Comment Articles

Why global Net expansion isn't charity

Douglas Batt for CNET News.com AnchorDesk

Published: 24 May 2002 10:14 BST

So why will the Internet follow a similar path? For all of the same fundamental reasons -- just substitute knowledge for transportation.

The old saying is true: knowledge is power. It can also be health, food, water and wealth, if properly applied. People want it, and the Internet is the best way yet devised for sharing it.

True, it doesn't directly fill an obvious need in the developing world. The Internet won't pump clean water to remote villages, give malaria shots in mosquito country, or grow crops on exhausted land. It is already, however, giving people the knowledge to fix the pump, track the disease-carrying mosquitoes and find crops that restore depleted soil.

This short-term utility is the reason for expanding the Internet further into the developing world. The end game, however, is the technical knowledge it will create. It's a foregone conclusion that developing nations that want comprehensive Internet infrastructures must train their own people to operate and maintain them.

The training and on-the-job experience people gain from building out their country's Internet infrastructures is just like the knowledge the original backyard mechanics got from tinkering with Stanley Steamers and Model T's. At first, they'll just learn how to keep the packets flowing. Soon, the more nimble minds will see the potential applications to local issues: maybe an Internet application that calculates crop yields under different weather conditions, or sizes international markets for local products.