[WSIS CS-Plenary] The Economist on the 'real digital divide'

[Bill McIver]

Rik,

One need is to continue to "drill down" into stories such as yours
to look at why given the conditions you have described
that certain ICTs are prioritized over (or with?) other things.

I think many of the answers are not so obvious to people
who don't live in such circumstances.

How, for example, might the mobile phone help
people in your village respond to the conditions you
describe where others don't.

Some of the answers will be obvious with respect to
the costs and requirements of other
types of ICT infrastructure and services, but surely
going beyond those issues to look at how they are used
will reveal important things for us.



WJM



Rik Panganiban wrote:

> Thanks, Sasha, for initiating this discussion.
>
>
> In my view, our response should show that there are a number of public 
> policy issues that are not automatically "solved" by imposing a pure 
> market solution, and that civil society groups are not myopically 
> focused on "cutting edge" web-based technologies. We need to show that 
> we are working across the board on justice and democracy issues 
> related to traditional radio, television, fixed phone, mobile phone, 
> all the way up to webcasting and VOIP.
>
>
> Regardless of what level of technology deployment we are talking 
> about, there are serious political issues that civil society has 
> strong views related to government surveillance and individual rights 
> to privacy, for example.
>
>
> On the other hand, I must say that in the remote fishing village in 
> the Philippines that my family is from, we barely have potable water, 
> regular electricity, much less a telecentre. But lots of folks have 
> mobile phones. Cell phones are the only ICTs that are realistic for 
> our village to access given our significant infrastructure needs. I 
> think lots of places in the developing world are in a similar boat.
>
>
> So what are the public policy issues surrounding cell phone deployment 
> that civil society groups need to be seized of?
>
>
> Rik Panganiban
>
>
> [... text deleted ...]
>
> RIK PANGANIBAN Communications Coordinator
>
> Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United 
> Nations (CONGO)
>
> web: http://www.ngocongo.org
>
> email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org
>
> mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524
>


-- 
Bill McIver, Ph.D                     
==
Group Leader (Acting)                 | Chef de groupe (par int?rim)
e-Government/e-Citizen Group          | Groupe de gouvernement ?lectronique/citoyen ?lectronique
National Research Council             | Conseil national de recherches Canada
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E-mail: Bill.McIver at nrc-cnrc.gc.ca    | Courriel: Bill.McIver at nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
==
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