Ghana's Digital Dilemma

Some random reader writes: "Here is a fascinating Technology Review article about information technology in the West African nation of Ghana. It's an illustration of how new technology relies on, and can be hampered by, old technology. It's also a testament to the ingenuity of the people there who are working to maintain and update the country's IT infrastructure. These folks are working with a terrible phone system and frequent power outages, but they still manage to succeed."

Comments

Interested in helping out in Ghana?

[slipandfall]

My sister just spent four months in Ghana working for a volunteer program called Geekcorps. The way it works is that you work a four month stint with a local company or NGO. One of the projects my sister did involved building the web site for the Ghanaian parliament. So, we're talking significant impact here.

If you have tech skills, four months to kill and are looking to make an appreciable impact in the future of a nation, check it out.

Re:One-Way Satellite

[ShaggusMacHaggis]

correct links

Freeplay

and while the worldspace link is correct, we actually partner with the Worldspace Foundation, not the corporation

Worldspace Foundation

Re:Africa Rising

[Kemal]

If you are interested in helping Africa (in this case local businesses in Acra, Ghana) with your geek skills, take a look at geekhalla.

It is a volunteer driven organisation where you help them close the "digital divide" gap.

Re:Power Outages, Generators and UPS, Oh my!

[CvD]

Dude,

I've been to Ghana (my parents live there) and lived in Kenya for most of my life... UPSs are expensive! So are generators... this is a little inconvenient, and the damage to computers probably is minimal. Hey, if Win95 (that's what they mostly run there, on Pentium 133's) refuses to start up, just reinstall windows... Easy does it.

The owner is pretty lucky to have a generator. Most Internet cafes don't. He will not have the funds to buy UPSses.

Cheers!

Internet cafes in 1996

[toxcspdrmn]

"Two years ago, Accra lacked a single Internet café. Now the city boasts more than 600 of them,"

Not quite true. I was working in Ghana from 1995 to 1998 putting science equipment and Win 3.1 486 machines into schools to provide local science resource centres for the Ministry of Education and there was public internet access (albeit mostly for ex-pats) at a German-owned bar called Aquarius in Accra.

By 1998 there were several internet cafes in Ghana including ones in Navrongo and Tamale in the much poorer north of the country.

I had a dial-up account (my first) with Africaonline which was pretty much only usable for email.

Ghana is NOT Poor or Backwards...

[pamzella]

...like this article makes it sound. I spent 4 months in Ghana in the spring of 1998. I sent email to my friends and family from the university libraries, and get email from the friends that I made there all the time.

Ghana's electricity problems stem from the U.S. bastard baby, the World Bank. The World Bank thought it would be brilliant to build dams in Ghana for hydropower, creating Akosombo Dam and Lake Volta, which is a fantastic breeding pool for mosquitos carrying malaria and yellow fever. Ghana's northern half is in the Sahara Desert!! The only thing for sure in Ghana is sunshine, so if it was you or me there, we would have been in there installing solar power everywhere. The libraries had older DOS computers for the most part, but those old workhorses are better adept at handling the unexpected power outages (and planned ones, when the dam runs out of water) than my new G4 would be. The Geekcorps has been in Ghana for a while, so clearly they see potential.

Go there and find out for yourself what an amazing place Ghana is, delicious food, unbelievably friendly people. I was there during the biggest drought/electricity crisis in several years, and they just had rotating blackouts no different than my native CA did a year ago. Water had to be trucked in to be spread around, but you wouldn't believe how I could make a bucket of water last when I learned from my friends there. Ghanaians aren't all living in horrendous poverty. They do know how to make do with less than Americans, and really, it's not a reflection of them but of our excess. And they've got more culture than in all our bio-tech labs combined.