Message-ID: <Pine.3.88.9604091418.A16184-0100000@go> Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 14:53:54 -0500 From: Abubakr Alkhalifa <mailto:aalkhali@CIS.USOUTHAL.EDU> Subject: Appropriate Software Proposal To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Another idea from Afrik-IT _________________________________________________________________________Abubakr Alkhalifa "I.T. vs. Poverty" 612 Montclaire Way Graduate Student Mobile, AL 36609 School of Computer & Information Sciences USA University of South Alabama Tel/Fax: (334)660-0242 mailto:aalkhali@cis.usouthal.edu _________________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 13:07:10 +0100 From: Roger Wiesenbach <mailto:roger@AMGOT.ORG> To: Multiple recipients of list AFRIK-IT <mailto:AFRIK-IT@IRLEARN.UCD.IE> Subject: Re: Internet influence on rural development
> >How might the Internet better help rural
> >Africans communicate locally as well as internationally?
>
> Are you serious? Most of rural Africa has no electricity, much less phone
> lines?
Isn't this a bit stereotyped view of Africa?
Just about everywhere I went in Africa to regional towns there was some hotshot radio technician who had learned how to cope with very primitive resources, there were local industries which had some kind of wire or wireless communication with the outside world.
Even a dumb terminal can be hooked up via a home-brew modem to a server in the capital city. We have that here in France, it's called the Minitel, and it serves fairly well, if only the operators weren't such money-grubbers.
Remember that for many years the Internauts in the USA did very well with primitive means.
Roger Wiesenbach http://www.liber.net/law-france/