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Why should we, as citizens, become involved in ICT policy making? The obvious answer is that, ICTs are so central to contemporary society that they affect us continually in many ways. So, for example, if a government decides to promote free software, we are more likely to enjoy the benefits of free software (better security, lower cost, easy adaptation to local conditions and needs, etc). This is because it will be more extended throughout society, the monopoly of software and file formats will be broken, and our lives will improve.
If a government decides to introduce a new form of censorship on the internet, or fails to protect citizens' rights to privacy, then we will suffer too. If the phone companies keep prices artificially high for broadband, or refuse to introduce a cheap flat rate for modem access, then we may have to pay too much to access the internet, the same as everyone else. If telecommunications companies are not encouraged or obliged by regulation to roll out services in rural areas, people there will have to rely on more expensive mobile phone services or remain balkanised.
If governments do not make it legal for wireless internet services to operate, development and community workers in ‘unconnected' parts of the world will not be able to benefit from the power of online communication and information access. The internet makes it possible for local voices to be heard throughout the world but, if policy and regulation limit their access, they will also limit their reach.
These self-focused reasons are not the main ones. Other reasons have to do with the nature of global society. If we want to promote social justice, then ICT policy will be a key factor in this battle, and we cannot afford to remain outside the ICT policy-making process.
ICTs have been a fundamental part of the globalization process. Without instantaneous, global, electronic telecommunications, the world financial market could not exist, nor could companies coordinate their production strategies on a global level. Today's competition between companies depends on such global communications, as does the production of new ideas and research, whether at universities, private institutes or company laboratories. Although it is not true to say that ICTs have caused these radical changes, they have been a prerequisite and are now fundamental to the functioning of the global economy.
The conclusion is clear: we have to use the networks in a new way, for the benefit of human beings and not only for the efficient functioning of the international money market and multinational companies. If global, networked systems are the new basis of power, and if ICTs are the technical foundation of globalisation, they became a terrain of struggle.
The main challenge is to adapt them to become the technical foundation of the struggle against the negative impacts of globalization and for social justice. Those who remain inside the networked society, with access to the systems that make it function so effectively, will be able to fight to change it. Those who are excluded will find it so much more difficult.
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