India’s digital transformation

The country can only derive the digital dividend of faster growth, more jobs and better services by expanding affordable Internet access to all/

There is little doubt that China has stolen a march on India when it comes to leveraging the Internet. Of the top 20 Internet companies in the world, 13 are American, five are Chinese, with one each for Japan and the United Kingdom. Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, has a market capitalisation that is 25 times higher than that of Flipkart, the largest e-commerce company in India.

Why did India, which has had the remarkable achievement of being the largest exporter of information technology services and skilled manpower among developing countries, fall behind China in digitally transforming its economy? Is it now making a comeback? The World Bank’s recently released World Development Report (WDR) ‘Digital Dividends’ provides some answers.

The WDR finds that digital technologies have spread rapidly throughout much of the world, but their digital dividends — the broader development benefits from using these technologies — have lagged behind. In many instances digital technologies have boosted growth, expanded opportunities, and improved service delivery. Yet their aggregate impact has fallen short and is unevenly distributed.

The report argues that for digital technologies to confer their full benefit on society, it is vital to close the digital divide, especially in Internet access. But greater digital adoption will not be enough. To get the most out of the digital revolution, countries also need to work on its “analogue complements” — by strengthening regulations that ensure competition among businesses, by adapting workers’ skills to the demands of the new economy, and by ensuring that government institutions and others are accountable.

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Super Bowl 50 smashes data records with 10.1TB flying across Wi-Fi

Super Bowl 50 set records, as predicted, and not just of the Peyton Manning variety. It was a record-breaking day because 10.1 terabytes of data was transferred over the Wi-Fi network at Levi's Stadium on game day, according to the NFL. That's the equivalent of 6,000-plus hours of HD video or almost 1.2 million 2MB images.

This was a 63% increase compared to the 6.23 terabytes of data usage at last year's Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Ariz., as previously reported in TechRepublic's article, Super Bowl 50 to showcase tons of new tech, shatter bandwidth records.

By halftime, the showdown between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. had already surpassed the previous record for data transferred at any sporting event. As a result, this means that Super Bowl 50 achieved levels of network performance and data usage never seen before at a single sports and entertainment event, according to the NFL. The data figures were compiled from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Pacific Time on February 7.

"The performance of Levi's Stadium's connectivity was nothing short of amazing," said Michelle McKenna-Doyle, CIO for the NFL, in a press release. "It blew away all our previous records and provided strong consistent connectivity for our fans to share their memories. We were very pleased."

The high tech stadium opened in July 2014 and features 400 miles of data cable, more than 12,000 physical network ports, more than 1,200 Wi-Fi access points, approximately 1,200 Bluetooth beacons, and a backbone of 40 Gbps of available internet bandwidth.

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Differential data pricing: All you need to know

Social media giant Facebook is agressively pushing its Free Basics scheme, which some say violates the principles of net neutrality. TRAI has issued a consultation draft on differential data pricing. Here is a rundown on the issue.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday extended the last date for submission of comments on its paper on differential data pricing to January 7 from December 30.

Similarly, the last date for counter-comments has been pushed to January 14.

This is the second time the regulatory body has sought views and comments on for framing policies on internet services.

Earlier this year, TRAI released a draft consultation paper seeking views from the industry and the general public on the need for regulations for over-the-top (OTT) players such as Whatsapp, Skype, Viber etc, security concerns and net neutrality. The objective of this consultation paper, the regulator said, was to analyse the implications of the growth of OTTs and consider whether or not changes were required in the current regulatory framework.

This time, the consultation paper is about differential data pricing or zero rated applications and websites — especially as social media giant Facebook is agressively pushing its Free Basics scheme.

Internet activists, on the other hand, have once again put together responses to TRAI's questions, making it easy for internet users to submit their suggestions on differential data pricing.

Here is a rundown on the issue.

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Connecting everyone to the internet won’t solve the world’s development problems

By 9.30am today I will have skyped Malawi, emailed Ghana, Facebooked Nepal, paid a bill online and used the satnav on my mobile phone. It feels a long time since we first got colour TV at home and, years later, when I accessed the internet using a dial-up modem. When I recalled these moments to my son he yawned. Aged, 19, he doesn’t remember a time before ubiquitous connectivity.

