On December end, I gave a presentation on digital divide and its implication in one of the parallel workshops at Nepal Youth Social Forum. I uploaded the slides at slideshare.net and now presenting to you, should any of you need.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
go online through laptops anywhere in Nepal: how many Nepalese can afford a laptop?
There's an interesting news on Laptops can now go online anywhere in ekantipur.com. I know more and more Nepalese are getting laptops, most are brought from US directly from someone you know in US. Again buying laptops here in Nepal is not quite common, as far as I am aware of. Unless your organization is buying for you. Then you are in luck.
Targetting laptops in Nepal doesn't seem quite sensible, though the scenario may change in couple of days, months, years, decades... Or they are just targeting rich people of Nepal,or especially Kathmandu. The PCMCIA card costs Rs.8888 and they are introducing 300 units. Only?. Looks quite expensive when other gadgets' price are plummeting. I would be happy if Nepal Telecom had targetted Desktop PC first. The news says that they are in the process of acquiring similar cards for PC. Will wait for that.
Another interesting thing is that you can buy internet in pre-paid form and may recharge at will. Seems quite portable. They seem to be adopting the idea of hotspots, that was proposed and started a decade back. I wonder if Nepal Telecom has already setup these hotspots. Or are they planning to use mobile network?? But the download speed looks quite fast 163.4kbps. The news is not quite comprehensive in technological aspect.
I am looking forward to see people accessing internet through laptops in restaurants.
Targetting laptops in Nepal doesn't seem quite sensible, though the scenario may change in couple of days, months, years, decades... Or they are just targeting rich people of Nepal,or especially Kathmandu. The PCMCIA card costs Rs.8888 and they are introducing 300 units. Only?. Looks quite expensive when other gadgets' price are plummeting. I would be happy if Nepal Telecom had targetted Desktop PC first. The news says that they are in the process of acquiring similar cards for PC. Will wait for that.
Another interesting thing is that you can buy internet in pre-paid form and may recharge at will. Seems quite portable. They seem to be adopting the idea of hotspots, that was proposed and started a decade back. I wonder if Nepal Telecom has already setup these hotspots. Or are they planning to use mobile network?? But the download speed looks quite fast 163.4kbps. The news is not quite comprehensive in technological aspect.
I am looking forward to see people accessing internet through laptops in restaurants.
A joint venture setup to contribute to the development of ICT of Nepal
The headline "IT entrepreneurs launch Fortune Cookie Ventures" in the nepalnews.com caught my eye. It was promoted by ICT entrepreneurs of Nepal.
Investing Rs. 100 million in next 2 years. It does sound promising and appealing. They must have some plans to move ahead. Nepal certainly needs more and more such kind of ventures from other business people. People stop investing in physical assets!! See if you can help other people and the country, along with yourself. I know helping others rarely comes without including oneself.
[...]"The goal of Fortune Cookie is to provide incubation and venture capital to deserving innovators with promising ideas in the ICT sector, and thus contribute to the overall development of ICT in Nepal."
Fortune Cookie intends to invest up to Rs. 100 million in Nepal's ICT sector over the next 2 years through its activities. “By creating successful ventures, Fortune Cookie would attract much needed foreign investment into the ICT sector,” the statement added.[...]
Fortune Cookie intends to invest up to Rs. 100 million in Nepal's ICT sector over the next 2 years through its activities. “By creating successful ventures, Fortune Cookie would attract much needed foreign investment into the ICT sector,” the statement added.[...]
Investing Rs. 100 million in next 2 years. It does sound promising and appealing. They must have some plans to move ahead. Nepal certainly needs more and more such kind of ventures from other business people. People stop investing in physical assets!! See if you can help other people and the country, along with yourself. I know helping others rarely comes without including oneself.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Poverty Vs. Briding Digital Divide
I guess everyone will vote for Poverty if asked to choose between "Poverty" and "Bridging Digital Divide". As a technical person, acquainted fairly with what ICT (information, communication, technology) can do to help the poor, I would confuse myself with what what to choose.
The interview of Diego Rumiany really gives an interesting perspective on poverty vs bridging digital divide, when he was confronted with a question
Is it indecent or is it an obligation to fight against the Digital Divide while hunger is still a major issue ?
Well he is very true. In today's information age, the only way to combat poverty is to properly manage information and knowledge. Information is power so if information is exploited at every level and corner of country, then poverty and underdevelopment need not be addressed separately.
The interview of Diego Rumiany really gives an interesting perspective on poverty vs bridging digital divide, when he was confronted with a question
Is it indecent or is it an obligation to fight against the Digital Divide while hunger is still a major issue ?
[...]Why are we talking about introducing a particular technology when a lot of people are dying because of hunger?[...]
I’m sure nobody will disagree that it is more important to feed a person than giving him/her Internet access. However, it is not so clear to everybody that “Bridging the Digital Divide” means more than that. Take a look. When “Bridging the Digital Divide” means providing the infrastructure to a village to distribute their products, fostering entrepreneurial activity, creating business networks, stimulating trade, generating employment and, consequently, streamlining food distribution in a region and reducing hunger, then we are not “Bridging the Digital Divide” anymore but fighting hunger instead.
I argue that there is a problem with the Logic of “Bridging the Digital Divide”. We tend to think that we need to overcome obstacles to cross the bridge and reduce the Digital gap, when those obstacles are actually our primary objectives.
This might be a marketing problem. Answering your question, we need to show that fighting the Digital Divide is a way to reduce hunger (I am convinced about this), and not two separate issues that need to be prioritized.
I’m sure nobody will disagree that it is more important to feed a person than giving him/her Internet access. However, it is not so clear to everybody that “Bridging the Digital Divide” means more than that. Take a look. When “Bridging the Digital Divide” means providing the infrastructure to a village to distribute their products, fostering entrepreneurial activity, creating business networks, stimulating trade, generating employment and, consequently, streamlining food distribution in a region and reducing hunger, then we are not “Bridging the Digital Divide” anymore but fighting hunger instead.
I argue that there is a problem with the Logic of “Bridging the Digital Divide”. We tend to think that we need to overcome obstacles to cross the bridge and reduce the Digital gap, when those obstacles are actually our primary objectives.
This might be a marketing problem. Answering your question, we need to show that fighting the Digital Divide is a way to reduce hunger (I am convinced about this), and not two separate issues that need to be prioritized.
Well he is very true. In today's information age, the only way to combat poverty is to properly manage information and knowledge. Information is power so if information is exploited at every level and corner of country, then poverty and underdevelopment need not be addressed separately.
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