I have two questions for you this
morning so you could decide to shut them
down
the responses down in the little
booklets you were given or respond to
them at the top of your head so the
first question is how often do you
connect to the internet and the second
question is what would you do without it
because a study done by Deloitte says of
the world’s seven billion population
only 2.7 have access to the Internet
while a clear majority of 4.3 remain
unconnected live in developing countries
I’m here to tell you that many of those
unconnected I here in South Africa I’d
like to share my story which highlights
my relationship with the Internet and
particularly why I think universal
internet access is a right of every
South African see I’m the eldest of five
and I grew up with immense pressure to
make something of my life so my younger
siblings would have someone to emulate
closely so after I completed my
undergrad and honours degree I got an
opportunity of a lifetime to go and
pursue my master’s degree in France
pretty cool huh at 20 20 year old from a
Township gets awarded a scholarship
great PR story but my excitement was
short-lived because people who makan I
consider very close to me urge me not to
go because I would fail because the
standard was too high and because I did
not speak French obviously so I turned
to my mentor my grandmother the woman
who gave me her life savings for me to
enroll for my first th University and my
grandmother urged me to go so now the
catch that came with my scholarship
award was that I would have to apply for
University on France on my own an entire
University but I did not know anyone in
France I’d never left the country how do
I do this so I turned into one thing
half of us
this room cannot go with that and that
is the Internet
I googled all prestigious universities
in France and I struggled I struggled
because how would I know my email
application was received would I get
admitted
what if they expected me to come and
bring in supporting documentation in
person you see these are all questions a
young person from a disadvantaged
background struggles with but needless
to say I eventually got accepted by the
University in the South of France for
master’s bilingual program and shortly
before my dear future my dear
grandmother was worried about how we
were going to keep in contact for the
next 18 months so I had a friend of mine
download skype and once I landed I sent
him an inbox on Facebook and had him
quickly rushed to my house so my
grandmother could Skype with me you see
this moment right here introduce the
Internet to my grandmother
it introduced the Internet to my family
and my closest friends today my
grandmother’s not a digital native yet
I’m working on it but she’s very much
digitally informed my grandmother
believes Google has the answers to
everything we call her cocoa Google just
the other day she rushed to my rewrites
and she says I need to create a Twitter
account for her you see my grandmother I
understands that when you tweets you get
your opinion out there and you keep up
with character face and maybe you treat
my kid like or even retweeted and maybe
you can trend but back to my story the
internet was to be a very important tool
for me to communicate with friends
family but also to pray for my classes
it was also an important tool for me to
conduct interviews for my master’s
thesis that I would let it later defend
but may I highlight that I was out of my
comfort zone not only did I find myself
in a foreign country but also it was
expected that I would compete with my
European counterparts with this resource
that I barely grew up with and compete
very well needless to say I graduated
with
master’s degree in honors and got an A
in French that’s me over there the
reason I’m telling you my story is that
I want us for a moment to imagine what
internet access is like for a 12 year
old boy living in a tree fell who lives
in a shack sleeps on the floor but both
of his parents are unemployed and
survive on his and his siblings social
grant in 2013 Ellen not Craig jr.
pondered protect disease REM and I laid
to join the organization earlier this
year as their youngest CEO I’m 26
project is Cesar is a nonprofit
organization that facilitates as well as
advocate for free internet access within
a walking distance in low-income
communities a tragic disease where we
believe internet Exodus should be a
basic good and human rights
I came to water and electricity thus far
predict disease where has roll out at
thousand and seven to six hot spots
country ride our flagship project is in
the city of 20 which started in 2013 and
we’ve connected over 300,000 unique
users per day that come into our network
and have over a million unique users on
a quarterly basis we give away 500 makes
pretty pretty great data per device a
project disease or our argument is basic
we believe internet access should be a
basic right that is 100% subsidized by
the state
pretty brave huh here’s why because the
Bill of Rights our cornerstone of our
democracy right states that the Bill of
Rights should protect respect and
promote the rights of every South
African so to Section 27b of the Bill of
Rights say we have a right to water and
food right it also say that we have a
right to Social Security should we be
unable to take care of ourselves
furthermore the Bill of Rights states
that should the the state has the
responsibility to take legislative and
other measures to make sure that these
rights are realized
correct equally so section 16 of the
Bill of Rights say we have the right to
freedom of expression and this freedom
expression includes the free
to receive impart and share ideas
freedom of artistic creativity freedom
of academic freedom and scientific
research steady internet access should
be a basic right right but I want you to
think of these hotspots that project
DC’s redeploys and different
municipalities as communal taps we’re
not saying these hotspots should be your
basic rights we’re saying the tool that
allows you to access information should
be your basic service and therefore this
is the way the municipality gets to help
you realize your Bill of Rights people
in low-income communities need internet
access because every look every
corporate now has moved to the
application and every municipality has
moved to e-governance and even stars as
nudging people to move towards efiling
at project this is way we conduct month
quarterly reports on our impact surveys
we do this to get empirical evidence of
what internet access can do and
low-income communities and also to
support our argument why should be
municipal subsidized so this is a graph
that we did so it shows here of 24
