Food For Thought: Localized Content Aids Disconnected Africa

摘要

We hear in the news about famine-stricken areas of Africa, but due to connectivity problems, much of Africa is also information-starved. And, like a shortage of food, a shortage of information can be a disaster. Founded in 2000 to mitigate the third world's dire digital communications problems, the WiderNet Project is a largely volunteer, nonprofit organization based at the University of Iowa. It's director, Cliff Missen, explains that Africa is a disconnected continent for many reasons. "Remember, telephone penetration in Africa is low—sometimes as few as 20 phones per 1,000 households," Missen says. "Besides, when you and I connect to an ISP via our phones, our measly 52K connections share the ISP's multi-megabit connection to the Internet. In many situations in Africa, the dial-in users wind up sharing an Internet connection that is slower than their modem speed," Missen says. "It's not uncommon for an African ISP to have a 32K connection to the Internet."