Photo source: PCFastlane

Over the past several years a tremendous amount of progress has been made in narrowing the urban-rural “Digital Divide.”  This has primarily been accomplished through market liberalization and subsequent build out of mobile networks–some of which reach into rural localities.

While this urban-rural gap is being narrowed, this is not universal.  Further, it is primarily a voice phenomenon.  With regards to Internet and specifically broadband, this divide remains, and in relative terms it continues to grow even wider in most rural locations.

A May 2008 report from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) report entitled, “Measuring Information and Communication Technology Available in Villages and Rural Areas,” defines this challenge in the following manner:

1. At the time of the report, the total population of developing countries stood at 5.1 billion;
2. Of this total, approximately 56 percent, or 2.85 billion lived in rural areas;
3. This rural population lived in 2.96 million discrete rural localities, with an average population of 1,826.

More recent data estimates while there are approximately 5.0 billion mobile subscribers world wide–out of a world population of 6.7-6.8 billion, somewhere between a population of 1.0 and 1.5 billion live in rural localities where they are without any mobile coverage.  A likely near-equal number are without “affordable” coverage.

The Global Broadband and Innovations (GBI) Program places a priority on addressing this urban-rural gap, with a focus on two key areas;

1. Enhancing Universal Service Funds (USFs), and
2. Promoting deployment of low cost connectivity solutions.

Universal Service Funds–A growing number of countries have established USFs, however, often these are not well designed to reach optimal benefit, nor are they managed such as to provide maximum value.  The GBI has been designed to provide targeted technical assistance (TA) to help countries with better design and operations of their USFs.  Current efforts are underway in partnership with Intel in carrying out a series of regional USF Workshops to move this agenda forward.  Another project is underway in Africa through support of the Africa Bureau, to provide TA to a number of countries where TA will make a near-term impact.

The focus of USFs is no longer simply placing a phone or two into a rural community, but rather seeking to leverage both broadband and voice connectivity for expanding socioeconomic opportunities into these rural communities.

Nor is the focus such as to create an approach for subsidizing on-going operations of carriers operating in rural localities.  There is also a focus on leveraging USFs to fund needed CapEx, where–where by working with the carriers and high tech firms producing low-cost solutions, financially sustainable approach can be deployed for connecting the lower-income, lower-density rural communities.

Low Cost Broadband and Voice Solutions–This parallel effort is also being undertaken by the GBI Program.  Here the GBI is engaged in research and dialog to identify low-cost rural connectivity solutions.  This focus is on providing wireless community-wide convergent networks that provide both broadband and voice services.

Preliminary research has uncovered a small but growing number of innovative solutions now being commercialized.  A potential new set of technologies, Femtocells, hold significant promise in lowering the capital and operating costs for reaching into lower-income, lower-density rural communities.  Several of these are solar powered solutions such they they can provide affordable coverage in areas where there is not access to a national power grid.

The GBI program has informally partnered with Femto Forum—a global Femtocell industry group and the Global VSAT Forum, a global satellite industry group, to further explore the technical and financial viability of these technologies.  Discussions are underway to build off of their respective strengths towards delivering scalable, replicable, and sustainable solutions that reach even further into remote rural locations.  And with this expanded connectivity, delivering access to a wide range of socioeconomic services.

Other lower-cost solution sets are being explored with regard to meeting this low-cost requirement.  This exploration has included proof-of-concept trial configurations here in the U.S., as well as working with satellite and femtocell firms on broader scale international deployments.

The combination of USFs and the emerging lower-cost solutions more suitable for rural settings, hold the promise of ultimately eliminating the urban-rural “digital divide.”  The GBI is working towards accelerating this where  possible.

Usually our discussions of ICT and economic growth follow a familiar narrative: how can we use ICTs to more efficiently perform economic tasks?  We take this line of discussion because we know that efficiency is productivity, and productivity improvements lead to economic growth.

