Digital Divide
28 January 2018
UN Broadband Commission sets global broadband targets to bring online the world's 3.8 billion not connected to the Internet International Telecommunication Union
Fifty per cent of the world's population is expected to be connected to the Internet by the end of 2019. This leaves the other half – an estimated 3.8 billion people – unconnected and unable to benefit from key social and economic resources in our expanding digital world. In response, the United Nations' Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development has set seven ambitious yet achievable 2025 targets in support of "Connecting the Other Half" of the world's population.
12 January 2018
African Internet Governance Stakeholders Urge Governments to Put Premium on Digital Rights of Citizens African Freedom of Expression Exchange
The membership of the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) and other African internet governance stakeholders attending the Sixth African Internet Governance Forum has called for the prioritisation of digital rights of all citizens across the continent.
07 January 2018
Hauling the Internet to an Ex-Soviet Outpost High in the Caucasus Mountains New York Times
Several months ago, a team of men ascended the Greater Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. They led horses loaded with electrical wire, solar panels, batteries, toolboxes and drills powerful enough to grind through rock.
05 December 2017
Neustar Moves From .BIZ To .NEUSTAR In Boost to New gTLDs
Neustar has completed the transition from its .biz TLD to its very own .neustar. As of yesterday (4 Dec) it launched its revamped global website. Now Neustar’s homepage resolves to home.neustar and each of its solution areas can also be found on .neustar web addresses, such as marketing.neustar, security.neustar and risk.neustar.
03 December 2017
From the Arctic's Melting Ice, an Unexpected Digital Hub New York Times
The receding ice has opened new passageways for high-speed internet cables. Point Hope, a gravel spit in northwest Alaska, is along one of the new routes.
02 November 2017
WhatsApp is becoming the customer service tool of choice for Nigerian e-commerce Quartz
As e-commerce continues grows in Nigeria, a new challenge has emerged in how to efficiently execute returns and manage failed deliveries.
06 October 2017
We're all connected now, so why is the internet so white and western? The Guardian
We recently passed a milestone in the history of human connectivity – people online now make up the majority of the world’s population. This has largely gone unnoticed, but it is an important moment and not just for statistical reasons.
05 October 2017
New digital era must ensure prosperity for all United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
Information and communications technologies (ICTs), electronic commerce (e-commerce) and other digital applications are helping a growing number of small businesses and entrepreneurs in developing countries to connect with global markets and open up new ways of generating income. They are being leveraged to promote business, including the empowerment of women as entrepreneurs and traders, and to support productive activities.
E-commerce growth is less important than how it impacts people United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
The global economy is on the cusp of a new era as data overtakes oil as the world's most important commodity, UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi has told an international meeting in Geneva.
Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway most ready to benefit from e-commerce United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
For the third straight year, Luxembourg has held on to its position atop UNCTAD's ranking of 143 countries' capacity to support online shopping and other business-to-consumer e-commerce. Among the top 10 economies in the 2017 UNCTAD B2C E-commerce Index, seven are European while three are from the Asia-Pacific region.
17 September 2017
New Broadband Commission report highlights emerging global skills gap International Telecommunication Union
A new report from the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development entitled "Digital skills for life and work" shows that education systems worldwide are only just beginning to help learners cultivate the digital skills they need to excel in in our increasingly digitized societies.
Broadband playing increasingly important role in development, says new global report International Telecommunication Union
Broadband technologies are today driving substantial transformation in many development-related sectors including health, education, financial inclusion and food security, making them a key accelerator towards achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says a new report released by the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.
20 August 2017
NZ’s digital divide now on display InternetNZ
A new map that clearly shows where digital divides exist in New Zealand is now available. InternetNZ has teamed up with the 20/20 Trust to build an interactive map called the Digital Divide Map - which shows the different digital divides facing New Zealanders and their communities.
16 August 2017
Internet speeds across Africa are still far below the global minimum standard Quartz
It would take more than a day to download a high definition movie of 7.5 gigabytes in countries with the slowest internet speeds in the world. It turns out most of those countries are in Africa, data from a global broadband speed league shows.
11 July 2017
To Close America's Digital Divide, Microsoft to Harness Unused Television Channels New York Times
Silicon Valley has dreamed up hot air balloons, drones and constellations of mini-satellites to connect the world to the internet. Now Microsoft is adding its own moonshot to solve the digital divide into that mix.
04 June 2017
Floating balloons a radical plan to expand global internet services ABC News
A cluster of strange objects has been drifting high over the Australian continent in the past week, and if not for publicly-available plane-tracking applications, they may well have cruised past without anyone noticing.
22 May 2017
No, Google's Not a Bird: Bringing the Internet to Rural India New York Times
Babulal Singh Neti was sitting with his uncle on a recent afternoon, trying to persuade him of the merits of the internet.
21 May 2017
Community Forum: What are your hopes and fears about the Internet? Internet Society
On May 11, 2017, the Internet Society in collaboration with the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House hosted a panel discussion on the impact of the Internet on societies.
18 May 2017
Google owner Alphabet balloons connect flood-hit Peru BBC News
“Tens of thousands” of Peruvians have been getting online using Project Loon, the ambitious connectivity project from Google's parent company, Alphabet.
20 April 2017
Is the internet really democratic?: How the 'wired world' excludes women and other marginalized persons by Sri Lankan writer Subha Wijesiriwardena Subha Wijesiriwardena blog
It’s often said that the internet democratizes information and even knowledge itself. We more or less accept this to be true; the internet shattered the elite stronghold on ‘knowledge’. The internet has not only made information more freely available but has changed the very way we understand knowledge and information. What we understand by democratisation is not only that things are made available to more people but that they come to belong to more people. The internet was supposed to be the very embodiment of this – it belongs to no one — it belongs to everyone.
19 March 2017
UN Broadband Commission: Time for a "New Deal" if Broadband is to reach everyone, everywhere International Telecommunication Union
The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development held its 2017 Spring Meeting in Hong Kong, SAR of China, today, and committed to concrete actions that will spur the roll-out of broadband around the world. Currently, some 5 billion people are without mobile broadband access, meaning that the paths to access digital services and applications are currently blocked for much of the world's population, thereby holding back progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
27 December 2016
How the internet is failing to drive economic development where promised by Nicolas Friederici, Researcher, Digital Economies, University of Oxford The Conversation
With almost half the world's population now online, attempts to spread the internet continue unabated. The likes of Facebook and Google offer data services for "free", while satellites, drones, and balloons are used to cover those places that traditional technologies have not been able to reach.
08 October 2016
Data drought: Rural Australians find alternative ways to get online despite Sky Muster rollout ABC News
A grassroots internet revolution is underway in regional Australia, as small telecommunications companies and farmers try to help end the data drought.
26 July 2016
Can the internet reboot Africa? With smartphone use and web penetration soaring, Africa is set for a tech revolution – but only if its infrastructure can support it The Guardian
You can buy sunlight with your phone, conduct an eye test on someone 100 miles away and attend a church service on your iPad. There are apps for investing in cows, for sending parcels and for mapping unrest. And soon you'll be able to deliver blood and medicines by drone.
24 May 2016
Microsoft Awards First Grants to Help Expand Global Internet Access New York Times
Microsoft has largely stood by as other technology giants like Facebook and Google have begun work on grand plans for balloons, satellites, drones, simplified apps and even bicycle hot spots to deliver Internet access to the four billion or so people around the world who are not yet online.
