The Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives
In Bangkok, Thailand: International Workshop on Ethics, Wellbeing and Meaningful Broadband
August 16 - 18, 2011
Chulalongkorn University
Introducing broadband to a country such as
Thailand has faced a number of challenges. Many of these challenges are
regulatory and political in nature. Many groups are vying for a lead
position in the broadband game and no one wants to lose out. This has
led to an impasse where nothing is moving. However, a brighter prospect
appears to be on the horizon when a new law was passed recently setting
up the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC)
which has the responsibility and the authority to lay out regulatory
framework for broadband network. Hence it seems that Thailand will have
its own broadband network soon.
Nevertheless, a new set of challenges are
emerging as a result of the introduction of the broadband network. When
the physical infrastructure is there, these new challenges include how
the network will be used to the best interest of the public as a whole.
We have introduced the notion of “meaningful broadband” to refer
specifically to these new challenges. How can broadband communication be
“meaningful” in the sense that it responds to not only the demand for
economic growth, but also the need to maintain the values and goals
which are not so directly measurable? These values and goals comprise
the meaningfulness of people’s lives. Meaningful values, for example,
are present when the people do not become a mere cog in the giant
economic wheel but retain their sense of purpose and direction that is
ethically positive. Hence a number of questions and challenges emerges:
How can broadband use be integrated into the traditional lives of the
people so that it does not become a mere tool of the new seemingly
all-powerful values of consumerism and globalized commercialization? How
can broadband fit with and even promote the values that are meaningful
to the people?
This is the rationale for the international
workshop on “Ethics, Wellbeing and Meaningful Broadband.” A number of
internationally recognized scholars have been invited to the workshop to
share their viewpoints with leading Thai thinkers and members of the
public to find ways to respond to the challenges of ethical and
meaningful broadband use mentioned above. The workshop aims at answering
the following questions:
1) How
to operationalize "sufficiency economy" in NBTC? The Thai constitution has a requirement for
each Thai ministry and agency, including its regulatory agency, to
further "sufficiency economy," a principle laid out by the Thai king.
The principle has affinities with the Bhutanese principle of “Gross
National Happiness.” How is this requirement of either Sufficiency
Economy and Gross National Happiness being operationalized? Of it is
being ignored, why and which government agencies are innovating on this
theme. As a new regulatory agency tied to the theme of digital
convergence (linking broadcast and broadband), NBTC represent a new
opportunity to position Sufficiency Economy as an overall driver of
digital convergence strategies, integrated into the frequency allocation
(spectrum management) and taxation strategies of the new regulator as
well as establishing a new interface between regulation and "human
development" which is a traditional concern of ministries such as public
health, culture and education which have been totally isolated from
telecommunications regulation.
2) How
to pre-empt government censorship of the Internet? Recently political constituencies and
governmental factions have furthered internet censorship in Thailand and
in other Asian nations. This is particularly evident regarding online
games, gambling, pornography, and (in particular countries), certain
themes such as Lese Majeste, Singapore's sensitivity to criticism,
China's sensitivity to human rights arguments, Arab countries
sensitivity to protest movements fostered by the internet. Censorship is
an example of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" because
exclusion of web sites via censorship often prevents a country from
receiving benefits from internet-based learning in an effort to achieve
specific goals and much internet censorship is ineffective and
unenforceable for a variety of reasons. Nonetheless we can expect
censorship to continue and grow unless "national broadband ecosystems"
emerge that that are meaningful to citizens and nations. In particular,
needs of vulnerable citizens (the poor, the uneducated, young children)
must be protected. What can be done in the design and regulation of new
technologies to attracted ethically valuable applications technology
and discourage negative impacts? What can be learned by the effort to
develop "quality of life indexes," e.g. those underlying Bhutan's Gross
National Happiness (GNH), to provide objective measures of technologies
that enable policymakers to exclude or attract certain technologies
based on their anticipated ethical impacts?
3) Rethinking
"media ethics" for the broadband era: What is the track record of "media ethics" strategies to
limit harm from television and encourage voluntary compliance by
Hollywood or music-makers? What has/hasn't worked in influencing
behavior by large number of users, e.g. young children? What are the
obstacles that have prevented better success of media ethics strategies?
