[governance] Cost of access - the meters ticking

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

I would say, monsieur, that a large number of people who qualify as
"technical community" (persons and organizations both) are quite active in
ict4d issues as well?

* RIRs doing capacity building and training sessions for ISPs and network
administrators

* Several organizations such as UOregon's NSRC and PCH that provide
computing resources and connectivity to disadvantaged areas.

For example, last year's winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award, Mahabir Pun,
who works to provide connectivity to mountainous and far flung areas of
rural Nepal, was a very popular speaker at a recent SANOG meeting, and
several people and organizations from the technical community combined to
provide assistance in equipment and expertise to help him achieve his goals.

Traditional civil society groups - even those engaged to a large extent in
ICT4D, may not have adequate capacity in these issues, as you have correctly
observed, without active involvement of the technical community .. which, it
is a pity, gets disparaged to such a large extent by the same people who
would benefit most from it.

	Srs


> -----Original Message-----
> From: jlfullsack [mailto:jlfullsack at wanadoo.fr]
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 3:06 PM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Parminder; 'Suresh Ramasubramanian';
> 'Babatope Soremi'
> Cc: 'Abi'
> Subject: Re: [governance] Cost of access - the meters ticking
> 
> Dear Parminder
> 
> I fully support your opinion on Internet for development/developing
> countries being one issue among others of Internet governance. This was
> also
> expressed in a lot of CS statements all along the second phase of WSIS.
> Therefore I also fully agree your statement that experts in development
> should be members of the MAG as to complement the experts in the
> technology
> domain. Moreover, there may be some CS people -mainly from NGOs that
> are
> active in the ICT/Internet domain in DCs and partnering with their
> local/national equivalents- who are are best aware of the cross-cutting
> issues, and should be therefore encouraged for representing the CS in
> such a
> body.
> Conversely, only a strong presence of 'developing experts' in this body
> will
> be able to balance the 'technology experts' (and the private sector
> representatives) in its ruling and decison taking process.
> Btw : The Action Lines facilitating meetings held in Geneva during one
> week
> in may, have shown (particularly on LA C2-4-6) a big lack in both
> domains -development and technology- of most of the participants, even
> of
> some on the platform. If we want the most important of the WSIS goals
> be
> achieved and the CS priority on development be respected, such
> situations
> both in IGF and in the Post-WSIS process must be cleared as soon as
> possible.
> Friendly yours
> 
> Jean-Louis Fullsack
> CSDPTT
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Parminder" <parminder at itforchange.net>
> To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>; "'Suresh Ramasubramanian'"
> <suresh at hserus.net>; "'Babatope Soremi'" <babatope at gmail.com>
> Cc: "'Abi'" <abi.jagun at gmail.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 7:18 PM
> Subject: RE: [governance] Cost of access - the meters ticking
> 
> 
> >
> >> That is a governance issue of direct and immediate consequence to
> the
> >> general public.
> >>
> >> * Last mile unbundling
> >>
> >> * Monopoly internet service and its pitfalls
> >>
> >> * Regulators who favor the government owned telco over private
> players
> >>
> >> * Monopoly suppliers of international bandwidth who fleece local
> ISPs
> >>    (how many satellites or cables would the typical LDC have access
> to)
> >>
> >> * Local ISPs who need capacity building to use their existing
> resources
> >>    (And who dont trust each other enough to peer at an exchange
> point)
> >>
> >> I do wish these got raised as well here, besides all the interesting
> (and
> >> depressingly familiar) discussions about ICANN and the RIRs.
> >>
> >
> > It is quite interesting that the same set of people (I am not
> referring to
> > any specific person here) who have claimed that IGF should not focus,
> > actually not even discuss ICANN/ RIR issues (the debates on this
> issue
> > last
> > year) since these are not real IG issues, and claim that ICTs/
> Internet
> > for
> > development is the real governance issue for IGF, want a lot of
> people
> > from
> > the ICANN/ RIR in IGF's MAG.
> >
> > If these are not real governance and IGF issues, why do we need these
> > people
> > on the MAG and in IGF at all.
> >
> > And if Internet for development is the real governance issue do we
> not
> > need
> > more 'development' experts in the MAG. That's the real 'technical'
> > expertise
> > we should be trying to get into MAG, right.
> >
> > I must clarify that I do think that ICANN/ RIR issues are real
> governance
> > and IGF issues, and therefore we must have ICANN/RIR etc people in
> the
> > MAG.
> > I am only pointing to what to me appears a strange paradox.
> >
> > Parminder
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Suresh Ramasubramanian [mailto:suresh at hserus.net]
> >> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 8:25 PM
> >> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Babatope Soremi
> >> Cc: Abi
> >> Subject: Re: [governance] Cost of access - the meters ticking
> >>
> >> That is a governance issue of direct and immediate consequence to
> the
> >> general public.
> >>
> >> * Last mile unbundling
> >>
> >> * Monopoly internet service and its pitfalls
> >>
> >> * Regulators who favor the government owned telco over private
> players
> >>
> >> * Monopoly suppliers of international bandwidth who fleece local
> ISPs
> >>    (how many satellites or cables would the typical LDC have access
> to)
> >>
> >> * Local ISPs who need capacity building to use their existing
> resources
> >>    (And who dont trust each other enough to peer at an exchange
> point)
> >>
> >> I do wish these got raised as well here, besides all the interesting
> (and
> >> depressingly familiar) discussions about ICANN and the RIRs.
> >>
> >> I do know various people are proposing workshops about these at the
> IGF.
> >> And these are issues that CS should get involved in, at an
> international
> >> level.  At least the RIRs do capacity building, groups like PCH help
> >> local
> >> ISPs set up internet exchange points .. some real work gets done.
> >>
> >> suresh
> >>
> >> Babatope Soremi [04/06/08 15:01 +0100]:
> >> >Hi all,
> >> >
> >> >Its not just the cost of access that is prohibitive but poor
> quality of
> >> >service with no proper mechanism to deal with erring service
> provider.
> >> >
> >> >An example is the mobile telephony industry in Nigeria where
> quality of
> >> >service has failed to *significantly improve *and subscribers have
> no
> >> >effective outlet to address this.
> >> >
> >> >Best Regards,
> >> ____________________________________________________________
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> >
> > ____________________________________________________________
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> >
> 
> 
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