Inveneo 2008, Inveneo, San Francisco, CA, viewed 23 July 2009, .

Inveneo is a California-based Non-Profit working to bridge the Global Digital Divide (GDD) in Africa. This website has some concrete examples of ICT development projects that have been completed in Africa. It also has various links to information about the digital divide and actual technological information about Inveneo's products and processes. This website can inform various parts of my paper including: a general discussion of the GDD, specific tactics that have been used in the developing world, and specifically the use of Open Source Software.  Inveneo has designed computing and networking systems built upon Open Source Software. This is a specific example of how OSS can be used effectively for development purposes.

The social mission of Inveneo is "to get the tools of information communications technology (ICT), such as computers, telephony, and Internet access to those who need it most — people and organizations in rural and highly underserved communities of the developing world." Inveneo’s approach is to work with local groups to train individuals to use ICT to improve lives within communities. Inveneo’s clients include other NGOs, local governments and local private enterprises. The computing and communications systems developed by Iveneo are low power, wireless and uses open-source software to reduce licensing costs. Their work began in Uganda in 2005 and now they have 25 projects in seven African nations. Inveneo’s goal is to match relevant technology to local organizations that provide education, healthcare, economic development, microfinance and relief services. The products and solutions offered by Inveneo include the Inveneo Computing Station, the Inveneo Communication Station, the Inveneo Hub Server and the Inveneo Desktop Linux. All of these systems require ultra-low power and are designed to perform in conditions of high dust and humidity, and these systems are compatible with Open Source Software programs. Inveneo systems are designed for beginner level users and are equipped with multi-lingual word processing capabilities. Inveneo also provides on-going training and support for its clients.

Block, W. 2004, "The "Digital Divide" Is Not a Problem in Need of Rectifying", Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 393-406.

This article provides a starkly different perspective on the digital divide than most of my other sources. As the title clearly suggests, Block does not believe that the digital divide is a problem at all. He challenges claims that limited access to ICT is detrimental to individuals and populations and posits that these claims suffer from the fallacy of proportionality, egocentricism, and economic illiteracy.

In terms of the proportionality argument against the digital divide, Block says that proportional representation is a utopian goal of egalitarians. Simply put, different segments of a given population have different interests, skills and goals and therefore achieving proportional representation in any human activity, including the use of computers, is impossible. He compares the digital divide to other "product" divides such as yachts. Block asks if wealthy individuals have more yachts than low-income individuals, shouldn’t we be concerned with the "yacht divide?" I find this to be a faulty comparison, because as I have seen in my other sources, ICTs are no longer considered luxury goods in today’s world. Technical literacy has become a necessity to participate in society at large. Block uses similar comparisons to challenge the global digital divide, as well as divides based on race, gender, etc.

Block takes a very libertarian approach to the digital divide. From this article, it is clear that he believes a "hands off" approach to the spread of ICT is the right one. I disagree with this view, but I find it a valuable perspective to discuss in order to have a balanced research paper. I believe the evidence is strong to counter Blocks claims, and the potential value of ICT to developing nations is clear.

 

In the chapter entitled "The GNU Operating System and the Free Software Movement," Richard Stallman outlines the evolution of the free operating system and free software ideology. While working for MIT in the early 1970's he was part of a software-sharing community, in which engineers would share, improve, study and redistribute software programs free of charge without any formal licensing agreements. The author argues that this type of communal culture is natural and preferable to the current age of proprietary software development. He discusses his many career moves which focused on developing a free operating system, the GNU, and eventually the Linux system n 1991. During this span of time, Stallman challenged the practice of copyrighting software by creating the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as well as the General Public License (GPL). He continues to pursue the goal of promoting free software and challenging the copyright mentality that has become so common in US society.

In regards to my paper, this reading provides a solid background of the free software ideology and also brings to light some of the economic, cultural and social barriers that may be influencing the global digital divide. Namely, the copyright laws that protect proprietary software programs serve to promote the interests of large corporations and profit-driven software developers rather than individual users. Stallman notes that open source software is not necessarily "anti-business," but it offers an alternate business model that promotes freedom and cooperation. He outlines four freedoms that are violated by the proliferation of proprietary software. Users are prohibited from using ICT as they wish, from modifying and distributing their software, and from sharing their software with others. Extrapolating this theory to the global level, it is clear that large corporate interests may inhibit the spread of proprietary software and other ICT tools to areas that could benefit greatly from their use, but are unable to pay the price. This is directly relevant to both my discussion of the global digital divide and the role of open source software in addressing it.

 This is a very extensive text that covers a wide range of internet policy issues.  I will focus on two chapters specifically for this paper: Chapter 26 "Globalizing the logic of openess: open source software and the global governance of intellectual property" and Chapter 30 "Internet diffusion and the digital divide: the role of policy making and political institutions."

