[WSIS CS-Plenary] [governance] Article on Mashable on the Web and developing countries

[catherine]

Hello Sala,

Thank you for offering your particular perspective; I think it adds
important information to the whole issue.

A few comments inline.

On Sat, February 5, 2011 1:56 am, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro wrote:

> Mobile phones have increased the regional penetration rates in the
> Pacific,
> Samoa, PNG, Fiji etc. One of the challenges with the deployment of
> communication services is the availability of reliable energy grids.
> Sadly,
> alternative and renewable energy alternatives are quite expensive in the
> Pacific and many Pacific Islands telecommunications providers and ISPs
> rely
> on infrastructure that is powered either by their national energy grids or
> petroleum (diesel).

You bring up an interesting point that many discussions and writings on
the Internet in developing countries often leave out: energy sources and
alternatives to power all this. I think we need to hear about this issue
more.


> One of the increasing challenges for governments is in having proper
> national strategies in place that will enable greater cohesion that is
> critical for the state, regulators, licensed operators and civil society
> that will ensure that universal service is reached.

I agree. We have been working hard in Canada and in my province of Quebec
to incite the government to adopt and implement an inclusive digital
strategy. But we are not there yet.


> Whilst internet on mobile phones is not readily available yet in villages,
> sms banking is a popular feature that has really taken off in Fiji
> recently.
> So, I suppose yes mobiles are the way to go but I would not write off
> Telecenters in every village, at least.

Agreed. People are focusing mainly on the potential of mobiles and this is
understandable but telecentres should remain an important part of the
solution. I think that telecentres are ideal in providing opportunities
for community building, peer support, training, etc.


> Different countries in the Pacific define Universal Service/Access
> mediums differently, some say Fixed Lines and Mobile Phones whilst some
> have
> both including the Internet, which is why Facebook can never be a human
> right in developing worlds until they have basic access to communication,
> priority being voice over internet, at the very least.

I have heard this repeated quite a lot in recent weeks, about this notion
of Facebook being a human right. I must say I find the whole thing
disturbing. I think we need to frame it as a "Communication, whatever its
form or forum, is a human right" issue or something in that vein. But I
guess that is a whole other discussion ;)

Best regards,


Catherine

-- 
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net