Special to ABCNEWS.com
C A M B R I D G E , Mass., Dec. 16 ? To celebrate its
100th anniversary, the MIT Technology
Review, the oldest journal of science and
technology in the United States, has
selected the TR 100 ? 100 innovative
technologists and scientists under the age
of 35. Profiles of selected members of the
TR 100 will appear on ABCNEWS.com
through Jan. 1, 2000. Here is this week?s
installment.
C“me Lagu‰, 33,
Adesemi Communications
Many experts fear the Internet
will exacerbate, rather than
alleviate, the already ominous
gap between rich and poor
countries. One
techno-Samaritan giving
developing countries a chance
to participate in the
information revolution is
C“me Lagu‰, co-founder and chief operating
officer of Adesemi Communications. Lagu‰?s
company has begun expanding telecom services
in Tanzania and Ghana, and is coordinating the
launch of wireless telecommunications services in
Sri Lanka, Zambia and the Ivory Coast.
To bring telecommunications to poor
countries in Africa, Lagu‰ often must integrate
several generations of technology, work around
gaps in infrastructure, and reduce budgets. Take
the Tanzania project, which operated in areas
where as few as one in 2,000 people has a
telephone. First, Lagu‰ developed a system in
which each subscriber has a pager and a voice
mail account ? when they get a message, they
go to a pay phone.
Only problem? No pay phones. So Lagu‰ put
in a system of wireless pay phones. Now, even
though there may be only one phone in a remote
village, any villager has access to phone service.
That kind of ingenuity on behalf of poor countries
makes C“me Lagu‰ a champion whose work
deserves emulation. |
