Why Internet.org will change the world
Extending access to the internet is our generation’s greatest opportunity for social impact
We are smack dab in the middle of the latest information revolution, but what would make this iteration a true revolution is if it spreads more evenly. Internet.org offers a promising opportunity for our generation to have global impact.
“The future is already here- it’s just not evenly distributed.” Despite their murky origins, these words particularly ring true when we observe the flurry of products and services leveraging the internet and other new technologies while considering their global accessibility. It is easy to be excited and captivated by emerging products and services like 3D printing, drones, sensors, electric vehicles, and of course the internet of things. However, when juxtaposed with the estimated 65.7% of people in the world who don’t have access to the internet (despite a 6.7 fold increase from 2000 to 2012), progress accentuates a stark and jarring contrast.
Many of us first experienced the internet in the mid 1990s. It has enhanced and streamlined lots of different parts of our lives. E-mail is clearly a game changer. Web-based services too have had enormous impact on the quality of our lives. Think about some of the benefits realized- jobs or leads you found on LinkedIn, dates rustled up, the Coursera classes you’ve taken (or just signed up for and shamefully deleted class reminders for- still a motivator to seek more knowledge!), or the utility savings gained through a smart thermometer. Now imagine all of these opportunities and benefits (and more) going completely dark. You’ve just joined the two thirds of the world without internet access in 2014.
This is not to suggest that there aren’t other pressing needs or priorities in life, but who would contest the immense value that the internet has added? Some international development experts and philanthropists suggest that access to the internet should be a secondary investment. This is an extremely limited zero sum view of development and ignores the possibility of a more accessible internet’s ability to result in positive externalities for more immediate needs and concerns like health, education, transportation, and energy. No one is suggesting that a malaria-stricken child should be given temporary access to What’s App instead of a malaria pill.
Understandably governments and international organizations also want to leverage the internet- especially when it comes to e-government, citizen engagement, and citizen feedback. Open data also plays an essential role in this framework (after all, what are you trying to engage citizens on without first sharing information?). Through this social lens, the limitation of internet access becomes even more critical and fundamental to a meaningful information revolution (and data revolution which is of course expedited and possibly even built on the foundation of the internet). The true revolutionary natures of these movements rely on their more even spread across the world.
The internet allows for scale, but given that two thirds of the world’s population is currently disconnected from the internet, does primarily investing in web products and activities by governments reinforce the digital divide and inequality? Additionally, by the time technology is more widely available and accessible, the next disruption is well underway. There is little doubt that technology is widening the playing field, but very rarely has it actually leveled the playing field. This thought weighed heavily on my mind and took me to offline communities in Indonesia and Kenya to test the potential impact of open data in offline communities. This experience further fueled my passion for connectivity and reinforced the notion that access to the internet is a global game changer and a foundation for sustainable social impact.
Within this context, the work of organizations including Facebook and Google (but also smaller players like Outernet) have captured my curiosity and piqued my interest. Among the heavy hitters, Facebook & Friends’ approach in my opinion has the greatest chance to succeed in not only driving its own partnership to reach the lofty goals established but to push the rest of the industry and world along in pursuit of this meaningful and worthwhile end result. Here are three reasons why:
1. Facebook’s taking an open and collaborative approach.
Facebook has taken a very public and partnership driven approach to the problem. Internet.org’s evolving strategy and plans are readily shared through position papers (Is Connectivity a Human Right? & Connecting the World from the Sky), and this type of transparency should be applauded and is essential to making a project like this work. I look forward to more of it- particularly as it relates to initial on-the-ground activities in India, Rwanda, and beyond.
Facebook & Friends are also working on the problem collaboratively, which makes a lot of sense as this is a big problem. The respective long-term incentives of each founding partner (Ericsson, Mediatek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm, Samsung) in the chain are acknowledged and lined up in the project design and plans for execution.
2. This isn’t just about social good.
Along the lines of smart partnership, it is quite clear that the Internet.org initiative isn’t just about providing internet access across the digital divide, but driven by complex business interests of all the key players. The future of the new economy lies in new and emerging markets, and the major technology players know that is where new user growth will come from.
In the short-term, the incentives do not line up properly for any one single player to tackle problems like global connectivity. However, Internet.org establishes a clear value proposition for both private and public actors. The end game is good; in the short-term, social good alone won’t drive individual actors to action.
3. A broad brush of the “Hacker Way” is essential.
Connecting the entire world to the internet is a huge and complex challenge; but like all such challenges, it represents an equally huge opportunity. These types of issues require “continuous improvement and iteration.” For example, mobile figures to be a huge part of this project, but there is certainly space and room to move on to the next technological breakthrough as well. The hacker mentality and approach is the only way a project like this can be both dreamed up and executed to success.
It is quite fun to imagine the future (Asimov’s view of 2014 in 1964 is an amusing read). Painting the future is an exercise in idealism that reveals much about our social leanings and creative limits. I hope our visions of the world fifty years from now include a more connected world, irrespective of traditional social and economic divides. Mark Twain famously said, “the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” I believe this is our generation’s collective why.
