Mobile Phones 2

This assignment continues our study of mobile technology’s global impact. Specifically, it focuses on the reasons that mobile phones have proven to be enormously popular in the Global South.

Objectives

After completing this assignment, students should be able to

• Define and explain difference between the “Global South” and the “Global North.”
• Summarize Quadir’s critique of traditional foreign aid.
• Summarize the source and implications of Quadir’s insight that “connectivity is productivity.”
• Explain the parallel that Quadir draws between a car purchased in the U.S. and a Grameen Phone purchased in Bangladesh.
• Describe Jan Chipchase’s job.
• Explain what Chipchase means by a “just in time” moment.
• Explain the process that Ugandans invented to transfer money through their phones.
• Define M-Pesa.
• Summarize Chipchase’s response to the reporter’s “careless thought” that
  

  there might be something negative about the lightning spread of technology, whether its convenience was somehow supplanting traditional values or practices.

• Explain the points made by the anecdotes that begin and end the Chipchase article (the shoe salesman in Dharavi and the woman at the Nima market in Ghana).
• List the companies (and their national origins) that share a part in Kenya’s IDEOS phone.
• Identify the apps discussed at the end of the $80 Android article.
• Offer an example of one of these apps.
• Define and explain the meanings of “advanced,” “emerging,” and “developing” countries, as these terms are used by the Pew Research survey.
• Identify the scope of the Pew Research survey (number and type of countries, etc.)
• Identify the region and nations of the world where mobile payment systems are popular, according to our in-class lecture. [Not on the quiz.]
• Summarize the Pew survey’s findings about the
  • Percent of those surveyed using feature phones and smart phones.
  • Percent of those surveyed using the Internet.
  • Percent of those surveyed using social media.
• Identify the ways that age,  income,  education, and gender correlate with use of smartphones and the Internet, according to the Pew survey.

Screening

• Iqbal Quadir, How mobile phones can fight poverty (Ted.com)

Readings

• Corbett, Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty? (nytimes.com)
• Ford, $80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next? (singularityhub.com)
• Pew Research Center, Smartphone Ownership and Internet Usage Continues to Climb in Emerging Economies (pewglobal.com)
• Lecture Slides: Mobile Phones vs Poverty

In-Class Quiz

• Mobile Phones 2