[kictanet] Syria shuts down Internet? How can we stop this from happening again?-application to Kenya?

Kivuva Kivuva at transworldafrica.com
Mon Dec 3 22:30:12 EAT 2012


That is a very detailed and philosophical approach by Walu.

Speaking for the mwananchi at the grassroots, if switching of the
Internet and broadcast media can foster unity by preventing
transmission of hate and unhealthy debates, then they should be
switched off

On 03/12/2012, Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you walu, for your insightful comments.
>
> What do the kictanet listers think about turning off twitter, TV and radio
> if there is a repeat of election violence?
>
> On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Rigia,
>>
>> You paper/analysis does cover the the policy and technical aspects for a
>> redundant (always on) interent service in a given economy. Basically a
>> liberalized internet market with multiple points of connection to the
>> Internet Backbone (read the North and increasingly Asia Pacific region)
>> should be enough to ensure that once and as soon as one international
>> link
>> goes down another one takes over.
>>
>> But over and above the technical redundancy above, one must have the
>> political redundancy to allow for these redundant links to exchange
>> information.  China for example does have multiple redundant links to the
>> Internet Backbone but can decide within a minute to block incoming and
>> outgoing data. And they can do it in a very clever, sophisticated way
>> (using software that provides limited/filtered internet ) as opposed to
>> the
>> crude way (switch off power or just vandalize the ISPs) approach that is
>> common in African/Arabic economies.
>>
>> In a seperate example, you will find that even where there is political
>> redundancy (read democracy) the temptation to switch off the internet is
>> never far away (ref: US vs Wikileaks?).  So I think the quest for an
>> Internet that can never be switched off is one that can never be
>> achieved.
>> Someone, somewhere will always be able to switch off the Net.
>>
>> And beneath the ongoing ITU/WCIT negotiations (what negotiators wont put
>> on the table, the hidden cards :-)  you just have to decide whether that
>> someone is the UN, the Government, the Private Sector, the Civil Society,
>> the Academia or some hybrid of the above :-)
>>
>> walu.
>>
>> *From:* Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com>
>> *To:* jwalu at yahoo.com
>> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>> *Sent:* Friday, November 30, 2012 5:54 AM
>> *Subject:* [kictanet] Syria shuts down Internet? How can we stop this
>> from happening again?
>>
>> Dear Kictanet List,
>>
>> Please see the work by Jean Camp and Warigia Bowman on how to "Protect
>> the
>> Internet from Dictators: Technical and Policy Solutions to Ensure Online
>> Freedoms. This paper is particularly timely given today's events, since
>> Syria is one of the countries we analyze. Can you please help us to
>> figure
>> out what technology we missed, or in what areas our analysis could be
>> improved? Many thanks.
>> *
>> You can find and download our work here*
>>
>> *http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2101677*
>> *
>> Here is the permalink *
>>
>> *http://ssrn.com/abstract=2101677
>>
>>
>> ***************************************************************************************
>> *
>> Please see ISOC's statement below.
>>
>>
>> http://www.internetsociety.org/news/internet-society-syria%E2%80%99s-internet-shutdown
>>
>> Sincerely, Rigia
>>
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>>
>>
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>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Dr. Warigia Bowman
> Assistant Professor
> Clinton School of Public Service
> University of Arkansas
> wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu
> http://democratizingegypt.blogspot.com
> -------------------------------------------------
> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
> http://ssrn.com/author=1479660
> --------------------------------------------------
>


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