[governance] (offlist) Re:How do we engender effective participation from developing countries (Africa)?

[Lee McKnight]

Aaron,

In the interest of writing quickly I compressed you and Suresh in the
same bucket, sorry.

But right we agree international pressure and individuals can do some
things government may not have a desire to even try.

Lee

Prof. Lee W. McKnight
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
+1-315-443-6891office
+1-315-278-4392 mobile
>>> nyangkweagien at gmail.com 12/11/07 12:33 PM >>>
Lee

It was Suresh that was narrowing the solutioning of those problems to
local level well as I looked at it from your point of perception.

Suresh

I agree, nobody cares. That is why I am a proponent of the civil
society being more proactive to finding solutions to the problems of
the masses and allowing these corrupt so called Governments to rot.
Look at Yunnus and the Grameen bank. I hope you got me?

Aaron

On 12/11/07, Lee McKnight <lmcknigh at syr.edu> wrote:
> Nyangke, Suresh,
>
> I agree there are a range of technical solutions and dimensions to the
> problem of access in developing nations, but disagree that there is
not
> an international dimension to those probelms that can fruitfully
> discussed on this list as well as at IGF meetings.
>
> For example, at the regional level discussion at Caribbean Internet
> Forum meetings on high bandwidth pricing due to limited capacity in
the
> region led directly to political and business forces coordinating
across
> islands, resulting in private investment in several fibers, with
> recommendations for access policies to encourage on-island competition
> to bring prices down. The new fibers aren;t all lit just yet but a lot
> has changed in a few years time, due to coordinated civil society,
> business & government actions; which will ultimately affect
connectivity
> options within several nations. Acting inside one country at a time
> could not resolve that issue.
>
> In the African case, I am aware of new fiber initiatives seeking
landing
> rights at this very minute, where it would increase backbone capacity
> and likely drive down prices in many nations, and hence increase
access.
> So if civil society/the international community were to speak up and
> encourage governements to let the new players in, that could only
help.
> To be clear, I have no stake in those initiatives, just have my
fingers
> crossed that the usual suspect incumbent players don't succeed in
> derailing them.
>
> For IGF India, more discussion of areas where technology and policy
(and
> business) can intersect to improve access opportunities in developing
> nations might be helpful; I intend to propose some ideas there myself.
>
> So international CS can't resolve these problems by itself, I agree,
but
> it can help government and business focus on the true barriers to
> access, and provide some focus for local user communities to rally
> around to bring their own pressure to bear.
>
> Lee
>
> Prof. Lee W. McKnight
> School of Information Studies
> Syracuse University
> +1-315-443-6891office
> +1-315-278-4392 mobile
> >>> suresh at hserus.net 12/11/07 9:32 AM >>>
> Nyangkwe Agien Aaron wrote:
>
> > On Internet connectivity, which is the main problem in my country,
my
> > presence at any IGF will be to look at the means in which the civil
> > society can assist in solving this solution.
>
> You can set up wireless mesh networks, and/or deploy OLPC which does
the
> same thing. Or you can do what Mahabir Pun has done in Nepal to
connect
> yak
> herders in remote villages in Nepal, and for which he deservedly won
the
> Ramon Magsaysay award this year.
>
> That'd be local networking though. Internet access .. fully open to
> ideas on
> what you can do, as CS, to go after, say, the various satellite
> providers
> that provide connectivity to most of Africa.  In several countries,
> that's
> the monopoly incumbent telco, owned and operated by the government in
> that
> country.
>
> That'd not be an international problem, unfortunately. It is an
entirely
> local problem. Which you can probably enlist some international help
to
> resolve, but the solution for which would be entirely local (and, I
> suspect,
> deeply political, in most cases)
>
> Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention is that it quite often is
not
> something that CS will be able to resolve all that easily, by itself.
>
>        srs
>
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-- 
Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
Journalist/Outcome Mapper
Special Assistant To The President
Coach of ASAFE Camaroes Street Football Team.
ASAFE
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon
Tel. 237 3337 50 22
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