Without a doubt, social networking has changed the technology landscape in places like Europe and the United States. But what is the role of this technology in the Global South? The February #ICT4D Twitter Chat focused on this during a lively 90-minute dialogue between technologists, implementers, and others in the ICT4D world. (Take the Chat Survey)

1. Social networking is driving ICT adoption, but which tools, why, and to what extent?
2. How can social networking increase donor, implementer, recipient participation in development?
3. What are the gaps and limitations in social networking engagement - where doesn't it work?

What social networking technology is involved?

Vincenzo Cosenza recently published a map reinforcing the dominance of Facebook as a powerhouse in the social networking world. And with new features like Facebook Zero, its also changing the way people interact with the Internet.

While Facebook is the major player in social networking, more local and regional sites like Mixi and Hi5 also have a presence in the Global South. Many others are being rapidly launched, even using other platforms, such as SMS. In fact, on Twitter, 50% of tweets are not in English.

Older technology tools like email can be used to connect and communicate with existing social networks. Still, the idea of the social networking site as a stand-alone platform has undeniably taken hold in the developing world - 25% of Kenyans who are online do not have email addresses yet 80% of all Kenyan Internet users are on Facebook.

Social changes increase participation in development work

Not surprisingly, this month's roundtable seemed to reach a consensus around the value of social networking for international development work. Social networking has tremendous potential to give voice to the people on the "receiving" end of international assistance.

It's also helping implementers in the actual work of development. Organizations are using different social networks for different purposes - Facebook is seen as a great for public outreach and youth engagement, while Twitter is better for peer exchange and identifying new partnerships.

This is one reason that ICTworks has a Facebook empowerment strategy.

Limitations on social networking

The largest constraint on social networking's influence and reach is the limited Internet infrastructure of the Global South. Communities that are not online do not feel the impact. In addition, socio-economic barriers like literacy and education can limit adoption and growth in connected societies.

Also be warned that big numbers of Facebook or Twitter followers doesn't directly translate into meaningful interactions. In fact, during the #ICT4D Twitter Chat, we came across one group that's steadfastly held its own against the social media tide: the "big men" of Africa - ministers and other government decision makers.

Reaching government decision makers with social networks

There is a still a strong culture among government leaders that "big men" don't use computers. The feeling that typing is for clerks or students. However, even if government officials are not using Facebook or Twitter professionally, they may be online in their personal life.

Regardless of personal status, they are listening to what their employees, direct reports, and family hear though online social networks. After all, they're "big men" because of their skill in reading offline social networks.

Here are a few early adopters:

• President of Togo - 4,997 fans
• President of Rwanda - 6,365 fans
• President of Côte d'Ivoire - 1,576 fans

Social networking future impact on development

Social networking technology is disruptive - no longer are donors and "big men" in government the only voices that communities have; those parties can be bypassed directly to launch grassroots movements. Indeed, many government and NGO leaders are reluctant, unable, or unwilling to use technology and are in fact being "leapfrogged" by the people they serve.

As today's youth who are growing up aware of social networking technology (even in the developing world) become the leaders and decision-makers of tomorrow, the role of global communication in "mainstream" international development will grow even more rapidly. The fast-paced spread and dropping costs of mobile technology will only feed the fire.

Michael Downey is a graduate student in human-computer interaction and ICT4D at Indiana University School of Informatics, and leads the Community Infrastructure Team for OpenMRS.

Don't forget that we're having a Twitter Chat today. We want to explore the impact of social networking technologies on businesses and communities in the developing world with our guides: ICTworks, Michael Downey, and Chloe Feinberg.

1. Social networking is driving ICT adoption, but which tools, why, and to what extent?
2. How can social networking increase donor, implementer, recipient participation in development?
3. What are the gaps and limitations in social networking engagement - where doesn't it work?

We'll start at 12-noon Eastern Time ( noon worldwide ) with introductions, then move into the discussion, using the #ICT4D hashtag in Twitter.

For those not on Twitter, you can watch the action via the handy embed below or this separate webpage:

For those new to Twitter Chats, its a freewheeling conversation around our central questions on the Twitter platform. Our hope is to learn from each other and find ways we can increase our impact using social media.

We'll archive the Chat too, in case you miss out.

Be sure to follow ICTworks on Twitter and RSVP today!

.

As we've already discussed, Facebook is driving ICT adoption in Africa. Just look at the amazing statistic that Moses Kemibaro found: 2 million Kenyans are registered with Facebook, 80% of all Kenyan Internet users.

Facebook on Mobile Phones

What's even more amazing about Facebook statistics in Africa is that much of that usage is on mobile phones. A recent Opera Mini report looked at their top 10 African countries, and found that with their users, Facebook is the most popular site in 6 out of 10 countries and the #2 site in three of the countries where it is not #1.

And that dominance is when mobile Internet users are constrained by limited and expensive data plans. Now Facebook is about to leap ahead on mobile phones with a free version of its site.

