> As many know, the Economist printed a nice summary on the idea that > the phone out ranks the computer for economiic development.
Rather than "nice" this was a horribly reductive, anecdotal summary of ICTs and economic development - and indeed, yet another Economist call for privatisation and market based approaches when these have been shown to not always work. Even the World Bank acknowledges that regulation is necessary to address market failure. Mobile service providers are not particularly interested in providing expensive coverage to poor, rural regions. Sure, mobile phones are great - as the article and others have documented. But more robust infrastructure is necessary for future development of the network. Why should the possibility of participation in the information society be precluded unnecessarily? There are many other new and emerging technologies which can be used - and many of these provide access to a more rich range of services (including telephony). The article doesn't consider these. The article did mention the effectiveness of mixing old and new technologies (eg ICTs and radio) and this is more to the point given scarce resources and limited human capital development. The author notes that the digital divide is a symptom of other more deeper divides. Yes, and this is why it is so important to consider development strategies across the broadest contexts possible - rather than focus on one particular technology for all. Also, the article's reference to the United Nations support for the Digital Solidarity Fund is incorrect. The DSF is not formally supported by the UN - but was "welcomed" by the participating governments at WSIS. The fund is fully voluntary - and mechanisms for running it have yet to be determined. We shall see. End of rant. -- Amy Mahan <www.lirne.net> <www.regulateonline.org> _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
