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Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 10:58:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Phil Agre <pagre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Red Rock Eater News Service" <rre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [RRE]Broadcasting and the Internet in Developing Countries
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Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 14:25:31 +0200
From: Bruce Girard <bgirard@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

[...]

CONVERGING RESPONSIBILITY:
BROADCASTING AND THE INTERNET IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

IIC Pre-Conference
September 4 and 5, 1999
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

BACKGROUND
Founded in 1968, the International Institute of Communications (IIC)
is an interdisciplinary network of senior communications decision-
takers and thinkers in some 70 countries.

IIC activities include a publishing program, regular international
meetings about telecommunications and broadcasting, and its Annual
Conference.

IIC's Annual Conference provides a forum for an interchange of
perspectives between IIC members, who are drawn from industry,
government and academia in broadcasting, telecommunications,
information technology, online services and the print media.  More
information about the IIC is available at http://www.iicom.org.

This year's conference will be held September 7-9 in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.  The conference's theme is "Emerging Knowledge Society -
Commerce, Culture and Communities in Cyberspace".  For information
about the 1999 annual conference, visit
http://www.iicom.org/services/conferences/kl99/index.htm.

The main conference events are usually preceded by smaller meetings
in which participants are able to focus on particular areas of
interest.  This year, as it has on numerous occasions in the past, the
Friedrich Ebert Foundation is hosting a special developing countries
pre-conference.

In addition to providing the thirty invited participants from Asia
and the Middle East with a forum for discussion, the pre-conference
is an opportunity to put developing country issues and perspectives on
the IIC's main agenda.  A report from the pre-conference is presented
to a plenary session of the IIC and all pre-conference participants
are able to participate fully in the full IIC conference, enriching
the discussions with their perspectives and making contacts with IIC
members.

DATES
The pre-conference will be held on September 4 and 5.  A special
program, including visits to media and telecom projects in Malaysia,
will be organised for September 6.  Pre-conference participants will
join the full IIC conference September 7 to 9.

LOCATION
Equatorial Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

SPONSORS
The pre-conference is hosted and organised by the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation.  Additional financial support is being provided by the
International Development Research Centre (IDRC).  Other national
and international development agencies are being asked to sponsor
the participation of representatives of some of their partner
projects in the region.  Additional support is being provided by
Telecommunications Policy, Delft University of Technology, the IIC,
and Comunica.

CONVERGENCE
The convergence of telecommunications, media and information
technologies is one of the most important phenomenon of the late
20th century.  Even relatively cautious observers admit that the
impact of the changes that will be brought on by new information
and communication technologies will rival those that accompanied
the invention of the printing press.

Ignoring the economic importance of telecommunications and information
technologies is perilous.  In developed world economies, the sector
it is widely regarded as the single most important contributor to
economic growth.  In the developing countries the sector has not yet
achieved the same status.  Nonetheless, it is experiencing exponential
growth, particularly in urban centres.

Media, the other side of the convergence coin, have, in addition
to a growing economic importance, an enormous socio-cultural impact.
Convergence is changing the nature of the information we have, the
way we receive it, who we receive it from and what we do with it.

CONVERGING RESPONSIBILITY
Even while technological advances are bringing about such profound
changes, the vast majority of the world's population has no direct
access to the new technologies, much less any influence over the
nature of the changes that they cause.  It is estimated that 170
million people have access to the Internet.  That is a mere 4% of the
world's population.  And more than 80% (137 million) of those are in
North America or Europe.  In most developing countries less than 1%
of the population has access to the technology that is changing the
world.  With the growth of the global knowledge economy there is a
very real danger that ever-widening gap between the information rich
and the information poor may obliterate any chance of a more equitable
world order.

Given the short-term difficulties of extending the developed world's
Internet model to the developing world, the past few years have seen
tremendous interest and activity in alternative models.  Most of
the attention has been placed on various models of shared access to
technology and services in the form of community telecentres.  Other
experiments, some of which will be looked at in this conference, have
tried to use existing broadcasters as virtual community gateways to
the information society.

