Stastics of the  number of internet users in Africa:

Access to digital technologies has changed over time; it’s more developed in terms of technology compared to the previous years.

According to the latest statistics as 30 June 2010 by IWS the number of Internet users globally is almost hitting the 2 billion level! To be exact, there were 1,966,514,816 Internet users; representing 28.7% penetration rate of the world’s estimated 6,845,609,960 human beings.
Africa had 110,931,700 Internet users, a 5.6% penetration rate of its estimated 1,013,779,050 total population as at 2010. But worth noting, was the fact that when compared to 2000, when there were only 4,514,400 Internet users, the Internet usage uptake can be described as a phenomenal 2,357.3 % growth rate over the last decade!


Kenya
In Kenya access to digital technologies has changed over time because most people have mobile phones these days, compared to the olden times, very few people had mobile phones.  Nowadays personal computers, laptops, netbooks, tablet computers, PDA’s and embedded computers are owned by many rich families in Kenya.

                                                 

        
A cell phone-based system M-PESA that allows people to transfer money and pay bills without a bank account is transforming business in Kenya.                                                   
Cell phone-based mobile money transfer systems are not officially considered banking services under Kenyan regulations. But since the introduction of M-Pesa, the first such service, three years ago, Kenyans have used it to transfer $4.4 billion.
M-Pesa has changed the economy so speedily, everyone is happy.
More over the cell phone has revolutionized the way people do business, the way people communicate with one another, and the way they reach out to each other.

Plus, Last year at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, the Government of Kenya and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a collaborative project focused on improving education in up to 60 primary and secondary schools in Kenya. This was an incredible announcement for a number of reasons, including the fact that students and teachers in that region would now finally have access to relevant and engaging education technology and content.

This project is going to be beneficial for Kenya because It’s a country with a deep and rich culture, full of amazing people who have a thirst for learning. But the resource limitations in the country are vast; many schools have more basic needs than technology – clean water, sanitation, basic supplies and well-trained teachers.

Despite this, an increasing number of schools are ready to start integrating technology into their curricula and pedagogy, and in those schools we see the opportunity of this commitment. The technology and skills training that come with this commitment gives teachers the training they need to appropriately use technology in the classroom and provides hope for kids who want to learn but didn’t previously have the best means to do so.

Uganda
In Uganda Computers and mobile phones are a common sight in many people's homes and offices. What many people may not have thought of is the way these gadgets have changed the way people work and move.

A case in point is in the travel industry. Technology changed the way business is conducted in the travel industry. Before tour companies made brochures which were used to advertise the company's services locally and internationally.                                                                                                        
Now with the presence of the worldwide web, it is possible to reach markets anywhere in the globe at minimal cost, day and night. It also means that a company can be operational 24 hours a day. The use of social media like Facebook means you can get clients reactions to your services immediately.

Information and communication technology has also influenced the way people learn in Uganda.

As it adopts ICT in education, Uganda faces the same challenges as most developing

Economies – poorly developed ICT infrastructure, high bandwidth costs, an unreliable

supply of electricity, and a general lack of resources to meet a broad spectrum of needs.

However, with the rapid emergence of wireless network capacity and the ubiquitous

growth of mobile phones, the context of the infrastructure is changing. A national ICT

policy is in place and an education sector ICT policy is before Cabinet. The Ministry of

Education and Sports is taking steps to co-ordinate ICT development and has allocated resources to support implementation of its ICT strategy.

As time passes, the access to digital technology will increase in these African countries, and it’s for the better of all.

U.K’S ID CARD SCHEME

The U.K government has decided to heed the concerns of the population and attempt to tackle identity fraud, through the introduction of biometric identification cards. They are claimed to have many security features designed to keep people’s data safe.

These ID cards will consist of reliable security such as:

-          Optical facial recognition                     

-          Iris scanning

-          Fingerprint scanning

-          Signature matching

The purpose of the ID cards is that they would prevent illegal immigration and illegal workers, but it is well-known that work permits and visas already exist and are supposed to address those issues, so the actual purpose given for the cards is privacy because due to the biometric data stored on the system the cards can not be easily forged.

Advantages:

o        Prevent illegal immigration and illegal working. – ID cards will be issued to all British citizens; therefore it will be easy to question those who do not possess such a card. Employers can check that the citizen is eligible for work in the UK quickly and easily.

o        Aid anti-terrorist measures – The new card will make it harder for many terrorists to adopt new personas.

o        Tackle identity theft – Due to the recording of biometric data, the chance of forging such a card decreases.

o        The card system will make things easier.

Disadvantages:

o        Loss of privacy – there is always a chance (however slight), that information could leak one way or another.

o        Cost –ID card will cost EACH citizen £93 approximately.

o        It would worsen harassment of ethnic minorities by providing another reason to stop ethnic minorities: to ask if they had a card.

o        It will have little effect on counter-terrorism.

o        Have little effect on illegal working – employers who are willing to evade the law will find other ways to do so.

In my opinion, an ID card system such as this one should be adapted in Kenya. This is because it will prevent illegal working, everyone will work legally, and also the ID card will help with security of people, it will prevent people from stealing each other identity as these cards are very difficult to be forged, and so overall this ID card scheme would help reduce crime.

Tsunami 2004 : A wave of sorrow swept over us

O

n December 26, 2004, a massive underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island rattled the Earth in its orbit. The quake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, was the largest one since 1964. Dozens of aftershocks with magnitudes of 5.0 or higher occurred in the following days. But the most powerful and destructive aftermath of this devastating earthquake was the tsunami that it caused. The death toll reached higher than 220,000, and a lot of properties were destructed.

During this period communication and technology was used to present information, share information and aware people.

                                                                                                                                                           

This tragic incident the SE Asia Tsunami gives examples of presenting information in different ways, some are:

v     Specialist blogs which were set up immediately after the disaster to help focus relief efforts and give news.

v     Bulletin boards, many people logged on to internet bulletin boards to get more information on their family friends who were missing.

v     Emails which were sent on websites reassuring that people were safe.

v     Text messages.

                                      

Information was shared quickly because modern communication services were used; people with mobile phones were able to send text messages to their relatives as quick as possible, letting them know that they are fine. Also such methods were very useful in finding people, for example: Giske, a Norwegian real estate investor, and his Thai wife had been enjoying the holidays in Thailand, and after being separated during the tragic incident, their phones were very useful to inform each other that they are safe.

Plus, Websites such as BBC received about 30,000 emails related to the incident.

More over there was greater interaction between individuals and

organizations; this was mainly done through radio channels, certain websites such as BBC and CNN, and blogs where discussions were held, and any latest news or information was shared.
People all over the world are brought together via the internet, this incident proves this point, because after this incident lots of people all over the world started interacting through emails, blogs and bulletin boards. This method of communication was rather used to aware people about the incident and find out about lost families and friends.

Modern communication services were used rather than older ones this is because such methods are much easier and faster to use. For example if there were no mobile phones or internet services, it would be very difficult to aware family and friends, who may be far away from you, about what’s going on.

Such methods also helped people in emergency situations, for example to contact medical and relief systems to help the people injured.

Such methods helped with the repair of infrastructure and property, because without communication and technology, things would have been a lot more difficult.

Now, there are tsunami warning systems which feature multiple lines of communications, including e-mail, fax, radio, telex and sirens. These systems enable warnings to be sent to the emergency services, armed forces, and civilian populations. Systems need to be set in place to ensure that such messages, when received, are acted upon.