The Case for Technology for Developing Regions

February 17, 2005
Eric Brewer | UC Berkeley

Moore’s Law and the wave of technologies it enabled have led to tremendous improvements in productivity and the quality of life in the First World. Yet, technology has had almost no effect on the four billion people that make less than a dollar per day. In this talk I argue that decreasing costs of computing and wireless networking make this the right time to spread the benefits of technology, and that the biggest missing piece is a lack of focus on the problems that matter.

After covering some example applications that have shown very high impact, I take an early look at the research agenda for developing regions. Finally, I examine some of the economic and social issues that are inherent in the space. My goal is to convince EECS researchers that technology for developing regions is an important and viable research topic.

Speaker Details

Dr. Brewer focuses on all aspects of Internet-based systems, including technology, strategy, and government. As a researcher, he has led projects on scalable servers, search engines, network infrastructure, sensor networks, and security. His current focus in (high) technology for developing regions, with projects in India and Bangladesh (so far), and including communications, health, education, and e-government.In 1996, he co-founded Inktomi Corporation with a Berkeley grad student based on their research prototype, and helped lead it onto the Nasdaq 100 before it was bought by Yahoo! in March 2003.In 2000, he founded the Federal Search Foundation, a 501-3(c) organization focused on improving consumer access to government information. Working with President Clinton, Dr. Brewer helped to create FirstGov.gov, the official portal of the Federal government, which launched in September 2000.He received an MS and Ph.D. in EECS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS in EECS from UC Berkeley. He was named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum, by the Industry Standard as the “most influential person on the architecture of the Internet”, by InfoWorld as one of their top ten innovators, by Technology Review as one of the top 100 most influential people for the 21st century (the “TR100”), and by Forbes as one of their 12 “e-mavericks”, for which he appeared on the cover.