Chapter 26 will inform my discussion of the use of and debate surrounding open source software.  The author argues that the global economy dictates the dissemination of information and skills necessary to complete in the era of globalization. Thus corporate powers such as Microsoft, and national powers such as the US and Western Europe are dominating the spread of information and communication technologies to the disadvantage of developing nations.  Liscensing costs and copyright laws serve to protect the interests of wealthy elites and international finanical organizations, while those without access to relevant knowledge and skills fall farther behind.  It is argued here that open source software is a kew way, possibly the key way, to counteract these forces of globalization that contribute to the global digital divide.  Specifically the use of free and open source software in Africa is discussed as is the support for open source software offered by the United Nations and many non-governmental organizations.  This will be a key text for my analysis of the use of open source software.

Chapter 30 focuses on issues surrounding the digital divide and policies that impact it.  It focuses on four countries as case studies: Brazil, Estonia, Singapore and the US.  The aim of this chapter is to discuss what role political policy and institutions may have in addressing the digital divide.  The conclusion is that policy and leadership in a society can in fact impact the diffusion of ICT.  Additionally, as I have seen in my other sources, civil society groups and non-governmental organizations are also key players in addressing issues of ICT disparity.

 This work focuses on policy issues surrounding the implementation and use of ICT in development. It touches on various challenges facing policymakers in this arena, namely in terms of infrastructure investment, human capital development, and corporate policy in the context of economic globalization. It also discusses issues of sustainability and urbanization which affect the spread and use of ICT.  For my paper, I will focus on Chapter 15 "Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Markets: Venture Capital and Electronic Commerce for Development?".

This chapter focuses on the economic factors that impact the spread of ICT in developing countries.  The authors argue that the digital divide is real, and it is reinforced my may global economic factors, specifically those of free-market capitalism.  The authors argue that developing nations will not "leap frog" to economic development because of advancements in ICT, as has been assumed by many in recent years.  Due to various economic, social and cultural forces, development in these nations will be a long, slow and challenging road.  One major impediment to rapid development is a lack of physical and informational infrastructure in developing nations.  Without the adequate infrustructure to support long-term development projects, the process will be quite complicated.  This is a realistic view of development from an economic perspective.  I can use this piece to evaluate some of the GAID projects that I will be discussing in my paper, specifically those with large-scale corporate involvement.

This research paper will focus on the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in achieving the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The specific issue I will focus on is the debate regarding Open Source Software (OSS) and its potential for spreading ICT's to developing nations at lower costs than proprietary software. I will investigate the UN's Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Also I will look at some development projects that have benefitted from the use of OSS and present arguments in opposition to OSS. The first part of this paper will analyze the concept of the Global Digital Divide and how it impacts other social problems such as poverty, literacy disparities, etc. Next, I will discuss efforts by the UN to use ICT in the achievement of the MDGs. Specifically I will focus on the creation of the GAID as a forum for addressing issues surrounding the digital divide and international development policy. Finally, I will discuss the specific issue of Open Source Software. This is one area of ICT development that may have potential for bringing low cost and efficient technologies to impoverished communities to improve lives. Some development projects have been successful in their use of Open Source Software, such as the non-profit organization Inveneo. However, Open Source Software does have is critics, and I will discuss these views as well.

My project focuses on the uses of the Internet in Iran. In particular, I will be examining how the Iranian public uses the Internet to express dissent or communicate about subjects that would violate the government's strict moral code. In order to focus the project more, I plan to focus on the incredibly-large Iranian blog community. In this annotated bibliography, I am hoping to discover how Iranians are using the internet, how blogs affect political discourse, and the particular methods used by the government to censor dissident speech.

This is a radio interview with Jay Rosen on the podcast show Open Source.  Rosen discusses the current trends in the media, include the communal effort by readers and administrators of the online news site Talking Points Memo to expose the U.S. Attorney's scandal.  TPM won the prestigious Polk Award for its efforts.

Princeton Workshop on Cloud Computing and Public Policy.

An explanation of "The Cloud."

Maybe using light instead of electricity (which runs on coal) is a solution to the pollution caused by server farms.

danah boyd is a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and a Fellow at the Harvard University Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society.   apophenia is her blog.

In this post, she relates a story from a friend of hers, who centralized virtually all of his online life (and therefore, his life) on Google products, only to have his account erased by Google because of a fraudulent phishing attack.  The story raises concerns about storing all your data in one place and with one company.

Mozilla is currently testing out something called "Weave," a tool that would allow you to synchronize your content on multiple browsers, via a hosting option similar to what Google does.

This goes a step beyond Google, because Mozilla is, of course, a desktop application. So Mozilla Weave would have access to your desktop behavior and the stuff you store on their servers.

Developed by Sun, it's a "networked supercomputer" for hardcore researchers.  Google Docs this ain't.

Haven't read this yet, but it was linked to by the Slate article.  Might be an important article.

A contrarian take on cloud computing from a reformed enthusiast.

Article from Harper's Magazine about how much Google's server farms are polluting a river in the Pacific Northwest.

Google Docs--but at what cost?