percent of people’s have claimed that
they’ve saved money by using our Wi-Fi
networks and less than 23 percent used
it for education and schooling and eight
percent use it for email we still yet to
get people digitally native like my
grandmother doesn’t if this does not get
you thinking I study done by the World
Bank says for every ten percent of
broadband penetration there’s a 1.3
percent growth and a country’s GDP like
South Africa so if we think of 1 percent
of GDP equals to 7,000 jobs the 7 the
700,000 jobs waiting to be created you
see the return on these investments are
beneficial to the state
which goes back to my argument it has to
be subsidized by the state because
people in low income communities cannot
affect afford data and the cost of data
is a barrier for them to access jobs to
connect to the world and efficiently
contribute to our national GDP what can
you do here today personally I urged you
to get involved and the discussion about
why the digital divide and the country
is so entrenched find out how other
organizations like project DC’s way and
others are working to bridge the divide
perhaps you can give your domestic
worker you share you your Wi-Fi password
with your domestic worker whatever term
you’re comfortable calling her do nearby
schools in your area struggle to connect
to internet or digital teaching skills
perhaps you can help them carry a dongle
in your pocket on your bag and help your
neighbor who’s trying to apply to their
first year of university C it’s
challenging but we can all do something
individually remember that little boy in
a tree drill who lives in a shack
imagine now that he’s got internet
access through our Wi-Fi Protected sees
way he not only grows up to be a digital
native but he has access to some of the
brightest minds and the digital platform
he not only grows up to be an amazing
academic and professional but also an
amazing person and a world that is fast
becoming digital what are we doing in
the long term
well project disease was working very
hard with other organizations we need to
come to bring calm to the table and work
with organizations such as
akasa D TPS and new Sassa on what the
way forward should be I think the
government should focus its energy on
implementing efficient policies that
will roll out internet access not only
in low-income communities but in rural
areas as well so that conversation
shouldn’t be about bringing the cost of
data down the conversation should be on
the sustainability and the scalability
of these Wi-Fi projects so this has been
my story on bridging the digital divide
one internship at a time and being the
voice for the voiceless
[Applause]
[Music]
morning so you could decide to shut them
down
the responses down in the little
booklets you were given or respond to
them at the top of your head so the
first question is how often do you
connect to the internet and the second
question is what would you do without it
because a study done by Deloitte says of
the world’s seven billion population
only 2.7 have access to the Internet
while a clear majority of 4.3 remain
unconnected live in developing countries
I’m here to tell you that many of those
unconnected I here in South Africa I’d
like to share my story which highlights
my relationship with the Internet and
particularly why I think universal
internet access is a right of every
South African see I’m the eldest of five
and I grew up with immense pressure to
make something of my life so my younger
siblings would have someone to emulate
closely so after I completed my
undergrad and honours degree I got an
opportunity of a lifetime to go and
pursue my master’s degree in France
pretty cool huh at 20 20 year old from a
Township gets awarded a scholarship
great PR story but my excitement was
short-lived because people who makan I
consider very close to me urge me not to
go because I would fail because the
standard was too high and because I did
not speak French obviously so I turned
to my mentor my grandmother the woman
who gave me her life savings for me to
enroll for my first th University and my
grandmother urged me to go so now the
catch that came with my scholarship
award was that I would have to apply for
University on France on my own an entire
University but I did not know anyone in
France I’d never left the country how do
I do this so I turned into one thing
half of us
this room cannot go with that and that
is the Internet
I googled all prestigious universities
in France and I struggled I struggled
because how would I know my email
application was received would I get
admitted
what if they expected me to come and
bring in supporting documentation in
person you see these are all questions a
young person from a disadvantaged
background struggles with but needless
to say I eventually got accepted by the
University in the South of France for
master’s bilingual program and shortly
before my dear future my dear
grandmother was worried about how we
were going to keep in contact for the
next 18 months so I had a friend of mine
download skype and once I landed I sent
him an inbox on Facebook and had him
quickly rushed to my house so my
grandmother could Skype with me you see
this moment right here introduce the
Internet to my grandmother
it introduced the Internet to my family
and my closest friends today my
grandmother’s not a digital native yet
I’m working on it but she’s very much
digitally informed my grandmother
believes Google has the answers to
everything we call her cocoa Google just
the other day she rushed to my rewrites
and she says I need to create a Twitter
account for her you see my grandmother I
understands that when you tweets you get
your opinion out there and you keep up
with character face and maybe you treat
my kid like or even retweeted and maybe
you can trend but back to my story the
internet was to be a very important tool
for me to communicate with friends
family but also to pray for my classes
it was also an important tool for me to
conduct interviews for my master’s
thesis that I would let it later defend
but may I highlight that I was out of my
comfort zone not only did I find myself
in a foreign country but also it was
expected that I would compete with my
European counterparts with this resource
that I barely grew up with and compete
very well needless to say I graduated
with
master’s degree in honors and got an A
in French that’s me over there the
reason I’m telling you my story is that
I want us for a moment to imagine what
internet access is like for a 12 year
old boy living in a tree fell who lives
in a shack sleeps on the floor but both
of his parents are unemployed and
survive on his and his siblings social
grant in 2013 Ellen not Craig jr.
