Black People & Internet

I have spent the past few months studying trends in the technology field and specifically the internet. I have looked at a number of areas but Google caught my attention. Google is in the game of collecting as much information about the world as they possibly can.
I attended a lecture last year that was discussing the relevance in information technology in the development of business strategy that enables business to maximise its revenue. I am not going to go deep.

I realised that access to technology affords everyone to stand in a different position to see the world from another angle. This got me thinking about the possibility of exploiting technology in our attempt to fast track development in our continent.
Black people do not have access to technology or internet as compared to whites and this is exactly where my articles will dwell.

As much as it is difficult to accept it but black people are not yet as competitive as white people in terms of knowledge or rather call it information. It is okey for a black kid to go for months and months without accessing the other side of the world. Social networks like facebook, twitter and blogs are making a big difference in promoting connectivity of people from all walks of life. These have however received criticism from black community because. Some claim that internet is the tool used by the devil to promote himself. Such views are echoed in Christian communities of South Africa. The unfortunate part of this is that black people from a huge portion of Christians in this country.

We are heading for the age where information and knowledge are a requirement to live a decent life. This age will value information as we value money today. Black people are lagging behind when it comes to the access to financial resource and the same is going to happen if the mentality about internet accessibility is concerned.

Let me make an example to show you what I mean. Retail companies like have developed systems that collect as much information as possible about people who come to contact with their shops. They collect it in the form of contact number, e-mail addresses and even fax number. They don’t just end here; they also try as much as possible to know your age, income, exact location and even the car you drive. This information is their gold. They then dump this information into a system that analyses it and construct some meaning out of it. This is how they get to understand your colour preference and even your season of shopping. This is how they maximise their sales.

The department of education does not take serious the idea of ensuring that not a single matriculant exits high school education without developing computer skills.
The former president, Mr Thabo Mbeki was once in a bitter war with Telkom SA for high bandwidth tariffs. There had been a number of complaints from internet service providers that they could not operate in South Africa because Telkom was protected by government. This resulted in a situation where Telkom reported high gains on their financial reports. This happened at the expense of our country’s development. The act regulating telecommunications operating licences was amended and we saw new entrants like Neotel and many others. I am not sure if this has helped the campaign of driving the internet access down.

I encourage all those concerned about the development of the black society to assist in whatever way possible and ensure that we connect as many people to internet as possible. We must also stage a campaign promoting the reduction of connection cost. That will afford our country an opportunity to discover even effective education system