As announced last week, Geekcorps Director Wayan Vota hosted a webchat on the U.S. State Department’s USINFO website. The October 25 chat was written up in a USINFO article by Mary L. Specht entitled “Information Technology Critical in Development, Expert Says.” A transcript of the webchat is also available online.

Some highlights from the chat:

• “In technology for the developing world there are two trends — one is mobile computing … the other is high-bandwidth … The big leap in African development will come when both are fully integrated in the business culture. When companies use ICT for every aspect of production and service delivery, and consumers embrace electronic delivery to reduce transportation and transaction costs.”
• “IESC Geekcorps’ overriding strategy aims to develop vibrant economies, using ICT. Note the focus. Our goal is a strong economy, usually focused on small and medium size businesses, businesses that will be more efficient and profitable, using technology. In other words, technology is just the medium for our work, economic development is the end goal.”
• “At IESC Geekcorps we are great proponents of technology skills transfer. We aim to transfer the deep technical knowledge of our international experts to local partners so that they, the local resources, are able to develop their own businesses and careers. Our best example would be Moussa Keita, who, after an internship with us, now has his own technology company.”

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