pondered protect disease REM and I laid
to join the organization earlier this
year as their youngest CEO I’m 26
project is Cesar is a nonprofit
organization that facilitates as well as
advocate for free internet access within
a walking distance in low-income
communities a tragic disease where we
believe internet Exodus should be a
basic good and human rights
I came to water and electricity thus far
predict disease where has roll out at
thousand and seven to six hot spots
country ride our flagship project is in
the city of 20 which started in 2013 and
we’ve connected over 300,000 unique
users per day that come into our network
and have over a million unique users on
a quarterly basis we give away 500 makes
pretty pretty great data per device a
project disease or our argument is basic
we believe internet access should be a
basic right that is 100% subsidized by
the state
pretty brave huh here’s why because the
Bill of Rights our cornerstone of our
democracy right states that the Bill of
Rights should protect respect and
promote the rights of every South
African so to Section 27b of the Bill of
Rights say we have a right to water and
food right it also say that we have a
right to Social Security should we be
unable to take care of ourselves
furthermore the Bill of Rights states
that should the the state has the
responsibility to take legislative and
other measures to make sure that these
rights are realized
correct equally so section 16 of the
Bill of Rights say we have the right to
freedom of expression and this freedom
expression includes the free
to receive impart and share ideas
freedom of artistic creativity freedom
of academic freedom and scientific
research steady internet access should
be a basic right right but I want you to
think of these hotspots that project
DC’s redeploys and different
municipalities as communal taps we’re
not saying these hotspots should be your
basic rights we’re saying the tool that
allows you to access information should
be your basic service and therefore this
is the way the municipality gets to help
you realize your Bill of Rights people
in low-income communities need internet
access because every look every
corporate now has moved to the
application and every municipality has
moved to e-governance and even stars as
nudging people to move towards efiling
at project this is way we conduct month
quarterly reports on our impact surveys
we do this to get empirical evidence of
what internet access can do and
low-income communities and also to
support our argument why should be
municipal subsidized so this is a graph
that we did so it shows here of 24
percent of people’s have claimed that
they’ve saved money by using our Wi-Fi
networks and less than 23 percent used
it for education and schooling and eight
percent use it for email we still yet to
get people digitally native like my
grandmother doesn’t if this does not get
you thinking I study done by the World
Bank says for every ten percent of
broadband penetration there’s a 1.3
percent growth and a country’s GDP like
South Africa so if we think of 1 percent
of GDP equals to 7,000 jobs the 7 the
700,000 jobs waiting to be created you
see the return on these investments are
beneficial to the state
which goes back to my argument it has to
be subsidized by the state because
people in low income communities cannot
affect afford data and the cost of data
is a barrier for them to access jobs to
connect to the world and efficiently
contribute to our national GDP what can
you do here today personally I urged you
to get involved and the discussion about
why the digital divide and the country
is so entrenched find out how other
organizations like project DC’s way and
others are working to bridge the divide
perhaps you can give your domestic
worker you share you your Wi-Fi password
with your domestic worker whatever term
you’re comfortable calling her do nearby
schools in your area struggle to connect
to internet or digital teaching skills
perhaps you can help them carry a dongle
in your pocket on your bag and help your
neighbor who’s trying to apply to their
first year of university C it’s
challenging but we can all do something
individually remember that little boy in
a tree drill who lives in a shack
imagine now that he’s got internet
access through our Wi-Fi Protected sees
way he not only grows up to be a digital
native but he has access to some of the
brightest minds and the digital platform
he not only grows up to be an amazing
academic and professional but also an
amazing person and a world that is fast
becoming digital what are we doing in
the long term
well project disease was working very
hard with other organizations we need to
come to bring calm to the table and work
with organizations such as
akasa D TPS and new Sassa on what the
way forward should be I think the
government should focus its energy on
implementing efficient policies that
will roll out internet access not only
in low-income communities but in rural
areas as well so that conversation
shouldn’t be about bringing the cost of
data down the conversation should be on
the sustainability and the scalability
of these Wi-Fi projects so this has been
my story on bridging the digital divide
one internship at a time and being the
voice for the voiceless
[Applause]
[Music]
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