equitable access
“Access to the internet is a thousand times cheaper in Scandinavian countries than in my village,” says Nigerian activist John Dada, who specialises in information and communications technologies (ICTs) for development. In order to contribute to the discussion on what can make access to the internet real for people, specially the poor and marginalised, APC is launching a series on equitable access that includes papers and commentaries on the themes of business models, policy and regulatio...
“Sometimes doing the wrong thing with technology is better than doing nothing,” says research associate at the South African-based Shuttleworth Foundation, Steve Song. And, he suggests, when it comes to technology, the unexpected should be encouraged to happen. Song, an open source advocate, was responding to an issue paper by technical activist Alberto Escudero-Pascual, entitled Tools and technologies for equitable access. This is one of four papers commissioned by the Association for P...
Policy-makers and regulators “cannot be supermen and superwomen,” says African information and communications technology (ICT) policy analyst Professor F.F. Tusubira. Instead, he says, they need to create an environment where “savvy” entrepreneurs can bring value to customers. While there are many points of agreement on how to understand the key challenges facing policy activists who wa...
The majority of the world’s population is still isolated from the opportunities offered by the global revolution in information and communications technologies (ICTs) – and the poor are the hardest hit. This is the view of Ethiopian-based ICT expert Lishan Adam, whose issue paper Policies for equitable access considers policy interventions to rectify the imbalances between rich and poor wh...
Grassroots communities need to get their hands dirty in shaping how information and communications technologies (ICTs) affect their lives, rather than passively leaving it up to governments and big business to decide. This is the view of Kenyan-based ICT consultant Muriuki Mureithi, whose issue paper, Business models for equitable access, looks at ways of making ICT for development projects s...
The resources on this page are part of a series on equitable access to ICT infrastructure commissioned by APC. This has included an event on equitable access which took place in Rio de Janeiro in November 2007 as well as a series of papers and commentaries on the themes of business models, policy and regulation, tools and technologies and people, networks and capabilities.