According to a new report from the World Bank, more than 40% of the global population now has internet access. On average, eight in ten people in the developing world own a mobile phone. Even in the poorest 20% of households this number is nearly seven in ten, making cellphones more prevalent than toilets or clean water.

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Connecting everyone to the internet won’t solve the world’s development problems

By 9.30am today I will have skyped Malawi, emailed Ghana, Facebooked Nepal, paid a bill online and used the satnav on my mobile phone. It feels a long time since we first got colour TV at home and, years later, when I accessed the internet using a dial-up modem. When I recalled these moments to my son he yawned. Aged, 19, he doesn’t remember a time before ubiquitous connectivity.

According to a new report from the World Bank, more than 40% of the global population now has internet access. On average, eight in ten people in the developing world own a mobile phone. Even in the poorest 20% of households this number is nearly seven in ten, making cellphones more prevalent than toilets or clean water.

There is no doubt that the world is experiencing a revolution of information and communication technology, bringing about rapid change on a massive scale. But despite great expectations for the power of digital technologies to transform lives around the world it has fallen short and is unevenly distributed, with the most advantages going, as ever, to the wealthy. The World Bank argues that increasing connectivity alone is not going to solve this problem.

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The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

The film follows the story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz's help in the development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz's groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing combined with his aggressive approach to information access that ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare. It was a battle that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26. Aaron's story touched a nerve with people far beyond the online communities in which he was a celebrity. This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.

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When three is a company -- SEBI consultation paper on equity-based crowdfunding in India.

As SEBI tries to regulate equity crowdfunding, the Internet promises to play disrupter.

Roughly a year ago, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a consultation paper setting out its proposal to regulate equity-based crowdfunding in India. Comments were solicited from the public. Earlier this week, SEBI announced that it was working on the norms and that a decision may be taken soon.

A quick review of the SEBI paper gives us pointers to what the possible regulations could be. Under the proposed terms, three entities, namely, the crowdfunding platform, the investor, and the issuing company, would be regulated. The issuing company is restricted in terms of its size, the amount of funds to be raised and its age. The investor is restricted in terms of its accreditation, minimum net worth and, in case of eligible retail investors, the maximum investment that may be made overall or in a single crowdfunding event. Crowdfunding platforms are also restricted in terms of who may set them up and the checks and balances to be put in place.

Read the op-ed article in TH dt. 7th Jul 2015

The ways people described computers in the 1990s are hilarious

In the 1990s, the internet was a hard-to-explain concept to people. Even though it’s commonplace now, the idea of electronic mail and being able to surf endless amounts of information without using an encyclopedia was quite foreign.

Many books, videos and images were created to help explain the Internet, some helpful, others not so much. Let’s relive those early attempts at educating the masses about the relatively new concept of a connected digital world.

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10 reasons why the internet is not the answer

With the Internet about to celebrate its fiftieth birthday, there’s no doubt that digital revolution and the disruptive businesses that it’s empowering, has transformed the world profoundly. But has the Internet – which is now disrupting industries as disparate as media, transportation, healthcare, finance, education and commerce – actually benefitted society?

In my upcoming new book, The Internet Is Not the Answer, I argue that the networked revolution has, so far, been an enormous failure. So here are ten reasons why the Internet is not the answer.

Rather than redistributing power and wealth, it has created supersized 21st century monopolists like Amazon & Google.

Instead of creating jobs, it has created $19 billion Internet startups like WeChat that only employ 55 people.

As the Snowden NSA leaks have revealed, rather than creating a healthily transparent society, it is is destroying our privacy and enabling both governments and private companies to spy on us all the time.

Rather than democratizing wealth, the Silicon Valley economy of multi billion dollar startups like Airbnb is compounding the chasm between rich and poor.

Rather than a cultural renaissance, Online piracy and the “free” content of the blogosphere and social media have decimated the music, newspaper, photography and book industries.

Rather than advancing democracy, anonymous networks like Reddit and 4Chan have empowered the rule of the mob.

Rather than improving tolerance, self-broadcasting networks like Twitter and Facebook are compounding an online pandemic of racism, sexism and bullying.

