[governance] Internet for All ... this time from the UK

[Guru]

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.

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.

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.

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'.

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.

Guru


Roland Perry wrote:
> In message <C5C6560F9A524F4B826F15C29FBD7418 at userPC>, at 08:34:35 on 
> Sun, 1 Feb 2009, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> writes
>> What I think needs to be added to Parminder's comments though is that 
>> the
>> simple provision of Broadband access is quite insufficient without the
>> parallel and associated investment in socially directed training, 
>> enabling
>> of locally accessible technical maintenance and support and community
>> focussed applications development (as for example in the area of health
>> management, support for local education and locally based training,
>> environmental management and so on... In the absence of these 
>> investments in
>> Broadband "access" are simply gifts to the telcos or other service
>> providers.
>
> 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.
-- 
Gurumurthy Kasinathan
IT for Change
Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities
Tel:98454 37730
www.ITforChange.net
http://Public-Software.in
http://India.IS-Watch.net 
http://IS-Watch.net
http://content-commons.in
*IT for Change is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with United Nations' Economic and Social Council*

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