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Presented By: School of Information

ICTD Speaker Series: Jonathan Donner

Smarter phones and global development: How the mobile Internet changes ICT4D

Jonathan Donner Jonathan Donner
Jonathan Donner
For many people, their first, only, or primary means of using the internet will be via a mobile device. Hundreds of projects--and a flood of media attention--illustrate how this new access is revolutionizing the field of information and communication technologies for development (ICTD). As billions of mobile phones are sold around the world, more people are able to access the internet via the wireless/cellphone infrastructure. Downloads and uploads, chat and photo sharing, crop prices and medical records, the profound and the mundane--all can be checked and updated on-the-go, and by many who just a few years ago would have had virtually no chance to be online.

However, this is not a breathless story of universal, transformational success. Although the mobile internet is cheap to deploy, flexible, and approachable, it can also be hard to use for complex tasks, is expensive on a per-bit basis, and is not as open as the traditional web. In this talk, Jonathan Donner, a researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India, challenges the easy language of a "closed" digital divide with an examination of the persistent differences in affordability and constraints confronting mobile-centric internet users, and suggests some priorities for ICTD research.




Jonathan Donner Jonathan Donner
Jonathan Donner

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