Comments on: Everything is correlative

By: Eats Wombats

Eats Wombats — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:37:07 +0000

I’m surprised that the bullnotbull.com reference is so dated. A lot has changed RECENTLY. In the last year the world changed from being mostly rural to mostly urban. China became the nr 1 user of the Internet. And mobile users, or subscriptions rather, topped more than half the world’s population. Discounting multiple subscriptions, 2008 is the year we finally can say that MOST of the world’s population has acess to a phone.

2005 is ancient history!

By: Pat, Madison, WI

Pat, Madison, WI — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:38:55 +0000

Having connectivity without the literacy and other support needed for its effective use is much like having a car, but no driving instruction, maintenance information and no maps. The car becomes only a curiosity with which to experiment.

While it is true that eventually, the car will be put to some appropriate use, it won’t produce the promised advantages without some collateral support.

To truly utilize the technology, the population has to have some idea what it can be used to do and how to do it which is the point of the article.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:29:27 +0000

I have not read Rask’s piece only the conclusion. So I will refrain from any . But I agree with you. Just by simpy providing affordable connectivity grand improvements can be realized. Mobile phone connectivity is already changing things in developing countries: http://www.bullnotbull.com/special/special-6.html.

By: Simon Cast

Simon Cast — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:51:14 +0000

I lean towards your hunch, having just returned from Namibia. Connectivity via mobile phones is very high. In one farm I stayed at (which had no running water and wasn’t connected to the grid) there where at least 3 to 4 mobile phones in the household. Another example is that a lot of the San Bushmen and Himbi tribesman had mobile phones.

I think the use of Wikipedia probably masks the effect of affordable connectivity given the different valuation of uses of time between the developed and developing world. Time uses that support living are valued higher in the developing world than uses of time that are around status i.e. editing a Wikipedia article.

Clay Shirky’s cognitive surplus is measurably different in the developing world than the developed world.

I gave the issue some thought while there and I think that affordable communications/connectivity is very important. Many of the technological and infrastructural developments over the last 100 odd years that are considered fundamental in the developed world are about improving communications in one form or another. Wireless communications like the mobile phone provide the ability to leapfrog the previous technological/infrastructural developments and achieve the a level of communications that supports prosperity similar to the developed world.

By: Kevin Barron

Kevin Barron — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:12:11 +0000

I suspect your hunch is right – although it may not be as simple as measuring correlation. ICT does not come in one flavor, and while the author is focused on Wikinomics, the problem is that by looking for impact on HDI the field of view becomes overly constrained. More precisely, trying to measure the impact of Wikinomics on HDI is almost as reductionist as “correlation equals causation”.

If on the other hand, a wider perspective was used to correlate the richness of the communications environment with HDI (along the lines of the ITU studies), your hunch may be borne out. Perhaps this can be summarized as moving away from static knowledge to the dynamic communications of the net. To return to your original question, investments in ICT infrastructure alone will only bring this about to the extent they contribute to, and enable, the overall richness of the communications environment.