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A Scary Look At The 'Digital Divide'
by William New
An expert on the global "digital divide" from Uruguay, who said the country has the most literate population in Latin America, has given a dour assessment of the e-commerce gap.
Ramiro Soto Platero offered a paper at the meeting of the Free Trade Area of the Americas' e-commerce committee last week that showed that the world's poor fell further behind in e-commerce from 2000 to 2001.
While the proportion of Internet users in developing countries compared with developed countries improved from 1995 to 2000, he said, based on International Telecommunications Union figures, the penetration of the Internet was just 1.6 percent in developing countries.
A key deterrent to growth is the relatively higher price residents in developing countries pay for Internet services. Soto offered sobering statistics on the diffusion of technologies, such as the fact that only 2.5 percent of Africans have a fixed phone line, compared with 70 percent in the United States. A resident of Gambia, furthermore, spends 1.5 days' wages for a three-minute Internet call, while a French resident spends two-thousandths of a day's wages.
Internet use also requires access to a computer, for which the divisions between developed and developing nations are even wider. Other deterrents include the fact that 40 percent of the world has no electric power, that more than 70 percent of Web sites are in English, and that in developing countries, telephone charges typically are by the minute and bandwidth is slow, making downloading expensive.
Developing countries are further behind in e-commerce because they fail to meet four prerequisites, Soto concluded. Those include the implementation of domestic and international legal and regulatory frameworks, adequate distribution and delivery systems, efficient online payment systems, and secure servers offering strong encryption.
Most e-commerce is conducted within the same country. "It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the [United States] largely dominates e-commerce," Soto said, because the nation has more technological capability and "the largest single market in the world when weighted by its purchasing power."
He called government intervention to foster e-commerce a "matter of urgency." He also said tariffs and freight costs inhibit shipments of products that cannot be downloaded.
At the Oct. 24-26 meeting in Panama City where Soto presented his paper, the FTAA committee discussed initiatives to help small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the Internet, a U.S. participant said. They also recognized that, in addition to providing access to computers and the Internet, there is a need for technology training and education. The committee further cited the importance of ensuring Internet content that is "useful."
The committee is the only one of the FTAA negotiations that involves the private sector. Several U.S. private-sector experts presented comments at or participated in the meeting. They included: Robert Kramer, vice president at CompTIA; Elliot Maxwell of the Aspen Institute; Lee Tablewski of the North-South Center; and Rick Weingarten of the American Library Association.
Think Tanks Issue Papers On 'Safe Harbor,' Trade
Aaron Lukas of the Cato Institute has issued an invective against the "safe harbor" to help U.S. companies comply with the European Union directive on data protection. The directive requires that personal data transferred out of Europe receive "adequate" protection. U.S. companies that sign the safe-harbor agreement effectively have said they meet the EU standard.
Lukas argues that the safe harbor faces an uncertain future because a relatively small number of U.S. companies have signed and because the European Union has developed model contracts for companies that undercut the safe harbor. He urges the United States not to adopt similar regulations but rather to rely on market forces.
Lukas concludes with a threat to take the European Union to the World Trade Organization dispute-settlement process if the data directive puts U.S. firms at an unfair disadvantage.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Policy Institute has issued a paper favoring congressional action on a bill to grant presidential trade-negotiating authority. The paper argues that long-term trends show that international trade has led to the United States shifting toward a high-tech, high-skilled economy.
Data show that agricultural and primary products have been replaced with semiconductors, computers, telecommunications equipment and electronics since the 1950s. The shift, which PPI views as positive, raises new issues, such as how to train workers in the new economy and how to develop the "infrastructure of rules and agreements" appropriate for that economy.
Canada Vows To Block Internet Retransmissions
Heritage Canada Minister Sheila Copps this week promised a group of Canadian broadcasters that the government would pursue amendments to the nation's copyright act by year's end.
According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, the amendment would ban Internet companies, such as iCraveTV and JumpTV, from picking up Canadian programming and transmitting it elsewhere in the world for free.
Europe Uses Technology To Aid The Elderly
The European Union is working to improve the quality of life for its elderly citizens through access to the Internet and other technologies. Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen outlined the 15-nation body's efforts at a conference on aging on Friday.
Longer life expectancy is bringing with it longer periods of disability and dependency that can be alleviated with technology, he said. The effort consists of programs to boost older people's quality of life, to research and develop assistive technologies, and to employ intelligent systems to allow people with special requirements to live independently.
"Smart houses," for instance, include systems within homes that are tailored to older people's needs. An example of smart technology is a detector that alarms when a person falls, leaves the house or has a fire in the house.
The Global Technology Calendar
The Business Software Alliance will hold its Global Tech Summit on Dec. 4-5 in Washington. The agenda will include a discussion on network security and privacy, intellectual property, international trade and e-commerce, and technology creation.
Elsewhere, Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society will conduct a program on Internet-related legal issues and controversies. The event will be held in Singapore on Jan. 2-4 and will build on an inaugural Internet law program that the center held in July.
Lecturers in Singapore will include Harvard professors Terry Fisher and Charles Nesson, Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig, and New York University professor Yochai Benkler. They will lead sessions on Internet security, copyrights and business models, cyber crime and jurisdiction, and speech and privacy.
The program is open to lawyers, entrepreneurs, journalists, and policymakers from government and nonprofit organizations.
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