Now, more than ever has information been part of personal empowerment. Well informed society strive than less informed populace, and there is no better place to find information other than on the internet. Consumers troll the World Wide Web for loads of information in regards to news, lifestyle, directions, entertainment, and the list goes on. The digital space led by smart phones has brought us to the world of Wikipedia, Google Maps, YouTube, Foursquare, Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook not to forget blogging sites such as Blogger, Tumblr and Wordpress have enabled information to be brought online and availed in a consumable manner. Despite free-use policy by the information infrastructure services, many third world countries still lack information online. Case and point is how Google and Wikipedia are working to bring information to local languages and make their services available to developing countries.

A walk through New York City with a smart phone would pick up loads of information, Wikipedia pages for restaurant, Foursquare recommendations, geo-tagged images on Facebook amongst others, but the opposite is true for Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. After decades of war and rule by Taliban there seem to be little information generated by the citizens, the only available consumer information seems to emanate from foreign news correspondence teams. In the information age, enlightenment is one of the tenets of influence without it a country would remains in the fissure of obscurity. But all is not in despair, after the fall of the Taliban in 2002 internet services were restored in the country and now has a widespread usage with cities such as Jalalabad have access to high-speed broadband internet. Due to this progress, many Afghani bloggers are now taking on the government and telling their stories. The Association of Afghan Blog Writers sets to bring together Afghani bloggers to champion the course of democracy and strengthen their institutions. A myriad of other bloggers are joining in to lend a voice to the Afghan struggle and put their stories online.

Google through the Nations Online Project has mapped Afghanistan and it is now possible to view satellite images of the country. In addition, there is a Google dot af search page tailored for Afghani information, it is now easy to find local business online. Nevertheless, that isn’t enough a sensitization program should be launched to help citizens put their information online. Value-added information services such as Foursquare, Flickr, Twitter haven’t had a big success in the country but this is due to numerous issues such as access to affordable smart phones. The more Afghanis get online the better they will be educated and subsequently lead to a stable and prosperous country.

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