Using Technology to Fight Terror

We face a growing, insidious threat from terrorist movements around the world. But we can limit its growth, and perhaps reverse it, by ensuring broad access to technology and the information it delivers. The leaders of corporations, governments, and communities who understand this principle -- and are driven by its urgency -- will also realize social, economic, and business growth as an outcome.

With the world population at 6.5 billion, there remain 5.5 billion people who don't have access to the Internet. Recent data reveals that of the 1 billion Internet users, 81% reside in 20 of the roughly 240 countries and territories worldwide. The U.S. comprises 4.6% of the total world population, and Internet penetration here stands at roughly 69%. By contrast, Africa's population accounts for a little more than 14% of the world, but only roughly 3% of that continent's people have access to the Internet. In South Asia, where more than half of the world's population lives, Internet access stands at 8.9%.

Developing countries, with their enormous populations, are having an increasingly vital voice in the direction of the global economy and political stability. According to the United Nations, the world's population is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050. The vast majority of the new 2.5 billion people anticipated over the next 40 years will reside in today's developing countries, with developed countries' population growth remaining almost stagnant.

Language Barriers
The access problem is compounded by the fact that much of the Internet's content is directed toward English speakers. Though 94% of the world is non-English speaking, it's estimated that 68% of all Web content is in English. Late last year, it was reported that there were 4.59 billion Web pages on Google (GOOG) in English, 12.6 million in Arabic, and 87.1 million in Chinese.

While government and corporate leaders galvanized the early adoption of Internet technology, there's much left to be done by both to ensure that the Internet is not only accessible to the rest of the world, but that it will be intelligible to them from cultural and linguistic perspectives.

The inability to quickly implement solutions for the more than 5.5 billion people globally who don't have access to the Internet, or whose access is limited by language barriers, increases the risk of expanding an already existent gap in prosperity that ultimately will create a political and ideological group of adversaries.

Slowness in approaching these issues provides the time needed for insurgent groups to incite political, economic, and social instability that will have profound and long-term consequences. The notion of a digital divide may pale in comparison to what I consider a freedom divide. While solutions to these issues exist, the mindset that would give them urgent prioritization and lead to a global collaborative approach still needs to be cultivated.

AMD Takes the Initiative
While the challenge of expanding the accessibility and connectivity of the Internet to a much broader-based constituency may at first appear daunting, a number of multinational corporations are making an effort to move in the right direction.

There are a number of low-cost Internet devices in development. AMD has one of the most aggressive objectives. It aims to have 50% of the world's population online by 2015. Without such strong corporate commitment, it's estimated that it would take until 2050 to get half the world online.

Intel has launched another notable program. It has allocated $1 billion over the next five years for its World Ahead Program, which recently showed promise with a program to provide technology to one of the most remote places on earth: the Amazon jungle. Both Microsoft and the Gates Foundation are also engaged in identifying solutions to address the needs of developing countries.

Lessons from Bangladesh
Corporations working with the military have deployed their technology to establish telecommunications and Internet services in the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In the private sector, one may look to one of the poorest countries in the world, Bangladesh, to learn from the Village Phone Program, which demonstrates how a company can build from scratch a mobile subscriber base of over 10 million, with coverage extending to 95% of the country. The success of the program is a direct result of fostering various usage models that support the local socio-economic environment. The impediments to success can't be attributed to the lack of technology?they simply reflect a lack of will, creativity, and prioritization.

But these measures need to be accelerated and more rapidly expanded into the vast and diverse array of local markets, regardless of geopolitical boundaries. Finally, the content for these billions of new potential Internet users must be localized. Terrorists are committed to transforming the world, and they will do so community by community, gaining strength from the spread of stories about disparity, persecution, and unjust treatment, to expand their base. Corporations should add community and nation building, diplomatic skills, and the propagation of freedom to their list of responsibilities.

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Wendy Haig is a partner at Iron Horse Ventures www.ironhorseventures.com which provides counsel to companies and governments in creating and executing strategy and technology initiatives. In addition to being an author, she has extensive experience studying public policy and doing business in developing markets, both domestic and international.


Photo of children with guns by Jane Fresco. Creative Commons Attribute 2.0