Electronic Geophysical Year: State of the Art and Results Egy-Africa: Addressing the Digital Divide for Science in Africa
RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, VOL. 11, ES1003, doi:10.2205/2009ES000377, 2009 proceedings of the international conference Electronic Geophysical Year: State of the Art and Results 3{6 June 2009 • Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia eGY-Africa: Addressing the digital divide for science in Africa C. E. Barton,1 C. Amory-Mazaudier,2 B. Barry,3 V. Chukwuma,4 R. L. Cottrell,5 U. Kalim,6 A. Mebrahtu,7 M. Petitdidier,8 B. Rabiu,9 and C. Reeves10 Received 30 October 2009; accepted 6 November 2009; published 24 November 2009. KEYWORDS: eGY-Africa, digital divide, Internet services, cyber-infrastructure, science in Africa. Citation: Barton, C. E., C. Amory-Mazaudier, B. Barry, V. Chukwuma, R. L. Cottrell, U. Kalim, A. Mebrahtu, M. Petitdidier, B. Rabiu, and C. Reeves (2009), eGY-Africa: Addressing the digital divide for science in Africa, Russ. J. Earth. Sci., 11, ES1003, doi:10.2205/2009ES000377. Abstract institutions. As the world of science becomes increasingly Internet-dependent, so they become increasingly isolated. eGY-Africa is a bottom-up initiative by African scientists Adoption of information and communication technologies and their collaborators to try to reduce this Digital Divide and access to the Internet is expanding in Africa, but be- by a campaign of advocacy for better institutional facili- cause of the rapid growth elsewhere, a Digital Divide be- ties. Four approaches are being taken. The present status tween Africa and the rest of the world exists, and the gap of Internet services, problems, and plans are being mapped is growing. In many sub-Saharan African countries, educa- via a combination of direct measurement of Internet per- tion and research sector suffer some of the worst deficien- formance (the PingER Project) and a questionnaire-based cies in access to the Internet, despite progress in develop- survey.
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