It is clear that convergence will impact on broadcasters in developing
countries in a very different way than in Europe and North America.
While in the developed world there are predictions that new media
and the Internet may soon become substitutes for broadcast services
and distribution systems, in the developing countries this will not
happen in the foreseeable future.  Radio will continue to be the most
important medium for the vast majority of the world's inhabitants
and television will continue to have a recognisable form in the first
years of the 21st century.

However, new information and communication technologies do present
profound challenges and opportunities for broadcasters in developing
countries.  Advances in satellite technologies mean that broadcasters
in the South have easy access to international radio broadcasting
services from the United States and several European countries.  These
services are rebroadcast and it is not uncommon for listeners to be
better informed about policies of the US government than of their own
country.

What will be the implications of new services that will enable
broadcasts direct from satellite to receiver - from London or New York
direct to the Himalaya or the Amazon.  Will local independent radio
successfully make the switch to digital, or will we see a two-tiered
broadcasting system - big commercial for the urban middle classes,
and independent stations on the lower quality analogue channels,
increasingly abandoned by audiences and advertisers.

But the same convergence that can contribute to the growing gap
between the info rich and info poor can also be used in innovative
ways by local broadcasters in the pursuit of public service
objectives.  The Internet's relative accessibility and flexibility
have made it a particularly useful tool in this task.

For example, in 1996 Pulsar, a Latin American news agency for
independent and community radio, was founded.  Pulsar was the first
experiment of its kind, and by the time the agency celebrated its
second anniversary it had correspondents in most countries of the
region and was delivering its text and audio clip news service to
more than 1,000 subscribers in fifty countries.

Earlier this month, a similar initiative enabled the creation of an
Internet-based network of twenty local radio stations from all over
Indonesia.  The country's first democratic elections provided the
backdrop to the network's inaugural nationwide exchange of news and
audio clips.

In Sri Lanka Kothmale Community Radio serves as a gateway between the
Internet and rural communities.  The station has computer equipment
and Internet connectivity through a dedicated 64KB line.  In addition
to a community data base and a mini ISP, the Kothmale broadcasts the
program Radio Browse, in which announcers receive information requests
from listeners and try to get the answers from the Internet.

In addition to looking at these exciting and innovative examples of
how convergence can support democratic development and local, national
and regional culture, the conference will look at how broadcasters can
participate in and support the debates over national telecom policies.
Important policy development is no longer the exclusive preserve of
government or to be decided behind closed boardroom doors.  If the
policies that will give form to convergence are to serve the interests
of society at large, they must be developed in a way that will
converge the specific interests and responsibilities of government,
the telecom industry, the media, and the public.

The conference will examine: (1) how broadcasters participate in the
policy development and regulatory processes and (2) how broadcasters,
government and others can share responsibility for making the
processes more transparent and enabling more public participation.

PARTICIPATION
The thirty participants will be primarily from Central Asia, South
and Southeast Asia and the Arab world and will include broadcasters,
regulators/policy makers, researchers and ISPs.

>From the broadcasting side the emphasis will be on local, independent
and community radio and television, although there will also be
representatives from the ABU's Asiavision initiative, and from AIBD.
UNESCO, SCO/CAF and other national and international development
agencies are being asked to sponsor the participation of
representatives of their partners in the region.

The regulators and policy makers/researchers and ISPs will be high
level people from the region and a few invited experts.

Rohan Samarajiva, former Director General of the Telecommunications
Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka will be both a keynote speaker and
an active participant in the conference.

AGENDA
A draft agenda is being drawn up and will be circulated to interested
parties for comment.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
A website is being set up for the event at
http://www.comunica.org/kl/

You can also contact the organisers.

Bruce Girard
bgirard@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Economics of Infrastructure Programme
Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management
Delft University of Technology
PO Box 5015, 2600 GA Delft
The Netherlands
Tel: +(31-15) 278.85.48  -  Fax: +(31-15) 278 7925

Sucharita Eashwar
voices@xxxxxxxx
Bangalore, India
Fax: +(91-80) 5303403

-
Bruce Girard
bgirard@xxxxxxxxxxxx or bruceg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
TU Delft: +31(0)15 278.8548   Fax: +31(0)15 278.7925
Home office: +31(0)15 213.3830  Mobile +31(0)6 2039.6958
Kloksteeg 17b, 2611 BL Delft, The Netherlands
>From the Americas, fax to (1-209) 821-9414




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