Title: Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas: The Latin American perspective
Authors: Lisa M Cespedes and Franz J Martin
Source: i4d (Information For Development), January - March 2010
Publisher: Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Mobile phones offer individuals in rural populations the ability to access and interact with information services and databases.
Consider the numerous ways in which mobile telephony facilitates every day endeavours in addition to offering phone calls and text messaging. The technologies and applications vary from the developed areas to the developing regions, however, people in the most remote and marginalised places of the world are also benefiting greatly from the opportunities that the technology offers to improve their social and economic conditions.
There are 179 million people using mobile phones in Latin America; 82% of those users browse the Internet, 73% send text messages, and 55% are transferring data in different ways1. As a result of the expansion of mobile infrastructure and relatively affordable prices, the use of mobile telephony increasingly takes part of the everyday life of many rural families. As an example, in countries such as Peru, only 0.01% of rural households have access to the Internet while 36.5% have a mobile phone. In Chile, the penetration of mobile telephony is 94.7%.

Title: Fair Mobile Report from South America
Author: Steve Song
Source: Many Possibilities
Date (published): 08/04/2010
Date (accessed): 09/04/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
The South American research network, DIRSI, have just published a report entitled “Tariffs and affordability gap of mobile telephony services in Latin America and the Caribbean” which profiles mobile affordability in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this post I contrast their approach with my own fledgling work on a Fair Mobile index for Africa.

Title: Mobile telephony in Latin America and the Caribbean: Who can afford it?
Publisher: DIRSI - Regional Dialogue on the Information Society
Date (published): 29/03/2010
Date (accessed): 09/04/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Mobile telephony has experienced a dramatic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean and it has an average penetration level of around 80%. But can mobile users afford the service's cost? What happens if we take income into account and compare Latin America's cost with those of other regions. Is mobile telephony in Latin America cheap or expensive?

Answers to these questions can be found in a study by Hernán Galperín within the framework of DIRSI's research on ICT Indicators and Mobile affordability...The study concludes that the high cost of mobile service in the region are primarily a result of the high level of market concentration and the heavy tax burden imposed on the service in most countries. Making mobile services mobile more affordable, says Galperin, “will require more competition in the sector, for example by implementing number portability and reserving radio spectrum for new operators, and reducing the tax burden imposed on a service that the poorer sectors depend on.

You can read the abstract and download the full report (Spanish only) here. (An English translation of the report will be published)

Title: Communication Technologies in Latin America and Africa: A multidisciplinary perspective
Editors: Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, Adela Ros Híja
Pages: 396 pp.
ISBN: 978-84-692-8402-5
Publisher: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC)
Date (published): 17/02/2010
Date (accessed): 09/03/2010
Type of information: research volume
Language: English, Catalan
On-line access: yes (individual chapters in pdf)
Abstract:
As a result of the “Conference on Development and Information Technologies. Mobile Phones and Internet in Latin America and Africa: What benefits for the most disadvantaged?” held on 23-24 October 2009 at the IN3-UOC, we are happy to inform you that the book Communication Technologies in Latin America and Africa: A multidisciplinary perspective is now available

Introduction (English, Catalan)

Section 1. Shaping the economic sphere
Chapter 1: Mobile-based livelihood services in Africa: pilots and early deployments (English)
Jonathan Donner
Chapter 2: Mobile phones as a tool in the household production process Evidence from Puno, Peru (English)
Roxana Barrantes
Chapter 3: Mobile opportunities: Poverty and Mobile Telephony in Latin America and the Caribbean. The case of Mexico (English)
Judith Mariscal
Chapter 4: Broadband Internet access in developing countries: Universal service provision and pricing schemes (English)
Carlos Gutiérrez Hita and Juana Aznar Márquez

Section 2. Shaping communicative practices
Chapter 5: Managing the cost of mobile communication in Ghana (English)
Araba Sey
Chapter 6: Africa connects: Mobile communication and social change in the margins of African society. The example of the Bamenda Grassfields, Cameroon (English)
Mirjam de Bruijn
Chapter 7: From “lands at the end of the earth” to “lands of progress”? Communication and mobility in South-Eastern Angola (English)
Inge Brinkman and Silvia Alessi
Chapter 8: Imagined connectivity, poetic text-messaging and appropriation in Sudan (English)
Siri Lamoureaux

Section 3. Shaping migratory cultures
Chapter 9: Connectivity, Migration and Socio-Economic Development with a focus on the Maghreb (English)
Ivan Ureta
Chapter 10: ICTs in Senegal: between migration culture and socio-cultural and politico-economic positioning (English)
Aly Tandian
Chapter 11: Moving and mediating: a mobile view on sub-Saharan African migration towards Europe (English)
Joris Schapendonk
Chapter 12: ICT and codeveloppement between Catalonia and Senegal (French)
Papa Sow and Rosnert Ludovic Alissoutin
Chapter 13: Can the diaspora contribute to the development of their home countries? (English)
Ana M. González Ramos, Jörg Müller and Milagros Sáinz Ibáñez

Summing up (English, Catalan)

