Impact of One Laptop per Child
The One Laptop per Child project aims to be able to give children in developing countries specially designed laptops (ruggedised, etc) full of educational materials (think wikipedia and then some). As part of the investment, there'll be a connection to the rest of the planet.
What happens when one million children in Rwanda (one of the possible pilot countries, and the one I found first) suddenly have connectivity and communications? Well, lots of things. The chance of a wide and/or deep education goes up significantly. But what happens to the culture?
In many places in Africa, the main way to get there is by plane. If you don't own a plane, you travel on foot or ride. This doesn't make engagement in any form of political process particularly easy. Put a decent communications infrastructure in, and that changes very fast.
There are places on this planet with no electricity grid, no telephone network. To visit the doctor, you walk for a day or more (each way) to the "nearby" large town, only to find the doctor isn't there this week. The impact that mobile phones, which don't require cabling, have had on that individual. Making the call to check, a few seconds of communications technology saving 2 days of walking and wasted time away from work.
While the capital city may still be 500 miles away by camel, they're as close by email as anyone else. Suddenly, it's much harder to do something and have no one notice. Potentially.
Potential being the important thing. Very few countries have the democracy infrastructure of TheyWorkForYou.com or the equivalent for other countries. Some countries are starting (US, New Zealand. Georgia (the country not the US state)), and while there's some good work in Africa, in most places on the planet, there's nothing.
So what happens?
Engagement is critical, in the next couple of years when they come online.
What happens when one million children in Rwanda (one of the possible pilot countries, and the one I found first) suddenly have connectivity and communications? Well, lots of things. The chance of a wide and/or deep education goes up significantly. But what happens to the culture?
In many places in Africa, the main way to get there is by plane. If you don't own a plane, you travel on foot or ride. This doesn't make engagement in any form of political process particularly easy. Put a decent communications infrastructure in, and that changes very fast.
There are places on this planet with no electricity grid, no telephone network. To visit the doctor, you walk for a day or more (each way) to the "nearby" large town, only to find the doctor isn't there this week. The impact that mobile phones, which don't require cabling, have had on that individual. Making the call to check, a few seconds of communications technology saving 2 days of walking and wasted time away from work.
While the capital city may still be 500 miles away by camel, they're as close by email as anyone else. Suddenly, it's much harder to do something and have no one notice. Potentially.
Potential being the important thing. Very few countries have the democracy infrastructure of TheyWorkForYou.com or the equivalent for other countries. Some countries are starting (US, New Zealand. Georgia (the country not the US state)), and while there's some good work in Africa, in most places on the planet, there's nothing.
So what happens?
Engagement is critical, in the next couple of years when they come online.
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