Rather than a cultural renaissance, it has sparked an selfie-centric era of invidious narcissism on networks like Instagram.

The so-called “sharing economy” of networks is actually the selfish economy of ethically challenged entrepreneurs like Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

It puts us all to “work” in “data factories” like Tumblr and Pinterest for free as they grow rich from the data we provide them about ourselves every day.

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Internet Tricks That You Might Not Know

That of Internet is an endless saga, and this is proved every single time we come across something that we didn't know. It might be something as hard as the mystery behind our dreams, or as simple as some tricks that could have made our life easier.

Here is a list of some tricks for your Windows Laptop/ Desktop that you would wish you had known before.

1. Ctrl Enter

2. Tab and Shift Tab

3. Drop Down Box

4. Alt D

5. Ctrl Shift R

6. Browser Tabs

7. Search In Quotes

8. Open A Link

9. Pausing YouTube Videos

10. Ctrl D Enter

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What should be in a “Digital Citizen’s Bill of Rights?”

Recently in March 2014,Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OK) introduced a proposal for a “Digital Bill of Rights” at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City.

Congressman Issa has posted the proposed Digital Bill of Rights on MADISON, the online legislation platform his staff built last December. The 10 proposed rights are the following:

The Digital Bill of Rights

1. Freedom – digital citizens have a right to a free, uncensored internet
2. Openness – digital citizens have a right to an open, unobstructed internet
3. Equality – all digital citizens are created equal on the internet
4. Participation – digital citizens have a right to peaceably participate where and how they choose on the internet
5. Creativity – digital citizens have a right to create, grow and collaborate on the internet, and be held accountable for what they create
6. Sharing – digital citizens have a right to freely share their ideas, lawful discoveries and opinions on the internet
7. Accessibility – digital citizens have a right to access the internet equally, regardless of who they are or where they are
8. Association – digital citizens have a right to freely associate on the internet
9. Privacy – digital citizens have a right to privacy on the internet
10. Property – digital citizens have a right to benefit from what they create, and be secure in their intellectual property on the internet

You can watch a video (30.41 min) of their conversation with Personal Democracy Media publisher Andrew Rasiej.

Visit for the full post & the video

White Space, the next internet disruption

White Space has started spreading internet access to unconnected areas. Here's what you need to know about this confusing, widely-hyped, emerging technology.

In even the most developed countries, there are huge gaps in internet access. Fixed broadband access is unaffordable for 3.9 billion people around the world. In the U.S., about 72 percent of people have home broadband internet access, but 60 million people are still living without it. According to Pew Research, part of the reason for this lag in adoption is the expense of broadband internet.

White Space stands to transform the way we purchase and use wireless internet. It isn't yet widely adopted, but this unlicensed, free form of broadband is gaining traction. Here are 10 things you should know to get up to speed on this disruptive technology.

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Redefining the digital divide

Access to the Internet has greatly expanded and the focus should now be on the willingness and ability of citizens to use it for productive purposes, according to a new report “Redefining the digital divide” published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Current strategies for overcoming the digital divide do not necessarily address the underlying gaps such as affordability, usage and relevance of content, with country approaches varying significantly in terms of leadership, funding and technologies. The report, commissioned by Huawei, compares the strategies of Australia, France, India, Russia, the UK and the US. It includes a survey of 218 telecommunications industry executives and government policymakers.

The report’s key findings include:

Affordability remains a key obstacle to ICT adoption;

The urban/rural divide is a key concern, particularly the need for greater speeds outside major urban areas;

Policymakers and telecommunications executives are sharply divided on the key obstacles to solving the divide;

Funding is the biggest area of disagreement between the industry and policymakers; and

Competition is crucial but regulation is equally important.

Download the full report

Connecting everything: A conversation with Cisco’s Padmasree Warrior

Cisco’s chief technology and strategy officer describes how the exponential growth of connectivity between people and devices, both mobile and network, will change commerce, business systems, and individual behavior.

