Source: Babajobs.com
Can Social Networking help change lives? A look at its impact in Developing Countries.
In the wake of the current Wikileaks’ scandal which through it’s reckless disclosure of diplomatic cables may be putting millions of lives in harms way, it may seem ironic that we could still think of online social networks, media and the sort as a means to achieving a greater good. For this reason and as a part of my constant search for things that move and inspire me, I decided to go on a quest to find out whether social networks are having a positive impact specifically in developing countries; how are they impacting their governance? Are they contributing to their rapidly evolving economies? If so, who is benefitting from them? In what follows, I will try to answer some of these questions and highlight my most important findings.
Undoubtedly, the interest and usage of Social Network Sites, also known as SNSs has grown exponentially over the last couple of years. Facebook alone has over 516 million active users[1], followed by MySpace with 185 million and Twitter with 175 million[2]. Now, although these are just quantitative indicators of the traction SNSs have gained around the world they are by no means a true reflection of their usage in developing nations as most of these are still well behind. Nonetheless, when we look at these numbers and how the usage of these channels is becoming more and more popular we can’t help but see an undeniable trend and wonder what it holds for countries that can hugely benefit from their reach.
It is too early to predict which social networking tools will thrive in developing countries as their usage varies greatly from country to country and highly depend on their respective infrastructures and governance. Nonetheless, it is likely that social media usage will experience significant growth in the same countries where governance is weak and unemployment is high, hopefully improving the overall situation in the countries where reforms in these areas are needed the most.
In environments where governance is weak for instance, social media can help facilitate the openness and transparency in spite of the restrictions imposed by the state. Take for instance last year’s presidential elections in Iran, where SNSs became the front line source of information. Foreign journalists were banned from reporting protests over the highly disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the highly computer literate country, citizen hackers were working to keep media lines open; more than 100 micro-blogs per minute poured through Twitter throughout the day. Videos of protests of the elections spread virally across YouTube and Facebook almost instantaneously allowing Iranians to get their story out against the government’s will.
“It’s being used to try to demonstrate that the official view of events from authorities is not the real view of events,” says Christopher Waddell, associate director of the school of journalism and communications at Carleton University.[3]
Last year in Bangladesh, someone posted a video on YouTube showing a confrontation between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her decision to negotiate with angry army officials rather than take military action. The video circled around the four corners of the world through Facebook users who put the YouTube link on their status. It got widespread attention and was a huge wake up call for the government and army forcing them to acknowledge the power of social media as a force for increased transparency. In these and other examples, social media played an important role in improved governance.
Another example I found particularly interesting in how the power of SNSs is being used was the case of a company based in Bangalore, India called Babajob.com. Babajob is an innovative social networking tool that connects job seekers from India’s large informal sector to middle and upper-class Indians looking to hire cooks, maids, receptionists, and security guards among 15 other job categories with the goal of creating better jobs for everyone as their tag-line states and reducing the inefficiencies of the diverse labor market in India. Babajob seeks to bring the social-networking revolution to people who do not even have computers — the world’s poor who find it hard to find good jobs precisely because they are not connected to people looking for them. The hard part is getting the poor who don't have access to PCs and laptops signed on to the social network's website. So how do they overcome this? They pay people to photograph people looking for jobs on their website. They also make extended use of SMS which is widely used by rural India.
Yet another great example and perhaps one of very my favorites, of the empowerment that social networks can provide to people at the bottom of the pyramid is the one of what Danish company MYC4 is doing in Africa. MYC4 is an online marketplace that connects you directly with African entrepreneurs, who lack capital to develop their businesses.
"The aim of MyC4 is to help eradicate poverty in line with the UN's Millennium Development Goals. We do this not through charity but by bringing people together in business deals at the best market price," says Kjaer, Ethiopia's honorary councilor in Denmark who has 24-years of business experience in Africa.[4]
Take Peter Nkajja for instance, a Ugandan farmer who established his coffee business using start up capital from his sister but which is not longer enough to meet the increase in demand. MyC4 provides Peter with an opportunity to meet an investor who would rather invest his capital in a business like Peter’s than put it in a bank. Like this example are many others of how MyC4 helping African entrepreneurs businesses and new ideas flourish.
Overall, I think it is fascinating to see how social networks are changing the world but most of all the potential they have to truly change lives. Although SNSs are still a long way from widespread use in developing countries due to lack of infrastructure and other necessary resources to enable their use it seems they have huge growth potential and we are on the right path.
[2] http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/31/twitter-users/
[3] http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1702462
[4] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5327/is_341/ai_n29425527/
More sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/technology/30poor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/bettering-a-billion-lives-india’s-unique-id-system/
1 comment:
Nice post--some interesting examples. A bit more pro-and-con discussion on emerging trends would have been useful. For instance, pundits seem to think that the developing world is the "next big thing" for purveyors of hardware (especially mobile phones) and software (in the form of innovative mobile apps.) Is this so, and, if so, is there room for a lot of competitors, it is it niche-y?
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