Dear colleagues:

I am sharing the announcement (see below) of the new book "Global
Information Society Watch 2008" (GISWatch), published in print and
online by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), the
Third World Institute (ITeM), and Dutch development organisation Hivos.

GISWatch 2008 will be launched at the Third Internet Governance Forum
in Hyderabad, India on December 4.

The press release is also available in Spanish and French on the APC
website:

English: www.apc.org/en/node/7558
French: www.apc.org/fr/node/7559
Spanish: www.apc.org/es/node/7562

Best regards,

Javier

--
http://funredes.org/javier
---------------------------- Original message ----------------------------
Subject: [APC Forum] NEW BOOK: Watchdog report tackles the issue of
unequal access to the internet and the information society in 2008
Date:  Mar, 2 de Diciembre de 2008, 2:34 pm
To:   "A general information sharing space for the APC Community."
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ENGLISH - ANGLAIS - INGLES
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    PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Thursday 27 November 2008 -- How do we
ensure access to the internet is a human right enjoyed by everyone?
    This is one of the critical questions asked by an annual
publication that highlights the importance of people’s access to
information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure ­ and
where and how countries are getting it right or wrong, and what can
be done about it.
Global Information Society Watch 2008 (or GISWatch), published in
print and online by the Association for Progressive Communications
(APC), the Third World Institute (ITeM), and Dutch development
organisation Hivos, collects the perspectives of ICT academics,
analysts, activists and civil society organisations from across the
globe in over 50 reports.
“[Access to infrastructure] is beginning to be considered of less
importance by some development funders and practitioners, including
civil society and communication and information activists,” argue the
publishers in the book preface.
“One of the consequences of this is the development of a conventional
wisdom that leaves the domain of infrastructure development to the
market; to operators and investors that do not always see the broader
social value of communications in society, to governments that lack
capacity and often clear strategy, and to international institutions
that tend to approach it in a limited and ‘technocratic’ way.”
Internet ­ the petrol of the new global economy
Several thematic reports in GISWatch 2008 tackle burning issues
facing access to infrastructure, and related concerns. For instance,
analyst Peter Lange lays out the pros and cons in a lucid discussion
on net neutrality called “The end of the internet as we know it?”
while Sunil Abraham, from the Centre for Internet and Society in
Bangalore, makes the bold observation that most computer users today
remain “digitally colonised” due to our unquestioning use of
proprietary -usually Microsoft-produced- software. Russell Southwood
asserts that bandwidth, like oil, is a crucial resource in the 21st
Century, in his discussion on accessing content, and Daniel Pimienta,
from the Networks and Development Foundation (FUNREDES), points out
that as the world wide web grows exponentially, search engines are
losing their capacity to index it.
Ben Akoh, from the Open Society Initiative of Western Africa (OSIWA),
uncomplicates the sometimes tangled issues that lie behind the
equitable management of spectrum, in the process observing that:
“[In] the African context the mobile phone capitalises on the innate
orality of African culture and society, perhaps explaining its rapid
uptake. But, in the modern setting, it is an orality that has turned
in on itself, because the cost of communication may have also eaten
into the disposable income of the individual.”
How global institutions, such as the United Nations and International
Telecommunication Union are treating access issues are laid out by
ICT for development analyst David Souter. The publication also offers
another take on indicators, where authors Mike Jensen and Amy Mahan
confront the fact that global consensus has not been reached on how
to measure the information society in a way that results in
reasonable comparisons between countries.
Reports from almost forty countries
Thirty-eight country reports have been written by authors from
countries as diverse as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico,
Switzerland and Kazakhstan. At the same time, six regional overviews
contextualise the country reports, and cover North America, Latin
America and the Caribbean, Africa, the countries that constituted the
former Soviet Union, South-East Asia and the Pacific.
According to APC, Hivos and ITeM, GISWatch is both a publication and
a process: it aims to build networking and advocacy capacity among
civil society organisations who work for a just and inclusive
information society. This is reflected in the growing number of
participating organisations writing country reports ­ sixteen more
than last year, the first year that GISWatch appeared. By doing this
they hope GISWatch will impact on policy development processes in
countries, regions, and at a global level.
GISWatch 2008 will be launched at the Third Internet Governance Forum
in Hyderabad, India on December 4.
*****
Responding to GISWatch 2008, several prominent ICT commentators had
this to say:
"There are few independent sources for taking the temperature of the
ICT4D policy debate and looking at the current state of the digital
divide. GISWatch provides both in a thought-provoking and challenging
way." -- Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act
"More and more investment in broadband infrastructure is being made
in developing countries. GISWatch 2008 comes at no better time.” --
Lishan Adam PhD,  ICT in Development Researcher & Consultant,
Associate & Adjunct Professor, Ethiopia
*****
Country reports in GISWatch 2008
Africa: Cameroon Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay
Asia-Pacific: Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea,
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Spain,
Switzerland
*****
For more information contact
Alan Finlay
GISWatch editor
AFinlay@GISWatch.org
Skype id: Alan_Finlay
Johannesburg, South Africa
Interviews can be arranged with authors.
www.GISWatch.org