The Unpredictable Certainty White Papers (1997) / Chapter Skim
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How Do Traditional Legal, Commercial, Social, and Political Structures, When Confronted with a New Service, React and Interact?
How Do Traditional Legal, Commercial, Social, and Political Structures, When Confronted with a New Service, React and Interact?
Pages 190-200
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From page 190... ...
As new services like the Internet travel to countries where government intervention in the market is strong, and where He telecommunications industry remains a state-owned monopoly, these countries evil seek to define the Internet In traditional terms. The detenn~nation to construct a national information infias~ucture ~0 by imposing standards, reserving service transmission for a monopoly provider, and controlling content reflects a complete misunderstanding of the Tnternet model.
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From page 191... ...
Governments are whiling to maintain inefficient SOEs for fear of antagonizing powerful stakeholders, who are also political constituents. TOs in many countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America have clearly attracted strong groups of stakeholders, including labor unions, equipment suppliers, and the government agencies that direct the TO.
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From page 192... ...
The old system includes not only the state enterprises themselves, but also the entire system of standards setting (including supranational institutions like the International Telecommunications Union) , a pnc~ng structure distorted by political considerations, a national body of law Hat regulates areas including intellectual properly and pornography, and even the national security of certain countnes.
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From page 193... ...
About ~ million users are joining the Internet every month worIdw~de.4 Governments across the world have identified international networking as critical to their national competitiveness, although few seem to actually have considered the subversive role of the Internet In undenn~n~ng traditional political, commercial, and social structures. Political Issues As Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista rebellion in the Chiapas region of Mexico, explained '~What governments should realIv fear is a communications exDert."s Thou kh traditional communications outlets such as radio and television are cen~'zed and often controlled by He government, the Internet remains decentralized, diffuse, and nearly Impossible to police.
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From page 194... ...
In addition, the dominance of English on the international Internet provokes charges of"linguistic imperialism" that might "weaken indigenous languages and colonize the minds of the Asians."9 Nevertheless, within east Asia only Laos and Burma currently remain without any form of Internet access. Hong Kong Although Hong Kong's Supernet is the oldest and main provider of access lines on the territory, eight other access providers have appeared since late 1994.
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From page 195... ...
To accomplish the Golden Projects, the Chinese government has called for overall planning, joint constn~ction, unified standards, and a combination of public and special information networks.~3 China wall concentrate its investment In three main areas: digital switching equipment, fiber optic cable networks, and expanding the mobile phone networks.~4 The Chinese M~n~stry of Electronics Industry assigned the Golden Bndge project to Ji Tong Communications Company, which wall construct a nationwide information network using satellites and fiber optic cables. Although many major cities have already built local data networks, the Golden Bndge wall ultimately link 500 cities and more Han 12,000 information sources, including large ente~pnses, institutions, and government offices.
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From page 196... ...
Economicinformation Daily pointed out that 90 percent of the 100,000 electronic mailboxes import from the United States In 1992 remain ice. Essentially, the premise of the Golden Bridge remains questionable within a regime whose attitude toward information is ambivalent at best, and where institutional jealousies regarding data prevent its diffusion even among government offices.
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From page 197... ...
The initial phase of He projects is centered in Nairobi and is based on a combined LAN and X.25 solution. Ethernet LANs provide connectivity between users in major sites, whereas users across broader regions will apply more flexible solutions appropriate to local user requirements and available services and technologies.25 By employing solutions that match local needs and ir~astructure, both the OBRN project and the SADC Early Warning system demonstrate that online connectivity is possible and highly useful even in regions that have missed the traditional route to telecommunications development.
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From page 198... ...
As mentioned in the "Regional Studies" section above, open a country Will act as a local leader within a region, such as Singapore In Southeast Asia, Costa Rica In Central America, or South Africa in southern Africa. As demand and experience increase, the connections may evolve from Fidonet to WCP to .32 Obstacles to the International Internet Despite the clear intention of the industrialized world to foster the building of national backbones, and the gradual diffusion of connectivity in many developing countries, the traditional TO structure, as well as the resulting legal and commercial models this structure fosters, remains a serious obstacle to a truly international Internet.
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From page 199... ...
Although this structure has been seriously undennined In the United States, the European Union, and parts of Asia, it remains strong elsewhere. CONCLUSION Ideally, an international network like the Internet should provide a protocol that is easily adapted to a wide variety of infrastructure development stages, and offer services that can be tailored to respect the cultural, legal, and regulatory norms of every country.
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From page 200... ...
1995. "Latin American Telecom Remains in State of Flux," Network World, March 13, p.37.
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