At the African Diaspora Investment Symposium in Silicon Valley last weekend, a Facebook product designer talked to the audience about Free Basics, a range of online services from developers, nonprofit organizations, and governments.
“Anyone who is making a website that might be useful, and might be especially useful for people who might not otherwise be able to afford data connectivity, can go to internet.org/platform and apply to have their site included on the platform,” Jacob Berlow said before a backdrop of icons on service areas: a heart for health and safety, an apple for education, a dollar sign for economic empowerment, and of course a messenger bubble for communication.
This free online platform, available in 38 countries, is part of Internet.org, a larger initiative by Facebook to connect everyone in the world to the Web.
About the author
Catherine Cheneycatherinecheney
Catherine Cheney is the Senior Editor for Special Coverage at Devex. She leads the editorial vision of Devex’s news events and editorial coverage of key moments on the global development calendar. Catherine joined Devex as a reporter, focusing on technology and innovation in making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a web producer for POLITICO, a reporter for World Politics Review, and special projects editor at NationSwell. She has reported domestically and internationally for outlets including The Atlantic and the Washington Post. Catherine also works for the Solutions Journalism Network, a non profit organization that supports journalists and news organizations to report on responses to problems.
