Title: The Indian web and mobile markets by the numbers
Author: Katie Fehrenbacher
Source: GigaOM
Date (published): 14/12/2011
Date (accessed): 15/12/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Sometimes it’s just easier to get a high-level picture of a market if you look directly at the numbers. Google India Managing Director Rajan Anandan gave a fascinating talk to our Geeks on a Plane India group this week, giving us a snap shot of the data that is driving the consumers, entrepreneurs, trends and investors in the rapidly growing Indian web and mobile markets.

Anandan says: “We’re probably in 1996 in the U.S. in terms of the Internet market in India.” Here’s the stats from Anandan’s deck. India has:
..."

Title: Global Information Society Watch 2011 : Internet rights and democratisation : Focus on freedom of expression and association online
Editor: Alan Finlay
Pages: 267 pp.
ISBN: 978-92-95096-14-1
ISSN: 2225-4625
Source: Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch)
Publisher: Association for Progressive Communications (APC) / Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos)
Date (published): 06/12/2011
Date (accessed): 11/12/2011
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"…Unlike any other medium, the internet enables individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds instantaneously and inexpensively across national borders. Unlike any other technological development, it has created an interactive form of communication, which not only allows you to send information in one direction, but also to send information in many directions and receive an immediate response. The internet vastly increases the capacity of individuals to enjoy their right to freedom of opinion and expression, including access to information, which facilitates the exercise of other human rights, such as the right to education and research, the right to freedom of association and assembly, and the right to development and to protect the environment. The internet boosts economic, social and political development, and contributes to the progress of humankind as a whole; but it is especially an instrument that strengthens democracy by facilitating citizen participation and transparency. The internet is a “plaza pública” – a public place where we can all participate.

The past year has been a difficult time globally: whether the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan, unsteady global markets, post-election riots in Nigeria, civil war in Libya and a military clampdown in Syria. But there have been positive, and equally challenging, developments in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt. Throughout the year people around the world have increasingly used the internet to build support for human rights and social movements. This edition of Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) offers timely commentary on the future of the internet as an open and shared platform that everyone has the right to access – to access content and to have access to connectivity and infrastructure.

Through the lens of freedom of expression, freedom of association and democracy, the thematic reports included here go to the heart of the debates that will shape the future of the internet and its impact on human rights. They offer, amongst other things, an analysis of how human rights is framed in the context of the internet, the progressive use of criminal law to intimidate or censor the use of the internet, the difficult role of intermediaries facing increasing pressure to control content, and the importance of the internet to workers in the support of global rights in the workplace. Some call for a change of perspective, as in the report on cyber security, where the necessity of civil society developing a security advocacy strategy for the internet is argued. Without it, the levels of systems and controls, whether emanating from government or military superpowers, threaten to overwhelm what has over the years become the vanguard of freedom of expression and offered new forms of free association between people across the globe.

Many of these issues are pulled sharply into focus at the country level in the country reports that follow the thematic considerations. Each of these country reports takes a particular “story” or event that illustrates the role of the internet in social rights and civil resistance – whether positive or negative, or both. Amongst other things, they document torture in Indonesia, candlelight vigils in South Korea, internet activism against forgetting human rights atrocities in Peru, and the rights of prisoners accessing the internet in Argentina. While the function and role of the internet in society remains debated, and necessarily so, in many contexts these stories show that to limit it unfairly will have a harmful impact on the rights of people. These stories show that the internet has become pivotal in actions aimed at the protection of human rights..."

Title: 2011 Circumvention Tool Evaluation
Authors: Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, John Palfrey
Pages: 17 pp.
Source: Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
Date (published): 18/08/2011
Date (accessed): 14/09/2011
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"Given the rising awareness of the potential of the Internet as a political space and increasing government control over the space, it is easy to understand the widespread interest in finding technical solutions to Internet filtering. While filtering circumvention technologies emerged in 1996 with Bennet Hazelton’s Peacefire, designed to evade filtering within US high schools and universities, in recent years, there’s been a great deal of interest in the technical community and the general public in the topic of Internet circumvention. The embrace of an “Internet freedom” agenda by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a pair of widely publicized speeches has increased awareness of the challenges of Internet filtering and encouraged new actors to explore or enter the field.

