The Digital Birth of an African City @ICEGOV2016, Montevideo

THE DIGITAL BIRTH OF AN AFRICAN CITY- Douala (Cameroon)

Marta Pucciarelli, Lorenzo Cantoni,Nadzeya Kalbaska

SUPSI – University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland

USI -Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano - Switzerland

ICEGOV 2016, Montevideo, Uruguay


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INFORMATION HIGHWAY?


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Increased individual use of the Internet

According ITU, individuals using the Internet in developing countries grown from 7.3% to 35.3% during the last fifteen years, while just in Africa they rose more then ten times, growing from 2.4% to 20.7%

In Cameroon Individual use of the Internet has increased more than twenty times, passing from 0.2% in 2000 to 11.0% in 2014

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PURPOSES OF THE RESEARCH

• to go in depth to the online presence of developing countries

• to focus on the online visibility of an African city (Douala, Cameroun)

• to explore the temporal (from 1989 to 2013) and spatial evolution of online stakeholders

• to evaluate whose voices are contributing to shape the digital city



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CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH


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RESEARCH QUESTIONS1. how the digital Douala has evolved during the

time?2. whose voices are contributing to shape the

digital Douala?3. where do they come from?4. what part of the city is represented/hidden

online?


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METHODOLOGY:Data Collection

(May-July 2014)

Keywords: name of the activityneighborhood


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Activity category

Name activity

Neighbourhood

mail Online presence

Origin/headquarted

Website Social media

Year

Art galleries/museums

Espace doual’art Bonanjo yes yes www.doualar

t.org

www.facebook.com/pages/Doualart/352373388233581?ref=ts&fref=ts


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Activity category

Name activity

Neighbourhood


Origin/headquarted


Year


Espace doual’art Bonanjo yes yes local www.doualar

t.org


From the official website


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Activity category

Name activity

Neighbourhood


Origin/headquarted


Year



t.org


2007

From www.domain

tools.com

From the official websiteFrom Duouala Zoom


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METHODOLOGY:Data Cleaning

1. Data provided by the database were initially reported in more than one category (A) or their presence was not limited to a single area of the city (B).

A) Only the most fitting category was taken into consideration. B) All instances were kept only in the case where it was necessary to geo-localize their online presence on the map.

2. The database was also filtered from local and global platforms for website building (e.g weebly.com, overblog.com, popolus.org, webs.com, e-monsite.com)

3. Activities not considered:A) Those registered in 2014 b) When the registration year was unavailable.

METHODOLOGY:Data Analysis

Activity category

Name activity

Neighbourhood


Origin Website Social media

Year



t.org


2007

RQ2

Whose voices are contributing to shape the digital Douala? 20 macro-categories

Which areas of the city they are representing Visible and invisible

neighbourhoods

RQ4

Where do they come from?

local, national or international

origin

RQ3

How the digital Douala has evolved

during the time? 1989-2013; still pictures (2007-

2010-2013)

RQ1


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RESULTS: the digital Douala

4529 socio economic activities20 macro-categories

513 online presence = 11,37%467 websites 46 Facebook accounts

2590 email account = 57,19%

97 Having both


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RESULTS: Slow motion


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Online presence (Website/Facebook)

Online communication(email)

11.37%

57.19%

Online/offlineMacro-categories

88.63%

42.81%

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RESULTS: online presence of macro-category

150 online activities

5 online activities

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47,8%Douala as

economic and commercial

capital

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RESULTS: online saturation of macro-

category27,5%23,8%

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67% local

100% international


category

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67% local

100% international

Douala’s inhabitants use technology to find a job and, therefore, to build their own future.


category

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14th

18th


category

25


6.1%

9%8.3%6.5%


category

8.3%6.5%

12.5%

10.9%


category

8.3%6.5%

12.5%

10.9%

100% local

82% localtendency to go online of the categories linked to educational, social, cultural and urban activities.


category


category

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RESULTS: offline visible space

118 neighbourhoods

53 present socioeconomic activities

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RESULTS: online visible space

118 neighbourhoods

53 present socioeconomic activities

36 present online activities2 neighbourhoods represent 50.3% of the whole online presence of the city

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RESULTS: online saturation of visible

space2 neighbourhoods (Akwa and Bonanjo) reaches 12.3% and 19.2% of online saturation


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CONCLUSIONS• Holistic approach (including time and space) on representing the picture of a

digital city

• How it’s online representations is produced and what are the relationships with the physical city

• The least represented online neighborhoods are indeed the most marginal zones of the city

• The online visibility of the most popular categories (Retailers, Bank and insurance, Import-export) within the economic capital, along with the most popular parts of the city does not result in higher online saturation.

• Where there is little activity formally registered (education, art and entertainment), the greater is the effort and motivation to communicate their online presence.


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QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS?

Marta Pucciarelli [email protected]

www.unescochair.usi.ch

mailto:[email protected]

The Digital Birth of an African City @ICEGOV2016, Montevideo

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