Ministerial Regional Preparatory Conference of Latin America and the
Caribbean for the World Summit on the Information Society
Bavaro, Dominican Republic, January 29-31 2003

Panel on the study of characteristics of regulatory framework
necessary for the development of the information society in Latin
America and the Caribbean

Presentation by Sally Burch*

Campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS)

During this preparatory process for the World Summit on the
Information Society, different visions of what the information society
is have become evident. It is important to clarify these differences
since depending on which vision one starts from, the goals one fixes
will vary, and so too will the strategies with which to reach them.

With the risk of having to simplify, I propose to briefly summarise
two distinct visions which are present, and then to explore several of
their implications for regulatory frameworks.

The first approach to the information society makes reference to a new
paradigm of development that assigns a causal role to technology
within the social order, situating it as the motor of economic
development.

Under this concept, the information society is confined to the digital
realm: anything that is not digitised remains outside of this new
society.

For developing countries this implies that the transition towards the
information society is basically a question of time and the will to
create the adequate conditions.

Something similar occurs with excluded sectors of society which would
need to be included through programs of universal access.

By placing technology at the centre of this model, the
telecommunications industry is called upon to lead its development,
while the industries that produce digital services and content take on
an unprecedented influence.

Another vision understands the information society as a new stage of
human development characterised by the predominance that information,
communication and knowledge have acquired in the economy and within
all human activities.

From this approach, technology is the support that has accelerated
this process. However it is not a neutral factor and its destiny is
not predetermined, on the contrary, technological development is
orientated by the interests at stake.

From this vision, the information society is not solely concerned with
the digital realm, rather it understands the digital realm as a new
dimension of reality that permanently interacts with physical reality,
while these two dimensions influence each other mutually.

This approach supposes, depending on how technological development is
orientated and how it is applied, that these new technologies could
have great potential for strengthening democracy and citizen
participation, as well as improving education, and promoting cultural
creativity via diversity and exchange. But they can also just as
easily be developed for authoritarian projects of control and
surveillance or to concentrate the property of production and
dissemination of content.

What are the implications for regulatory frameworks?

If our starting point is an approach centred on technology and limited
to the digital realm, the priorities at the regulatory level will be
given to aspects such as:

* Minimum regulation of industries, to favour investment
* Legal security of the actors
* Intellectual property rights, protecting intermediary companies
above individual creators
* Universal access.

However, if our starting point is a vision centred on social goals,
the emphasis in regulatory terms will be different. It would imply
among other aspects:

* Approaching the digital divide not just from the perspective of
universal access but also from an understanding of how information,
communication and knowledge can contribute to the solution of social
divides, and creating the necessary conditions.
* Creating the conditions to guarantee greater levels of participation
of society and communities in the control and management of
technologies and information and communication resources, not only
digital ones, but also other resources that have demonstrated their
effectiveness such as community radio.
*Creating mechanisms for promoting plurality and diversity of content
and guaranteeing dissemination.

Moreover, there are other considerations; when we consider the
information society as related only to the digital realm we run the
risk of oversimplification of the complex relationships between this
realm and the physical dimension. To transplant information and
activities from the physical world towards the digital space without
taking account of the transformations that that implies in the former,
could lead to costly errors.

One manifestation of this is the fad of adding an 'e' for electronic
on everything that is digitised, without distinguishing between those
areas of activity that, being in essence information and
communication, are susceptible to this transfer such as e-mail, and
others where information and communication form only one component,
such as government or health. I understand that many of the failures
of so called e-commerce are due to such confusion.

The WSIS has the responsibility of helping to clarify concepts, and
not deepening confusion with the use of inadequate terminology.

To consider the information society as a self-contained dimension of
reality, which requires an exclusive legal and regulatory framework,
could also be dangerous. Are we going to define a different citizenry
that inhabits this other world? What would the democratic parameters
be that would structure the debate, definition, control and vigilance
of this legal framework? While it may be true that the
particularities of cyberspace call for new mechanisms for the
implementation of laws and regulations, we question the
appropriateness of giving it a separate legal framework.

What is needed, since these new technologies are leading to greater
concentration of control over communication processes, are new
guarantees and new rights of the citizenry, in particular with
relation to the right to communicate and the protection of privacy.
But these should not apply only in cyberspace but in society as a
whole. With this concern in mind the CRIS Campaign (Communication
Rights in the Information Society) was initiated, so as to put forward
proposals concerning these issues in the framework of the Summit and
of our respective societies. CRIS argues that we cannot speak of the
information society, but of information societies, since there does
not exist one unique model. What is important is to build information
societies at the national and regional level that respond to our
particular needs and realities.

In fact, where there has been debate on the orientation of policies
within the preparatory process of the summit, a consensus has
predominated that the human and social dimension should orientate the
development of the information society, and not technology, as though
it were an end in itself; this is only common sense and we are
encouraged to see it reflected in the different declarations of
principles. But we will be vigilant as to how this vision is
translated into the action plans.

Implications for regulatory frameworks in Latin America.

Developing information societies in Latin America implies adopting
policies in conformity with our own realities and not dictated to us
from outside.

As we understanding it, this criterion implies promoting local
industry orientated to the needs and characteristics of the region,
whether in telecommunications, software or content, among other areas.
The areas where a regulatory framework and public policy need to be
developed included the following.

*Measures to redirect part of the profits from a sector that has
become highly speculative towards social initiatives. Such initiatives
would include access to technology and information; but they would
also include, for example, training activities in handling not just
technology, but also information, which is one of the serious
challenges of the information society.

* Measures to encourage creativity, plurality and the expression of
cultural diversity. Measures to ensure democratic control and
geographic balance in regional bodies that govern the internet.

* The establishment of common technical standards. Policies to
encourage the use of open code, particularly in public and educational
institutions.

* Measures for development and protection of information in the public
domain.

* Promotion of media in the public domain; that is, media that are
independent of political and economic powers, with citizen
participation in their management and actions.

* Protection of Internet users, especially with respect to privacy of
communications, freedom from undesired mail, and from unauthorised
monitoring of Internet navigation.

* Democratic policies for assignment of the radio electric spectrum
along with guarantees for the creation and operation of community
radio.

In as much as the development of the information society influences
social development as a whole, and since the intent is to orientate
the development of technologies towards the general wellbeing of
society, we therefore need to launch a broad public debate at the
national and regional levels about what information society we wish to
build. But unfortunately we are not seeing this happen, either within
our countries or in the media.

Nor have we found in this Conference sufficient space for a broad
range of actors to debate these issues. If the governments of the
region really have the will to take advantage of new technologies to
strengthen democracies and citizen participation, then the process of
this World Summit will need to be much more open and inclusive.

* Sally Burch is the Executive Director of the Latin American
Information Agency (ALAI) and a member the steering committee of CRIS.