christopherhildreth

There is a lot going on in what is called the Global South – south of the equator.  One of the most promising aspects is that these countries can leapfrog, or skip over, outdated modes of development in order to embrace cutting edge technology. In fact, these countries are not only embracing the cutting edge, they are in fact redefining it for the rest of us.

One of the big areas this is most obvious is in mobile phones. Most of the countries have no existing phone system at all. Since that is the case, there is no need to spend decades, millions of dollars and untold hours of manpower to string a grid of wires when cell towers can go up much quicker. If the cell phone will work, why bother with having landlines at all?

The mobile phone technology is rapidly spreading and preempting the implementation of traditional landlines. There is so much possibility in the Global South as we look ahead and try to visualize the way it will look. We like to think that we are the center of the cutting edge, but in many ways the Global South is the place to be as far as cutting edge technology and practices are concerned.

One of the most exciting things is to watch and look at the impact this leapfrogging will have on other aspects of the social strata. How will these advances effect communication – both personal and public? How will these changes and introduction of complexity into otherwise simple lifestyles augment the development of the individual people and their individual way of making meaning in life?

These are questions with no answers right now, but with implications that will radically change the way we think and communicate in the very near future.

This entry was posted on November 23, 2008 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Awareness, Influence, People, Vision. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Global South, leapfrogging, technology