DIGITAL DIVIDE
Philippine Economic Plan Tackles Digital Divide (WP)
FCC's Powell Wants African Digital Development, Not
'Divide'(Newsbytes)
Create the 'Digital Dividend'(CSM)
Schools Online Launches India Operations (WP)
INTERNET & SOCIETY
Report: Internet Not a Threat to Repressive States (SJM)
Online 'Teenangels' Protect Peers (CNN)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
PHILIPPINE ECONOMIC PLAN TACKLES DIGITAL DIVIDE
Issue: Digital Divide
Proving her administration is serious about using information and
communications technology to eliminate poverty, Philippine President
Macapagal-Arroyo has allotted an entire chapter of her economic agenda to
bridging the so-called digital divide. According to Socioeconomic Planning
Secretary Dante Canlas, the whole chapter 10 of the Medium Term Philippine
Development Plan (MTPDP) 2001-2004 has information and communications
technology as the main instrument to combat poverty. "In the medium term,
the government is committed to address the digitally disenfranchised, those
who do not have access to computers. It will also address continuing
disparities in access to high-quality technologies," Canlas stated. To
ensure efficient and affordable electronic communications and access, Canlas
said an inter- and intra-government broadband network should be established
within the next 6-18 months. The network, he explained, will also link up
the various ISPs in the country, thereby establishing a single electronic
network for the entire country involving the government, industry, and the
public.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Melvin G Calimag]
(http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168109.html)
FCC'S POWELL WANTS AFRICAN DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT, NOT 'DIVIDE'
Issue: Digital Divide
Speaking at the Tenth African Telecommunications and Information Technology
Conference (AFCOM 2001), Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman
Michael Powell said that Africa is experiencing growth in information and
communications technology but needs more international and U.S. aid to its
more impoverished nations. Powell encouraged those working to close the
technology gap between Africa and much of the rest of the world to think of
it as "digital development" and not a "digital divide." The term "digital
divide," he said, provides us with awareness of "a complex reality. However,
it is less useful in helping us to find answers, and may not fully capture
the breadth of our challenge." Five million Africans use the Internet so
far, cited Powell, 100 percent more than in 2000, and apart from South
Africa, the growth rate on the African continent is 126 percent with all
countries now online. By focusing on implementing effective strategies
instead of technologies, Powell said, Africa can develop through
infrastructure building and improvement, promoting competition, lowering
risks for investment, and defending intellectual capital.
[SOURCE: Newsbytes, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
(http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168088.html)
CREATE THE 'DIGITAL DIVIDEND'
Issue: Digital Divide
[Editorial] In an editorial published by Christian Science Monitor, Stuart
N. Brotman calls on the Bush administration to take advantage of the world
leaders' economic summit in Genoa Italy this weekend to widen the scope of
the discourse on the "digital divide." Brotman writes: "What's needed is a
consensus on the private sector's vital role in ensuring that digital
technologies spread as much as possible throughout the world....President
Bush should focus attention on how joint public-private initiatives can
create a 'digital dividend' - the profound gains that both business and the
broader community will realize when digital networks reach their fullest
potential."
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Stuart N. Brotman]
(http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/07/20/fp11s2-csm.shtml)
SCHOOLS ONLINE LAUNCHES INDIA OPERATIONS
Issue: EdTech
Schools Online (SOL), a U.S.-based philanthropic organization, has launched
its Indian operation with support from Nortel Networks.
SOL aims to ensure that marginalized and under-served schools worldwide have
access to learning tools that use information and communication
technologies. The organization plans to set up Internet learning centers
(ILCs) in 60 schools in India. Schools Online is a non-profit corporation
that works to build sustainable programs to effectively schools to the
Internet.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: CT Mahabharat]
(http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168090.html)
INTERNET & SOCIETY
REPORT: INTERNET NOT A THREAT TO REPRESSIVE STATES
Issue: Freedom of Speech
Contrary to popular belief that the more people have access to information
then the more they are free to communicate, models adopted by China and Cuba
demonstrate to other authoritarian governments that it's possible to cripple
freedom of speech within national borders even over the World Wide Web. This
was the conclusion in the report "The Internet and State Control in
Authoritarian Regimes: China, Cuba, and the Counterrevolution" released
Tuesday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ``Far from
hastening its own demise by allowing the Internet to penetrate its borders,
an authoritarian state can actually utilize the Internet to its own benefit
and increase its stability by engaging with the technology," said report
authors Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas. The report found that China has
adopted a strategy of encouraging its citizens to use the Internet, where
between 17 and 22.5 million Chinese citizens are online, while blocking
subversive Web sites and chat room comments and heavily monitoring what
people say and do online. Cuba, on the other hand, has restricted access to
the Internet by universities and other institutions, where only 60,000 Cuban
citizens have e-mail addresses and only a few thousand computers are on the
Internet. ``Taken together, the cases of China and Cuba should illustrate
that the diffusion of the Internet does not necessarily spell the demise of
authoritarian rule,'' the report found.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/016005.htm)
ONLINE 'TEENANGELS' PROTECT PEERS
Issue: Internet & Society
A growing group of young volunteers, know as Teenangels, are working to
teach their online peers to be more Web savvy and avoid criminals. Several
years ago, Parry Aftab, a New York lawyer who specializes in security and
privacy law, started an organization called Cyberangels.org to train adult
volunteers to do everything from field questions about Web harassment to
monitor chat rooms for inappropriate online advances. For the past two
years, Aftab's organization has been training teens as well as adults. She
says that the Teenangels are "a great way to teach kids who don't listen to
adults as much as they listen to other kids." Besides, Aftab adds, young
people often know more about the Internet than adults.
[SOURCE: CNN, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://fyi.cnn.com/2001/fyi/teachers.ednews/07/19/online.angels.ap/index.ht
ml)
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