Africa doesn’t have to go from drums to telegraph to telex. We can go straight to satellites, electronic media, and a computerized newsroom.
Predictor: Fall, Babacar
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Wired magazine, Jeff Greenwald looks at the feasibility of the Internet’s success in Africa in a visit to Dakar, Senegal, where he finds a man who could provide hope for networking. Greenwald writes: ”Babacar Fall – a Senegalese journalist and communications specialist appointed by the United Nationals Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to revive the Pan African News Agency (PANA – in which 48 of 52 African nations are members). If his efforts are successful, Fall may well go down in history as the Man Who Wired Africa … Bad lines are the main problem bedeviling PANA … Telecom in Africa is so bad, in fact, that some stations still have to rely on the telegraph, dinosaur systems that cost $22,000 a year and transmit at the rate of – hold onto your hat – 50 baud … Fall’s solution involves dashes and digits. To begin with, the main agencies in Africa will be linked through a Very Small Aperture satellite Terminal (VSAT) system … ‘But to gether and collect information from all the bureaus,’ he pointed out, ‘and to transmit them worldwide, we need a two-way link. We need the Internet.’ … ORSTROM, a Dakar-based French research company, provided PANA with a basic Internet link. It’s cheap, and it’s a start, but the hookup – which comes only five times a day – isn’t enough for Fall … ‘We can leapfrog,’ he pointed out. ‘Africa doesn’t have to go from drums to telegraph to telex. We can go straight to satellites, electronic media, and a computerized newsroom.’ Fall sees PANA’s node as the first step in an Africa-wide network that will stretch from Algeria to Zimbabwe – providing a lot more than World Cup scores. Fall’s vision of a wired Africa, in fact, has less to do with late-breaking news than with the more complex issue of Pan-African development.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Wiring Africa: You Go to a Small Village in Africa. People Are Hungry. Is the Real Solution 100 Kilograms of Corn – or an Electronic Mailbox?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.06/africa_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney