Mark Zuckerberg is teaming up with Bono's One organization to push for universal Internet access by 2020.
"I believe Internet access is essential for achieving humanity's #globalgoals," reads the Connectivity Declaration released by One and signed by several high-profile people and philanthrophic organizations, including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The declaration was released as the United Nations considered the Global Goals, a development blueprint aimed at solving pressing social and economic challenges. Zuckerberg appeared at the UN this week to discuss the Internet component of those goals and explain that "connecting the world is one of the fundamental challenges of our generation."
"Today over half the people on this planet don't have access," Zuckerberg wrote in a joint New York Times op-ed with Bono. "That is not good for anyone — not for the disempowered and disconnected, and not for the other half, whose commerce and security depend on having stable societies."
Zuckerberg pointed to farmers in Africa who use the mobile Web to track inventory and prices, women in South America who use phones to get health information, and refugees who use smartphones to stay in touch with family during their journey to Europe.
A new UN report on global access to broadband finds that 57 percent of the world, or 4 billion people, remains unconnected. In developing countries, only about 35 percent of people have Internet access.
"It's one thing to say we should connect the world. The real trick is how," Zuckerberg acknowledged. "There's no simple solution or silicon bullet."
One of the big challenges, he said, is providing Internet access to areas that don't even have electricity yet.
"Nine out of 10 rural Africans don't have electricity," Zuckerberg said. "Governments can make the difference. This is why we support initiatives like President Obama's Power Africa plan and the bipartisan Electrify Africa Act in Congress, as well as the African Development Bank's investments in renewable energy."
"Where governments lay the foundation, the private sector can build," he said.
Facebook has been working to expand Internet global Internet access via its Internet.org. But Zuckerberg also highlighted Intel Foundation's work in STEM education, Microsoft's use of technology to advance the Millennium Development Goals, and Google's Project Loon.
But Silicon Valley must "do far more for those most marginalized, those trapped in poverty, and those beyond or on the edge of the network," Zuckerberg and Bono wrote.
Source: pcmag.com
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