Social Justice in an Internet-mediated World
(For a complete set of all podcasts from the course, please click here )
(For a complete set of all podcasts from the course, please click here )
The UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has spawned similar initiatives in many countries and regions. However there has been concerns whether some of them merely legitimate corporate lobbying, making it more respectable and institutionalised now. In this context, it is important that IGF like institutions are carefully nurtured, from within the values and percepts of democracy, and not as something that subverts democracy.
Dear Google; Yes, the world indeed needs an open Internet, for which reason it is rather awful to note that you, meaning, Google;
1) Sold the entire net neutrality campaign down the drain in the US, by first assuming its leadership and then entering into a self-serving agreement with Verizon, whereby the main means of accessing the Internet in the future - mobiles - are exempted from net neutrality provisions.
We see four sets of issues that are most important in terms of the forthcoming ITU meeting, World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT), which will revisit the International Telecommunication Regulations. These are as follows:
1. State control over Internet routing system
On April 28, 2012, I attended a meeting organised by CIVIC Bengaluru on 'An analysis of proactive disclosures of seven departments or service agencies under Section 4(1) of the Right to Information Act 2005'. The meeting was called to disseminate the findings of a research study which CIVIC Bengaluru had funded.
The Gender and Citizenship in the Information Society (CITIGEN) research programme, launched in 2010, aimed to explore the notion of marginalised women's citizenship as a normative project or an aspiration for equitable social membership contained in the promise of an emerging techno-social order. Six research partners from Sri Lanka, Philippines, China, Hong Kong / Taiwan, India and Bangladesh studied various aspects of the terrain.
I was travelling from Chitradurga to Davengere, while at the same time, my colleagues Krittika, Ranjani, Rakesh and Guru were covering Koppala, Yadgir, Dharwar, Mysore, Bidar, Belgaum and Gulbarga. As I later rushed to Tumkur, I was also monitoring news from Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu. I began to feel like I was in a press room reporting 'Breaking News', with Shariff anchoring the programme in Bengaluru. But, this is not breaking news.
This is a response to Vinton G. Cerf's article on 'Internet Access is Not a Human Right'
Two (very different) kinds of people have opposed terming access to the Internet as a human right. One category is of technology/ Internet-enthusiasts who otherwise argue so much about how the Internet has fundamentally transformed the world and so on. The other kind are among those who work with issues of development and poverty and find it a bit far-fetched to speak of the Internet as a right given the present socio-economic scenario they witness around them. It is very important to see that the 'objections' of these two groups are of a very different nature.