World Dialogue on Regulation

Access to useful information is the main driver for individuals and  businesses to use the Internet. Research from the African Internet  Service Provider's Association (AfrISPA) highlights that Africa is lacking greatly behind in the creation of  relevant and useful local information for Africans living and working  in Africa. In the position paper Strategies for Increased Internet Growth: A call for a paradigm shift to stimulate Internet growth  through content, AfrISPA reaches out to non-technical Internet stakeholders to address  the content gap. The position paper tries to inform and generate  debate on proposed strategies to increase local content.

Internet and its vast information resources form an important driving  force in creating a global information society. Everyone with access  to a computer and Internet is able to consult this information with  some clicks of a mouse. Unfortunately, the number of people that has  access to Internet is relatively low compared to the rest of the  world. Where Africa accounts for 14% of the world population, it only  claims 1.8% of the the global user base and 0.2% of the global  Internet hosts. The position paper Strategies for Increased Internet  Growth: A call for a paradigm shift to stimulate Internet growth  through content of  the African Internet Service Provider's Association (AfrISPA)highlights the importance of content as a way to  accelerate the penetration of Internet on the African continent.

According to the first position paper of AfrISPA, authored by Muriuki  Mureithi of Summit Strategies, most Africans are interested in the  value they get out of connecting to the Internet and not just for the  sake of having access. Primarily their interest is driven by the  value of content that they locate which is relevant to their lives  and business.

According to research conducted by Muriuki Mureithi it  was intriguing to realize that even in the semi-rural areas the  interest of most small medium enterprises who could afford the  Internet was content; they asked the question “would I find relevant  material on the Internet which would aid the growth of my business?”.  For them it was not just enough to use the Internet to communicate  but they also wanted to see how it fits into their business processes  for growth.

Here the real problem emerges, there is very little relevant African  content available on the Internet. Although the paper is not able the  present detailed figures on the number of sites and the types of  information available, it bases itself on the low number of generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) (99,000 by July 2005) and country code Top  Level Domains (ccTLD) (40,000 by July 2005, excluding South Africa)  on the continent. The total number of domains converted to websites  is then estimated in the range of 100,000 with potential local and  relevant information (taking into account withdrawals and that not  all domains convert to a website). It is concluded that the low  volumes of relevant content imply low use-value and therefore low  strategic advantage to potential users.

The main objective of this position paper it to make the case for  Africans to move from being consumers to producers of content that is  relevant to their livelihoods and business. Up till now, the culture  of generating, processing and publishing content about Africa by  Africans is lacking. When we consider access to information and  Internet tools for socio-economic development, the issue of local  content creation needs to receive the same emphasis (and funds) as  the development of the technical infrastructure. This requires a  paradigm shift for donors, internet service providers and policy makers.

The paper identifies a four-faced support structure for the acceleration of content creation:

1. The development of sustainable content models that respond to what  the consumer needs and wants. Although some models are presented,  more research needs to be done to determine their usefulness.
   
2. A regulatory and policy framework that supports content creation,  (governmental) content digitization, content sharing and free speech,  and protects the authors.
   
3. Implementation of tools, like national portals, that enhance the  visibility and improve the search-ability of local content.
   
4. Lower barriers for access of content for non-english speakers.

Although the position paper addresses an important aspect for the  growth of Internet as a tool for the socio-economic development of  the African continent, unfortunately most of the recommendations  remain at a strategic level. It is only the last of the 10  recommendations, where AfrISPA urges its members to give a free  webpage to all their email clients, that we get the feeling that  AfrISPA is reaching out a helping hand. Like the implementation of  the technical infrastructure, content creation requires a practical  approach and convincing (business) examples.

AfrISPA's should begin  with setting an example with their own website, by delivering up-to- date, relevant and useful content in the local languages of their  participants. This may convince other content creators to follow in  their steps.

__________

The position paper Strategies for Increased Internet Growth: A call for a paradigm shift to stimulate Internet growth through content can be downloaded from the African Internet Service Provider's Association (AfrISPA) website here.