<div dir="ltr">Interesting discussion, I replied in another thread, so I am re-posting this to maintain the thread and discussion.<div><br></div><div>I<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">n the spirit of constructive debate, Pierre, could you paint for us a model of how this alternative countrinets (Internet within a country) will operate and how they will drive economic development? What would make it faster? cheaper? better? than the status quo?</span><br>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">As to your previous message, see comments inline <br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:start;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:14pt;white-space:normal;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;word-spacing:0px">
<div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal"><span lang="en"><span>NSA</span><span> </span><span>in the U.S. and</span><span> </span><span>other</span><span> </span><span>intelligence services</span><span> </span><span>or</span><span> </span><span>espionages</span><span> </span><span>(</span><span>Western countries</span><span>, Chinese, ...</span><span>)</span><span> </span><span>will eventually</span><span> </span><span>convince N</span><span>ations</span><span> </span><span>/ S</span><span>overeign</span><span> </span>State<span> </span><span>to have their own</span><span> </span><span>Internet</span><span>.</span><span> </span></span></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">Actually I don't think so and here's why. If you are General Keith Alexander (guy who runs NSA), the first logical deduction you get to make (if you can't, you shouldn't even have that job) is that - the PRISM program's success depends on having one large source of data to mine and gather intelligence from (the whole Internet). While from the perspective of 'securing e-borders', your suggestion might make sense, from the perspective of intelligence gathering, it doesn't and the spy agencies everywhere know that. The big players in this space will be the last to advocate for contrinets (unless of course their pockets are deep enough that they can have a self-sustaining one). If countrinets were viable, am sure France would still have its Minitel [</font><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel</a>] running.<br>
</div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:start;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:14pt;white-space:normal;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;word-spacing:0px">
<div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal"><span lang="en"><span>Africa</span><span> </span><span>will lose</span><span> </span><span>nothing,</span><span> </span><span>let's not be</span><span> </span><span>alarmist</span><span>, </span></span></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Why not ask the African entrepreneurs who have built global companies based upon the Internet what it would mean to them if a large part of the world could not access their service because they happen to be in an Internet block that is not friendly with theirs? Or actually go talk to the aspiring tech-entrepreneurs all over Africa trying to build Internet startups (I think there's one such space in Cameroon - Activespaces based in Buea/Douala).</span><br>
</div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:start;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:14pt;white-space:normal;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;word-spacing:0px">
<div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal"><span lang="en"><span>Africa must</span><span> </span><span>understand the issues and</span><span> </span><span>adapt</span><span> </span><span>itself to survive</span><span>...</span> </span></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>+1 ... and with that understanding, make its own play in its self-interest.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:start;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:14pt;white-space:normal;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;word-spacing:0px">
<div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal"><span lang="en"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal">
<span lang="en"><span>According to their</span><span> </span><span>different</span><span> </span><span>strategic interests</span><span>, Nations</span><span> </span><span>/</span><span> </span><span>Sovereign States</span><span> </span><span>will interconnect</span><span> </span><span>their Internet (</span><span>p2p,</span><span> </span><span>multilateral</span><span> </span><span>peering</span><span>, etc ...)</span></span></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">And so long as those strategic interest are driven by basic economic self interest (think trade) a boundaryless Internet is a requirement. And if you sell something, you want their widest market possible for it ergo, you want the widest boundaryless Internet to go with that ...and the ideal of that tedious route will be the open Internet we now have.</font><br>
</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><div style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:start;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:14pt;white-space:normal;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;word-spacing:0px">
<div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal"><br></div><div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal">
<span lang="en"><span>The wars in</span><span> </span><span>Libya</span><span>, Syria</span><span>, Egypt</span><span>, Sudan</span><span>, CAR,</span><span> </span><span>...</span><span> </span><span>reinforce our</span><span> </span><span>position</span><span> </span><span>with regard to</span><span> </span><span>the</span><span> </span><span>future</span><span> </span><span>of Internet architecture</span><span>.</span><span> </span></span></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Please could you specify 'our' here? Is this the position of the Cameroon IT regulator (ANTIC) and thus the gov't of Cameroon? That would be good to know.</span><br>
</div><div><br></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">And if we go down this road, will we develop our own protocols? within countries? and would the costs of interconnecting make global information easier to access?</font> <br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><blockquote type="cite">
<div><div style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:start;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:14pt;white-space:normal;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;word-spacing:0px">
<div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal"><span lang="en"><br><br><span>In addition</span><span>, political unrest</span><span> </span><span>manipulated by</span><span> </span><span>the major world powers</span><span> </span><span>(eg,</span><span> </span><span>Ukraine</span><span>, Thailand</span><span>, etc ...)</span><span> </span><span>are</span><span> </span><span>also </span><span>drawing our attention to</span><span> </span><span>the</span><span> </span><span>precautions for</span><span> </span><span>the benefit of</span><span> </span><span>our peoples.</span><span> </span></span></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>The Internet is a just a tool, and can be wielded every which way by the person using it. As a farm hand, I cut myself many times with the cutlass or hoe I was using, I bled and swore, I took precautions but never for a moment doubted that the open architecture of cutlass and hoe was instrumental to its affordability to millions of people like me. By all means, let's deal with precautions, I hardly think the benefits of a walled countrinet are out way the loss in value of cutting out huge chunks of the Internet (See Metcalf & Reed's laws on the value of a network)</div>
<div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><blockquote type="cite">
<div><div style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:start;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:14pt;white-space:normal;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;word-spacing:0px">
<div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal"><span lang="en"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:18.6667px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal">
<span><span title="La mondialisation n'a pas que les effets positifs...
<br>
<br>" style>Globalization has not only the positive effects ...</span></span></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I agree 100% with you here. In fact, I'll recommend the "Globalisation and its Discontents" by Joseph Stiglitz, former World Bank chief economist and Nobel laureate. Globalisation - which is well aided by an Open Internet is a weapon - those that master how to wield it will benefit from it, those that don't will suffer but they will suffer not because of the globalisation or the Internet, but because they have failed as persons, organisations, countries or continents to build the capabilities that enable them to produce (not just dig from the ground) and sell products and services to other countries AND make money. </span><br>
</div><div> </div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br></div>./shalom<br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><br>Mukom Akong T.<br><br><a href="http://about.me/perfexcellence" target="_blank">http://about.me/perfexcellence</a> | twitter: @perfexcellent <br>
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