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Tech Podcast: Living with and without the internet

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As you know by know, we’re co-produced by the BBC World Service. Every once in a while, Auntie Beeb (or the MotherShip, as I like to call her) goes all out with a special series of reports and interviews on one topic. This time around, luckily for me and you, it’s the Internet. The BBC is calling it SuperPower: Exploring the Extraordinary Power of the Internet. One of the more interesting segments from this week’s SuperPower offerings forms the highlight of WTP 281. At right are the Kims from South Korea, one of the most wired and connected countries on earth. Sometimes, as you’ll hear in the podcast, that reliance on the Internet can lead to problems such as child neglect, and cyber-bullying. The BBC somehow convinced them to try to live without the internet for one week. Listen in to the podcast to see how it goes. You can see some video here.

While the Kims were trying to live without the Internet, Moses Mamman Maisuari (l) and Nicholas Madaki, two farmers in the small Nigerian town of Gitana, were given mobile phones that, for the first time, got them online. Listen in to the podcast to find out how they got on. You can read more about their experiences here. My favorite moment is when Nicholas tells the BBC that yes, it’s great to be connected to the Internet…but that sometimes he can hardly get a signal, and that at other times he has to pay someone locally to charge his cell phone battery. That helps keep it all in perspective…

Also in this episode, we look at how online match-making is booming India, and we hear about the relaxation of some US Treasury Department rules that would make it possible for US tech companies to export online communications services to places such as Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

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The music this week is brought to you by Dave Asma and Spunkshine.

And here is the PechaKucha link I promise you right at the end of the podcast.