Subject: [gaia] Does the Internet deserve everybody?

From: "El Khatib, Yehia (elkhatib)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 May 2015 12:35:01 +0000

Hello all,

We have put together a short paper on the ethicality of Internet initiatives for developing regions. It will be presented at the workshop on Ethics in Networked Systems Research in London later in the summer. We wanted to share it with you and invite any feedback.

Abstract: There has been a long standing tradition amongst developed nations of influencing, both directly and indirectly, the activities of developing economies. Behind this is one of a range of aims: building/improving living standards, bettering the social status of recipient communities, etc. In some cases, this has resulted in prosperous relations, yet often this has been seen as the exploitation of a power position or a veneer for other activities (e.g. to tap into new emerging markets). In this paper, we explore whether initiatives to improve Internet connectivity in developing regions are always ethical. We draw a list of issues that would aid in formulating Internet initiatives that are ethical, effective, and sustainable.

The PDF could be accessed here: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~elkhatib/Docs/2015.08_dide.pdf

Best regards,
Yehia

--
Dr. Yehia Elkhatib
School of Computing & Communications
Lancaster University, LA1 4WA, UK
y.elkhatib <then add> lancaster.ac.uk
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~elkhatib