The idea behind the talk is that while it is important to not
forget the revolutionary, and empowering promises and potentials
of the Internet for the developing world, we also need to
remember two extremely important caveats. First, despite a rapid
growth in internet access for much of the world, most people on
our planet are still entirely disconnected. Second, even amongst
those two billion that are now online, a significant number are
still left out of global networks, debates and conversations.
The Internet is a network that enables selective connections
between people and information. And it is a network that is
characterised by highly uneven geographies that have in many
ways simply reinforced global patterns of visibility,
representation and voice that we’re used to in the offline
world. The issue isn’t just that some people in the developing
world are disconnected, but also that many of the benefits of
the Internet don’t automatically arrive into the developing
world once Internet connections do. So