Bridging the digital divide with low-cost information technologies

Although there are many requirements that need to be met if the digital divide between rich and poor countries is to be narrowed, this paper focuses on just one aspect of the problem; namely, the need for low-cost information technologies that are suitable to the conditions prevailing in the latter rather than the former. It is argued that there are, in fact, already many more such technologies than most people realise, mainly because what information about them that does exist tends to be highly fragmented. What is needed, accordingly, is an institution charged with the function of registering and disseminating all the fragmentary information about low-cost information that is currently available.