Title: The potential of mobile devices in wireless environments to provide e-services for positive social and economic change in rural communities
Author: Pete Cranston
Pages: 35 pp.
Source: ICT Observatory 2009 Wiki
Publisher: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA)
Date (published): 27/10/2009
Date (accessed): 04/11/2009
Type of information: discussion paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
This paper explores that landscape as a way to mark out the domain for discussion at the November 09 CTA Observatory, which attempts “to explore the potential of mobile devices in wireless environments to provide eservices for positive social and economic change in rural communities”. The area to be studied during the Observatory is, therefore, challengingly wide-ranging:
* By mobile devices we include mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), portable digital devices such as MP3 players, mini-laptops or Netbooks, cameras and many others, as well as the ‘Swiss Army Knife6’ nature of modern devices...
* In wireless environments refers to the increasing number of ways that people can connect and share content between digital devices including wireless networking (Wifi, WiMax, Mesh7); channels available on mobile phones (such as standard GSM, GPRS, 3G, Bluetooth 8); and older wireless technologies such as Radio and TV
* e-services refer to the supply to users of functionality, predictably and consistently, that enables them to supply, exchange or consume content that meets their self defined needs...
* Positive social and economic change in rural ACP communities requires us to look at activities across the development spectrum in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, focusing particularly on agriculture but also including examples from other sectors such as health, education and emergency relief as well as types of intervention, from Knowledge sharing and Learning to e-campaigning to emergency relief.