But a recent book published by the World Bank, called “Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy,” suggests that this line of thought is boxing us in.  Instead, it argues, we should ask “what completely new markets have been created by ICT growth, and how can poor people lead the way in these new industries?”  If this sounds fanciful consider the following: last year a man in California paid $500 in an online auction for a “virtual” castle.  We are not talking about a crumbling, stone-and-mortar, historical relic here; but rather a few lines of code that generate a castle that the buyer can use as a base for his virtual armies in an online video game.   He bought this castle from a company in China that creates (and speculates in) these types of virtual products.  This Chinese company employs young people, mostly male, from lower class or working class backgrounds.  The workers have a decent education but little opportunity, and they are making a healthy living in a completely new industry that offers returns too low to seriously interest anyone in the developed world. But for them it’s a gold mine.

Or rather it’s a “gold farm,” which is the term that has come into use to describe these types of companies (the industry as a whole is known as “gold farming”).  Gold farming was a $3 billion industry globally in 2010, and generated jobs for 100,000 full time equivalent workers.  But, of the new opportunities identified by the report it is the most demanding of its workers.  Other new industries can employ people with less-advanced skill sets.

One of these is called “Cherry Blossoming.”  Derived from a Japanese-language slang expression (“Sakura” in Japanese means both “cherry blossom” and “paid spectator”) the name refers to an industry that sells social media “status” to companies looking to use these tools as part of their marketing strategy.  For example, a company that has just started a Twitter feed may not want to go through a growth period where they have only a few followers, for fear that this low number will reflect poorly on their product or business.  So “cherry blossoming” firms offer these companies the opportunity to buy Twitter followers, by the thousands.  Similarly, they sell “Facebook likes.”

This business involves a large number of extremely small tasks that each generate a very low return for the company.  A worker will sit at a terminal and, using a host of different profiles and accounts, “like” or “follow” their client companies. Each “like” may only take a few moments, and earn the company only a few cents.  For example, a quick Google search will reveal that it is possible to buy 1000 Twitter followers for $20. This type of repetitive, low-margin work does not interest developed world companies, but in the developing world it can offer reliable income to poorly educated people who don’t have any other opportunities.

Though Cherry Blossoming is controversial, it is representative of the emerging field of “microwork,” which on the whole is not.  Microwork is usually defined as a task that takes under 30 seconds to complete.  Companies throughout the world have lots of this work to do, and it is now possible to parse tasks out and have them done by the very poor in the developing world.

Samasource, a non-profit organization focused on generating employment opportunities in Kenya, is one organziation that does this.  They contract with large firms, in this case Silicon Valley tech firms, and perform microtask after microtask out of large telecenters the organization sets up in Africa.  The group’s first contract involved digitizing text.  This is often difficult for a computer to do, and near impossible if the document to be digitized is handwritten. So Samasource workers will look at scanned copies of the document and manually type in words that the software cannot comprehend.  This does not even require the worker to be literate – they just need to be able to recognize all the letters by shape and match them to the keyboard.   Samasource has expanded into other small tasks as well, such as vetting sites for inappropriate images and video, and verifying business listings for crowd-sourced yellow-pages sites.

Performing these micro-tasks gives “dignified digital work” to poor people, as Samasource puts it. They have even managed to set up and operate a successful business that employs many people in a refugee camp in Dadaab, on the Kenya-Somalia border.

The next iteration of micro-task work is to find a way to do it on mobile phones.  The industry isn’t quite there yet, but once it is there will be no geographic limit to who can easily make a living out of the digital economy.  This is the next generation of business process outsourcing, and it holds the potential to employ many poor and at-risk youth in the developing world.

If this discussion gives you any ideas, you may want to try to develop them.  The World Bank is considering holding a “Mobile Micro-work Challenge,” where they would fund promising start-ups in the field.

What role should governments play in leading their citizens down the path to become actively engaged in the knowledge society? It varies greatly on the availability, motivations, and agenda behind the corresponding country’s use of ICTs.

