The internet and the computer illiterate

This IEEE Spectrum online article by Intel ethnographers Tony Salvador and John Sherry says "at Internet outposts in India,Peru,and Hungary,even the computer illiterate reap the advantages of the Web.In the Morena District in the state of Madhya Pradesh,India,an illiterate woman approaches the local soochak,the manager of an Internet kiosk.She complains about a water well that is not operating, and the soochak,for a small fee,uses a PC to enter her complaint on an electronic form,uploading it to a local hub,where it is registered with the authorities.In Cuzco,Peru, a woman needs to contact her emigrant son in New York City for money to pay a doctor's bill.An international phone call would be prohibitively expensive. Instead, she goes to the local cabina pública, a small public computer center,where voice-over-Internet capability allows her to make a short call to her son for a sol or less,about 30 US cents.She has been communicating with him in this way for the past seven years.In Eastern Hungary, a man named Laszló,who hunts rabbits to sell to restaurants, talks about his business with János, the local operator of a teleház, a small public facility with PCs. János surfs the Web to locate a government grant for the growing of special seed corn. Laszló can use this corn to feed the rabbits through the winter, so they'll be fatter for spring hunting".Via smartmobs

[Computer illiterate and the web]