Hello World - Ney Yibeogo: What Needs To Be Achieved for a Truly Inclusive World Wide Web Anna Bon International Office / CIS-VU & The Network Institute Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 598 9074; I: w4ra.org a.bon@vu.nl André Baart Department of Informatics & The Network Institute Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 598 7782; I: w4ra.org andre@andrebaart.nl Wendelien Tuyp International Office / CIS-VU & The Network Institute Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 598 9074; I: w4ra.org w.tuijp@vu.nl Victor de Boer Department of Informatics & The Network Institute VU Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 598 7782; I: w4ra.org v.de.boer@vu.nl Hans Akkermans AKMC & The Network Institute VU Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 598 7782; I: w4ra.org Hans.Akkermans@akmc.nl ABSTRACT The World Wide Web is a crucial open public space for information, communication and knowledge sharing for billions on the planet. Yet, it is not accessible for over half of the world population, mostly in the Global South. To overcome this digital divide, policies are promoted to improve global access to the Web and its resources, such as “affordable internet”. A different perspective emerges when thinking not inside-out from the Global North, but from the other side of the digital divide acknowledging today’s realities, contexts and needs on the ground in e.g. Africa. Obstacles such as scarce electricity, no internet, poor infrastructures, and limited text literacy are here to stay for many years to come. Yet, social communication networks are massive, also in the remote rural areas in the Global South, but they are centered on speech in the local languages, and with radio and especially mobile phone as major channels. If the Web is to become truly inclusive, it is in need of Web extensions – also outside the Web proper – that reach out to different types of already existing social communication networks and, specifically, cater for speech and voice services in many local languages that are now unsupported. Illustrated by cases and deployments from our field research in rural West Africa, we outline how small but concrete steps towards such Web extensions can be made. Categories and Subject Descriptors Information Systems – World Wide Web – Web Applications – Social Networks General Terms: Web access, literacy, divides, development. Keywords: Connecting the unconnected, Inclusiveness, Voice Services, Languages, Africa, Web extensions. 1. CONNECTING THE UNCONNECTED The World Wide Web is a crucial, open and public, space for information, communication and knowledge sharing for billions on the planet. However, it is not yet accessible for over half of the world population, most of them in the Global South. This phenomenon is often termed the digital divide [8]. The (much more than a) Web Science research question is what one may do about it [1]: how to connect the unconnected? The present paper addresses this question from a slightly uncommon perspective. Let us accept (for the time being, for the sake of argument) the somewhat simplistic metaphor of the “digital divide”. The question how to bridge the extant gap of the digital divide can then be approached from two different sides. First, one may take the view from the western or Global North towards those who are now excluded in the Global South – and as a result, what needs to be achieved following this line of thinking. This often encountered perspective triggers Web accessibility policies and strategies including advocacy for affordable internet, net neutrality, rights to and equality in digital opportunities [16]. Alternatively, one can think the other way around: starting from the Global South, from what current realities are on the ground, and subsequently consider what should be achieved in the realm of the Web, based on investigating local people’s needs and priorities in the Global South. This paper takes the latter perspective, and thus arrives at some other important conclusions. 2. RADIO CITIZEN JOURNALISM (MALI – BAMBARA) Many millions in the rural regions in Mali have mobile phones, but suffer from lack of electricity, no internet, poor infrastructures, and limited text literacy [13,14]. Apart from mobile telephony, and in the absence of TV and internet, community radio stations play an important role as information and communication hubs in rural regions of Africa. In Mali there are more than 200 small radio stations spread all over the country. These radio stations broadcast music (Mali is rightfully famous for its music tradition), but also local news and other informative programs for local listeners in African languages. 2.1 Foroba Blon system for village reporting We briefly describe here the case of Radio Sikidolo, a small radio station in Konobougou, a village in the south of Mali several