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Leveraging the Cultural Model for Opportunistic Networking in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Abstract

The immense potential of ICT for improving users’ livelihood has been discussed in a large body of literature and many instantiations in our daily life demonstrate this reality. In developing areas, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, ICT for development has become the frontrunner initiative that decision makers are pushing to bring millions of people out of poverty. Unfortunately, the majority of Africans, who live in rural areas, fail to identify with the existing various solutions.

We propose the Toolé approach, which aims at vulgarizing new technologies for facilitating and automating the collection and synthesis of agricultural information. The originality of Toolé lies in the fact that it attempts to build on the cultural values of peasants. The architecture on top of which Toolé was built relies on cheap, yet powerful, devices and on readily available peer-to-peer protocols to deliver services whose inherent costs make sense for low income areas.

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© 2013 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Ouoba, J., Bissyandé, T.F. (2013). Leveraging the Cultural Model for Opportunistic Networking in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Jonas, K., Rai, I.A., Tchuente, M. (eds) e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries. AFRICOMM 2012. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 119. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41178-6_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41178-6_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41177-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41178-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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