attendant, which are equally common, and stores that sell cell phones and parts, again equally common. In each city we visited in Ecuador, nearly every street corner has a prepaid-cellphone-card vendor dressed in a carrier-logo jumpsuit. So it seems that there's a lot of demand around here for communication services. Cell phone service is more expensive than in the States --- 30 to 60 cents per minute, usually --- as is phone-booth service. Cell phones cost $37 and up. People have less money, too. An engineer friend at an architectural firm in Quito makes $300 a month; an acquaintance working retail at a computer store in Riobamba makes $150. The newspaper claims 10% of the urban population makes less than $1 a day. In every place we visited in Ecuador, wireless networks were nearly nonexistent --- we found them only in universities and US-style shopping malls. In Peru, all of the first three hotels we stayed in had open wireless internet access provided by a generous neighbor, although the fourth doesn't seem to. So, while a USAn might think that computers, cell phones, and internet access and cell phones are pointless luxuries to people who struggle to buy enough rice to survive, the Ecuadorean and Peruvian populations seem to disagree. There's other evidence as well from around the world: http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=printer_friendly&pid=402&page=1 Global cellphone sales are now running at 800 million units per year, about four times the annual sales of PCs (or television sets). Recent years have seen 100 percent annual growth in overall phone sales, and close to 200 percent for smart phones. http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/993 quotes a Washington Post article entitled, "In War-Torn Congo, Going Wireless to Reach Home", at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070801063.html As surely as the light bulb and the automobile before them, the cellphone and text messaging are radically changing the way people live in the developing world. In widespread use for about five years in much of Africa, technology long taken for granted by the world's rich has made life easier, safer and more prosperous for the world's poor. For the first time, millions of Africans are able to communicate easily with people who are beyond shouting distance. Farmers and fishermen, for example, use text messaging to check market prices, eliminating middlemen and increasing profits -- and preventing long trips to the market on days it is canceled. In cities, cellphones are becoming a basic tool of electronic commerce, allowing consumers to transfer money to merchants with a few presses on the keypad. Restaurant owners now can advertise by sending bulk texts to their customers, promising something delicious for lunch. People call a doctor, mechanic or police officer instead of walking miles to find one. News of births, deaths and illnesses instantly reaches the farthest corners of the jungle, where mothers like Iyombe's struggle with the concept of their children's voices emerging from a little plastic box with buttons. "People would rather be without a shirt and trousers," Nkuli said, "and they'd rather go for days without food, instead of not having a phone." Interestingly, I haven't yet had any rich Ecuadoreans or Peruvians ask me why poor Ecuadoreans or Peruvians would want computers.
