BuddeBlog

Openness and tolerance makes economic sense

It is interesting to analyse some of the global developments in the context of our own (tele)communication issues.

One significant trend is that more and more countries are creating increasingly open and tolerant societies, where their citizens are obtaining far more power than ever before. States are realising that they are there for the people and not the other way round.

One of the first areas in which this shift is noticeable is the communications sector. When governments make transactions from state power to people power they struggle with communications issues, and in particular with elements of it such as satellite TV and the Internet.

However the reality is that once they have embarked on this course the development is unstoppable; the process is more like two steps forwards, one step back.

The trans-sector power of communications to deliver significant economic and social benefits to many other sectors will eventually overtake the heavily controlled communications systems. The economic benefits of the trans-sector approach are beginning to outweigh the (political power) benefits of controlled communications.

Communications key to happiness and wellbeing

We see more countries embarking on the path of people power to increase prosperity, and in the process they are gaining greater political and economic power. At the same time this leads to greater tolerance, less violence (both internally and towards other nations), and fewer revolts. The BRIC countries are showing great leadership here, and other countries who don’t want to take their lead from the west cannot ignore the results of the developments in these BRIC countries. It is therefore more likely that over time more and more countries will move along the path towards empowering the people.

It therefore becomes more important to look at these developments and look for ways to use prosperity as a weapon to move towards a better world, one that will be good for everybody.

More and better strategies will be needed to direct and guide these processes, and more scientific and political research should be carried out on this. Organisations such as the UN and the Worldbank, to name just two, should put far more resources into this as the benefits are enormous.

BuddeComm believes that telecoms can play a key role in this process. Recent developments in countries such as China and Iran are good examples. But also the economic benefits of the mobile phone in countries such as Bangladesh are well documented, as is the development of e-banking in countries such as Kenya.

We can build on this and develop better ways to use these new communications systems to allow other people to build more prosperous societies.

Open networks

If communications are important in these global developments then obviously open societies require open networks. Far more attention should be given to the power telecoms has beyond the telephone and the Internet. Its multiplier effect to deliver economic and social benefits to other sectors should receive far more political attention.

Countries should also be asking – and this applies in particular to the USA – why they don’t have open networks. The only conclusion that can be reached is that other elements from the past are now intervening with this ‘open’ development – negative factors such as the monopolistic models, which were developed in a different era and have now outlived their usefulness.

So open networks do not constitute state interference; they are a way of cancelling out past state interference that has produced a state of affairs that is no longer acceptable in a modern open society.

It is hard to believe that Americans would argue that their current telecoms environment is based on the premise that this is what the people of that country want.

Paul Budde

See also:

• Global – Analysis – Strategic vision for comms after the crisis
• Digital Media – Critical Assessment of Social Media & Market Overview
• Global – Forecasts – Telecoms Predictions – 2010-2015
• Global – Industry – The Telecoms Markets in the Emerging BRIC Economies
• Global – Internet – Net Neutrality Analysis
• Global – Investing in the Communications Revolution
• Global Next Generation Telecoms – FttH and Trans-Sector Strategies
• Global Recovery will depend on Trans-Sector Vision
• Smart Cities, Buildings & Communities

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 2:51 pm and is filed under From Paul's Desk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.