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Loading ...Okay, so being who I am. A guy that grew up at the tip of Africa in my lovely country of South Africa. A person who visits his homeland for several months a year, has lived in Oakland, CA and studied at UC Berkeley. I have one question that always comes back to me - how can we in America/Europe/Japan etc use this great technology and resources to provide opportunities and development in the countries in Africa to improve the lives of the multitude? So maybe it is a silly question - I know that there are many efforts at taking technology to the people of Africa ($100 MIT computer to mention but one laudable effort).
The biggest thing at the moment on the net is the “social networking” aspect (though this has truly been the core of the net in my experience from the beginning). What I want to know is if we can some how use this networking technology to serve and improve the lives of those less fortunate then ourselves.
If anyone has been to Africa the one technology that is everywhere is the cell phone - it is the simple social networker. How can we take this and add value, how can a simple cell phone be used to create value and opportunity in an incredibly poor realm? Is it possible to design cheap and simple PDA’s that can give people access to all kinds of information?
I am rambling a bit but perhaps you get my drift. For me, being an African in America, it is something that I think about often.
How can I take what I have here, what I have learned here and use it in Africa to create economic growth and opportunity? Any ideas?
Filed under: Altruism, International Development, Social Networking, Technology
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