Facebook Zero

For all those that want to visit Facebook, but are constrained by download caps, I give you Facebook Zero. As TechCrunch reports:

It's basically a text-only version of the Facebook service that carriers can offer to their subscribers at no charge. If a user then decides to switch from text-only to multimedia (e.g. view photos from their friends), mobile operators can start charging them for ‘premium’ data service.

This system is apparently called zero-rated pages, and allows operators to use a trimmed down version of a web application as a sort of teaser, driving the adoption of certain mobile services or apps, and more data usage revenue down the line.

Facebook Zero as web chang’aa

Now what happens when you make Africa's most popular website free to access on mobile phones? You will have an explosion in web use beyond all imagination. The charts on Facebook adoption will stop being slopes and become straight lines - straight up.

And like chang’aa, jobs will be lost, marriages will break up, and all manner of parents and elders will claim its a blight on the land. Unlike actual chang’aa, Facebook Zero will also have a positive effect - its gonna increase demand for full Internet services and the computers that can support it.

All those Facebook users will want news, ecommerce, employment, and education websites, in addition to social networking. Yes, mobile phones will lead in usage by far. But make no mistake, those that get addicted to Facebook on mobiles will want the full screen upgrade - for Facebook and all the other Internet destinations. And they'll want it. Right. About. Now.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn - these social networking technologies are driving ICT adoption worldwide. They're also increasing revenues and efficiencies in leading American and European companies.

But what's the impact, if any, of social networking technologies on businesses and communities in the developing world? Are they really driving ICT adoption and business revenues in rural areas? Or does Facebook, Twitter, and the like just reinforce the techno-elite echo chamber - bypassing the Global South completely?

Join us for the February #ICT4D Twitter Chat, where we'll explore these vital questions with our guides: ICTworks, Michael Downey, and Chloe Feinberg.

We'll start at 12-noon Eastern Time (noon worldwide) with introductions, then move into the discussion, using the #ICT4D hashtag in Twitter. Be sure to RSVP here.

• Handy Re-Tweet
  Feb #ICT4D Twitter Chat:
  Social Networking 4 Development -
  Feb 26 @ 12:00/noon Eastern -
  RSVP: http://ow.ly/18WdH

.
For those new to Twitter Chats, its a freewheeling conversation around our central questions on the Twitter platform. Our hope is to learn from each other and find ways we can increase our impact using social media.

We'll archive the Chat too, in case you miss out.

Be sure to follow ICTworks on Twitter and RSVP today!

.

So often Africa is a consumer of software applications written by outsiders that its great to hear of a home-gown app that is actually better than its competition.

StartUp Africa writes about Personera which can create personalized print calendars using Facebook content. Ismail says this service is better than its rivals as well.

With Facebook driving ICT adoption in Africa, Personera should have a lucrative business model based on local buyers.

Congrats to Personera & may we have more examples of local talent!

When we were originally thinking about the promotion strategy for ICTworks, we specifically did not want to give it a presence on Facebook. It was our opinion that Facebook was too much of a walled garden, and didn't share well with the rest of the world wide web.

Yet, now ICTworks is on Facebook and here's three reasons why:

1. Going to where our audience is

Not only did we say that Facebook is driving ICT adoption in Africa, this quote from Emer Beamer of ButteryflyWorks reminded us that we needed to be where our audience is:

Somehow a lot of my Dutch contacts are on LinkedIn, my Irish and African friends are on Facebook and my globals on Twitter..

With almost 450 ICTworks followers on Twitter already, it was time for us to focus on another social networking site to expand the ICTworks engagement.

2. Driving traffic back to ICTworks

Yet, we still had a valid concern about loosing ICTworks traffic to another web property. So we're trying out services like RSS Graffiti to bring snippets of content from ICTworks and our Flickr sets to the Facebook wall, while providing direct links to the original content. We'll be experiementing with more services like this - and please offer your suggestions in comments.

3. Creating unique Facebook-only content

But its not all about recycling exterior content into Facebook. We'll also be creating Facebook-only content just for those who are Facebook-centric. A great example of that is the upcoming December ICT4D Twitter Chat which we'll be organizing using the Facebook events page - a much more robust platform than the ICTworks site.

Join Us for the Adventure

ICTworks on Facebook is very much a voyage of discovery. Expect to have updates on what we're seeing that works or doesn't, and how you can apply our lessons learned to expanding your own Facebook presence and impact in the developing world.

There's no doubt that social networking technologies have increased revenues and efficiencies in leading American and European companies. But what's the impact, if any, of social networking technologies on African businesses?

Facebook in Swahili

In my observations and conversations with technology companies in Africa, I've learned that Facebook is driving ICT adoption but has it, LinkedIN, Twitter, and the like actually increased business activity?

What have you seen? Are businesses really making money with social networking in urban or rural areas of Africa?

And if so, what technologies are they using? Is it web-based or does SMS still rule? Can voice mail be the killer sales app?

Last week, there was a countrywide blackout in Kenya. The electrical authority, KPLC, took the national electrical grid offline from around 6pm to around 11pm, local time due to a generator failure.