Despite two decades of increasing connectivity between people and devices over high-tech networks, only 1 percent of what could be connected in the world actually is, argues Padmasree Warrior, Cisco Systems’ chief technology and strategy officer. As the level of connection swells over mobile and other platforms during the next decade, she expects sweeping changes in how consumers shop, businesses handle data, and individuals grapple with the data available about themselves. This interview was conducted by McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland in Davos, Switzerland. What follows is an edited version of Warrior’s remarks.

Read / Listen the Inteview

The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies

In a few short years, social technologies have given social interactions the speed and scale of the Internet. Whether discussing consumer products or organizing political movements, people around the world constantly use social-media platforms to seek and share information. Companies use them to reach consumers in new ways too; by tapping into these conversations, organizations can generate richer insights and create precisely targeted messages and offers.

To reap the full benefit of social technologies, organizations must transform their structures, processes, and cultures: they will need to become more open and nonhierarchical and to create a culture of trust. Ultimately, the power of social technologies hinges on the full and enthusiastic participation of employees who are not afraid to share their thoughts and trust that their contributions will be respected. Creating these conditions will be far more challenging than implementing the technologies themselves.

Download the full report (4MB)

Internet matters: The Net's sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity

The Internet is a vast mosaic of economic activity, ranging from millions of daily online transactions and communications to smartphone downloads of TV shows. But little is known about how the web in its entirety contributes to global growth, productivity, and employment.

These (the report) findings suggest that corporate leaders will need to sharpen their focus on the opportunities the Internet offers for new products and expanded customer reach. Companies should also pay attention to how quickly Internet technologies can disrupt business models by radically changing markets and driving efficiencies. Public-sector leaders ought to promote broad access to the Internet, since Internet usage, quality of infrastructures, and Internet expenditure are correlated with higher growth in per capita GDP. For governments, investments in infrastructure, human capital, financial capital, and business environment conditions will help strengthen their Internet supply domestic ecosystems.

Download the full report (2MB)

Things to Do On the Internet When You're Bored

The internet can be a pretty overwhelming place. Sometimes you need to take time out and remind yourself it's not all serious.

1. Googlewhacking
2. Search for long lost friends
3. Find out whether you're hot or not
4. Search NASA's archives
5. ....

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Internet Governance Outlook 2013: "Cold Internet War" or "Peaceful Internet Coexistence"?

Anyone who expected that with the end of the Dubai ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in December 2012, the heated debate on the future regulation of the Internet will slow down should remember to fairytale of the battle of the knight with the seven-headed dragon. Hardly a head is cut off, another is growing. In 2013 the discussion on Internet freedom will likely gain in sharpness.

In fact, in 2013 the Internet governance debate will continue at least in seven different venues. The list is as below:

1. The ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum (Geneva, May 2013)
2. UNCSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (Geneva, June 2013)
3. WSIS 10 + (Paris, February 2013)
4. 68th UN General Assembly (New York, October 2013)
5. The 8th Internet Governance Forum (Bali, November 2013)
6. ICANN (Beijing, Durban. Buenos Aires)
7. G8 & G20 (Lough Erne and St. Petersbourg)

2012 has leaded to a growing polarization. Now the tone of the controversy seems to become more aggressive. Almost a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War of the 20st century, we witness now in the 21st the emergence of a global political scenario which more or less exactly follows this cold war model, not along the old "isms", but along a different understanding of freedom, human rights, innovation, control and the role of governments. Like fire and water, two incompatible ideas about how the Internet should be organized worldwide stand against each other and form two poles of broad spectrum of different opinions.

Read the details of these events

10 ways to stay productive when you can't get an Internet connection

This article lists 10 ways of staying productive when you just can’t seem to connect to the Internet. Keep in mind that most of the items on the list are geared toward specific situations. For example, some are appropriate only for unscheduled outages, while others will work only if you plan ahead.

1: Use Windows offline folders
2: Print what you’ll need
3: Find another way to get online
4: Take care of other neglected tasks
5: Take the Internet offline with you
6: Answer emails
7: Have an impromptu staff meeting
8: Return phone calls
9: Catch up on your reading
10: Give your brain a break

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The Ant Internet

Before researchers developed the Internet, ants developed the Anternet, a surprisingly similar communications network.

Read the interview and watch the 4 min video