Unpicking a political & ideological shift in thinking - cellphones and poverty

15/04/2008 by nicola.

George Siemens post & Stephen Downes comment made me think - they both refer to the need for a shift in thinking and that coverage - e.g. the article in NY Times about Jan Chipchase’s research, is distracting wider issue of this need. I think I have missed or misunderstood what both George and Stephen are referring to in terms of shift in thinking because I feel depressed now.

I have been following Jan’s research and blog for some time, he has been touring various parts of the world, taking loads of photos, meeting loads of people and looking at their behaviour, wishes and use of mobile phone devices. He mentions many ideas that he has discovered in Asia and some of Middle East, that are familiar to me from living in Turkey and mobile phone usage from my in-laws (2000+) who are scattered around various bits of Turkey. They have mixed levels of income, mixed levels of network coverage but a shared fascination with a device that allows them to chat to each other - sometimes without actually talking - for example - they often ring once then ring off - this is a way of saying ‘hello’ and ‘I’m thinking about you’ - but they don’t have to spend any money doing it (i.e. no call charge). This appears to be similar in other parts of Asia mentioned in Jan’s blog. Also anyone who has been to Turkey will know that the concept of ‘fake’ may be viewed differently to how it is viewed e.g. in the UK (am not talking about judgement of the ethical issue - more around economic conditions and issues that mean ‘fake’ products are in existence).

I’m unsure about the shift that is needed in how we interact with developing nations. From what I understand, mobile phones are working well in terms of helping people e.g. start a business, reporting on something good or bad that is happening - because they don’t have / can’t afford another device, bandwidth, connectivity to try anything else. I can see benefits in moving money around using a mobile phone and I can see how useful that it can be to make a Remade phone: in some ways it is similar to FairTrade except that you are ‘growing your phone’ from materials that may or may not have been purchased in traditional (legitimate? depends who is judging / legislating ?) ways, and that the phone can be sold based on the labour and skill involved in creating a phone from these materials.

However mobile phones are primarily helping in terms of improving people’s circumstances including their personal financial ones because they are a portable communication device - they allow people to carry out business using voice and text. Mobile activism is driving changes, mobile citizen journalism is presenting different insights into how people are living, working and the good & bad stuff that is happening around them. For example in Turkey, as mobile phone device ownership increased, there appeared to be a radical shift in thinking - people no longer felt that their problems were unique and isolating - by finally being able to chat with others for extended periods of time (a luxury not previously granted due to telephone landlines). So there is already a shift in thinking.

I seem to have more questions than I have answers e.g

With ownership of devices, finding out local information that can improve a business locally, perhaps transferring money using phones and potentially selling ‘green’ phones to the developed nations - does that help people find a way out of poverty ?

Is the focus on mobile phones just presenting opportunities for healthy, developed, multinational companies to invest in businesses in developing nations and increase their billion dollar profits further ?

Is the huge growth of mobile device ownership and mobile services allowing network operators in developing nations to become small empires and form partnerships with other mobile network operator or manufacturing multinational ‘giants’ and therefore benefitting the shareholders but perhaps not the overall users to share the same amount of personal ‘wealth’ ?

Does the implementation of the web accessible via mobile phones - put a stranglehold on local innovation and development in order to sell their services or applications - i.e. we are replicating current commercial, copyright & IP issues but on a smaller device ?

Are the advantages of using mobile phones for communication including voice calls, text/SMS, VOIP and a variety of mobile social networks and social media benefitting the richer inhabitants of this planet as much as the others - so actually not changing anything at all ?

Up until this moment I really believed that mobile phones are the best way that I have come across for helping inhabitants of developing nations find ways of improving their circumstances - as opposed to other technology tools (although sites like AfriGadget are also highlighting fantastic examples of innovation from a range of both original and recycled materials); because I do not see another solution such as pc internet connectivity for all being implemented in the short term - although again web usage in developing nations is increasing hugely. I also thought that mobile learning was a way of promoting wider access to learning that could be implemented now, but maybe doing that does just allow circumstances to stay as they are.

I don’t have answers and I don’t get it.

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