[governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR

[Daniel Kalchev]

On Jan 7, 2012, at 11:46 AM, Narine Khachatryan wrote:

> Dear all, 
> 
> 
> 
> I fully support the opinion of Divina Frau-Meigs. There are a number of researches saying that the spread of ICTs results in increased inequalities in the societies and new forms of inequalities, since only people able to gain from the new opportunities benefit from Internet and ICTs. 
> 

Imagine, that due to something (lets call it mutation) small part of the humans obtain the ability to communicate with each other, at any distance without any external (to their body/mind) tools. In essence, these humans will have no use of 'Internet'. Now, the rest of the 'society' will be hugely disadvantaged. How bad is this?

It will be very bad, for those wishing to control them, for they will be using a 'private' medium, one that is not offered as an external service.

Even today, there are individuals that are better at certain things, than others. It has been so ever since human society exist.

The concept of 'human rights' is here because not everybody is equal. It is here, because some human beings ARE 'better' than others (at the same time, others might be better than those in a different scope).

> One of the arguments is that law-income countries often have scarce resources for investment, if those investments are directed to ICTs, basic needs still may not be addressed. I put a link to a research paper by Mansell (LSE), who demonstrates, that ICTs can bring ‘destabilizing effects on the economies’ of poor countries. 
> 

This is not because of investment in ICT, but because of how this investment is made.


> The question is how these ICTs are introduced in developing countries, having, for instance, less than 1 per cent of broadband penetration and less than 4 per cent of Internet users.  

Everything has a price. If you want to 'very quickly become as good as that one' and the gap is wide, you need to pay more (in whatever resources). With regards to broadband penetration, the key is to find the balance -- available resources, user needs, local content etc. History (in other countries) shows that a good balance can result in extremely fast closing of the gap and generally better Internet (broadband) penetration than that of 'developed' countries.

> 
> ICTs are recognized as tools fostering inclusion in the society on one hand, and promoting greater participation of people in decision-making processes, on the other hand. However, being tools of empowerment, in authoritarian regimes ICTs can be turned into instruments of censorship, surveillance and oppression.  
> 
>  
> Access to ICTs means increased access to information and knowledge, but it does not necessarily mean that people who receive the access will use, process and multiply the knowledge.
> 
> 

Yes. Internet does not develop by mandate. Internet, and the associated knowledge is one of these things that grows by itself. It is very wrong to push it. You just need to create adequate environment and these things will happen "by miracle".

> 
> Developing countries often have very poor local content, Internet resources consumed by people are mostly of external origin and mainly serve entertainment purposes.  And the divide is growing not only because the access to ICTs are unequal, but mainly because the ability to process information become unequal (critical thinking skills and the ability to create own content). 
> 
> 

I have not observed, that people in 'less developed' countries are less able to process information. My observation is exactly the opposite.



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