1. Keep an Open Mind on What is "ICT"

All too often, we get so caught up in what is shiny, flashy, and new, we come to think of just computers, Internet or mobile phones as the full gamut of information and communication technologies.

We forget that other, older technologies like radio and TV not only have a greater reach, they already have an installed user base that doesn't need new equipment or training to benefit from increased knowledge via ICT.

2. Keep an Open Mind on What is "Access"

I remember talking with a community organization which was adamant that they needed a cybercafe to provide access to ICT for their beneficiaries who would be denied the knowledge of the Internet any other way. But when I asked how many beneficiaries had email addresses, they said "oh almost all of them."

So don't think for a minute that a motivated person cannot get access to ICT. As one Development Marketplace 2009 (DM2009) finalist remarked:

For a chance at $200,000 and a trip to Washington DC, I did what it took to get email. I even explored email over HF radio!

3. ICT Isn't the Only Communication System

For all the attention we give ICT's as the world's greatest communication system, there is one network that is way more effective. One that marketing companies value above all others: word of mouth. Yes, ICT's can amplify the message, but nothing compares to someone you know, in your physical proximity sharing information with you. Face to face communication has the highest bit rate - just look at how much is spent on business travel.

At the same time, don't forget analog systems. One DM2009 finalist is mixing satellite images, GPS, and water bottles and church bells as a mudslide early warning system. Why? Because in rural Philippines, church bells are faster than any Facebook or Twitter alert.

4. Major Barriers to ICT Still Exist

Regardless of these workarounds to the question, there are still high barriers to ICT access in the developing world. Organizations like Inveneo are doing our best to reduce these barriers through technology and capacity building, but our work is the easy part.

Time and time again, we relearn that the real barrier to ICT access and adoption is not technological, its cultural, societal, personal, across all organizations, be they business, nonprofit or government. Its people, not technology.

This is a synopsis of my remarks at the recent Development Marketplace 2009 (DM2009) workshop on "Innovative Approaches and Technologies for Effective and Timely Knowledge Sharing for Climate Adaptation"

In reading Miquel Balsa's post, The decline of Senegalese (and maybe all) internet cafes, I was struck by the suggestion that public internet access points would soon disappear because the business model wasn't viable.

On the contrary, I believe that we will soon see a cybercafe renaissance, with an explosion of different, and more varied format, for three obvious reasons:

Gone and good riddance

Free Internet access is dead. And good riddance.

I am sure that Miguel and I can agree that the aid-sponsored free community cyber cafe model is dead, and this is a good thing.

I can still remember the first free Internet cafe I visited in West Africa. Funded by USAID, it was supposed to offer access to a wealth of information about NGO services to the community. Except it was only open 9-5, weekdays, and had no control over content, which means there wasn't any in the local language.

Not that it mattered. The majority of the population was illiterate - in any language, much less the skills to surf the web. So it was populated by young boys playing games, downloading music, and skimming porn.

This model was bound to fail, but not before it also bankrupted pay Internet cafes by offering their services for free. Thankfully, big donors have mostly dropped the free cafe model, and not a moment too soon.

We sell you anything digital

Many services, all paid, but not all Internet based

Miguel made a good point - cafes only providing Internet are commodity businesses at the mercy of price wars and supplier whims. So the key to a vibrant cybercafe business is to move into related services for the same client base.

I know of successful African cybercafes that sell anything digital, from music and images off the web, to video, photos, and audio recorded in the cafe or at your event. They also had classes on advanced ICT skills like editing, video production, etc, in addition to graphic design and printing services.

The next level of cybercafe, is the cafe that has Internet access to attract the technology elite. Even though their primary revenue generation may be through food, their open internet access is what drives their customer base to the cafe. Bourbon Cafe in Rwanda or Java House in Nairobi are great examples of this Internet access as lure.

Growing, not shrinking, need for public access

Miguel's point I most disagree with is the suggestion that there is a decreasing need for cybercafes in Africa because of 4P Computing:

Outside of tourists locations, they seem to be drying up everywhere to some degree as more and more of us travel with laptops or at the very least, wifi/highspeed data enabled phones that can do simple browsing anywhere we go.

While he and I may travel with netbooks and iPhones, the majority of Africans do not have such electronica, nor are they buying the expensive data plans that allow for mobile web access. They closely monitor their communication expenses, budgeting for Internet access out of meager daily wages.

