Lunchtime on day one. This morning I attended a session on mobile Internet issues which had some interesting points but overall lacked a bit of cohesion. Surprisingly to me, the audience was rather small, despite the hot topic and the presence of Tim Berners-Lee on the panel.
The presentations varied a bit, from a technical discussion of mobile Internet access in Ghana, to what comes after 3G connectivity (answer: 4G. Or something called LTE (Long Term Evolution) which will be rolled out by 10 telecommunications companies in the US next year and will significantly enhance a future online experience where data traffic will be driven by video applications), to what sorts of policies will be needed as things such as m-health, m-payments and m-learning become more popular. In his presentation Tim Berners-Lee emphasised the need for open and neutral networks if the mobile web is take off properly (which he said it will, and most new Internet users in the coming years will come online using mobile – 92% of the mobile handsets sold in the last year had an Internet browser function). Still, my take-home for this session? That in the short term in developing countries, the future belongs to SMS for information dissemination.
The second session I attended was titled Privacy, Literacy and Social Networking. It was organised by UNESCO and while the concepts being discussed were familiar (how to educate Internet users about the privacy rights online and the implications of information sharing via social networks, what sort of regulation is needed to protect users’ rights, how to better harness the technology to embed privacy into applications, generational differences to privacy) the panelists were good and the audience involved. I made an intervention on behalf of information literacy training in school libraries, mentioning this article in the New York Times about how the school library was an excellent place for the discussion of online privacy issues amongst children learning to go online for the first time. I also mentioned the InfoLit Global website that IFLA has put together with UNESCO to provide access to information literacy issues. What I will be following up on is the extent to which privacy is covered in library information literacy training – its clearly a big issue as we move forward into the age of user-generated content and social media.
Some housekeeping: for those of you who wish to remotely attend the IGF, the live text feed is here, and the live webcast is here. Enjoy.
OK, more soonish. Time for the opening ceremony..
Dear Stuart,
Thanks for the information. In Norway there was a preparatory meeting for the IGF meeting, which we regrettably were unable to attend, but we have very good contact with the Norwegian delegation leader, (at least I think he is).
His name is Willy Jensen, director of Norwegian Post- and Telecommunication Authority. Maybe he could be a person for you to contact during your stay. He has a very democratic view on these matters.
Enjoy your stay, Stuart!
Kind regards
Tore