<P>Dear Ronda,</P>
<P>I agree that commercial and political pressure should not be put on scientific and technical development but i still see that the implementation of that development depend on political decisions. </P>
<P>Best regards,</P>
<P>Ann-Kristin<BR><BR>----Ursprungligt meddelande----<BR>Från: ronda.netizen@gmail.com<BR>Datum: Jul 23, 2007 1:47:23 PM<BR>Till: governance@lists.cpsr.org, Ann-Kristin Håkansson <AKIGUA@TELIA.COM><BR>Kopia: ronda hauben <RONDA.NETIZEN@GMAIL.COM><BR>Ärende: Re: Re: [governance] Effects of lack of electricity on the digital divide<BR><BR></P>
<DIV>Dear Ann-Kristin</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>During the early development of the Internet there was an AUP - an Acceptible Use Policy.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This was a means of restricting commercial participation and political pressure. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The scientific and technical development was possible because the commercial and political pressures were being managed and kept from impeding the scientific and technical development. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Information Processing Techniques Organization (IPTO) which provided the leadership for this development was also subject to political pressures and by the mid 1980s this became a serious problem which eventually led its ending. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So there are political pressures to be sure - for science and technology to function there is a need to have an environment where the scientists and engineers can do their research and the political pressures are kept from impeding the developments. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So Ann-Kristin I would disagree with your formulation. There's a need for science and the scientific approach to the technology to dominate, not poltiics. (I realize you could say this is political, but then the science is lost.) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>best wishes</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ronda</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> <BR><BR> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 7/23/07, <B class=gmail_sendername>Ann-Kristin Håkansson</B> <<A href="mailto:akigua@telia.com">akigua@telia.com</A>> wrote:</SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<P>Dear Ronda,</P>
<P>Isn´t this what we tried to describe all along the WSIS process? However, I´m not sure that building infrastructure is only a scientific or commercial problem, I think it is mainly political.</P>
<P>Regards,</P>
<P>Ann-Kristin</P>
<P>Indigenous ICT tf<BR><BR>----Ursprungligt meddelande----<BR>Från: <A href="mailto:ronda.netizen@gmail.com" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ronda.netizen@gmail.com</A><BR>Datum: Jul 23, 2007 1:26:34 AM <BR>Till: <A href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">governance@lists.cpsr.org</A>, <A href="mailto:yehudakatz@mailinator.com" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">yehudakatz@mailinator.com</A><BR>Kopia: ronda hauben <BR>Ärende: Re: [governance] Effects of lack of electricity on the digital divide<BR><BR></P><SPAN class=q>
<DIV>Thanks for sending this article to the list. It just seems that the job of connecting Rawanda and other African</DIV>
<DIV>countries to the Internet and building infrastructure is a scientific problem, not a commercial problem.</DIV></SPAN><SPAN class=q>
<DIV>The problems described remind me of the kinds of problems (though different) that the pioneers building</DIV>
<DIV>the Internet faced, and they figured out how to solve them as they were focusing on a scientific </DIV>
<DIV>approach and using the technology they had developed to help them solve the problems.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></SPAN><SPAN class=q>
<DIV>At the UN there was a presentation by Professor Juma, a Harvard Professor originally from Kenya, </DIV>
<DIV>talking about how Rwanda is a prototype for others. He didn't mention the problems being encountered</DIV>
<DIV>so it is good to see the real situation described.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>After the WSIS meeting in Tunisia I met a government official from Tanzania who described the problems</DIV>
<DIV>of spreading connectivity and how the commercial efforts were to make a profit not to spread the net.</DIV></SPAN><SPAN class=q>
<DIV>So its not that the commercial should not be part of the situation dealing with the problem, but putting</DIV>
<DIV>the solution in their hands is probably not going to solve the problems in itself.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></SPAN>
<DIV>Ronda</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=e id=q_113f1ede3765c81f_6><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 7/22/07, <B class=gmail_sendername><A href="mailto:yehudakatz@mailinator.com" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">yehudakatz@mailinator.com</A></B> <<A href="mailto:yehudakatz@mailinator.com" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">yehudakatz@mailinator.com </A>> wrote:</SPAN> </SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<DIV><SPAN class=e id=q_113f1ede3765c81f_8>Brilliant post Kwasi - excellent<BR>I also found this article interesting:<BR><BR>Africa, mostly offline, struggles to get on the Internet <BR>By Ron Nixon<BR>Re: The International Herald Tribune | <A href="http://www.iht.com/" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">www.iht.com</A><BR><A href="http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=6765556" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=6765556</A><BR><BR>Sunday, July 22, 2007 <BR>On a muggy day in Kigali in 2003, some of the highest-ranking officials in the<BR>Rwandan government, including President Paul Kagame, flanked an American <BR>businessman, Greg Wyler, as he boldly described how he could help turn their <BR>small country into a hub of Internet activity.<BR><BR>Wyler, an executive based in Boston who made his fortune during the technology<BR>boom, said he would lace Rwanda with fiber optic cables, connecting schools,<BR>government institutions and homes with low-cost, high-speed Internet service. <BR><BR>Until that point, Wyler, 37, had never set foot in Africa - he was invited by a <BR>Rwandan government official he had met at a wedding. Wyler never expected to<BR>start a business there; he simply wanted to try to help the war-torn country. <BR><BR>Even so, Wyler's company, Terracom, was granted a contract to connect 300 <BR>schools to the Internet. Later, the company would buy 99 percent of the shares<BR>in Rwandatel, the national telecommunications company, for $20 million. <BR><BR>But after nearly four years, most of the benefits hailed by him and his company <BR>have failed to materialize, Rwandan officials say. "The bottom line is that he<BR>promised many things and didn't deliver," Albert Butare, the Rwandan <BR>telecommunications minister, said.