The prospect of expanded fiscal support for tool development and deployment has led to debate in the popular press about the strengths and weaknesses of various circumvention tools and strategies. These debates make clear the need for scholarly research on the efficacy of various tools.

This study uses a novel methodology for conducting in-country testing without requiring a researcher to be physically present in censored nations. While this method does not fully replicate the performance of circumvention tools from a cybercafé in a filtered nation, it can be regularly replicated, allowing us to conduct tests over a long period of time and, potentially, create an ongoing, regularly updated portrait of circumvention tool usability in locations across the globe. In this report, we focus on questions of utility—the ability for a tool to be installed and used in a particular location, and the accuracy and speed of the tool. Additionally, we address concerns about security, usability and openness when appropriate.

This evaluation also differs from our earlier work (2007 Circumvention Landscape Report; 2010 Circumvention Tool Usage) in that we cover significantly more tools and examine two classes of tools (ad-supported proxy servers and VPN services) which we did not review previously. We expanded the set of tools considered to recognize the increased number of options that users in censored nations may choose from, and to acknowledge results of our previous research which suggest that simple web proxies and VPNs have a very significant user base in comparison with dedicated censorship circumvention tools."

Title: International Bloggers and Internet Control
Authors: Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, Jillian York, Rob Faris, John Palfrey
Pages: 14 pp.
Source: Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
Date (published): 18/08/2011
Date (accessed): 14/09/2011
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"Over the past two years, we have undertaken several studies at the Berkman Center designed to better understand the control of the Internet in less open societies. During the years we’ve been engaged in this research, we have seen many incidents that have highlighted the role of the Internet as a battleground for political control, including partial or total Internet shutdowns in China, Iran, Egypt, Libya, and Syria; many hundreds of documented DDoS, hacking, and other cyber attacks against political sites; continued growth in the number of countries that filter the Internet; and dozens of well documented cases of on- and offline persecution of online dissidents. The energy dedicated to these battles for control of the Internet on both the government and dissident sides indicated, if nothing else, that both sides think that the Internet is a critical space for political action. In this paper, we offer an overview of our research in the context of these changes in the methods used to control online speech, and some thoughts on the challenges to online speech in the immediate future."

See also: the full survey (pdf)
"This document includes the full aggregated results from the survey, except for unstructured text answers, which were removed for privacy reasons."

Title: The Evolving Landscape of Internet Control : A Summary of Our Recent Research and Recommendations
Authors: Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, Rob Faris, Jillian York, John Palfrey
Pages: 12 pp.
Source: Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
Date (published): 18/08/2011
Date (accessed): 14/09/2011
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"Over the past two years, we have undertaken several studies at the Berkman Center designed to better understand the control of the Internet in less open societies. During the years we’ve been engaged in this research, we have seen many incidents that have highlighted the role of the Internet as a battleground for political control, including partial or total Internet shutdowns in China, Iran, Egypt, Libya, and Syria; many hundreds of documented DDoS, hacking, and other cyber attacks against political sites; continued growth in the number of countries that filter the Internet; and dozens of well documented cases of on- and offline persecution of online dissidents. The energy dedicated to these battles for control of the Internet on both the government and dissident sides indicated, if nothing else, that both sides think that the Internet is a critical space for political action. In this paper, we offer an overview of our research in the context of these changes in the methods used to control online speech, and some thoughts on the challenges to online speech in the immediate future."

Title: “Measuring the Internet Economy” from a Civil Society Perspective
Author: Michael Gurstein
Source: Gurstein's Community Informatics
Date (published): 01/09/2011
Date (accessed): 07/09/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Among other things I’m involved in a variety of discussions in several venues on Civil Society and the Internet. This below is part of my contribution to one of those discussions and specifically on how to “measure the Internet economy” in this instance from a Civil Society perspective.
...
I’m wondering in this context whether there are areas or issues concerning measurement and indices specifically associated with the Internet that would be of particular interest to Civil Society(CS) that might (or might not) be of interest from the perspective of a “critique” of the SNA and broad measures such as the GDP–parallel to the critiques related to the measurement of “women’s work” and “environmental costing” for example?
The obvious measurement(s) are of course related to the “digital divide” — those who have access and (I would add) the capability of using the Internet and those who do not. But I’m also thinking that there may be an additional set of arguments that quite significantly link back to the earlier critiques and those have to do with the linkage of the Internet with social capital.
Thus, it might be possible (and reasonable) to argue that the enhancement of social capital (internetworking, communication at a distance, speeding up of communications etc.etc.) while not unique to the Internet is so much accelerated and intensified by the Internet that “quantity” becomes “quality”"

