[afren] Fwd: Fw: The real and looming digital divide

Sat May 24 09:31:51 UTC 2008

Dear all,
the issues raised are very serious and we from developing countries need
to look at them and debate on the way forward.
kondoro
>
> Alex thanks for this good food for thought. I strongly believe we need to
> keep emphasising the need for REN in this part of the world
>
> Ebi
>
>
> Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 11:00:42 +0000From: barry at aau.orgTo:
> afren at afnog.orgSubject: [afren] Fwd: Fw: The real and looming digital
> divide
> Some interesting thoughts from Alex Twino.
> B.
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Alex Twino
> <atwino at yahoo.com>Date: Fri, May 23, 2008 at 10:50 AMSubject: Fw: The real
> and looming digital divideTo: Boubakar Barry <barry at aau.org>
>
>
> Hi Barry,I hope you are doing well. I tried sending this message through
> to Afren but it didnt come through for some reason. Did you get it? If
> not, you might want to send it out to interested colleagues. If it did
> come through, you can just ignore this message.regards,Alex
> ----- Forwarded Message ----From: Alex Twino <atwino at yahoo.com>To:
> afren at afnog.orgSent: Friday, May 16, 2008 8:31:12 AMSubject: The real and
> looming digital divide
>
>
> Hello colleagues,
>
> I want to share my thoughts on two issues that could spell doom for the
> Internet in developing countries and especially Africa : Geolocation and
> Net Neutrality. While these technologies could be beneficial, they also
> pose some dangers more so to the less developed world.
>
> Geolocation refers to the identification of a user's geographical location
> typically by IP address. While geolocation has some important applications
> such as the ability to offer localized content and targeted advertisement,
> it also has some privacy issues as well as some limitation of freedom
> issues. With geolocation, companies and governments can block access to
> content and applications based on the users' geographical location. I am
> already a victim of geolocation- I have found that I can not conduct some
> transactions online (using my credit card) depending on whether I am
> connecting from Africa or from Europe/USA. It seems some companies are
> refusing to verify my credit card if the IP address from which I am
> accessing the website is not in the same geographical area as my credit
> card billing address or the address in the bank's records. While this
> could protect my credit card in the event of theft, it is actually stupid
> when you think about it. Any crook worth his salt will simply use my
> credit card from the "right location". And it is generally a very big
> inconvenience to me given that I am constantly on the move. But even this
> inconvenience is small potatoes given what the wider implications are. It
> is not alarmist to consider that some people (most likely from developing
> countries) could be completely cut off from some content and applications
> on the Internet simply because they are from the "wrong region". While the
> digital divide has been an issue of access or the lack thereof- focused on
> simply getting a connection, the issue will soon become one of restricted
> access to content.
>
> As I write this, I muse about some of the reasons the Internet is
> glorified- it makes the world one global virtual village. I don't need a
> "visa" to participate in this global village or to visit San Francisco or
> Peking- I can do all this virtually. If we are not carefully, we will soon
> wake up to a world where we need virtual visas to visit and participate in
> the global virtual village just as we need visas to physically visit the
> some countries.  Forget the current digital divide- say hello to the real
> and looming digital divide. If you think this is fantasy, consider the
> other technology that is about to reinforce this digital divide: net
> neutrality.
>
> Net neutrality refers to the open and free nature of the Internet: that
> users once connected to the Internet should be free to choose what content
> and applications they view or interact with. At the heart of this debate
> is the issue that telecom carriers would like to discriminate against
> certain traffic or prioritize certain traffic on their networks. Of
> course, it is easy to see that the telecom companies seek to make money
> from some of the most successful content companies like Amazon and Google.
> Why should this be a big issue for developing countries? Well, it is a big
> issue because most of the content and applications on the Internet are
> hosted in the more developed world. If certain traffic on the Internet is
> discriminated, then it is easy to imagine that part of the discriminated
> traffic will be that of people who are not direct customers of the western
> world telecom companies. In other words, a US based telecom company would
> provide priority for traffic from users and companies who pay it directly.
>  Suddenly, users in the developing world would have to pay for physical
> connection as well as an extra premium depending on which content/
> applications they would wish to view. Billing might become distance
> dependant, just like phone calls were in the bad old days! Even more
> important, entrepreneurs in developing countries who create their own
> content and applications would have a harder time making this content
> available to a global audience.
>
> Combine geolocation and a discriminated Internet and you can see who the
> real losers i.e. those discriminated against, will be. The developing
> world must therefore be attuned to this looming danger. And the academic
> and research community will be a real loser if all this comes to pass. It
> becomes imperative that the academic and research community takes the lead
> in educating their governments about the dangers posed by the issues of
> net neutrality and geolocation. Developing countries need to double or
> triple their efforts to build their own national and regional networks and
> to create their own content. We should reduce our dependence on content
> and applications from the more developed world and seek to become an equal
> player in the global village. I personally believe that local, national
> and regional bandwidth is more important for the advancement of developing
> countries than International bandwidth is (a controversial stand that has
> generated interesting debate with some of you). International bandwidth is
> still important to connect and participate in the global village but
> emphasis should not solely lie on international connectivity as, among
> other things, this will simply reinforce the current situation where
> developing countries are net importers of data (and therefore more prone
> to discrimination on the Internet).
>
> It also becomes imperative that the academic and research community in the
> developing countries build their research and education networks and
> connect these to the other global research and educations networks  and
> reduce their dependency on the commercial Internet for education and
> research.  Indeed while these new technologies pose a threat to the
> developing world, they should also be a trigger for developing countries
> to take more concrete action in developing their own infrastructure. And
> the REN community must make this case.
>
>
> I hope that at the next few conferences and workshops (Afrinic and Afnog
> come to mind), we can begin to discuss the implications of new
> technologies and tools that could potential
>
> Best regards,
>
> Alex
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