Title: Brazil launches new version of their electronic government portal
Source: Free Software in Latin America
Date (published): 07/03/2010
Date (accessed): 08/03/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
The Brazilian federal government has launched a new version of their portal, offering more than 500 online services to Brazilian citizens, built entirely with free software...
Technology: The Brazil Portal is developed with Plone 3.1.7 and runs on Zope Application Server 2.10.6, programmed in Python 2.4.4. “The use of free platforms is the direction of the federal government. And the choice of the tools for the construction of the Portal would not be different. So, we chose Zope/Plone,”

via http://twitter.com/glynmoody

Title: Measuring Up with the Innovation Challenge: The ICT4BUS Program
Author: Antonio Ca’Zorzi, (Edited by Steven Wilson and Norah Sullivan)
Pages: 17 pp.
Source: MIF Retrospectives
Publisher: The Multilateral Investment Fund, Inter-American Development Bank
Date (published): 17/10/2008
Date (accessed): 22/11/2009
Type of information: technical notes
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
This paper provides an overview of the role of information and communications technology for small businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean and the development of the MIF ICT4BUS program.

Title: Mobile Health: The potential of mobile telephony to bring health care to the majority
Authors: Rafael Anta, Shireen El-Wahab, and Antonino Giuffrida
Pages: 32 pp.
Source: Innovation Note
Publisher: Inter-American Development Bank
Date (published): 05/02/2009
Date (accessed): 22/11/2009
Type of information: technical note
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Acute and emerging epidemiological challenges are encouraging public sector to welcome
and support the development of increasingly innovative health care initiatives.
Given that nearly 70 out of every 100 people carry a mobile phone in the region, if the
easy-to-use mobile platform can be applied to health care to contribute to increased
equity, mobile care could also contribute to improved clinical outcomes and productivity,
as well as to better public health monitoring and education...
This paper examines the current and emerging trends in mobile health, with particular
emphasis on lessons learned and on potential opportunities for Latin America to apply
mobile services to health care efforts to benefit the majority of people.

Title: Technology for employability in Latin America: Research with at‐risk youth & people with disabilities
Authors: Joyojeet Pal, Jay Freistadt, Michele Frix, and Phil Neff
Pages: 94 pp.
Publisher: Technology & Social Change Group, University of Washington
Date (published): 06/11/2009
Date (accessed): 20/11/2009
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Since the early 1990s, there has been an increasing interest in technology training centers to build employability options of socially excluded groups in Latin America. This study examines the recent investment into computer centers providing basic technology training for people with disabilities and at‐risk youth. Using primary research in five countries: Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela, we discuss the ways in which technology training impacts the employability concerns of two populations with diverse needs and histories of social and economic exclusion from formal labor markets. The goal of this report is to provide scholars and policy‐makers an expansive survey of the landscape of issues around technology employability for socially excluded populations. Our findings are broadly divided into three segments. We first examine the environmental factors that impact such projects including the aspirational environment and the discourse of technology. We then discuss the short‐term impacts of these programs including the creation of pathways to employment, community‐building, as well as impacts on selfesteem and stigmatization and the potential of mismatched employment expectations from access to these programs. We finally turn to factors that influence the success of such programs including cost, certification, and accessible technology.

Title: Strategic Use of Mobile Telephony at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The Case of Mexico
Authors: Regina de Angoitia, Fernando Ramirez
Pages: 19 pp.
ISSN: 1544-7529
Source: Information Technologies & International Development, Volume 5, Number 3, Fall 2009, 35–53
Publisher: USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Date (published): 09/10/2009
Date (accessed): 07/11/2009
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML and pdf)
Abstract:
The growing importance of mobile telephony for users at the bottom of the pyramid is reflected in the high proportion of their incomes devoted to this service. Evidence from communities in the developing world, where low-income users have developed strategies to minimize costs while continuing to benefit from access to communication, has opened new lines of research. Based on a survey of 1,000 mobile telephony users carried out in 2007, the present study assesses the strategies practiced by mobile users in two metropolitan areas of Mexico. The results show that the main short-term strategies to minimize the costs of mobile telephony are 1) using the phone only to receive calls, and 2) the use of SMS. In both cases, the main determinant of whether users at the bottom of the pyramid use cost-reduction strategies is their low economic status.

Title: A Response to "A Dialogue on ICTs, Human Development, Growth and Poverty Reduction"
Author: Hernan Galperin
Source: Publius Project
Publisher: Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Date (published): 21/09/2009
Date (accessed): 05/10/2009
Type of information: essay
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
In general terms, I found the paper (A Dialogue on ICTs, Human Development, Growth, and Poverty Reduction) fascinating and provocative, as it is one of the first attempts that I am aware of to link two insofar separate fields, i.e., organizational theory and ICT4D. The comments below are intended to contribute to building this new framework, which hopefully could help not only to orient grant-making but also to advance the ICT4D field in general. They start from the more theoretical to those closer to real-world issues in the ICT4D field, and stress points of weakness which I think if addressed would strengthen the new framework. I also suggest areas to which the openness concept could be extended.