[discuss] Funding for developing economies as an Ig policy issue? was Re:[ ] Time to be ...

[Dr. Ben Fuller]

All,

A quick search on the World Bank website for "ICT in developing economies" generates over 2600 results. We could go to the IMF, OECD, etc., and probably find similar results. Clearly, a lot of good economists and development specialists have thought about this matter for some time. These are agencies that promote entrepreneurship among other things. So, before going off the reinvent the wheel, there needs to be a lot of people in the area if Internet Governance sitting down to do a lot of reading and synthesising of work that already exists.

Ben



On Jan 7, 2014, at 11:38 AM, Mawaki Chango <kichango at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 8:53 AM, Nick Ashton-Hart <nashton at ccianet.org> wrote:
> I would add that beyond their participation in meetings I’m particularly interested in how they get the benefits of actually being connected.
> 
> So am I. To my recollection a (preliminary) study came out during the WCIT process in December 2012 on the topic of the economic impact of the internet in Africa. As I recall, it seemed to me hastily put together probably triggered by that window of opportunity and for the purposes of political campaign. A few months ago I came across some ad by the Economic Commission for Africa searching for a consultant to research about the same topic. I'm not sure where they are at, but would be interested in the outcome and any follow-up recommendations.
> 
> I would have a word of caution about the idea that ICANN should partner with existing organizations working on development issues in the concerned regions --not that I think such partnership wouldn't be a good thing to do. Provided it is not intended to do what those organizations are already working on, but to closely focus Internet-related (and maybe even Internet-native) issues. I would rather see any such funding go to research and to promoting Internet-based entrepreneurship (including providing funding support to start-ups in ways that fill the gap left by the lack of venture and angel capitalists in these regions, but also complement the typical approach of the angel capital market with, say, a higher level of tolerance for experimentation given the relative level of uncertainty in our market mechanisms.) In any case we still need some serious research and evidence to clearly see (through) what we are or are supposed to be celebrating.
> 
> Mawaki      
> 
>  
> It seems to me that objective is also not being realised - note the recent ITU statistics that the 40 countries who are doing the least-well on ICT usage and adoption and the 25% of the world population who live in them are falling behind vis a vis the digital divide, not catching up.
> 
> On 6 Jan 2014, at 18:17, Louis Pouzin (well) <pouzin at well.com> wrote:
> 
>> Helping financially Less Developed Countries (LDC) has been a recurring topic since early WSIS meetings. However governments and well funded institutions have heroically snowed all debates initiated on the subject.
>> 
>> I published a few times an article,
>> FINANCING LDCs IN THE WSIS PROCESS
>> 
>> http://www.open-root.eu/about-open-root/news/financing-ldcs-in-the-wsis-process
>> 
>> A french version is available at http://www.eurolinc.eu/spip.php?article76
>> 
>> Good luck LDCs
>> 
>> Louis
>> - - -
>> 
>> On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 11:19 PM, Michel Gauthier <mg at telepresse.com> wrote:
>> Dear Steve,
>> 
>> Is this really decent to talk of $100MM for the management of a small Excell table?
>> Just because a lawyer and a few politcians managed a monopolistic scarcity instead of an open global competition?
>> There are billions of people around the world who are identified by their name and forename. Without paying a tax to a costly ASCII non-profit for that. What is the ICANN proposition to change that? Free life domain names for every non-commercial person? Non-profit gTLD? ICANN ICP-3 multi-root competition?
>> 
>> MG
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
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____________________
Dr. Ben Fuller, Dean
Faculty of Humanities, HIV and AIDS and Sustainable Development
International University of Managment
Windhoek, Namibia
bfuller at ium.edu.na, ben at fuller.na
http://www.ium.edu.na, http://www.fuller.na
skype: drbenfuller