It’s astounding, is it not, that not so far in our distant past technology was a novel topic – something to latch on to in an ephemeral manner (as in the above video for Kraftwerk’s ‘Musique Non Stop’?
GigaOM reports that, by 2013, video will comprise 64% of all mobile traffic. This is an astounding figure – one that goes to the heart of the ways in which technology is embedded in our daily lives. By 2012, as cited in the same report, mobile traffic will handle more than 1 Exabyte per month – roughly the same volume as was broadcast across the entire web in 2004.
That, kind reader, is a lot of Kraftwerk.
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In a world far-flung from German pop, Africa is quietly undergoing massive technological changes of its own. In an interview with allAfrica.com, Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs had the following to say about the sociological impact of mobile technology on the dark continent:
Rural poverty has in the past been defined almost by its isolation.
Communities that don’t have motor transport, that lack basic roads, electricity — these communities live by themselves in a state of subsistence. Making business in these settings, even getting very basic information about prices of food products in local markets, being able to make a transaction, being able to hire truck services, being able to call for an emergency, has been impossible until the cell phone. [Now] what we’re seeing is cell phones spreading everywhere. Soon pretty much every village is going to have at least one because connectivity is spreading dramatically.
It doesn’t take more than a few phones to make a transformative difference in an area. We’re seeing small businesses develop by virtue of people having phones, being able to find clients, make purchases, get supplies. There’s e-banking or mobile banking, which has been pioneered in a few places, like Kenya, but I think it’s just going to spread dramatically now. And more and more we’re seeing new services added to the cell phones, and especially as we move from 2G to 3G [second- to third-generation] mobile standards I think we’re going to see an incredible burst of new uses of the phones.
When one considers the connectivity we in the West take for granted, this is a pretty astounding suggestion by Mr. Sachs.
We’re talking about entertainment; the consumption of video. He’s talking about core interconnectedness, commerce and public safety.
Take a few moments and read his entire interview1.
- especially, that is, if you took the time to watch a Kraftwerk video [↩]
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