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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Basically MG is suggesting
(and I agree with him) that 'internet for all' means actual ability of
people to use the internet and that needs to go far beyond 'access' if
that only implies putting some infrastructure in place. There are
several obstacles/constraints to people using the internet and non
availability of infrastructure is only one (albeit perhaps the first
constraint that needs to be tackled)... this includes social
constraints (women not being able to access internet points due to
patriarchal pressures is one example), individual capacities -
including literacy, the lack of which means that most of the text based
internet is not accessible (though we have far more av content now),
'surround infrastructure' including power backups, robust hardware,
relevant applications and content etc etc.<br>
<br>
Just as 'education for all' means much more than building schools and
classrooms, though that is certainly an important starting point ... in
India for e.g. the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (the national program which
has education for all as its basic goal) has programs which look at
free text books and learning material, free uniforms, free meals for
children, bicycles for girls .. without these elements, it is clear
that hundreds of thousands of children would not be able to go to
school and universal education would remain a dream. However, with
these measures ('affirmative action'), enrollment has risen from around
70% a decade back to over 95% today. <br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">In the same way,
Internet for all, requires several measures (global and national public
policy) .... and creating the infrastructure is one of them. I am not
suggesting that 'freebies' is the only way to go, but we need to look
at different options and see which have a good chance of ensuring
meaningful access and use.<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">As I suggested
earlier,
education in todays world has to necessarily include acquiring
capacities to navigate the information society that the internet is
'creating' and in this sense, 'right to education', which is part of
the UNDHR, subsumes a 'right to the internet'.</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>
Also Roland, the '90:10' ratio may be true in some places, but in most
parts of the world is likely to be more around 50:50 or even 20:80
..... suggesting even greater requirement of global efforts including
those relating to public policy.<br>
<br>
Guru<br>
<br>
</font><br>
Roland Perry wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:wt8e97eEJhhJFATU@perry.co.uk" type="cite">In
message <C5C6560F9A524F4B826F15C29FBD7418@userPC>, at 08:34:35 on
Sun, 1 Feb 2009, Michael Gurstein <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com"><gurstein@gmail.com></a> writes
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">What I think needs to be added to Parminder's
comments though is that the
<br>
simple provision of Broadband access is quite insufficient without the
<br>
parallel and associated investment in socially directed training,
enabling
<br>
of locally accessible technical maintenance and support and community
<br>
focussed applications development (as for example in the area of health
<br>
management, support for local education and locally based training,
<br>
environmental management and so on... In the absence of these
investments in
<br>
Broadband "access" are simply gifts to the telcos or other service
<br>
providers.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
The *universal* access of which I spoke, relates only to the remaining
10% of the population that telcos find too expensive to service using
normal commercial rules. Governments mandating that they *do* service
these customers (at the same price as the easy 90%) doesn't sound much
like a "gift" to those telcos.
<br>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Gurumurthy Kasinathan
IT for Change
Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities
Tel:98454 37730
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://IS-Watch.net">http://IS-Watch.net</a>
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*IT for Change is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with United Nations’ Economic and Social Council*
</pre>
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