MHC Talk: Internet for Everyone

Posted: November 4, 2008

Updated: December 5, 2008 - Audio Availiable

In 1988, the Internet was an academic curiosity, used by less than a million students and professors. Twenty years later, it's the backbone of communication, commerce, and technological innovation around the world. It's easy to forget that most of the world still is not connected to the Internet and that the Internet continues to change and evolve as people from different countries, languages, and cultures connect to the network.

How and when will the Internet reach the five billion people not currently connected? How will the inputs of these new users change and reshape the Internet? Who's responsible for bringing the Internet to a wider world--governments? NGOs? private companies?--and should this be a priority for international development? An upcoming discussion at the College will tackle the cultural, political, technical, and economic future of the Internet.

Ethan Zuckerman, founder of Global Voices and Geekcorps, and Andrew McLaughlin, the head of Google's global policy efforts, will discuss "Internet for the Other Five Billion--How and Why?" at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, December 2, in Hooker Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College. The event is free and accessible to all.

According to Zuckerman, this will be "a discussion about why connectivity matters in the developing world--both to people in developing nations and to the rest of us--and how one makes it happen, in technical and policy terms."

Ethan Zuckerman is a researcher with Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society; cofounder of Global Voices, a nonprofit global citizens' media project; and the founder of Geekcorps, an international nonprofit organization of volunteers who are working to transfer technological skills from developed nations to developing nations around the world. In 2003, he was named a "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum. He has also been a driving force behind a number of initiatives and organizations aimed at assisting developing nations, particularly in Africa.

Andrew McLaughlin is an Emeritus Fellow with the Berkman Center and now head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs for Google, Inc. He was also a founding member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the technical coordinating body for the Internet. With ICANN he was vice president, chief policy officer, and chief financial officer. In 2000, Time magazine named him one of its "DigitalDozen." He also was named in 2001 as a "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum.

This event is sponsored by the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics, the Department of Computer Science, the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives, and a gift from Jean E. Sammet '48.

Related Links:

Ethan Zuckerman

Andrew McLaughlin