Web Science

The Model of Mobile Web Uptake in the Developing World (MMWUDW)

Betty Purwandari, Wendy Hall and Gary B Wills School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton {bp08r, wh, gbw}@ecs.soton.ac.uk
What is the Challenge ? Over 80% of the worlds population lives in the developing world [1]. However, penetration of Internet users in this part of the world has always been much lower than in the developed world. This clearly shows huge digital divide. As a result, possible benefits of Internet access are much more limited in developing economies than they are in developed economies.. How did We Address the Research Question? The Web does not only connect machines, more importantly the Web connects people. It is people who decide which hyperlink to follow [10]. Hence this research applies these methodologies to understand peoples desire that leads to Mobile Web usage and impact. Fieldwork in Indonesia (2012) There were 133 people joined the questionnaire, and 103 of them were interviewed.

Younger people more frequently used the Mobile Web than older people. There was no significant correlation between age and positive impact of the Mobile Web. However, younger people faced more negative impact of the Mobile Web than older people. Females were significantly used the Mobile Web more frequently than males. People living in more rural regions experienced more negative impact of the Mobile Web than people in more urban areas. Living in rural, sub urban, or urban areas did not correlate with frequency of Mobile Web usage and positive impact faced by the users. Frequency of Mobile Web usage was significantly correlated with positive impact, but not with negative impact of the Mobile Web. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

Research methodologies Internet users in the world and by level of development (2000-2010) [2]

Pilot Study in Kenya (2010)

What is the Potential Solution? It seems promising to deal with this challenge with the mobile miracle. This refers to remarkable mobile phone penetration in developing economies.

Mobile phone penetration in the world and by level of development (2000-2010) [2]

As mobile market matured, Web enabled phones have become cheaper [3]. Besides, mobile operators offer more affordable tariffs for data communications, which in turn can make Internet browsing up to 1,000 times cheaper per character than sending texts [4] [5]. These have empowered people in the developing world to use their mobile phones to access the Internet and the World Wide Web, which is called the Mobile Web [6]. The Mobile Web becomes very crucial in emerging economies, because mobile phones can be the only available means to access the Web, as well as to enable them to be part of global information society [7] [8] [9]. What is the Research Question? In order to meet the potential of mobile miracle with the challenge, a research question is raised: What is a suitable model to measure Mobile Web uptake and impact in the developing world? This research question triggers two sub questions in the context of developing countries : 1. What are factors or unmeasured variables of the model? 2. What are indicators or measured variables of each factor to assess Mobile Web uptake and impact?
References: [1] Population Reference Bureau, 2011. 2011 World Population Data Sheet. [2] ITU, 2011a. Measuring the Information Society 2011. Geneva, Switzerland. [3] Firtman, M., 2010. Programming the Mobile Web. OReilly, Sebastopol, CA, USA.
TEMPLATE DESIGN 2008

Mobile Movement Empowered Victorious Bone Crafters in Nairobi

Victorious Youth Group created jewellery from cow bones. Mobile Movement provided them with a mobile phone and training to take pictures of their products and upload the pictures to Mobile Movements Web site. A gift shop owner in Germany saw the products on the Web site. She visited the workshop and made a 200,000KSH (US$2,400) order. The Mobile Web also empowered Victorious Youth Group to collaborate with a jewellery designer in the US.

The MMWUDW explains nearly 70% of the data. Mobile Networks, Percentage of Income for Mobile Credits, Literacy and Digital Literacy are weak indicators in the model. All other indicators are strong.
Distribution of Participants from University Students and Their Frequency of Mobile Web Usage

The MMWUDW A model of Mobile Web uptake in the developing world is a hypothesised theoretical model, which was created based on literature review, a pilot study in Kenya and expert reviews. Later this model was tested using questionnaire and interview data in Indonesian rural, sub urban and urban areas.
[4] Boyera, S., 2009a. Mobile Web for Social Development Roadmap [5] Boyera, S., 2009b. W3C Workshop Report: The Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development. W3C MW4D, Maputo, Mozambique. [6] PC Magazine, 2012. Mobile Web Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopaedia [7] Boyera, S., 2010. Mobile Web for Social Development (MW4D) Interest Group Charter

Conclusions and Future Work The MMWUDW has three factors: Mobile Web Maturity, Uptake and Impact. Each factor has related indicators. The MMWUDW was tested using SEM and data from Indonesia. Test results show strength of relationships in the MMWUDW. Similar methods can be applied with data from different developing countries. The MMWUDW can also be modified to deal with longitudinal data.
[8] Bhavnani, A., Chiu, R.W. -W., Janakiram, S., Silarszky, P., 2008. The Role of Mobile Phones in S ustainable Rural Poverty Reduction. ICT Policy Division, Global Information and Communications Department (GICT). [9] Hellstrm, J., 2009. Mobile Phones for Good Governance - Challenges and Way Forward. Maputo, Mozambique. [10] Berners-Lee, T., 2008. Tim Berners-Lee Speech before Knight Foundation .

w w w .PosterPresentation s.com