Jim Moore’s blog: Innovation, Strategy, Public Policy

Google Fights Global Internet Censorship - Forbes.com

Bravo for Google Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs Andrew McLaughlin , our former colleague at Berkman, for pressing censorship as a trade issue.  This is exactly the case.  And from my–and Andrew’s–work on bridging the digital divide between rich and poor countries, barriers to internet participation hurt the poor nations most of all.  Their citizens cannot participate in the global knowledge economy.

Now if we could just press for access to undersea fiber as a global trade issue, I’d be even happier.   Undersea fiber connections are the “deep water ports” of the knowledge economy. Countries like South Africa where big telecom companies tightly control these ports are strikingly disadvantaged.  Small and medium-sized knowledge-based businesses are starved.  And yet these businesses are the types that can spring up in web ecosystems quickly in developing contries.  These are businesses that help their local societies become more efficient.  These businesses can provide needed export services, such as outsourced development.  And these businesses promote the growth of the  political middle class.