For the first time ever at Web Summit, Facebook hosted a three day exhibition with a hugely impressive section in the Village Green in Simmonscourt. The exhibition consisted of three parts, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Internet.org. These themes also formed the basis for the talk given by Facebook CTO – Mike Schroepfer on Centre Stage on Tuesday 3^rd of November. While all three parts were incredibly interesting, this blog post will focus on the internet.org demonstration.

Internet.org

Internet.org is an initiative that was announced by Mark Zuckerberg in 2013, which aims to connect the two-thirds of the world that are currently without Internet access. There are two main ideas behind internet.org. Firstly, a large majority of the world have smartphones and have enough money to buy data plans, but simply do not understand why they would need to use the Internet on a daily basis. Secondly, many parts of the world have no Internet access at all, and a more cost-effective way of providing connectivity is essential to drive an increase in mobile use there.

The demonstration began with an interactive map of the world, showing which parts of the world had access to 4G, 3G, 2G and which had no internet access at all.  Through the use of a heat map, it became immediately apparent that the vast majority of the world do not have access to the Internet or have a very limited 2G connection.

Free Basics

Internet.org aims to change attitudes towards internet usage by providing a limited amount of data for free, using what has been called the ‘Free Basics’ plan. Under this plan, users can access basic internet sites and apps including Facebook, Whatsapp, BBC, Wikipedia, and health information and job websites.

At Web Summit, there were two smartphones available to try with the Free Basics software installed. They ran on 2G Internet, with one simulating a Filipino user experience while the other simulated what it was like for a Kenyan user. This mimics the current policy in Facebook, whereby all company computers are switched to 2G speed every Tuesday, so that employees can gain a greater understanding of the challenges faced by users in developing countries.

Following on from that we were shown two videos in order to demonstrate how internet.org had already helped people living in the developing world. The first video depicted a woman named Riza in the Philippines, who used internet.org to communicate with her classmates and helped her to write her thesis. The second video showed a man in Kenya, learning about healthcare and women’s rights.

Increasing Connectivity

In order to provide Free Basics to the developing world, the demonstration then focussed on how internet.org planned to reduce the cost of providing data and connectivity to large numbers of people. By harnessing new drone technology, internet.org is using High Altitude Long Endurance aircraft to broadcast Internet signal to an area the size of city. These drones are designed to stay in the air for years, and utilise lasers to deliver the signal.

However, while this works for urban areas, drones are impractical for rural areas due to lower population density. As a result, internet.org are also investigating the possibilities of deploying satellites to cover larger regions. At the moment, it can take 5-7 years to attain a license for such a satellite, so internet.org are currently focussing on improving drone coverage.

Reflection

The demonstration itself was presented by a Facebook employee, and was very engaging and interactive. We were encouraged to ask questions, to choose which video stories to watch, to try use the Free Basics smartphones and we even got the chance to have a look at some of the drone parts in real life. As Facebook have never put on any sort of display at Web Summit before, I was really impressed that they chose to focus on spreading the message of internet.org, and it fit in particularly well with Mike Schroepfer’s presentation.