In the ongoing summit in Tunis, world leaders gathered in to discuss the future of the Internet and ICT. What do you think Nigeria stand to gain from the ongoing delibration.

You can read about the summit here and here.

We in Nigeria have absolutely nothing to gain from the WSIS discussions. As far as I am concerned, it is nothing but a talk shop: thousands of people who have[i] no authority[/i] at home will gather, argue with each other, and go back home to do absolutely nothing.

In my opinion, Tunisia is the only country that stands to gain from this summit, since it is being held in their country. They are going to earn some nice foreign exchange from the WSIS delegates!

Good point Seun. But at least it will make these politicians in Africa and most especially Nigeria to know that the Internet and ICT are veritable means of moving the wheels of the country forward.

One of the most interesting thing i have heard in the ongoing summit is when our own Minister of Communication was suggesting that the Internet domain name administration must be put in the UN custody. I wonder what he knows about all the techno babble and what he is doing about the moribund .ng domain.

In my own opinion putting the domain name administratio under the UN will reduce the explosive rate at which Internet technologies are growning due to all the bureaucratic nature of the UN.


I hope Mr. President and the honourable minister will be able to implement some of the recommendations at the summit.

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TUNIS, Tunisia - A crucial summit on expanding Internet access around the world ended Friday with a firm promise to narrow the digital divide — but little in government funding to make it happen.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10097825/

Just as I expected.

At least the summit outcome will definately be a clarion call for third world countries on the need for them to get on the Internet/ICT bandwagon if they really want to empower their citizerns.

It's not a clarion call for anything or anybody. What we need in this country is stable power supply and affordable Internet Access. If the SAT-3 cable is opened so the public can enjoy it, the private sector will provide Internet access independent of WSIS. If the power supply industry is deregulated so that private companies can go into it and compete, there will be stable power supply for those who are ready to pay a little bit more. Can the WSIS can give us stable electricity in Nigeria?

Oh, and by the way, conferences like this do not influence politicians because politicians don't care about what won't get them re-elected. And they do not influence the private sector because the private sector doesn't care about what won't bring them profits.

I agree with you on politicians attitudes to such summits. But the private sector stands to gain a lot if they can lobby politicians into supporting initiatives that a proposed in summits like this.

In Nigeria today regular power supply is the bane of IT development. If government can provide regular power supply the IT sector will definately witness a substancial growth.

SAT-3 would have been a nice technology but will people be able to afford the cost of getting connected to it.

Actually, SAT-3 is supposed to be cheaper for the same amount of bandwidth, because sending signals through fibre is more efficient. However, when you have a private monopoly on SAT-3 usage, they are likely to offer a very large price that is only slightly less expensive that VSAT for bulk buyers (ISPs)

The thing about private sector is this: we do not need WSIS to think for us. All we need is freedom to compete for customers. With or without WSIS, if government opens up opportunities, nobody needs to tell the private sector what to do.