Dr. Sam Lanfranco, Prof. Emeritus & Senior Scholar

York University, Canada - ISOC Canada -Chair, NPOC Policy Committee, ICANN

Havana March 16th 2016

La Historia de la computación e Internet en la región

¿Qué? - ¿Por Qué? ¿Para Quién?

América Latina, el Caribe y Cuba: de Ayer a Mañana

América Latina, el Caribe y Cuba: de Ayer a Mañana

Learning Lessons: Latin America, the Caribbean, Cuba & The World

1. History: Documents and Celebrates Human Effort2. Its Purpose: Learn Lessons to Build a Better Tomorrow

1. The Speed of change means1. A better tomorrow for our children and ourselves2. Digital History is both young and thin3. Digital Artifacts are mainly obsolete

2. Global Lessons Learned: use global digital history3. Ride the Wave: use the right technology in the right context4. Context: Use less old thinking and more new innovation

Latin America, the Caribbean & Cuba: From Yesterday to Tomorrow

My Focus

Building a Digital Transition Cuba Ride the Wave or Face the Tsunami

Building Transition Cuba and

the Potential for Digital Leadership

Cuba can move fast and ride the digital wave into a better future

– or –Cuba can move slow with damaged by inertia from

within and damage by tsunami from without

Transition Cuba learning from: Internet Ecosystem Lessons from everywhere

Digital Transition Lessons from elsewhere

Fixed-broadband price as Percentage of Gross Personal Income

Obstacle or Opportunity:•Technology: Wi-Fi – Wireless – Mesh – Internet of Things – IXPs •Political Will: Spectrum – Fiber/Towers – Technology – Tariffs/Duties•Privacy & Security: Personal – Business – State/National

Evidence: Broadband in Cuba

Evidence: Cuba’s ITU ICT Development Index

Obstacle – or - Opportunity•Technology: Wi-Fi – Wireless – Mesh – Internet of Things – IXPs •Political Will: Spectrum – Fiber/Towers – Technology – Tariffs/Duties•Privacy & Security: Personal – Business – State/National

Source: ITU

Access and Use rank near the bottom - Skills and Ability rank near the top Build Infrastructure - Put Talent to Work

subirse a la ola

/ 10.00

Cuba’s Potential Dynamic Comparative Advantages for Tomorrow?• Highly Educated Youth• Education, Research, Technology: sector pockets of strength• Favorable Natural Ecosystem: for Farming / Solar Energy / Tourism

Obstacles to Development using Cuba’s Dynamic Comparative Advantages• Slow political will for infrastructure and innovation support• Slow innovation around ecosystem strengths (Farming/Solar/Tourism)• Lack of bottom up opportunities in innovative activities

Cuban Opportunity:Example: MakerSpaces: A Wave or a Tsunami?Cuban Shared Technology & SkillsStart-up Structures for Cuba [??]Enterprise Skills and Funding [??]

Initiative Innovation

Internet of Things

•Disruptive Internet of Everything - all the Time

•Driven by:•IPv6 addressing•Nano technology•3-D additive technology•Wireless connectivity•Political Will

•Government and Business 80% of IoT spending: Opportunities and Challenges Large and Small

•Software 40% of spending

CubanFinancial SectorInnovationand Collaboration?

or

Foreign Capture?Commerce appsmAgri farm appsTourism appsRemittance apps

http://www/gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment

Cuban Transportation PlanningOld Vehicle Planning: Vehicles; Roads; Traffic and Parking

New Transportation Ecosystem Planning: e-Vehicles; Travel Apps; Shared Transport

Challenges are Opportunities•Urban transport (Old Havana)•Tourists & Tourism Travel• Individual travel• Group Travel

•Solar vs Carbon Fuels•Imported vs Local Apps/Tech•Micro/Nano Production•Owned Cars vs Shared Fleets

Transition Estonia: Rode the Wave 2000: Declared Internet access to be a human right Refused land line phone system & built a digital cell system Spread free Wi-Fi and embraced online e-government 2007: First country with online general election voting Today: 95% of Estonians file annual tax returns online From no land ownership registry to a digital land registry Health records are stored in the digital cloud In 8 years all schools were online Skype developed in Estonia:

2005 Skype sale produced pool of venture capital Estonia’s capital: home to more than 150 tech companies Tech companies are engaged in global partnerships Tech represents 15% of Estonia’s GDP., up from zero

Transition Estonia: discarded legacy thinking Political will to embrace the Internet Embraced innovation potential of it education youth Rode wave to transition success. http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/07/economist-explains-21

Ride the Wave: Pre-Transition Myanmar

From 0.002% Internet access in 2012 to over 50% access today

SIM card prices fell from over 2,000.00 $US to less than 2.00 $US

Imports were restricted to smart phones (low cost Chinese)

A contract was granted to build 8,000 cell towers by 2018

The Political Will for policy was in place

Pubic/Private/Foreign partnerships were encouraged

Transition Challenge to Myanmar’s government, business community, and civil society

Engaged in little awareness raising or stakeholder engagement Will face major stresses from rapid ICT and Internet access. Risks: Swamped by a foreign tsunami or retreating into stagnating

A Poorly Planned Transition Strategy Results in:

An ICT strategy that retards good innovation Poor ICT incentives & opportunities Oligarchs that impede innovation Oligopolies that impede innovation Bad income and wealth concentration Dependent foreign export and investment relationships

Russian Transition StrategiesDamaged Societies & Damaged Prospects

Excessive dependence on Neo-Liberal Transition IdeasLittle attention to innovation based on domestic strengths

Ride the Wave – For Transition CubaRapid Transformation

from Laggard to Leader

Needs:Political Will Stakeholder EngagementInternet and Innovation Policy

Needs:Political WillRapid Infrastructure Roll OutCooperative enterprisePublic Private Partnerships

ImmediateSustainableStrengths

Infrastructure

Temporary ObstaclesEasily Remedial

(e.g. Myanmar)

Human Capital

Transition Cuba Agriculture: Potential Knowledge & Collaboration

Regional and Global: > IDB & India <

Transition Cuba Agriculture: Potential Knowledge & Collaboration

> Canada <

Grow Cooperatively to Compete Globally:

Ride the Wave at Home & Harness the Tsunami

Rapid infrastructure roll out

Bottom Up Stakeholder Engagement in Domestic Internet Policy

Broader and Deeper Cuban Engagement in Regional and Global Policy forums

Multilateral, UN, and non-governmental Internet organizations ICANN’s Multistakeholder Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Engagement with the Internet Society (e.g. IXP efforts) Technical participation in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) & IAB Business, Academic, Civil Society engagement in ICT for Development Stakeholder engagement in the IGF and WSIS activities

Cuban Political Will at all levels: more open processes within Cuba’s values

Start to Ride the Wave

Approach: Multistakeholder Consultation

for a decade of digital Innovation

Para comentarios, preguntas, críticas, ideas, ponerse en contacto conmigo por

correo electrónico:

<Lanfran@yorku.ca>

<Sam@Lanfranco.Net>

Adios Ramon1924 - 2016

Sam Lanfranco

Prince Edward County Ontario

Lanfranco Farm

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