The group, which includes Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (pictured below, left), is documenting the trip using the Flickr tag "IraqTech" and the #iraqtech hashtag on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Raanan Bar-Cohen, VP Media Services at WordPress.com owner Automattic, is documenting their experiences on his blog. He writes:
- Desperate need to improve internet connectivity. Right now about 5% of Iraq has internet access at home, but a larger (unknown) percentage get online at Internet cafes.
- Cell usage is nearly universal here — everyone has a mobile phone.. Coverage is currently not as reliable as it could be, and is getting overloaded with the huge surge in usage....
- There is also a ton of SMS usage here which is encouraging as it may provide an alternative means of interacting with certain services as Iraqis wait for internet broadband develops....
- Fiber projects are underway to improve the internet connectivity challenges, but these efforts have been hampered by legacy systems which were not in good shape, and security requirements / sabotage missions which disrupt the work. The optimistic projections are for Iraq to be at around 60% broadband penetration in about 18-24 months if things go according to plan.
The State Department, which organized the trip, explains that the aim is to "explore new opportunities to support Iraqi government and non-government stakeholders in Iraq’s emerging new media industry."
