Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
2000
0 2000 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Else&r Science Ltd
Pergamon
All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro PII: SOO94-5765(00)00103-X 0094-5765/00 $ - see front matter
ABSTRACT
WorldSpace plans to launch three geo-stationary satellites that would cover most of the
developing economies in Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia, Latin
America and the Caribbean. Apart from a variety of digital, high quality audio channels
providing news, views, education and entertainment opportunities, the end users can
also get a responsive multimedia. The multimedia is being planned as a specially
packaged offering that can meet the demand of students, professionals as well as certain
special groups who have certain specific data and information requirements. Apart from
WorldSpace, renowned agencies/firms from different parts of the world shall provide the
required content to meet these requirements. Though the Internet option is available,
higher telephone charges and the diff;culty in getting access have made this option less
interesting and unpopular in most of the developing countries. The proposed digital
audio and multimedia oflering from WorldSpace to millions of consumers spread across
more than 120 countries is considered as a unique tool for education and development,
particularly in the developing nations. In this paper, an attempt is made to briefly
describe the issues associated with education and development in developing countries,
the WorldSpace oflering and how a developing nation can benefit from this offering in
the coming decades. 0 2000 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.
657
658 50th IAF C:orr~w\.\
The need of the moment is to create an The Internet is by far the most potent
infrastructure that will not only provide medium for accessing specific
them with knowledge that is on par with information, from all corners of the
that available globally, but also in the world. However, it has its limitations,
common currency of the future. some of which are specific to
developing nations, and others that
It must be noted that electronic apply globally.
information is often confused or equated
with English based education. Many In developing nations, the lack of
non-English speaking countries, telecommunication infrastructure,
including China, have proved otherwise. makes the use of the Internet as a
With minimal investment, it is possible robust information delivery mechanism,
to deliver this knowledge in a language a cumbersome and expensive, if not
that is easily understood by each and impossible task. Unreliable terrestrial
every literate individual, in the language connections, coupled with low
of his or her choice. bandwidth, can create a chaotic
environment, especially for users
The other significant problem that exists residing outside of metropolitan areas.
in most developing nations, is the lack
of a robust infrastructure for There will be over 300 Million users of
dissemination of information of national the Internet by the end of the year
50th IAF Congress 659
UP-
Internet
Information would range from Any project of this nature can only
notifications on epidemics to latest be done in conjunction with
techniques, facilities and drugs. government bodies, since the
information, is national in nature,
Information would be pre-packaged and needs to be collated and
and delivered in a readily processed by a competent body to
understandable form, to be stored ensure efficiency and accuracy,
by the end user, for future reference.
In case of emergencies, information
can be passed on to the user, in In conclusion
near real time.
Apart from the applications outlined
It is possible to fund a large part of above, the WorldSpace system can and
the cost of this ambitious project will be used to create information
through corporate sponsorships, in affluence in other key areas in
return for unprecedented reach, developing countries. Some of the
instantaneously. medium term areas of attention include:
Traditional media, the Internet and with even the most advanced nations of
satellite based systems can work in the world, thereby removing some if not
conjunctioo to bring the availability of all of the factors that create disparities.
information in developing nations on par