In a Least Developing Country (LDC) like Nepal, Internet
governance is a very least expected topic that makes it to any national level dialogue
process. Though various concepts and technologies find its way for communication
and discussion, internet governance is still in progress of finding a channel among various stakeholders. Its identity struggles among various stakeholders, who shift
their responsibilities in being carefree of putting a monster in a box and criticizing the negative aspect of
internet or social media. We fail to address the issues of its development and values where the current evolution in terms of diversity and adaptation matters.
We have made it or we have created it and we need to accept and move forwards towards finding a proper solution giving it the collaborative approach of multistakeholderism and trust.
Our society of today is not just limited within countable use of internet which prioritizes the involvement and openness of how the internet has evolved and will be further interpreted.
Whether you talk about leadership or technical people, the scope, role and objective of internet governance is very much hidden within the text where most of the people in power and chair even fail to even address the issue. In recent development, Nepal has updated or upgraded with various wireless broadband technologies and policies, but when it comes to awareness of internet and its core values people at leadership and normal layman still uses the internet without the knowledge of its basic core values.
THIS IS THE REALITY AND WE ARE BLINDLY USING AND SPREADING THE USE OF INTERNET, MAKING PEOPLE MORE VULNERABLE.
It is used basically for a number of applications where these devices are related to its output rather than giving a fair value of understanding or building the moral values of using the internet and its related technology. And maybe because of this the wrong use or the wrong interpretation is happening in most of the cases.
“I strongly believe, internet has been passed on to the developing world not as a service or facility, but it has been passed on as a part of a business promotion strategy which is more focused towards generating revenue rather than awareness and value.”
Reality of today, is these gaps have been hindering people for its development in countries like Nepal, where internet is treated just as a business commodity and the government is more focused about the taxes, the private companies are worried about their revenue and subscription and user groups are always worried about their connection only. More or less policies are made limiting the scope and role where survey and research at done at a very minimum criteria of fulfilling the gaps. Likewise diversity is yet another issues which has been long addressed as well. There is no point of talking or discussion about the core value or for what reason it has been phased out or how can we use it in a proper way of ensuring human values.
It is the limitation of human boundaries where we have created this gap and we need to overcome it by creating better core values.
Recently, I was invited to host a program called guffgaff organized by LoomNepal which is a social organization working towards the rights of women and LGBT group. The program was themed internet freedom and FoE in Internet but with the level of participation, interest and queries I was pretty surprised interacting with the various stakeholders that internet of today was no different than internet of yesterday. It was a great learning opportunity talking with youths, & other stakeholders, including the #LGBT community leaders. the LGBT group leaders expressed their level of concerned about how the internet is wrongly being used in slashing their rights and FoE. They have been deprived from the government and from polices which even fails to address their issues and rights at times of need.
We have made it or we have created it and we need to accept and move forwards towards finding a proper solution giving it the collaborative approach of multistakeholderism and trust.
Our society of today is not just limited within countable use of internet which prioritizes the involvement and openness of how the internet has evolved and will be further interpreted.
Whether you talk about leadership or technical people, the scope, role and objective of internet governance is very much hidden within the text where most of the people in power and chair even fail to even address the issue. In recent development, Nepal has updated or upgraded with various wireless broadband technologies and policies, but when it comes to awareness of internet and its core values people at leadership and normal layman still uses the internet without the knowledge of its basic core values.
THIS IS THE REALITY AND WE ARE BLINDLY USING AND SPREADING THE USE OF INTERNET, MAKING PEOPLE MORE VULNERABLE.
It is used basically for a number of applications where these devices are related to its output rather than giving a fair value of understanding or building the moral values of using the internet and its related technology. And maybe because of this the wrong use or the wrong interpretation is happening in most of the cases.
“I strongly believe, internet has been passed on to the developing world not as a service or facility, but it has been passed on as a part of a business promotion strategy which is more focused towards generating revenue rather than awareness and value.”
Reality of today, is these gaps have been hindering people for its development in countries like Nepal, where internet is treated just as a business commodity and the government is more focused about the taxes, the private companies are worried about their revenue and subscription and user groups are always worried about their connection only. More or less policies are made limiting the scope and role where survey and research at done at a very minimum criteria of fulfilling the gaps. Likewise diversity is yet another issues which has been long addressed as well. There is no point of talking or discussion about the core value or for what reason it has been phased out or how can we use it in a proper way of ensuring human values.
It is the limitation of human boundaries where we have created this gap and we need to overcome it by creating better core values.
Recently, I was invited to host a program called guffgaff organized by LoomNepal which is a social organization working towards the rights of women and LGBT group. The program was themed internet freedom and FoE in Internet but with the level of participation, interest and queries I was pretty surprised interacting with the various stakeholders that internet of today was no different than internet of yesterday. It was a great learning opportunity talking with youths, & other stakeholders, including the #LGBT community leaders. the LGBT group leaders expressed their level of concerned about how the internet is wrongly being used in slashing their rights and FoE. They have been deprived from the government and from polices which even fails to address their issues and rights at times of need.
Certainly, #FoE & #internetfreedom are issues of our concern, they are basic right of any individual ensured by the constitution of Nepal but how many of the citizen know about it is a question.
We need more #collaboration & #cooperation in terms of making governance visible & practical. It still is repressive, offensive and unsecured for the citizen from various angles . It was still the same at various levels of policy enactment and cooperation that was focused more towards promoting business to organization only.
In absence of proper internet core values we have made the
internet a compulsive, addictive, un-manged daily commodity which was evolving
as a bad habit.
The government was focused more towards regulation, the private sector towards business and the people are lost in communication and adaptation of social media and entertainment redeeming the real values of the internet.
The government was focused more towards regulation, the private sector towards business and the people are lost in communication and adaptation of social media and entertainment redeeming the real values of the internet.
Let's talk & let's be sensitive about these issues only
then we can #change our society but first we have understand these core values
of internet and further work towards creating awareness. Only then things can
change or else it is just a funding
project that works without sustainability option.
Event Link: Internet Freedom and FoE discussion
