Internet Access. A Human Right

Over five billion people do not have internet access, ahumanright.org plans to change that. Kosta Grammatis explains why the internet is important in the first place.

As of 2009, 83% of the world is literate, and another 80% has access to electricity, these two factors are all that is required to make use of an information service.  Unfortunately only 26.5% of the world has internet access leaving over 5 billion people disconnected with no information service at all. Every human deserves the right to make improvements to their condition by utilizing the great breadth of human knowledge available on the internet. A step towards a sustainable world is to build a system that grants access to the worlds repository of information—something that should be considered a human right.

Why is internet access important?

Imagine your digital life disconnected. No internet, e-mail, or phone. Now imagine the food you buy from the grocery store—imagine growing it yourself, and if you failed, starving. Imagine not having clean drinking water, access to a toilet, or even toilet paper. Imagine the comfortable world you know, disappearing.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is ranked 148 (out of 182) on the human development index. The people who live in this culturally rich place survive in extreme poverty by modern world standards. Yet their resilience is amazing, resisting famines, epidemics, and natural disasters. 85% of the population lives in rural and remote communities. With the introduction of mobile deregulation these communities now have access to something new—connectivity to the outside world. In a country of 6 million people, 2 million have mobile phone access. Government officials scratch their head, “we don’t even know how they charge their phones, but they do.”

Under the recently released PNG Vision 2050, Information services are considered vital to facilitate the growth of this small country:   The current prime minister Michael Somare’s vision is “to empower our people in all walks of life – in particular rural and under developed communities – through the power of information to enhance their quality of life and to be on par with their peers in developed urban centres and peoples of this world.”

This vision is believed to be imperative to bringing this small country to a modern day standard of living.  And so, in a country that survives on $2.5 dollars a day, a plan to launch a satellite is being created. “We need to get information to them [the citizens] so they can think for themselves, better their own lives, and not rely on other people’s dole.” On May 5^th 2009 the Prime Minister directed the government to look into the feasibility of owning and operating a geosynchronous communication satellite to provide affordable information services to people who have never had such a luxury.

And as for the computers… Consider the period after 2000 when the price of vanilla skyrocketed: “If there was free bandwidth, don’t worry about the computers – people find the money to buy them, you would be surprised. When the price of vanilla went up people showed up with bags of vanilla beans to buy Toyotas!”

We live in a time where being connected, to the global conversation that is taking place online, is considered vital to development.  We live in a time where we as a human race our connecting across borders, cultures, and continents—to share ideas at the speed of light, for a brighter future. But unfortunately, we live in a time where only 26% of the world’s population has a chance to use the internet.

Papua New Guinea realizes that “the invisible highway” is as important as ensuring adequate education—in fact, it is part of how they plan to ensure adequate education: Internet in the classroom, tele-teachers for rural areas, and the adoption of the “One Laptop per Child” program.

And as this message rings loud and clear in the developing world, the developed world follows: Australia has a “National Broadband Network” that will cost a whopping $43 billion dollars. With a population of 21 million people, the Australian government is spending approximately $2,000 per person for broadband internet access. America just passed a 7 billion dollar initiative to bring high-speed access to rural areas. Internet access is important for every country.

Seed Infrastructure

It’s been demonstrated that giving the developing world goods has, in many cases, been to their detriment. It’s certainly possible to give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. But if not done carefully you’ll probably ruin the fish industry that’s already there.  But, as the adage goes, if you teach a man to fish he’ll eat for a lifetime and if you’re lucky, he’ll start his own fishing company to feed others.

The ideal of free fish stretches throughout the history of aid, and so, after trillions of dollars of investment in the developing world, there still exists a developing world.   The intentions of the aid industry are good, but their methodology is changing.   Free is simply not good enough anymore and herein lays the opportunity: According to the United Nations Tunisia ITU Summit, “We are aware that Information Communication Technologies should be regarded as tools and not as an end in themselves.  Under favorable conditions, these technologies can be a powerful instrument, increasing productivity, generating economic growth, job creation and employability and improving the quality of life of all. They can also promote dialogue among people, nations and civilizations.”

