ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on two aspects of ideas. The first relates to the information ‘architecture’ of developing areas and how the urban and rural realms are ‘mapped’ on to the communications infrastructure. For example, to what extent are rural places ‘present’ in cyberspace and how does this impact on the flow of ideas between rural and urban places? This sounds a little futuristic and perhaps not relevant to the rural areas of the developing world. However, some people are trying to make the technology of the internet available to low-income rural dwellers so as to give them the opportunity to ‘leap-frog’ into the twenty-first century. Indeed, during fieldwork the author was told an anecdote that illustrates the potential power of this technology (Ntiro, personal communication). A small internet café was established in a town in southern Tanzania. Two cashew-nut farmers interested in finding out what the internet was discovered that they could access world cashew-nut price data. With this information, they were able to negotiate an improved price with their buyer when the next harvest season came round. This illustrates how a relatively low-cost and relatively short session on the internet can put the power of information in the hands of ordinary people. If such information which is in the ‘public domain’ (i.e. anyone who has access to the technology can obtain it) can empower cashew-nut farmers, what would be the effects of providing access more widely? Websites already exist that make available maps, remotely sensed images, international commodity prices and information on specialist markets that could genuinely overcome the friction of distance. However, to what extent is this aspiration plausible or possible? The Tanzanian cashew-nut farmers show a beginning. However, this chapter also demonstrates that considerable distance apparently needs to be covered before internet technology is widely accessible and widely beneficial. Some writers refer to this distance as the ‘last half mile’, emphasising the difficulty of connecting relatively close areas. However, others have described it as the ‘first half-mile’, perceiving the distance from the perspective of the potential users rather than the potential providers. This point is considered in greater detail later in the chapter.