As you can imagine, this was a shock to the country and its national pride. Kenya thought itself immune to blackouts due to its hydropower system, which is now under duress after a multi-year drought. But amidst the chaos, there is an ICT lesson to learn. Just listen to what Moses Kemibaro did when the lights went out:

The first thing I did was whip out my smart phone and decided to get on Twitter and Facebook via Safaricom’s 3G connection that was working in spite of the blackout. In a matter of seconds, I had replies that it was not just in Westlands and Kileleshwa that had a blackout but that it was indeed countrywide!

This is kind of “peculiar” since even though I did not have access to television or radio the whole time, here I was able to get the latest news via the Internet on Twitter and Facebook on the extensive Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) blackout.

Alternate Kenyan power generation

So here we have a case study in how information and communication technology can delivery timely and needed news during a national crisis. Safaricom's voice and data systems were able to spread knowledge of the event via the Internet when traditional media were unable to, thanks to their backup distributed power systems.

And the surprise there? Many mobile phone operators generate their own power from wind and solar, as much as diesel generator. Inveneo ICIP WinAfrique and other power partners are equipping cell towers with alternate power solutions that work even with the national grid (or the sun) is down.

The national blackout might have another surprise as well - a Kenyan baby boom nine months from now. But only with non-geeks. Those wired, like Moses, didn't take advantage of a great opportunity to say:

"Hey baby, how you doing?"

.

When you design websites for the low-bandwidth environment common in Africa, you come across constraints not considered by your average web developer. Paramount are download speeds like this, which choke on even the best made site. Just check this stat from Christian Kreutz:

Checking up a profile on Facebook or at least access the log in page, which has alone almost 800kb! In a cybercafe, where you have to pay fees per minute, it may take up to 3 minutes with a dial up modem connection.

Now Miguel argues that one way to ease Internet connectivity issues is to blog on appropriate platforms, while sites like Loband and Aptivate offer tools to quicken your web design. But I say there is a third way that can allow media rich sites for high-bandwidth viewers, and quick downloads for low-bandwidth visitors.

Email RSS Subscriptions

With such slow download speeds, why make your readers visit a website at all? Especially if they must have a concurrent Internet session to do so? Why not go back to basics and exploit the original digital communication system - email.

Paired with RSS via services like Feedburner, it provides a powerful, asynchronous, web content delivery system.

First, Feedburner can take any type of RSS feed, be it from Flickr, Twitter, or your company newsfeed, and turn it into an email to your subscribers, delivered daily whenever you have new content. And these emails can be read in text or HTML, so even those on dial-up can quickly get your content.

Next, I would strongly argue that email RSS subscribers are more valuable than RSS feed reader subscribers or even Twitter or Facebook followers for three reasons:

1. Unlike all three of those services, email is pushed into reader's inboxes - they don't need to visit a third-party app or site to read your content.
2. Readers can ignore a feed reader or Twitter for a while, but they will always check email regularly.
3. As GigaOM says, RSS readers are more engaged with their subscriptions than Twitter or Facebook followers.

Taken together, you might even make the leap to say that old-school email newsgroups are better than websites for low-bandwidth environments. And for the right audiences, I don't see why not. We still have vibrant, informative listserv's even in high-bandwidth countries.

Or to the point, "appropriate ICT" includes choosing the right tool - in communication as well as implementation.

During a recent Inveneo training of ICT professionals, I was amazed to hear that most everyone had a Facebook account. Not only that, the computer technicians were seeing a spike in bandwidth usage directly tied to Facebook. And absolutely everyone felt that too much work-time was spent updating Facebooks accounts.

Now you could see that as a negative - the countless lost man hours of work time spent socializing instead of producing goods and services for Africa's millions. Or you could look at it another way:

Facebook is driving ICT adoption in Africa

The consensus of group, marketing and technical experts at African ICT companies, was that Facebook was creating demand for their services.

Current clients wanted faster Internet connectivity to download all the images and video sent their way via Facebook, and more technology (cameras, video & image editing software) to create content for their Facebook pages.

All the chatter about Facebook accounts was also driving new customers to buy computers and invest in Internet connectivity. "I need to get Facebook," is becoming a common refrain at retail computer stores. This should not come as a surprise.

Facebook in Africa

Facebook has over 300,000 users in Kenya, is the most popular site in South Africa, and is growing by 20,000 new users per month in Nigeria and Ghana - 3x the US growth rate.

Facebook is encoraging this rapid growth with interfaces in Swahili and Afrikaans, with Zulu and Hausa on the way. Yes, even ICTworks is on Facebook.

Benefits Beyond Facebook

Now Facebook is not a personal favorite, but I am glad something is driving ICT adoption, and through that, an overall comfort with online activity. I expect that from Facebook usage will spring forth usage of other web services, like Twitter and blogging, and hopefully a blossoming of local African content that will make conferences like this one, seem quaint.

Like what you read? Then friend ICTworks on Facebook

.