You are certainly right about your characterization of tech use in Africa. There are some great stories about early adoption in places like Ghana and elsewhere in the 1990’s. This paper is but a starting point in understanding- as you rightly put it- how wanachi use technology will change things.

I’ve followed your site for some time now, and looking forward to seeing how these develop.

josh

I woke up to this announcement in my inbox, forwarded through the incom (see http://incommunicado.info) mailing list, and was just about to post it on Kabissa where I saw that you had already posted it! I think this is an important topic that all of us interested in ICT in Africa should be paying attention to, and I’m glad the Berkman center has published this report.

I question the phrase in the blurb you quoted about “meaningful access to digital tools only beginning to emerge” – that’s simply not true. People and organisations have been using ICT meaningfully in Africa for decades. But it is true that, thanks to the spread of mobile telephony and the social web, more people than ever are using ICT on the popular level – everyday wananchi on the street – and this is causing exciting new things to happen. We definitely saw this in Kenya in January and it was exhilarating – and not a little scary – beyond belief.

This is a different ballgame altogether from the way organisations use the Internet traditionally as an enhanced fax machine, research tool and online brochure for promoting their own work to potential donors, partners and other stakeholders around the world.

Would welcome more reactions from others – what are the lessons from Kenya?

Cheers,

Tobias