Chris Reij from VU University – Amsterdam led a group including Stephane Boyera, George Sadowsky and me from the Web Foundation on an educational tour of the desert regions north of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The purpose was to orient participants in the new Web-alliance for Re-greening Africa and others on the progress and challenges…
Read MoreWeb Scale: Tim Berners-Lee at the World Economic Forum, Davos
Tim Berners-Lee spoke today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland about the future of the Web and the value of working at “Web Scale”. The next generation of the Web promises greater opportunity for advancing human intelligence, creativity, collaboration, and commerce by linking the underlying data representing knowledge, opinions, activities, personal…
Read MoreRe-greening Africa
The Web Foundation starts work on the Web-alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA) during the first week of February, with Steve Bratt and Stephane Boyera doing field investigations and planning with our partners in Burkina Faso.
Leveraging the Web, mobile phones, community radio and local expertise, W4RA will expand the collection and sharing of knowledge on…
The Man Who Stopped the Desert: Helping Others to Do the Same
The Web-alliance for Re-greening Africa (W4RA) — the Web Foundation’s first project — starts in earnest in a bit over a week. We are all quite excited, to say the least. We are also collecting other experiences in the use of the Web to support agricultural projects. So please comment below or send email with…
Read MoreThe Importance of the Web to Help Disaster Relief in Haiti
The days following the earthquake in Haiti have shown just how vital — and often too scarce — reliable information is. Aid organizations and government agencies need to know what’s happening on the ground so they can effectively allocate their resources. These organizations and agencies must be able to share information in order to effectively coordinate…
Read MoreICT4D and Business Models
Let me start with my best wishes for 2010!
I’m starting to investigate the business side of ICT4D projects. Identifying the business model is (or should be!) obviously a critical dimension for most ICT4D projects. Indeed, that’s the study of how to make services at least self-sustainable, or to provide revenue to the provider.
Identifying the cost…
Mobile vs. Radio vs. TV vs. the Web
I recently found a very interesting article by Kevin Randall from Fast Company “The Boob-Tube, Not YouTube, Is Transforming the World”. This is a good opportunity to clarify a bit where the Web Foundation stands in that discussion. In few words, the article is about the power and impact of the Web on social and…
Read MoreGiving to the Web Foundation, and Tax Exempt Status
The Web Foundation depends on grants and individual gifts in order to conduct planned programs, and achieve our ambitious objectives. Many thanks to those who have already donated through our Web site, and to the more than 100 talented people who have volunteered to help us.
Good news arrived yesterday from Swiss counsel Benoit Merkt:…
Visits in Africa
The Web Foundation’s visits to Africa focus on learning how the information technologies are being used, to understand the barriers and opportunities for Web usage, and to connect with people, projects and organizations active in the region.
Tim Berners-Lee and Daniel Dardailler of the Web Foundation visited Ghana in September 2009. Tim, Daniel, Stephane Boyera and…
Mobile Web East Africa Conference
I’m glad to see that Matthew Dawes and All Amber are continuing their efforts to promote the Mobile Web in Africa. Last october, i attended and chaired part of Mobile Web Africa which took place in South Africa. This was the first event focusing on this topic in Africa, and this was a real success…
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