The Mobile Web to bridge the Digital Divide

Stéphane Boyera

http://www.w3.org/2007/04/sb_ist/all.htm

IST Africa Conference 2007

Maputo, Mozambique, May 10 2007

W3C: Leading the Web to its Full Potential

Founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee in 1994 ...

• W3C Provides the Vision and the Standards to Lead the Web:

From a Web of Documents ... ... toward One Web: of Data and Services on Everything for Everyone

(Membership / Benefits / New "At a Glance" brochure)

W3C: History

• 1994: Creation of W3C for standardization and interoperability of Web technologies
• 1997: Creation of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): To make the Web Accessible
• 2005: Creation of the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI): To Access the Web from Mobile Phones

Next Step: the Web for All

• 2007: W3C to help bridging the Digital Divide and help the majority to access the Web

(Photo Source : The Economist )

ICT to sustain development

	A mean to support: Gov. services Education Health Banking Communities services Business ...
(Photo Source: Der Spiegel)

How to deploy ICT?

• With cheap laptops and mesh networking: One Laptop Per Child?
• With specific/special phones: Microsoft FonePlus?
• With the Mobile Web:
  • Taking advantage of the existing 2.4+billion of mobile phones
  • Taking advantage of the GSM cover (80% of the world population)
  • Taking advantage of the adoption and use of Mobile applications
  • Overcoming the current limitations

Today: SMS Applications

	Successful Mobile Applications Banking NGOs-run SMS based system: e-gov, business (market poll), health, ...
	But few problems: Interoperability problems Discoverability of services limited interaction costly/inappropriate infrastructure no standardized development kit
(Photo Source: Vodafone)

Tomorrow?

• Improving SMS?
  • MMS: not aiming at above-mentionned limitations
  • New improvements of SMS? An existing platform exists…
• The Web: the platform to leverage services development, deployment and adoption:
  • No interoperability problems
  • Discoverability through portals and search engine
  • Enhanced interaction through forms/voice/multimodal interaction
  • Cheap/free hosting
  • Standardized technologies and development platform

Which Web?

The Web!

• W3C Vision: Universal Access: The Web Anywhere, for Everyone, at Anytime, on Everything
• No specific content for specific conditions, but the same content for all conditions
  • MWI
  • WAI
• But needs to adapt technologies to fit with the requirements of people on the other side of the Divide
  • Specific hardware: low-cost mobile phones, low-bandwidth network,....
  • Specific usability context : non technology aware populations, cultural and social specificities, regional particularities...

Roadmap

• Building the right community
• Enabling the Mobile Web
  • Defining the minimal characteristics of a Web browser to be largely deployed
• Identifying the usability factors and how to take them into account
  • Working on the guidelines on how to deliver Mobile Web Applications to under-privileged populations and rural communities
• Building local capacities
  • Setting up a Mobile Web Applications curriculum

Joining the work now

• The Mobile Web in Developing Countries Home Page: http://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/public.html
• A public-mailing list: public-mwi-ec@w3.org archived at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mwi-ec/
• A Wiki: http://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/wiki/

Conclusion

• W3C Goal: to make the Web accessible, relevant, usable and useful for under-privileged populations and rural communities
• The Mobile Web is the most promising platform for low-cost large scale development, deployment and adoption of ICTs
• Join the process of gathering the critical mass of experts to start the work