July 2009 Archives

Unlike most other ICT reports, this one doesn't come out every year. So, when the World Bank released its Information and Communications for Development (IC4D) Report 2009 a few weeks ago -- three years after the Bank's first ever report on ICT --  expectations were high. Many were looking forward to something enlightening, or at least something that would spark some new thinking. 

Instead, the report dwelled on what at least half a dozen similar reports have said over the last year; and that is, access to affordable high-speed Internet and mobile phone service are the key elements for economic growth and job creation in developing countries.

In fact, when studied closely, its central theme looked somewhat similar to the earlier one as well. It too harped on the fact that ICT plays a vital role in advancing economic growth and reducing poverty.

Still IC4D 2009 is interesting for pulling out a significant aspect of e-government -- which is often overlooked -- by highlighting that e-government is an ideal tool for jump starting ICT penetration in any country.

According to the report, being the most cited and high-profile of all ICT applications in many countries, e-government could be the first tool that a country can use to lead the way for mainstream ICT applications.

"Our research for several years in countries across the world has revealed that e-government could be a key driver for the penetration of ICT in almost any country regardless of its ICT infrastructure and ICT penetration," Randeep Sudan, World Bank's e-government specialist and one of the authors of IC4D 2009, told Digital Communities.

In fact Sudan adds that the first priority of a government in a country that does not use ICT enough should be the adoption of e-governance.

"E-government spurs ICT penetration in two ways," he said. "For one, when a government embarks on e-government, it needs to develop applications, people to maintain to maintain the systems, and a lot of support from the local ICT sector. All these help in developing an IT infrastructure as well as providing opportunities for the local IT sector."

"Secondly, by streamlining administration processes through e-government, the country becomes a more attractive destination for IT investment."

The report adds that the world is fast moving towards knowledge-based activities. Since ICT is the foundation of a knowledge based world, it is imperative then for developing countries to improve and increase ICT use and application.

However, adoption of e-government is not an easy process. World Bank has found that both developing and developed economies are struggling to understand the difficulties, constraints, and uncertainties of e-government and how best to handle them.

Some of the most challenging issues faced by developing countries are translation of a broad vision into specific policies and regulations; developing ICT infrastructure in commercially less-attractive provincial and rural areas, as well as low-income groups in urban areas; ensuring robust performance from new large-scale information systems; and very importantly, tackling the scarcity of talent.

Thus, "in order to realize development gains from e-government investments, a sufficiently influential institutional structure that attracts strong commitment and support is essential", says the report.

But besides increasing ICT penetration e-government has significant other benefits, says the report. Some of the important ones include reduction of transaction costs and processing time and increased government revenues; reduction of corruption and abuse of discretion, and most importantly, the potential to access public services at home or at a local center which also empowers women and minorities groups.

E-government is not just an important ICT development tool for developing countries, but it could also be an effective tool for increasing ICT penetration in developed countries as well.

"Let us take the case of US, where although ICT penetration is high, e-government could still be used to improve that penetration further," says Sudan.

The Bank has found that a large section of the population in the US, specially in rural areas still do not possess a computer at home, or access the Internet from home.

"Availability of government services in the electronic format will drive a local government to engage its residents for using those tools. That in turn will help the community in rural areas to get with ICT tools and also realize the potential of ICT to get better services," says Sudan.

For local governments though, Sudan suggests an approach to e-government that is a little different from that of the central administration. Instead of focussing on just efficiency, local governments should put more focus on those applications that could have the highest impact on ICT inclusion, he says.

Photo World Bank. CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

For almost as long as there has been an Internet, there has been pirated content and a battle between copyrighted content owners and Internet Service Providers. Content owners furiously demand protection from illegal downloads and complain about the lack of stringent controls.

On the other side one finds protests from civil liberty campaigners who consider or seem to consider that almost any Internet clampdown a violation of the right to information. And above all this one finds what usually amounts to half-hearted government measures that usually result in ensuring that all online piracy initiatives remain relatively ineffective.

Over the last three months, at least three governments -- New Zealand, France, and Spain -- tried but failed to come up with a workable solution. And now it seems that the latest anti-piracy initiative on the part of the UK Government as articulated in Digital Britain Report -- the official broadband and digital content strategy document -- may end up being a damp squib as well.

In its hardest crackdown yet on Internet piracy, UK's latest Digital Britain published on 16th June, proposed that Ofcom -- the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries -- be given powers to regulate and monitor ISPs. UK has set an ambitious target to reduce online piracy by 70% within a year and has authorized Ofcom with the unprecedented power to "place conditions on ISPs". Ofcom can not only force ISPs in UK to clamp down on illegal downloaders by using technical measures such as bandwidth reduction and protocol blocking. They have also been mandated to notify subscribers identified as infringing copyright and to maintain an anonymous database of repeat infringers.

However, the music industry and ISPs doubt if Digital Britain's proposal will be able to bring any significant reduction in illegal file-sharing. For one, despite the most serious attempt yet by UK, the measures are still not adequate enough say content owners and ISPs; "the proposals can bark but do not have the teeth to bite," they say. And second, rightsholders and ISPs will be reluctant to avoid potential damage to their businesses by appearing to criminalize users.

 

"For rightsholders, this includes denting content sales, while for ISPs it includes driving up churn as customers switch to rivals. Additionally, from a practical perspective, it is unclear whether a user may avoid prosecution by swapping provider after receiving a notification -- a prospect ISPs will fear, particularly in light of high customer acquisition costs," said Screen Digest, the London-based media industry analysts firm, in its comments.

ISPs too have protested; Tom Alexander, CEO of Orange, said in his reaction to a local publication that Orange would "strongly" oppose any obligation to disconnect or disrupt the broadband service to alleged copyright infringers.

Indeed, judging copyright infringers by ISPs raises myriad legal issues and complexities: after all who is an ISP to judge whether a customers has breached any legal obligation or not? Moreover, determined file-sharers have and will always find a way around technical roadblocks implemented by ISPs.

But an interesting twist to the whole issue of illegal download is that there may be simple way out to check piracy, in the UK at least. According to a study conducted last month for the law firm Wiggin LLP, by Entertainment Media Research - a London-based entertainment research consultancy - if ISPs were forced to regulate access to entertainment content, currently free or extensively pirated content, the average consumer will not only pay to ISP for accessing that content but would also pay more.

The survey investigated consumer response to the scenario that in future all Internet-sourced content might only be available by way of monthly subscription to an ISP for different entertainment packages. It found that consumers are prepared to spend on average £26 per month on digital entertainment content that is currently available for free or is extensively downloaded from unauthorized sites and hence is currently not monetized.

"There's a huge demand for more and more content and there is willingness to pay for it," said Russell Hart, CEO of Entertainment Media Research.

"Only the latest movies can be monetized for TV but for Internet even back catalogues could be monetized," he added. "If ISPs create an environment where consumers cannot access pirated content then they are willing to pay. In other words rather than not watching it they would rather pay and watch."

According to Simon Baggs, partner Wiggin, this may be good news for ISPs because instead of chasing illegal downloaders and getting into legal hassles by trying to nab them, by fundamentally changing the relationship between customer and ISP and offering low cost packages of entertainment ISPs can monetize content rather than offering just crude Internet access. 

Photo by Nick Humphries. CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic