World leaders find difficulties in bridging "digital divide"
Geneva (AsiaNews) Around 12,000 international leaders have gathered in Geneva from Dec.10-12 for the first-ever UN sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The summit's purpose has been to discuss how to bridge the "digital divide" still existing between rich and poor nations of the world.
In helping to bridge the "digital divide", WSIS delegates seek to articulate a general "action plan" to overcome the inequality existing between wealthy nations having widespread, inexpensive access to the internet and poorer nations which do not. In the case of poor nations, citizens are believed to be held short from participating in global internet communications on politics, culture and religion.
The gap in internet access is generally linked to two factors: the high cost of technical equipment to poor countries; and the opposition of government ideology to ordinary citizen access to controversial material published on the internet.
A general action plan has been unanimously accepted by all participating delegates, with the hope of implementing by 2015 the following goals:
1) Finance and supply all the world's towns and villages with community access points;
2) Finance and connect all educational and public institutions with web service, including universities, schools, research centres, museums, hospitals, post-offices and governmental agencies;
3) Encourage schools to incorporate new courses to educate students about the web and other information technology;
4) Facilitate the use of all world languages on the internet;
5) Develop and protect published web content and internet sites.
When proposing various concrete ways to achieve the goals, there have been clear signs of indecision and disagreement among the summit's participants.
One of the most contested issues was how to finance the .8 billion cost involved in connecting all towns, villages and public buildings currently without internet access.
To this effect a "digital solidarity fund", as proposed by Senegal's president, is being studied. It was suggested that 1 dollar from every computer, software package and piece of network equipment sold around the world be sent to the world's poorest developing nations. Other suggestions included raising money by taxing international phone calls and commercial use of radio transmission.
Influenced by the negative reactions received from wealthy first world countries (e.g. United States, Canada and Europe) in opposition to such common financing, WSIS delegates voted to table discussion until the next summit scheduled for Tunisia in 2005 and ordered a special panel to research alternative proposals.
Also of special interest to delegates from developing countries has been the cost advantage of inexpensive software to poor nations. Linux, a free "share-ware" operating system, has gained widespread popularity among poor countries as a cost effective alternative to Microsoft Windows, which entails expensive licenses and updates. Already, for example, it was shown that in Brazil a public agency, E-Government, was set up to supply the country's poorest districts with internet service. It established over 100 free internet cafes using the Linux Operating System, adhering already to part 1 of the WSIC action plan.
Other chief issues discussed regarding the action plan included eliminating the language barrier existing when reading and understanding web literature. Since most electronic publishing on the internet (70%) is in English, it was said many citizens of developing countries, who struggle to comprehend even their own native tongues, find such material incomprehensible.
Delegates from Africa said web publishing in native languages is, thus, directly linked to concerns for increased access to educational literature on international daily events, ideas and social, political and religious commentary. Speaking at a conference, U.N. secretary general, Kofi Annan, said the overuse of English is "crowding out" the internet's minority voices and users.
On this same note, pro-internet delegates at the summit encouraged the expansion of school curricula in developing countries. Courses would include material on how to use web sites and services as well as general training in computer use and networking.
Another controversial issue at the summit was related to point 5 of the action plan: management and control over creating web sites and search criteria. Currently, any new web site must be christened with an address and a searchable name by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a U.S. semi-private company based in the state of California. Control over distribution of web addresses and names is, thus, crucial to web publishing entities seeking to be easily found by reliable search engines like Google.
Many second and third world countries are eager to debate what international organization or organizations should ultimately create a web site name and addresses.
In dictatorial, atheist and fundamentalist countries, where censorship of political and religious web content is rigid (e.g. in Zimbabwe, China Egypt and Iran), government authorities are eager to exhibit control over such administration.
Meanwhile, at the summit, the United Nations has proposed its own a-political communications agency, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as an alternative body. Further discussion of this issue, like that of the third world financing proposals, was also voted to be tabled until 2005. (MS)
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