News Tip: Access to Internet Technology Holds Back Developing Nations

Geneva meeting unlikely to achieve meaningful results, Duke expert says

Thursday, December 11, 2003

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As representatives from the developed world and the developing world meet in Geneva this week to swap ideas on how to improve access to the global Internet, the goals of the two camps are so different that the meeting is unlikely to achieve meaningful results, says a Duke University expert on communications and Internet policy.

"When the developed nations talk about Internet access, they mean exporting hardware, software and expertise," says Kenneth Rogerson, research director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. "They want to profit from installing infrastructure and providing related services."

"The developing nations want access to Internet technology that minimizes their reliance on others and their expenses for continuing use of the Internet," says Rogerson, whose areas of research include Internet politics and policy. "They want extensive, in-depth training. They want to learn how to regulate the Internet, to conduct solid research about it and, most important, how to maintain and fix it.

Rogerson says other obstacles prevent developing nations from taking full advantage of the Internet. Developing nations often provide Internet access only to political and economic elites. The benefits of technology rarely trickle down to the society at large. Even when access is provided to the general population, the full benefits may be unrealizable in places where illiteracy is rampant and electrical connection is sporadic.