Welcome to BASE21

Name/Country: Alan Alegre/Philippines

Position: Executive Director, Foundation for Media Alternatives

Background:

I came to this conference to actively participate in forging a network of progressive organizations seeking to promote internet and ICT-related rights, especially for civil society organizations and disadvantaged sectors and communities. I also expected to learn from the experience of other Asian organizations and movements who are trying to utilize the internet and ICTs for social transformation. Of course, conferences like these are excellent opportunities for people-to-people, face-to-face links, which are essential for international solidarity.

What issues do you want to raise in the conference?

FMA delivered two presentations at the conference--one on Digital Divide and Public Access; and one on the Internet and Social Movements--two aspects of ICTs/the Internet where we are very much involved with in the Philippines. Both of them tackled the issues of: Access and Connectivity, Appropriate Content, Capacity-Building, and Consensus Building for a strategic agenda of CSOs in information and communication.

Through these concerns, we seek to promote the idea that the digital divide is just one aspect of the various socio-political divides in our countries and in the global community, and we should actively utilize ICTs as enabling tools for social change.

What is the state of internet controling policy in your country, and the resistance to such state regulation?

Unlike in other countries, the Philippine legal and regulatory regime in ICTs has been quite liberal, with the government not yet really into censorship and regulation. We do note that the internet is largely colonized by the Market, and its positive potential has been diluted by commercialism.

What we are concerned with, though is how there can be equitable access and appropriate use of ICT resources to the majority of our people who because of poverty or lack of universal access policies of our governent, cannot yet benefit from the so-called "information revolution".

What urgent issues would you like to raise?

For developing countries mired in poverty and underdevelopment, the internet and the ICT situation are merely a mirror of the social contradictions of our political economy. So even as we seek to democratize ICTs on the ground, it would also be essential that the strategic issues of political, social and economic democracy be promoted vigorously by people's movements.

How do you think participants can continue international solidarity?

Participants can continue to build solidarity via offline and online collaboration and learning from each other, through mailing lists and discussion groups, common activities (training, conferences, exchanges), and other collaborative learning initiatives.