Digital Inclusion the Vital Role of Local Content
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Special Issue A quarterly journal published by MIT Press innovations TECHNOLOGY | GOVERNANCE | GLOBALIZATION Digital Inclusion The Vital Role of Local Content Lead Essays Christopher Burns and Jonathan Dolan Building a Foundation for Digital Inclusion Mark Graham Inequitable Distributions in Internet Geographies Matthew Guilford To the Next Billion Case Narratives Sara Chamberlain A Mobile Guide Toward Better Health Kerry Harwin and Rikin Gandhi A Social Network for Farmer Training Analysis and Perspectives on Policy Mark Surman, Corina Gardner & David Ascher Local Content & Smartphones Emrys Schoemaker The Mobile Web Lesley-Anne Long, Sara Chamberlain & Kirsten Gagnaire The 80-20 Debate Marco Veremis Hyper-Local Content Is Key—Especially Social Media Abigail Steinberg, Peres Were & Amolo Ng’weno Democratizing Legal Information Across Africa Ravi Chhatpar and Robert Fabricant Digital Design for Emerging Markets Iris Orriss The Internet’s Language Barrier Kul Wadhwa & Howie Fung Converting Western Internet to Indigenous Internet ENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL CHALLENGES Editors Advisory Board Philip Auerswald Susan Davis Iqbal Quadir Bill Drayton David Kellogg Managing Editor Eric Lemelson Michael Youngblood Granger Morgan Guest Editors Jacqueline Novogratz Audrey Hyland James Turner Nicholas Sullivan Xue Lan Senior Associate Editor Editorial Board Robin Miller David Audretsch Matthew Bunn Associate Editors Maryann Feldman Dody Riggs Richard Florida Helen Snively Peter Mandaville Strategic Advisor Julia Novy-Hildesley Erin Krampetz Francisco Veloso Yang Xuedong Innovations: Technology | Governance | Globalization is co-hosted by the School of Public Policy, George Mason University (Fairfax, VA, USA); the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA); and the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA). Support for the journal is provided in part by the Lemelson Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. © 2014 Tagore LLC innovations TECHNOLOGY | GOVERNANCE | GLOBALIZATION Foreword 3 Toward a More Inclusive Digital Economy Dr. Rajiv Shah and Priya Jaisinghani Lead Essays 7 Building a Foundation for Digital Inclusion: A Coordinated Local Content Ecosystem Christopher Burns and Jonathan Dolan 17 Inequitable Distributions in Internet Geographies: The Global South Is Gaining Access, but Lags in Local Content Mark Graham 35 To the Next Billion: Mobile Network Operators and the Content Distribution Value Chain Matthew Guilford Case Narratives Mobile Kunji 47 A Mobile Guide Toward Better Health: How Mobile Kunji is Improving Birth Outcomes in Bihar, India Sara Chamberlain Digital Green 57 A Rural Video-Based Social Network for Farmer Training Kerry Harwin and Rikin Gandhi Analysis 67 Local Content, Smartphones, and Digital Inclusion: Will the Next Billion Consumers Also Be Contributors to the Mobile Web? Mark Surman, Corina Gardner, and David Ascher 79 The Mobile Web: Amplifying, But Not Creating, Changemakers Emrys Schoemaker Special Issue 91 The 80-20 Debate: Framework or Fiction? How Much Development Work is Standardized Across Geographies, and How Much is Customized for Local Conditions? Lesley-Anne Long, Sara Chamberlain, and Kirsten Gagnaire 101 Hyper-Local Content Is Key—Especially Social Media: A Cross-Country Comparison of Mobile Content in Brazil, China, India and Nigeria Marco Veremis Perspectives on Policy 107 Democratizing Legal Information Across Africa: An Inside Look at Digitizing Local Content in Africa Abigail Steinberg, Peres Were, and Amolo Ng’weno 117 Digital Design for Emerging Markets: Beyond Textual and Technical Literacy to Cultural Fluency Ravi Chhatpar and Robert Fabricant 127 The Internet’s Language Barrier Iris Orriss 131 Converting Western Internet to Indigenous Internet: Lessons from Wikipedia Kul Wadhwa and Howie Fung About Innovations Innovations is about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. The journal features cases authored by exceptional innovators; commentary and research from leading academics; and essays from globally recognized executives and political leaders. The journal is jointly hosted at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and MIT's Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. Dr. Rajiv Shah and Priya Jaisinghani Toward a More Inclusive Digital Economy Foreword to Innovations special issue on Digital Inclusion The emerging digital economy has unprecedented potential to improve the lives of the very poor around the world. Powered by mobile and broadband technolo- gies and energized by new business models and an abundance of data, the digital economy is transforming everything from teacher evaluation to child survival to election monitoring. By harnessing its full reach in development, we can help answer President Obama’s call to end extreme poverty in two generations. The macroeconomic forecasts are stunningly positive. Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) has predicted that the “digitization” of the economy could yield as much as $4.1 trillion in GDP for the world’s poorest people. This would create 64 million new jobs and help lift 580 million people who currently live on less than US $4 per day.1 We have seen the power of this transformation among poor fam- ilies across the world. We have visited marginalized and vulnerable communities across Africa, Latin America, and Asia that are now able to connect, learn, vote, and even save money safely through one simple device—the mobile phone. The opportunity is clear, but it is not a forgone conclusion that mobile and broadband technologies will benefit those who arguably stand to gain the most. Building inclusive digital economies requires the collective action of govern- ments, industry, financiers, and civil society. We need to build the infrastructure, align the policies, and create the tools that will enable the very poor to join the dig- ital revolution. We have seen the impact of a collective approach in the global partnerships that USAID has built. Through the Better Than Cash Alliance, Visa, MasterCard, USAID, the UN, and the governments of Malawi, The Philippines, Kenya, Afghanistan, and others have come together to promote a global move- ment toward digital payments. At the same time, USAID has launched the Alliance for Affordable Internet alongside the Department for International Development (DFID), Google, the Omidyar Network, and 60 other partners to help governments worldwide make policy reforms that are bringing down broad- band prices for billions of current and future online users. More recently, USAID has teamed up with donors such as UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates © 2014 Dr. Rajiv Shah and Priya Jaisinghani innovations / Special Issue 3 Dr. Rajiv Shah and Priya Jaisinghani Foundation, the World Food Program, and others to examine shared experiences in digital development through a common set of principles and best practices. However, persistent barriers to accessing digital technologies remain. Women are, on average, 21 percent less likely to own mobile phones or go online than their male counterparts.2 In some African countries, access to broadband can cost upwards of 1,000 times that of most people’s monthly income.3 As a result, fewer than 20 percent of Africans can access the Internet.4 These are but a We have long known the value of few stark examples. Until digital technology. It accelerates such gaps are closed, dig- ital technology will never financial inclusion, improves reach its potential as a transparency, and unlocks new driver of inclusive growth; in fact, it could markets. But the digital revolution amplify socioeconomic divisions. delivers more than just economic We know the digital efficiencies. It empowers voices, economy will reshape institutions, systems, and advances dignity, and, perhaps requisite skills, but there most important, it builds the is no guarantee that this transformation will drive capacity of individuals to lift broad-based benefit, as themselves—and future expanding access to information and commu- generations—out of poverty. nication technologies alone will not ensure that the digital economy develops in an inclusive way. In the U.S., for example, where 98 percent of homes have some access to high-speed Internet, the impact of the innovation-driven economy has led to a surprising economic paradox.5 Never before have productivity, generation of wealth, and profits been higher, yet the median income of the American worker has stagnated and unemployment has risen.6 The American Dream remains out of reach for far too many. The explanations for this paradox are, of course, complex. At a minimum, however, it points to the fact that policies, institutions, and indi- vidual capabilities have not kept pace with the changes driven by technological advances. Today, the world’s online knowledge is primarily in English and is largely text based, yet information shared through mobile and broadband technologies must be accessible for people of all language and literacy skills. There are notable efforts to create information services in different languages and across delivery channels, and the world of image and video-rich smartphone environments certainly will 4 innovations / Digital Inclusion Toward a More Inclusive Digital Economy change this dynamic, but much more needs to be done. As such, this issue of Innovations on Digital Inclusion is an important exercise