Last week, the World Bank held the highly anticipated four ICT Days, which explored the multifaceted functions of ICTs and how governments can use them to, “Innovate, Connect and Transform” civil society in developing nations.

During the “Connectivity Infrastructure Day”, two speakers from different regions discussed their country’s distinctive agendas and how their government’s involvement of ICTs is enveloped within their economic development reforms.

While Korea Telecom’s (KT) Vice President, Dr. Hansuk Kim, discussed the prospects of nation wide interconnectivity in Rwanda; India’s Ministry of Communication and IT Secretary, Shankar Aggarwal, unveiled his country’s e-government initiatives.

In 2008, KT made a US$40 million deal to collaborate with Rwanda’s government to construct a national backbone project expected to connect the country on a fiber-optic network. The contract obliges KT to provide the government with technology, equipment, relevant application materials and training and to manage the cable installation process. KT will also install a wireless broadband network that will be accessible to 10,000 people in Kigali.

Dr. Kim discussed how Rwanda’s proximity to other African countries, such as Burundi, Tanzania, and the Congo, can serve as a potential customer base. In the future, these countries could use Rwanda’s backbone infrastructure to serve as interconnect points.

Kim also argued that a top-down approach is necessary for large-scale investments in developing economies. He states that the supplier should be on location, and relying solely on private investment can result in fragmented connectivity, so “the government had to initiate the development cycle by giving it a jumpstart. It (the connectivity) has to start somewhere.” Please view the video below to see his argument against the common notion that a government subsidized infrastructure, would inadvertently produce a government owned monopoly:

Once completed, Rwanda’s national backbone will possess the capability to enable online activities requiring high speed, broadband Internet. This includes initiating e-government services, to integrate citizens in the governing processes, similar to the e-government proposal that India has been working on for some time.

Shankar Aggarwal, secretary of the Ministry of Communications and IT in India, spoke at the World Bank event about this new e-governance initiative by the government to make public services, and governance regulations, more inclusive and transparent.

India is a country that has experienced monumental economic growth in the last 5 years—but the distribution of wealth to its 1.2 billion residents remains extremely imbalanced. 70% of the total population lives in rural areas and survive off less than a dollar a day.

India is at a crossroads in their development, as aspirations and hopes increase, those left behind are no longer content to live out the remainder of their lives in poverty. E-governance presents the opportunity to include these individuals in the governance process.

Aggarwal noted that India’s growth will be harnessed without involving the rural poor in governing their country, “if we want to have a sustainable growth, if we want to have happy societies, we have to go in to an inclusive growth…where each and every resident of that country feels that they are part of the governance process”. He began his speech by arguing that the catalyst for the current protests in the Middle East were societies are not being inclusive of citizens in their governing processes.

Please view the following video where he discusses the future of India’s e-governance initiatives for citizen’s inclusion.

The role of these governments to actively expand their connectivity and infrastructure is one that has a common goal: to include their citizens in the knowledge society. Whether it is using public funds for a start up backbone infrastructure, or creating an e-government initiative to make government processes more inclusive, governments from around the world are channeling into the benefits of being interconnected.

GBI is please to announce the 2011 GBI Graduate Summer Internship Program! The 12 week program provides a unique opportunity for graduate students in both International Development and Communications to gain valuable insight and experience in USAID’s ICT4D activities. This unique and highly competitive program will team approximately six interns together to conduct sector research and analysis, provide text and multimedia content to the GBI Portal, assist in marketing and outreach of the portal and GBI services, and develop institutional capacity for sector specific outreach.

Dates: May 31-August 12 (12 weeks)

Location: Washington, DC (McPherson Square)

Stipend: $1500

Positions: ICT4D Research & Outreach  Associate and  Web and Multimedia Production Associate

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Please pass along to your networks!

Applications are no longer being accepted.