Now that the broadband era is introducing multimedia convergence how is
the media ethics field changing? What new opportunities and challenges
is it facing. What can be learn from South Korea and other
broadband-saturated nations? How to effectively integrate media ethics
considerations into broadband policies before a nation embarks upon its
broadband-enabled transformation?
4) Predicting
the ethical impacts of broadband: What
are the best methods for scenario construction, forecasting and
prediction of the ethical impacts of broadband? How can a “wellbeing
society” be visualized and construction that involves broadband use? How
can broadband contribute to wellbeing? How are the ethical impacts in
poor uneducated countries different from advanced highly educated
nations?
5) Technological
determinism vs. human intervention:
What are current views regarding the philosophical concept of
technological determinism? What is the origin and development of this
concept and what do we know from empirical research on this theme --
from Pythagoras to Heidegger to McLuhan? What are the technologically
deterministic viewpoints that now dominate the broadband era -- and what
corporate or governmental interests sustain these viewpoints? What
opportunities exist to alter the course of next-generation
broadband-enabled technologies in order to ameliorate their ethical
impacts?
Schedule
Workshop on “Ethics, Wellbeing and Meaningful
Broadband”
Room 105, Maha Chulalongkorn Building,
Chulalongkorn University
August 16, 2011
Chulalongkorn University
Introducing broadband to a country such as
Thailand has faced a number of challenges. Many of these challenges are
regulatory and political in nature. Many groups are vying for a lead
position in the broadband game and no one wants to lose out. This has
led to an impasse where nothing is moving. However, a brighter prospect
appears to be on the horizon when a new law was passed recently setting
up the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC)
which has the responsibility and the authority to lay out regulatory
framework for broadband network. Hence it seems that Thailand will have
its own broadband network soon.
Nevertheless, a new set of challenges are
emerging as a result of the introduction of the broadband network. When
the physical infrastructure is there, these new challenges include how
the network will be used to the best interest of the public as a whole.
We have introduced the notion of “meaningful broadband” to refer
specifically to these new challenges. How can broadband communication be
“meaningful” in the sense that it responds to not only the demand for
economic growth, but also the need to maintain the values and goals
which are not so directly measurable? These values and goals comprise
the meaningfulness of people’s lives. Meaningful values, for example,
are present when the people do not become a mere cog in the giant
economic wheel but retain their sense of purpose and direction that is
ethically positive. Hence a number of questions and challenges emerges:
How can broadband use be integrated into the traditional lives of the
people so that it does not become a mere tool of the new seemingly
all-powerful values of consumerism and globalized commercialization? How
can broadband fit with and even promote the values that are meaningful
to the people?
This is the rationale for the international
workshop on “Ethics, Wellbeing and Meaningful Broadband.” A number of
internationally recognized scholars have been invited to the workshop to
share their viewpoints with leading Thai thinkers and members of the
public to find ways to respond to the challenges of ethical and
meaningful broadband use mentioned above. The workshop aims at answering
the following questions:
1) How
to operationalize "sufficiency economy" in NBTC? The Thai constitution has a requirement for
each Thai ministry and agency, including its regulatory agency, to
further "sufficiency economy," a principle laid out by the Thai king.
The principle has affinities with the Bhutanese principle of “Gross
National Happiness.” How is this requirement of either Sufficiency
Economy and Gross National Happiness being operationalized? Of it is
being ignored, why and which government agencies are innovating on this
theme. As a new regulatory agency tied to the theme of digital
convergence (linking broadcast and broadband), NBTC represent a new
opportunity to position Sufficiency Economy as an overall driver of
digital convergence strategies, integrated into the frequency allocation
(spectrum management) and taxation strategies of the new regulator as
well as establishing a new interface between regulation and "human
development" which is a traditional concern of ministries such as public
health, culture and education which have been totally isolated from
telecommunications regulation.