Title: South Africa mobile Internet usage soars to 39%
Source: IT News Africa
Date (published): 10/08/2011
Date (accessed): 10/08/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"The Mobility 2011 research project, conducted by World Wide Worx and backed by First National Bank (FNB), reveals that 39% of urban South Africans and 27% of rural users are now browsing the Internet on their phones.
The study excludes “deep rural” users, and represents around 20-million South Africans aged 16 and above. This means that at least 6-million South Africans now have Internet access on their phones.
...
The most dramatic shift of all, however, is the arrival of e-mail in the rural user-base and its growth among urban users. There has been a substantial shift among the latter, with urban use rising from 10% in 2009 to 27% at the end of 2010. While the percentage growth among rural users is lower, the fact that it was almost non-existent a year before means the 12% penetration reported for 2010 indicates mobile e-mail becoming a mainstream tool across the population."

Title: Soon, internet connectivity for every panchayat
Author: Abantika Ghosh
Source: The Times of India
Date (published): 30/05/2011
Date (accessed): 19/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Very soon, every panchayat in the country will have an internet equipped service centre to ensure rural access to various online services like railway reservation and weather information for farmers.

The information technology department is working on a plan to have 2.5 lakh such centres across the country - one in every panchayat - by 2012. While this is an extension of the original plan to have one lakh telecentres - one each at the block level - the department is banking on the recently unveiled National Broadband Policy to provide access to high speed connectivity.

Additional secretary, IT, Shankar Agarwal said, "The existing centres have internet facility but the speed is not very high, just about 256 kbps. We are hoping that when the national broadband policy comes into force, this will increase to 2 mbps so that the service is more efficient and even video content can be sent. We have about 6 lakh villages in the country, so the new target will mean that there will be one telecentre for every 2.5 villages."

At present, there are about 94,000 telecentres in the country, mostly at the block level. Each centre has a computer, a scanner, a printer and technical staff to help villagers with their work. The idea, Agarwal said, is to have a cyber cafe like infrastructure in place for access of people in the rural areas. Private initiatives did not quite take off because of the uncertain nature of the business model which is when government decided to pitch in, he added. "

Title: Switching on: Africa's vast new tech opportunity
Author: Pete Guest
Source: Wired UK
Date (published): 12/07/2011
Date (accessed): 13/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"In 2011, visitors to Africa looking for war, famine and pestilence have to dig a lot deeper than in the past. At Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, hardened missionaries have been replaced by gap-year students clustered around iPads, and on the streets the bad old days have given way to another holy trinity: Premier League football, Toyota Hiace minibuses and cellphones.

Africa's national economies have grown consistently over the last decade. Even in the depths of the financial crisis, GDP growth exceeded three percent: more than in any other region of the world. Improvements in security, Chinese investments and soaring commodity prices have all played a part in transforming the continent's prospects.

Beyond macroeconomic factors, though, technology is driving profound changes to economies and societies across the continent. The hundreds of millions of mobile handsets and billions of airtime minutes only go some way to describe the scope of entrepreneurship that underpins Africa's technological revolution. From mobile payments to telemedicine and advertising, there is a common pulse of innovation, driven by an irrepressible combination of aspiration and necessity. This is the new Africa."

Title: Bandwidth price remains highest in Asia
Author:Abu Saeed Khan
Publisher:LIRNEasia
Date (published):20/11/2010
Date (accessed):23/11/2010
Type of information:blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
„The bandwidth prices in Asia remain more than 300% expensive than the western hemisphere, said TeleGeography that has been constantly reporting this constant gap. But the Asian leaders seem unmoved about this fundamentally flawed and potentially dangerous trend across the continent. TeleGeography reports only the wholesale prices up to the gateway. Once the backhaul and licensing costs are taken into account, the Asian Internet bandwidth prices become far more expensive. Spectrum had been the only raw material of ICT until the 2G mobile became pervasive. Now the Internet bandwidth has been added as the second ingredient of ICT for development. Therefore, the cost of Internet bandwidth has to be reduced across Asia. Otherwise, discussing the digital divide and planning to bridge it shall remain as futile as chasing the mirage.”