Monitor mundial sobre la sociedad de la información

The number of reports published on human rights on the internet in the last year alone is staggering.

GISWatch 2011 offers timely commentary on the future of the internet as an open and shared platform that everyone has the right to access.

How often is the technology policy solution, an environmentally sustainable one? And how often are sustainability policy tools drawing on innovative communication technologies? Global Information Society Watch 2010 proposes, not often enough.

“Every child should have a computer”. This political statement is often heard, especially in countries where the ICT penetration has not reached the tipping point. But is that enough for an ICT policy? Should we give every human being on the planet a computer, if we limit the Internet, by ICT policies, to what we want to be (by ignoring net neutrality claims)? Should we give every human being a computer just to be thrown in the backyard at the end of its (short) life?

The Association for Progressive Communications and the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries provide a welcomed overview of the state of green ICT in their jointly produced Global Information Society Watch 2010 (GISW2010). Divided into country reports and thematic reports written by some of the leading thinkers and organizations in this emerging space, this year’s GISW leaves a singular impression. ICTs have significant potential to foster sustainable development and that potential is barely being exploited.