How the Homeless are staying wired

Otherwise ostracized, the homeless feel connected and welcomed online (photo source: wikimaniacs.com)

I LOVED this WSJ article profiling how the homeless connect to the internet and digital media. I go to the library all the time and meet homeless people there, hogging up the computers. If there is someone who needs an escape, its them; and not only do they use it, but I find them to be some of the most educated and informed people I've come across.

Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. The tough part is managing this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.

"You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper," says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. "But you need the Internet."

Mr. Pitts's experience shows how deeply computers and the Internet have permeated society. A few years ago, some people were worrying that a "digital divide" would separate technology haves and have-nots. The poorest lack the means to buy computers and Web access. Still, in America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses.[...]

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The power of mobile phones

A cellphone shop in Accra, Ghana, carries and repairs a variety of handsets (photo credit: Shaul Schwarz/Reportage, for The New York Times)

My first couple of posts on this blog focused on mobile phones, and I've been sorta quiet on the subject since...mostly because I've been trying to focus on one subject at a time (right now its water, because its one of my specialties). But information about the power of mobile phones and how they are improving connectivity, and REALLY impacting the lives of the poor is everywhere. Today I read a brilliant article on Jan Chipchase's work in the NYT, which got me all excited again. I had to share it and in addition, while I'm on the topic, I thought I'd add a bit more...

Here are three things that I believe will really make you consider the amazing impact mobile phones are having on the developing world:

1. Jan Chipchase's work on mobile phones and their impact on the Third World have been captured most recently (this morning) in print in The New York Times, and on video this weekend on TED.



2. Iqbal Quadir knew about the impact of mobile phones in his native country of Bangladesh. This Wharton grad returned to Bangladesh to start Grameen Phone which brought mobile access to the poorest of the poor. Suddenly they were all connected, and they could reach beyond their village into the larger international space. It changed everything. Here Quadir talks about his project and how it worked:


3. Pangea Day (that I blogged about earlier) will broadcast live across the globe on May 10, 2008. To make sure EVERYONE has access, the four hour independent film festival will be broadcast so that mobile phones will have access. This way even the poorest in some of the farthest regions of the globe will be able to connect. So you better be there, viewing with them...in your own home, office or shack!

The power of voice

We all know about the power of the media. Probably in no country is this more obvious than in the U.S where we are constantly bombarded with some type of media - bulletin boards (in your office, school, on the roadside, in the supermarket), newspaper, radio, internet, and television.

In the context of impoverished communities, media is a powerful connecting tool. It connects the ones with a voice to the ones who want or need to hear, particularly in areas that most need it. Without a voice, you are severely handicapped. Your government rarely cares. After all, what's their incentive?? You are poor and uneducated, and while there are others like you, you are scattered and unable to unite. You don't have any power, and you don't have any voice. Sometimes, your government deliberately keeps you scattered in order to maintain their power. So what are your options?? How do you make yourself heard??

In 2002, I had the good fortune of meeting Jessie M. She was a filmmaker of pedigree, and had come to India to teach others film-making. She had this idea of giving the poor "a voice." I admit, I didn't fully buy into her idea. So you give kids a camera and tell them to film things. But what was the point? There was no electricity, no education, and who was going to see it?? What's the point of a voice if no one can hear it??

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Yesterday, I was fumbling around on the net and stumbled on Ch19.org an online channel that features documentaries made by amateur filmmakers...filmmakers born and living in the slums and villages of impoverished India. I was amazed by the quality of the videos, the material in them. Suddenly I was in the field with the real people - connecting, listening, hearing. There were no barriers. There was trust between them and me. They were telling me about issues that really mattered to them and about how they viewed the world. Normally it would take days, weeks or months of patient waiting and cajoling to connect like this. But I didn't have to anymore. It was refreshing and beautiful.

It turns out to be Jessie's gang (go figure!). Shortly after we met, Jess had started a foundation called Video Volunteers. She brought with her all the materials - cameras, equipment, laptops (with editing software), and her skills; then linked up with local organizations who would provide the volunteers. Since 2002, the organization has grown. Their YouTube channel now features 57 videos.

Here's a preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TMdRxUwGBQ


So who heard them?? Me...out here in the U.S. And you, wherever you are. And soon the people they were initially talking out to. That's the power of voice, vision, and the right technology.

mobile phones and their future

The cellphone has revolutionized business by improving connectivity between some of the world's poorest people. In his bestselling book "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" C.K Prahalad talks about "connectivity" as being an important aspect of improving a person's socio-economic standing. Most third world countries suffer from a desperate lack of infrastructure, that keeps its people grossly deprived of any interaction with the outside. This lack of interaction results in a lack of information, which keeps them ignorant of means to make their lives better.

It is easy for people to say that what keeps the poor in a state of poverty is their laziness. That is true of maybe a handful of them. The vast majority, I've seen work hard and desperately want ing to extricate themselves from their poverty. What keeps them poor is pure ignorance, lack of information, and without libraries, good schools, role models, or the internet, they have no way of changing that. They don't even know where to go for information.

That brings forth the One Laptop Per Child program, the wikimedia foundation, or others that are trying to bridge this gap. I'll talk about the computers in a later post. But what I think is the future, and what is already revolutionizing socio-economic growth in the BOP (Bottom of the Pyramid) is the cell phone.

Take this market I came across in northern India, where flowerwomen were SMSing across villages to find which of the nearby markets was "happening." Once they knew which one had higher demand, they would clamber into the corresponding bus and sell their flowers in the right spot, generating a higher profit. John Adams would be proud...this is market efficiency at its best.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with George, an old colleague from Kisumu, Kenya, about life there. I've been to Kisumu, and there isn't much infrastructure to boast about. Although the third largest city in Kenya (Nairobi and Mombasa are first and second), all the main shops fit on a single street. Its like an overgrown village. There are few internet cafes and they are expensive. George is not rich. But he is ambitious, intelligent, and interested in making something of himself. So he uses his mobile phone to log onto the internet and check and send emails (which is cheaper than calling the US). So in a matter of half an hour, I could help George with solving some technical issues about his water system at home. Having no library or computer wasn't a problem. He could atleast contact me and I could get him the information. So now George's water system is working and he's drinking clean water again. That's the power of connectivity.

Africa today is the world's largest growing mobile phone market. Our second hand phones often end up there to be quickly grabbed by someone. Who would have thought that a Swede's broken down tossed-out phone would be fixed and grabbed up by a poor Malinese woman in Timbuktu. Globalization has done some amazing things. Cell phones are a market I would also keep investing in.