A Digitally Inclusive South Africa
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www.shuttleworthfoundation.org A Digitally Inclusive South Africa Steve Song Telecommunications Fellow Shuttleworth Foundation
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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
www.shuttleworthfoundation.org
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: [email protected]
skype: steve_l_songblog: http://manypossibilities.net
twitter: stevesongdel.icio.us: ssong
