Issue papers
This policy brief by Evan Light provides a brief history of how spectrum use has developed over the past 80 years, examines how it is currently being managed and what the current issues surrounding spectrum are, and makes a case for open spectrum.
Put sex and new technology together and you’ll always get waves. Victorian societies were scandalised by the arrival of the telephone because women –who were chaperoned at all times– could potentially talk with suitors in private. Over the last decade, the internet has been censored and content regulated for a multitude of reasons and the principal reason cited by governments across all geopolitical spectrums has been sex – or “harmful sexual content”.
Submarine cables serving Africa in 2007 (APC)This study examining the impact the SAT-3 fibre optic submarine cable has had on telecommunications in four African countries has found that the potential of the cable has not been properly exploited. Instead, ownership of the cable by telecoms incumbents in the countries researched has reinforced their market positions. The study analyses the effec...
This case study looks at the relationship between international bandwidth prices in Mauritius and the impact of its Cyber Island strategy. Whilst other countries along the SAT-3/SAFE cable have struggled to find ways to address the high costs of monopoly international bandwidth on this cable, Mauritius has used a price determination to address the issue. Interestingly, once the process was anno...
This paper identifies and documents the main areas of discussions and ‘recommendations’ that were generated under the Access theme at the second Internet Governance Forum in Rio De Janeiro, November 2007.
The distinction between “new” and “old” technology is no longer significant in the current state of technology convergence. People from community radios and telecentres are working together for more democratic and participatory access to communication, specifically in rural and poor urban areas. This paper by Carlos Rivadeneyra provides conceptual tools to re-think, from this perspectiv...
It is obvious that the discourse around content regulation has shifted mostly towards the protection of children from harmful content and child pornography on the internet. Any references to gender-related concerns were dropped, including even problematic conceptions that women and children need the paternalistic protection of the state or international bodies from harmful content. One can spec...
In 2003 a Pew Hispanic Center survey found that 40% of the adult, foreign-born Latino population in the United States, some 6 million people, send money home on a regular basis. This paper deals with the issue of the high cost to migrants of sending money back to their families at home, i.e. international money transfers and who controls them, and discusses opportunities of creating an altern...
This discussion paper asks if new technologies are re-shaping or facilitating trafficking, and/or if the use of ICTs in trafficking will change the way we understand other issues. For example, how should we think about the distribution of women’s images against their will; can we talk about trafficking in images, and what relation does this have to the debate about pornography? It explores go...
This paper explores the connection between new information communication technologies (ICTs) and violence against women (VAW). From the perspective of representation and rapid dissemination of information and communication enabled through ICTs, the paper looks at domestic violence in the homes, sexual violence and women in conflict affected areas. It presents case studies, strategies and analys...
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