2) How
to pre-empt government censorship of the Internet? Recently political constituencies and
governmental factions have furthered internet censorship in Thailand and
in other Asian nations. This is particularly evident regarding online
games, gambling, pornography, and (in particular countries), certain
themes such as Lese Majeste, Singapore's sensitivity to criticism,
China's sensitivity to human rights arguments, Arab countries
sensitivity to protest movements fostered by the internet. Censorship is
an example of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" because
exclusion of web sites via censorship often prevents a country from
receiving benefits from internet-based learning in an effort to achieve
specific goals and much internet censorship is ineffective and
unenforceable for a variety of reasons. Nonetheless we can expect
censorship to continue and grow unless "national broadband ecosystems"
emerge that that are meaningful to citizens and nations. In particular,
needs of vulnerable citizens (the poor, the uneducated, young children)
must be protected. What can be done in the design and regulation of new
technologies to attracted ethically valuable applications technology
and discourage negative impacts? What can be learned by the effort to
develop "quality of life indexes," e.g. those underlying Bhutan's Gross
National Happiness (GNH), to provide objective measures of technologies
that enable policymakers to exclude or attract certain technologies
based on their anticipated ethical impacts?
3) Rethinking
"media ethics" for the broadband era: What is the track record of "media ethics" strategies to
limit harm from television and encourage voluntary compliance by
Hollywood or music-makers? What has/hasn't worked in influencing
behavior by large number of users, e.g. young children? What are the
obstacles that have prevented better success of media ethics strategies?
Now that the broadband era is introducing multimedia convergence how is
the media ethics field changing? What new opportunities and challenges
is it facing. What can be learn from South Korea and other
broadband-saturated nations? How to effectively integrate media ethics
considerations into broadband policies before a nation embarks upon its
broadband-enabled transformation?
4) Predicting
the ethical impacts of broadband: What
are the best methods for scenario construction, forecasting and
prediction of the ethical impacts of broadband? How can a “wellbeing
society” be visualized and construction that involves broadband use? How
can broadband contribute to wellbeing? How are the ethical impacts in
poor uneducated countries different from advanced highly educated
nations?
5) Technological
determinism vs. human intervention:
What are current views regarding the philosophical concept of
technological determinism? What is the origin and development of this
concept and what do we know from empirical research on this theme --
from Pythagoras to Heidegger to McLuhan? What are the technologically
deterministic viewpoints that now dominate the broadband era -- and what
corporate or governmental interests sustain these viewpoints? What
opportunities exist to alter the course of next-generation
broadband-enabled technologies in order to ameliorate their ethical
impacts?
Schedule
Workshop on “Ethics, Wellbeing and Meaningful
Broadband”
Room 105, Maha Chulalongkorn Building,
Chulalongkorn University
August 16, 2011
11.45 Lunch and Registration
13.00 “The Second Wireless
Revolution: Bringing Meaningful Broadband to the Next Two Billion,” Craig W. Smith
14.00 "Content Regulations
in the Broadband Era: Incentives and Disincentives Based Approach to
Content Regulations,” by Akarapon
Kongchanagul
14.45 Topic to be Announced, Arthit Suriyawongkul
15.30 Break
15.45 Topic to be Announced, Poomjit Siriwongprasert
16.30 “Meaningfulness, IT
and the Elderly,” Soraj Hongladarom
17.15 Closes
August 17, 2011
8.30 Registration
9.00 Keynote Lecture, “Ironies
of Interdependence: Some Reflections on ICT and Equity in Global
Context,” Peter Hershock
10.00 Topic to be Announced, Hans van Willenswaard
10.45 Break
11.00 “From Veblen to
Zuckerberg: Past, Present, and Future of Techno-Determinism in
Thailand,” Pun-arj Chairatana
11.45 Lunch
13.00
13.45 "Give Them the Tools,
Get Out of the Way: the Liberisation of Communication and its
Consequences," Nares Damrongchai
14.30 Mini-break
14.40 "Media and
Information Literacy (MIL): the Move beyond Broadband Access," Kasititorn Pooparadai
15.25 Break
15.40 Topic to be Announced, Supinya Klangnarong
16.25 “From Meaningful
Broadband to Open Infrastructures and Peer Economies,” Michel Bauwens
17.10 General Discussion - Where do we go from now?
17.30 Workshop closes.
18.00 Dinner (place to be announced later)
August 18, 2011
9.00 - 16.00 Workshop on “Meaningful Broadband Research
Consortium,” organized by Craig W. Smith
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