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

[Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro]

You are welcome. Happy to give feedback about the status of LDCs in Oceania
at any time.

On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 4:30 AM, catherine <ecrire at catherine-roy.net> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
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