Technology-Based Social Change

vivekg writes "BBC has published an article featuring the highlights of technological social change from around the world for this year. It is amazing to find out how technology is being used in very different ways for very different communities. Victims of the Tsunami disaster, Virtual Wallets in Japan, and the Indian government, bringing technology to rural areas, all have been touched by the positive use of technology. Hope to see more good community-based collaboration in 2006."

Re:The Next Social Equalizer?

[nanopolitan]

I am surprised BBC has chosen to highlight the computer and internet technology in India. To me, the real story is the mobile phones (which just gets an honourable mention). It has been the big story for the last several years; and I am sure it will be so for the next several too.

The early nineties saw the rise of manned pay phone booths. It was seen as a big deal, simply because it made telephones accessible to everyone (amd also gave employment opportunities to a lot of people). For the first time, those in government realized (from this live 'experiment') that poor people may not be able to afford a phone, but they certainly can afford phone calls. Still, it was mostly an urban or semi-urban phenomenon.

Then the mobile revolution started. It invaded regions that had never seen a phone. With greater competition, the price of phone calls kept falling, and at about 3 cents a minute for local calls (we are being told that our rates are the cheapest in the world. is it true?), they are affordable to large sections of people: fisherfolks, maid servantss, sales people, smalltime shopowners, taxi drivers, et al. So much so that cellphone subscribers now outnumber those with landline connections.

The revolution is getting deepened with the falling price of the handset. Just today, Motorola unveiled its cheap mobiles for Rs. 1,700 (just below $40).

Even though we have seen scorching growth rates in the telecom industry of over 50% in the recent past, this revolution is quite young; only 10-15 percent of the population is connected even now. Investors are clued into this huge potential; the stock prices of telecom companies are zooming up, up and away.

Given this scenario, I would still say the mobile revolution is far, far bigger than the 'rural internet cafe' that the Beeb seems to want to highlight.