By allowing people to experience the fruits of human knowledge that exist online, amazing things can happen. Plant the seed of possibilities (google.com), give out the instruction manuals on how it can be done (instructibles.com), allow people to ask for help (answers.com), and just watch how quickly things can take root in unexpected ways (youtube.com).

We’re proposing something radically different than a free fish or even free fishing lessons: a means to discover, learn, grow, and share globally. The internet, combined with programs created locally, will serve as a seed infrastructure to propel growth by local innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

You can teach a man to fish and he’ll be fed for a lifetime, if you give him the internet you don’t even have to bother teaching him how to fish, he can teach himself—along with anything else he wants to know. (here).

Surely you’re taking that analogy a bit far?

It’s easy to imagine what happens when the internet access is available, your life is most likely a product of it. Any question is a Google search away from an answer, a friend is accessible in an e-mail… But things are a bit different in other places: In Dowa Malawi Africa, William Kamkwamba couldn’t afford the $80 USD per year to go to school, so he spent his time at the library instead. He read ancient physics text books and went to work, building a wind mill, to provide power to an electric lamp, so he could read more at night. It took him four years.

His rickety windmill did the job. Williams neighbors thought his work a bit strange, but his creation caught the eye of some roving reporters, and shortly thereafter, William was under the bright studio lights telling his story. In an interview with John Stewart on “The Daily Show” William described his first encounter with the internet:

“When I went to Arusha to attend a conference, someone told me… (I had never used a computer); “do you know the internet?” I said I didn’t know. He said, “do you know Google?” and I said what animal is a Google?”

“…And when I googled windmill I found there was million of applications! I said, where was this Google all this time?!”

William spent four years re-inventing the windmill to provide himself electricity. How many geniuses are forced to re-invent technologies simply because of a lack of information?

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When millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they used twitter to organize their movements. Ariel Silverstone, an independent security consultant briefed reporters, “for a period of 20 hours — between late at night on Saturday until mid-afternoon Sunday — the Iranian government shut off internet service… The Iranian government now is reportedly filtering traffic and has blocked certain sites, such as Facebook and the BBC news website.”

A virtual war then took shape, with government and protester hackers working hard to neutralize the opposition. It could be argued that if information services weren’t used to control the population, democracy could have prevailed.

Totalitarian governments remain in power by controlling the consensus worldview of those they rule. Tyranny, in other words, is a monologue. But as long as twitter is up and running, there’s no such thing.

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So what’s next?

ahumanright.org envisions a global network that offers free-from-cost phone, internet, and text messaging services via a network of satellites, ground stations, and end user devices.

Our belief is that access to information is a human right. The future of a sustainable world depends on responsible decision making made by a well informed human population.   By enabling 5 billion people with access to information tremendous improvements will be made in the following realms:
1.     Resolving the information disparity
2.     Disaster Relief
3.     Remote Education
4.     Remote Medicine
5.     Democracy

The Problem

As of 2009, 83% of the world is literate, and another 80% has access to electricity, these two factors are all that is required to make use of an information service.  Unfortunately only 26.5% of the world has internet access leaving over 5 billion people disconnected with no information service at all. Every human deserves the right to make improvements to their condition by utilizing the great breadth of human knowledge available on the internet. A step towards a sustainable world is to build a system that grants access to the worlds repository of information—something that should be considered a human right.

Opportunity

A completely connected world allows for a vast new sphere of possibilities. Digital banking can replace outdated and ineffective monetary systems, access to medical information can enable doctors in the field, educational materials and reference information will be readily available to people who wish to learn, fewer will perish in natural disasters as relief can go to where it is needed most… The social benefits of such a system are many but the most prominent improvement for humanity is simple: Universal access to information will allow people the opportunity to make informed decisions.