<BR><BR>Wyler says he sees things differently and that he and the Rwandan officials <BR>will probably never agree on why their joint venture has been so slow to get<BR>off the ground. But Terracom's tale is more than a story about a business <BR>dispute in Rwanda. It is also emblematic of what can happen when good <BR>intentions run into the technical, political and business realities of Africa.<BR><BR>Attempts to bring affordable high-speed Internet service to the masses have <BR>made little headway on the continent. Less than 4 percent of the African <BR>population is connected to the Web. Most subscribers are in North African<BR>countries and the republic of South Africa.<BR><BR>A lack of infrastructure is the biggest problem. In many countries, years of <BR>civil conflict destroyed communications networks, and continuing political <BR>instability deters governments or companies from investing in new systems.<BR><BR>E-mail messages and phone calls sent from some African countries have to be <BR>routed through Britain, or even the United States, increasing expenses and <BR>delivery times. About 75 percent of African Internet traffic is routed this way<BR>and costs African countries billions of extra dollars each year that they would <BR>not incur if their infrastructure was up to date.<BR><BR>"Most African governments haven't paid much attention to their infrastructure,"<BR>said Vincent Oria, an associate professor of computer science at the New Jersey <BR>Institute of Technology who is from the Ivory Coast. "In places where hunger, <BR>AIDS and poverty are rampant, they didn't see it as critical until now."<BR><BR>Rwandan officials were especially interested in wiring schools, seeing <BR>information technology as crucial to modernizing the rural economy. <BR><BR>But as of mid-July, only one-third of the 300 schools covered in Terracom's<BR>contract had high-speed Internet service. All 300 were supposed to have been <BR>connected by 2006.<BR><BR>Overall, less than 1 percent of the population is connected to the Internet. <BR>Rwandan officials say Terracom seems more interested in tapping the more<BR>lucrative cellphone market than in being an Internet service provider. <BR><BR>In November, Wyler stepped down as chief executive of Terracom, saying he <BR>wanted to spend more time with his family. He still serves on the board.<BR><BR>Wyler said by telephone from his Boston home that he would not address the <BR>government's criticism. He said he did not want to be quoted as saying anything <BR>negative. But he said there were some things he had not anticipated,<BR>particularly the technical challenges of linking the Rwandan Internet network <BR>to the rest of the world.<BR><BR>"Terracom has done everything it can, " he said. "Because of the technical <BR>challenges, the Internet service is as good as it's going to get. But given<BR>what we started from, I still think we have accomplished a lot. In the <BR>beginning there were a few people with Internet service. Now there are <BR>thousands."<BR><BR>The Rwandan government had hoped that the number of Web surfers would be much<BR>higher by now. Rwanda has little industry, and its infrastructure is still <BR>being rebuilt after the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 to a million people were <BR>killed.<BR><BR>"We have almost no natural resources and no seaports in Rwanda, which leaves us<BR>only with trying to become a knowledge-based society," said Romain Murenzi, the <BR>Rwandan minister of science, technology and scientific research. <BR><BR>Wyler said he had not been involved in Terracom for nearly 10 months and could<BR>not comment on its current operations.<BR><BR>Christopher Lundh, Terracom's new chief executive and a former executive of <BR>Gateway Communications in London, has worked in several African countries. He <BR>now lives and works full time in Rwanda, and many government officials say<BR>Terracom's performance has improved under his leadership. <BR><BR>Lundh said there were problems with the company's operations in the past but <BR>that the Rwandan government was responsible for some of the delays.<BR><BR>"We would get to schools that don't even have electricity or computers," he <BR>said. "That is not our fault."<BR><BR>In addition, he said that many of the complaints about the company concerned<BR>things beyond its ability to control. Getting adequate bandwidth remains a<BR>constant challenge. Like most telecommunications companies in eastern Africa, <BR>Terracom depends on satellites for Internet service. Satellite service is much<BR>slower than cable because of delays in the signals. Satellites also provide<BR>less bandwidth than cable.<BR><BR>Adding to the problem is that most of the satellites serving Africa were <BR>launched nearly 20 years ago and are aging or going out of commission. A<BR>satellite set to go into service last year blew up on the launching pad. Power<BR>is also an issue, as intermittent power failures in Rwanda hamper efforts to <BR>provide a steady electricity source.<BR><BR>Despite these limitations and earlier setbacks, Lundh said Terracom was moving<BR>ahead with plans to give Rwanda the most advanced Internet infrastructure in<BR>Africa. A nationwide wireless connection should begin operating near year-end, <BR>he said.<BR><BR>Magnus K. Mazimpaka contributed reporting from Rwanda.<BR>____________________________________________________________<BR></SPAN></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR clear=all>
<DIV><BR>____________________________________________________________<BR>You received this message as a subscriber on the list:<BR> <A href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org" _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">governance@lists.cpsr.org</A><BR>To be removed from the list, send any message to:<BR> <A href="mailto:governance-unsubscribe@lists.cpsr.org" _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">governance-unsubscribe@lists.cpsr.org </A><BR><BR>For all list information and functions, see:<BR> <A href="http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance" target=_blank _onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance </A><BR><BR> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet<BR><BR><A href="http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook">http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook </A><BR><BR>