A Digitally Inclusive South Africa

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Keynote presentation at CSIR conference "Science: Real and Relevant" on 17 November 2008

Transcript of A Digitally Inclusive South Africa

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A Digitally Inclusive

South Africa

Steve SongTelecommunications

Fellow

Shuttleworth Foundation

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Why digital inclusion?

A tide that raises all ships

the power to transcend space and time

a general purpose enabler

the immediacy of ideas

the location of innovation

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hint-of-plum/

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Telecom infrastructure is Telecom infrastructure is

the Cardiovascular Systemthe Cardiovascular System

of theof the

Knowledge EconomyKnowledge Economy

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YouTube vs. Television

In the 60 years since the 3 largest U.S. networks began broadcasting, one can imagine about 1.5 million hours of programming.

3 networks x 60 years x 365 days x 24 hours

= 1.5 million hours of programming

Courtesy Michael Wesch, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

YouTube produces this much content in six months.

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YouTube

Courtesy Michael Wesch, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

● 9232 hours/day● 385 always on

channels● 200,000 3-

minute videos

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Quake Catcher Network

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But in Africa...

In relative terms SA is falling behind

Costs still higher than neighbouring countries

There is a need for a shared vision among industry, government, and consumers

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Global Trends 2008

High-Quality Broadband Essential to Growth of the World’s Knowledge Economies – Oxford Said Business School – Press Release Sept 2008

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Under-sea

Cablesin

2010?

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Spectrum

700Mhz

Cdn 105 Mhz Auction

White Spaces Alliance

TelevisionTelevisionTelevisionTelevision

WiFiWiFiWiMaxWiMax

Mobile Spectrum

Mobile Spectrum

Open Standards

for SpectrumAuctions

SpectrumCommons

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The Democratisation of Telecom Infrastructure

TelephoneInfrastructure = “connect out”

InternetInfrastructure = “connect in”

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ICTs are steadily declining in cost

inexpensiveoff-the-shelfbroadbandtechnology

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Open Source Software

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Telco 2.0

Web2.0 is changing how we understand media, participation, publishing, copyright, and that is just the beginning.

What might happen if telecommunication infrastructure became cheap enough and simple enough that anyone could set up a telco?

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Photo Credits – CC

Mosquitohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/gyuvallos/71410563/sizes/o/

Cardiovascular Systemhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/patrlynch/

Hand with phonehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2736565604/sizes/l/

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Thanks!

Steve Songmail: steve.song@shuttleworthfoundation.org

skype: steve_l_songblog: http://manypossibilities.net

twitter: stevesongdel.icio.us: ssong