Erik Caldwell Johnson says he's a bit puzzled by the US Treasury's querying of multilateral development banks supporting ICT initiatives. I am, too, not least because I didn't think I agreed with Mr O'Neill about much. Presumably O'Neill was referring to the World Bank's Development Gateway, and perhaps other Bank-backed sites such as the new Rapid Response site on privatisation policy issues. The latter site presumably competes with the range of consultants active on privatisation as well as with thintanks, trade unions, NGOs and others who all produce views research on privatisation. And, as has been argued on this list and elsewhere for months, the Gateway is also seen by many as heavily-subsidised competition with existing sites, for example country- or sector-focussed portals. But I also found another interesting example of this unhelpful competition. The latest version of the Gateway prototype has an e-commerce bookstore. This turns out to be run by the Bank's own Infoshop (bookshop). And I did a quick price comparison of one of the books highlighted on the Gateway bookstore index page: Something New Under the Sun. Gateway had it for 15.95 dollars with availability of 2-4 weeks, while Amazon had it for 12.76 dollars with immediate availability. [Figures correct Tuesday PM, UK time]. The Bank has often urged selectivity on its client governments, and I guess O'Neill and other Gateway critics are trying to persuade the Bank that there it does not have comparative advantage in all areas of the internet. Alex Wilks Bretton Woods Project ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** 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.globalknowledge.org>