Yet more and more business and government services, and professional social capital is moving online. Stores like Rachels' Bargain Corner and Kenya's eGovernment initiatives require full-screen Internet access. And with Facebook driving ICT use in Africa, the next professional networks will be virtual, not in person.

So as high-speed Internet and cool new gadgets increase usage by elites, there will be even more need for average Africans to get online, economically, through public access cyber cafes offering Internet access in multiple formats.

More than decline, this is the time to invest in African cybercafes!

This week, the Glo 1 fiber optic submarine cable landed in Nigeria to a fraction of the Seacom hype in East Africa. And yet it could be just as transforming.

Glo 1 landing in Nigeria

The 9,800 km long cable will bring direct connectivity between West Africa and the UK, and hopefully dramatically drop prices and increase capacity for all 14 countries it touches, once its up and running. But that could be a while. 234 Next reports that Glo 1's parent company, Globacom is having trouble connecting the cable:

"We currently have challenges with the Glo-1 submarine cable. These challenges ranges from licensing issues and government policies, delay on the part of the vendor and customer (Glo) and point of termination. The challenges are being worked upon as we speak."

Regardless of its troubles, Glo 1 is a major accomplishment for West Africa, and a signal of its growing maturity. Glo 1 is the 1st time that a single African company has laid fiber optic cable from Europe - usually a consortium of companies combine resources, like with the Seacom, Teams , and SAT3 cables.

Personally, I'm always surprised at how small international fiber optic cables really are. They are tiny for all the Internet bandwidth traffic they can hold.

Rolling out the future of Rwanda

I always love conversations with Silicon Valley types who never leave the Bay Area Bubble. When I say that Inveneo is working to bring technology to Africa, I often get a funny look with a quizzical "Technology, in Africa? " as the usual response. I've educated a few on the opportunities that exist in lighting up the "Dark Continent", but its a slow process.

So I would like to thank Sarah Lacy for doing the same to a larger audience Silicon Valley denizens than I ever could, through her How to Cross the Digital Divide, Rwanda-Style post on TechCrunch. While she does get a touch hyperbole in her fawning over Rwanda's fiber-optic investments, I give her credit for showing the Valley there is higher-end technology plays that recycled computer donations.

She details five major investments in technology that should shock VC's into taking a look at African ICT:

1. Investment in mobility - mobile phone ownership & usage is ubiquitous
2. Investment in connectivity - each district of the country will be connected by fiber
3. Investment in access - all thirty districts of the country have low-cost Internet centers
4. Investment in education - Rwanda bought 100,00 XO laptops and hosts OLPC's Education Center
5. Investment in skills - Rwanda sends 300 students at a time to India Institute of Technology for training

Each of these investments alone would be enough to jolt a country into the 21st Century, but combined, and accelerated by cheaper and better bandwidth, will give Rwanda a great leap forward.

Its a process of national renewal and branding that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda is pushing in multiple phases across the country, as Fast Company captured in Rwanda Rising: A New Model of Economic Development.

Let's just hope that Sand Hill Road takes notice.

Landing an Internet bonanza

What a great day for East African Internet connectivity! After years of hearing hopes, rumors, and press releases, we now have actual action on the many fiber-optic submarine cables snaking their way around Africa. From the Economist, we learn:

[I]n the Kenyan port of Mombasa, a regional communications revolution belatedly got under way when Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, plugged in the first of three fibre-optic submarine cables due to make landfall in Kenya in the next few months. They should speed up the connection of Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as bits of Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, to the online world. Laying the cable cost $130m, mostly at the Kenyan government’s expense; Mr Kibaki hailed the event for bringing “digital citizenship” to his countrymen.

The East Africa Marine Systems (TEAMS) cable will link Kenya and its neighbours with UAE and the greater world, with a 120 Gb/s – 1.28 Tb/s capacity that should come on line later this year. Hopefully this will lead to an almost immediate drop in costs, increase in capacity and speeds, and underpin a flourishing of online content.

If so, we'll surely see an increase business opportunities for the budding ICT industry across East Africa. Internet connectivity is the backbone of the modern economy, or ask Kubaki told the New Vision:

"Some have compared it to the completion of the Kenya-Uganda railway more than a century ago," he said noting that today’s economies were largely driven by the Internet and other ICT connections.