Dear Colleagues, Jim Forster argues effectively for e-networking from the corporate perspective of a global leader in the field....notably, he starts with the idea of 'family' extension in communications so crucial, yet so limited (yet) to just a privileged few... but I believe this is likely the vector by which e-comms in general will ultimately survive and succeed....
In one of the early UNDP get-togethers of e-tech people in the 90s (in search of intelligent e-policy) a senior manager of a large German-based international company, discussing thorny questions around personal use of corporate email, indicated she permitted (even encouraged) foreign-based staff to use email to touch base with their families back home, and with their children studying in various countries, both as a good human resources strategy, and to support and build comfort-levels with the new technology....an impressive corporate HR move I thought, but also an indicator of a direction in which e-comms is indeed making a real difference in the lives of all of us, everywhere..... During recent work in Azerbaijan in 2003, I went from Kuba on the Russian border, down to Astara in the south, and was never out of e-communication... internet-cafes were then proliferating (admittedly for those that afford and understand how to use email) but notably at fractions of the US public service connectivity cost, (e.g US$ 0.40 per online hour in a cafe in Baku)... moreover from a quick, very informal survey of available users and providers, it was clear that the predominant use was for personal purposes... friends, family and surfing for entertainment... but it seemed deep into the culture already in a young nation finding its feet uncertainly in an emerging region. Furthermore, this phenomenon is by no means limited to the CIS region. UNDP/EDC initiatives re HIV/AIDS from 1998-2000 in sub-Saharan Africa showed that highly sensitive subjects were astonishingly open to e-comms at both institutional and personal levels. The South-Asian tsunami, and more recently the devastating Kashmiri earthquake have stimulated extensive informal e-traffic worldwide for all kinds of reasons (business, family, humanitarian), and at quite localized levels. It is inconceivable to think any more about international development without reference to e-comms. But huge gaps remain between those who have access and those who do not and are growing daily....raising the kinds of policy questions that should be addressed in WSIS Tunis and beyond...however, basic grass-roots fires have been already kindled amongst the cellular and e-comms tinder, and we should at east initially, as 'developers' provide oxygen, not foam...... John Lawrence ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
