<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi,<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>While i agree with you - especially as i believe education is a life long process and that there are many places where just because someone is an adult does not mean they should not be brought out of illiteracy, at this point I will be very happy to see the ITU seriously take on the commitment to see that _all_ schools _everywhere_ are connected to the Internet.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>a.</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On 10 okt 2007, at 07.36, Parminder wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="2" face="Arial"><SPAN lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><O:P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> </SPAN></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="2" face="Arial"><SPAN lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; ">>An additional idea discussed was that </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; ">Switzerland</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> expressed the wish to act to connect all schools free. ITU expressed the interest to take as one of its operational >points so that a focal point will be set up on that at the ITU.</SPAN><O:P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="3" face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "> </SPAN></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="3" face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; ">It is important to note the far-reaching significance of such assertions, and early policy directions. ICT infrastructure has hitherto been pushed in developing countries either as a pre-dominantly business and commercial infrastructure, and even if to be used for development, revenue models and financial sustainability have been the first and foremost principle of every ICTD project, distorting all other development objectives. This thinking is now making some retreat, with the understanding that (1) ICTs are even more importantly a social infrastructure and (2) they have such fundamental role in many basic and valued social processes that their provision as public goods/ public infrastructure is something that policies should give serious attention to.</SPAN><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="3" face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "> </SPAN></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="3" face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; ">If schools/ students should have free Internet access, there is hardly much of a conceptual jump to communities needing free Internet access for their basic knowledge requirements, as well as access to and participation in society’s governance, education, health, livelihood and all other systems. So, well, we are making progress </SPAN></SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Wingdings"><SPAN style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 16px; ">J</SPAN></SPAN></FONT><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; ">. Not being at a school cannot be a disqualification for all these basic needs, entitlements and rights – sooner or later we all will see the absurdity of this notion.</SPAN><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "></O:P></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="3" face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "> </SPAN></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="3" face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; ">And good that civil society is explicitly excluded from ‘financial contribution norms’, which acknowledges the CS advocacy on this issue.</SPAN><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="3" face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "> </SPAN></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>