Why learn XHTML in Africa?

Journalists in Africa should have a solid grasp of XHTML because of the bandwidth and accessibility problems which we as a continent face. Robert Niles supports the use of XHTML by journalists because the code is neater and more efficient. Superfluous information and bad HTML practices (such as not closing tags) are cut out, which makes the information easier and faster to download. This in turn means that less bandwidth is used in processing and accessing the website. This is especially important in Africa, where people have limited access to technology. The telecommunications infrastructure is very poor in rural areas, therefore telephone lines are not available for easy internet access. Computer hardware and software also tend to be obsolete and outdated. According to Virginia de Bolt, XHTML is backwards browser compatible. This is because XHTML is a combination of XMS and HTML, a new and an old technology. This means that people using old browsers (such as outdated versions of Netscape Navigator etc) can still access websites coded in XHTML. The fact that XHTML is a combination of old and new technologies means that it is useful both now and in the suture, which of great importance in our rapidly changing continent.