The Impact of the Mobile Web in Developing Countries

Mobile phone penetration in the developing world shows remarkable growth patterns, which triggers competition among mobile operators and service providers. As a consequence, this has made mobile communications more affordable for people in developing countries. At the beginning, people use mobile phones only for audio or text communications. Later, people start using their mobiles to access the World Wide Web, which is called mobile Web. Despite rapid mobile Web adoption in the developing world, there has been no comprehensive research methodology to define, identify, and measure the impact of mobile Web use. In the context of Web Science research, the methodology is needed by various mobile Web stakeholders to enable the advancement of mobile Web technology, as well as to anticipate the potential impact on society. In this paper we describe a proposed methodology to measure the impact of mobile Web in developing countries. The methodology will be tried in Kenya and Indonesia this year. Then it will be evaluated, refined, and tested again in 2011.