W3C Workshop in Africa to Explore the Role of Mobile Technologies ForDevelopment

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Participants to Examine the Potential of Innovation in EmergingMarkets

Contact Americas, Australia--

Ian Jacobs, <ij@w3.org>, +1.718.260.9447

Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East--

Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33 6 76 86 33 41

Contact Asia--

Fumihiro Kato <fumi@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170

http://www.w3.org/-- 25 November 2008 -- As part of itsmission to ensure that the Web is available to all, W3C invites participationin a publicWorkshop on the Role of MobileTechnologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development in AfricainMaputo, Mozambique, on 1-2 April 2009. Participants will explore ways tofulfill the potential of mobile phones as a platform for deployingdevelopment-oriented ICT services towards the poorest segments of populationsin developing countries, with an emphasis on the African context.

"The penetration and low cost of mobile telephony in developing countries,combined with its ability to provide Internet access, gives us thepossibility of providing Internet-based services to billions of people whowould not otherwise be able to afford it," explains George Sadowsky, co-chairof the Workshop. "The potential to use the mobile Internet for providing realsocial and economic benefits to such people is immense, and deserves to beexplored and exploited."

Participants will explore ways to lower existing barriers faced by bothcontent providers — grassroots, NGOs, governments, and local entrepreneursseeking to develop and deploy services, and users who face issues related toilliteracy, internationalization, accessibility, and usability.

Anyone may attend and must provide a statement of interest in order toparticipate due to limited space; moreinformation about participation

isavailable. The meeting will feature real-time simultaneous translation inPortuguese, English and French.

Sponsorship Opportunities Seek to Enable Broad Participation

W3C invites all stakeholders who wish to support the event to becomeWorkshop Sponsors. A

sponsors.html="sponsors.html">three-tier SponsorshipProgram

has been designed both to showcase the sponsor organization andto support the participation of those with expertise who might not otherwisebe able to attend due to travel or other costs.

The Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Mozambiquewill host this Workshop. This Workshop is organized as part of theDigital World Forum project

(

name="link42"

id="link42">EuropeanUnion's 7th Research Framework Programme - FP7

) which seeks to understandhow low-cost technologies can help bridge the digital divide.

The event is the third organized byW3C's Mobile WebInitiative (MWI)about the mobile Web and social development; seeprevious meetings inBangalore, India

, andcontinued inSão Paulo, Brazil. MWI aims toidentify and resolve challenges and issues of accessing the Web when on themove.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium whereMember organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together todevelop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creationof Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for theWeb. Over 440 organizations are

list="List">Members

of theConsortium. W3C is jointly run by theMITComputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory(MIT CSAIL) inthe USA, theEuropean Research Consortium forInformatics and Mathematics(ERCIM) headquartered in France andKeio University

in Japan, and hasadditionalOffices worldwide. For moreinformation seehttp://www.w3.org/

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