Case Study - Laos

Laos is a landlocked (no coastline - countries border them all the way round) country in south east Asia; it is very undeveloped and on the wrong side of the digital divide. Only 1% of the population of 6,521,998 people have a fixed telephone line which is about 4% of households. There are less than 15 00 computers in Laos due to the fact that a working, but not very good computer costs over 10% of an average yearly income.

Some problems that have caused this divide are: its mountainous geography; mountains make transportation and access to areas difficult, its monsoon weather; telecommunications cannot handle the torrential rain and the rain also restricts access, a lack of communication amongst its government, a lack of IT standards and knowledge; there isn't anyone to firstly install the technology and secondly teach the natives how to use it, poor power and telecommunications infrastructure; lack of sufficient electricity makes the running of computers and communications hard, the cost of IT installation / running; most Laotions do not have a lot of money and a computer would set them back alot of their yearly income, the lack of software compatible with the laotion language and alphabet; Laos has its own alphabet.

Some ingenious solutions have been found to conquer the divide: the use of homemade cantennae, pedal power and the Jhai foundation PC and communication and internet learning centres.

A very poor village in Laos called Phon Kham has computers with internet access thanks to some clever thinking. They power a generator by pedalling a bike; the internet provided by wireless PC cards is not used for leisure or games, it is used to find out how much things cost in other places in Laos so they can sell their goods on the markets at the right price. They also use it to find the weather as Laotions walk miles and don't want to do it if they know a monsoon or very hot, dry weather is on its way. This project obviously benefits the community immensely and I think that other villages should try it.

The Jhai foundation is based in schools to teach children how to use ICT. Adults often attend aswell and the main reason for their success is that the locals feel they own the centres and gives them a sense of community.