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Rebuilding Iraq's Internet
Anselm writes "According to this article at Wired.com, "The war has left Iraq's Internet infrastructure in shambles. Now, a British ISP hopes to fund the reconstruction through sales of domain names ending in .iq." While I have no use for an IQ domain, the article does make me wonder: Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online?"
Try and feed them first.
Boo freakady who. Iraq has so many other problems right now. Why dont geeks send MONEY, FOOD to local companies like CARE that help the people of Iraq. By providing food, 100% of the people can use it. how many iraq's have a computer much less have ever been online? Yeah, in a year or two from now, when people are feed and they are dying for disesases, then worry abou rebuilding the internet systems...
Geeks should definitely get involved and they should do it through GeekCorps since that works through the PeaceCorps and international organizations.
Suicide Booth: You are now dead! Thank you for using Stop and Drop, America's favorite since 2008.
Yes, because, God knows, getting on the 'Net is every Iraqi's first priority at the moment.
How does this help the Iraqi people? All this does is give the rest of the world more domain space, while not giving Iraq the full value of their "property".
Why couldn't it be an Iraqi company that sells the domains? This would allow the country to keep all of the proceeds, instead of only getting some of the value.
I'm not against the UK, the US, France or anybody, but I think this might be one area where this company is being opportunistic.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
Online Starcraft RPG? At
Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
I thought Halliburton had a lucrative contract to do this too?
evil adrian
They don't need our money to build an isp or some such thing. There really are, you know, more important things than the internet. They need food, medicine, and a little help rebuilding a government. Once that's done, they need to be left alone, and they need us as far away from them as possible. And I say that, having been in support of our actions from even before we started ;)
Doesn't rebuilding the Internet in Iraq require other critical resources first?
You know.... like ELECTRICITY?
Seriously, this is pathetic! Basically some company trying to profit off selling country code domain names to sites not in the country, while there's still too much chaos for anyone inside the country to take notice!
You're asking one of two questions:
Q) "I'm planning to do something to help rebuild Iraq's communications. Is that a good idea?"
A)That's great! Bless you!
Q) "Should "we" / "the community" / hackers / geeks do something to help rebuild Iraq's communications?"
A) Uhhh, sure. Go open a Sourceforge project.
Re: .iq domains -- I can see high.iq and low.iq going, and probably sex.iq. I suspect oil is going to continue to drive their economy, though.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Because it was so absolutely fantastic even before the first cruise missile was launched at Baghdad.
Typical leftie FUD.
Just like Afghanistan, except that over there at least they managed to dig out their C64's and connect over a 2400 baud modem and email Katz with alacrity.
In any case, I'm sure Iraq has bigger problems right now, like, oh, food and water.
Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online
Before Gulf war 1 Iraq wasn't that badly off. 2 episodes of having the stuffing knocked out of them by the USA, with a decade of brutal sanctions in-between have reduced them to poverty. I'd say that the USA owes the ordinary people of Iraq big time.
Is food, water, electricity, abcense of falling bombs and no armed bandits or looters more important? Well duh. But if and when you get past rebuilding those, the Internet is a marvelous communications mechanism. Communications aid free speech and democracy, or so I'm told.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
No one said they should spend the money they receive for food and health instead on Internet access. They simply want to build the Internet infrastructure in Iraq into something that can be used by the masses. I would say freedom of information coincides quite nicely with the coalitions effort to build Iraq into a land free people. Pulling these people out of the knowldege embargo imposed by Saddam Hussein and his regime will help freedom survive in an area of the world that is known for it's denial of free information to citizens. Knowledge _IS_ power. When Iraqi citizens can get equal acess to information they can see other side of the coin, instead of the state controlled side only. Why do you think so many totalitarian governments want to control the Internet access to their countries (CHINA)? So it does coincide with the freedom initiative quite well.
Besides you have to start the plans now to rebuild if you want to get it done later. This type of rebuilding is going to last a lifetime and take a tremendous amount of planning and effort.
If people in the US and the UK value their lives, they will resist the impulse to try to turn Iraq into a colony that is run for corporate profit. (And yes, that's what this is, even though these guys are masquerading as a charity: they intend to take a cut from selling the "high.iq" domain). Iraq's domain namespace belongs to the Iraqi people, not to a clever British IT consultancy. Similarly, the decision as to whether to deploy GSM or CDMA belongs to the future Iraqi government, not to a congressman in the pocket of Qualcomm. Next, we'll see a bunch of Midwestern farmers clamor to get the government to buy up their grain and dump it on Iraq, thereby setting back efforts to rebuild Iraqi agriculture (which employs far more Iraqis than the oil industry does).
We're now at a tipping point: we can either insist that Iraq be run in the interest of Iraqis, or we can allow it to be taken over by a bunch of cronies and lobbyists. If the latter happens, we'll generate so much hate that it will be unsafe for Americans and Brits to travel abroad.
Why can't we set up kind of a geeky Red Cross to deliver free or heavily subsidised computer equipment and internet connections to war torn countries?
Surely it would go a long way to helping such countries as Iraq get back on their feet.
The .iq TLD should belong to the people of Iraq. They should have the final say as to who gets access to it. Selling it off like .tv and .cx today would basicly mean that this ISP is taking advantage of these people because their government is in shambles. Shame on them.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Why should "geeks around the world" take the lead on this? Why shouldn't we let the Iraqis do this? Granted, the present owner is having issues...one of the technical contacts for .iq is presently being held by the feds for contact with Hamas, but I really think that this would be better handled by the Iraqis themselves.
If they want help, we should absolutely offer it, but I don't like the implied statement of "Let's take this thing of the Iraqis, make something that we think is cool out of it, and then claim we're helping them with it."
mcdonalds.iq, yahoo.iq, and amazon.iq
Shall we start the bidding at $1 million each?
The Baghdad telecommunications got wiped out on the 25th, according to news reports. And as of last night, Baghdad still didn't have electicity. (Also keep in mind that as of today, the US only controls half the city, according to the latest from CNN.)
So it could be awhile. I sure hope Salam is surviving the looting and anarchy. (He lives in a wealthy part of Baghdad.) It will be fascinating to see what he says when he is able to post again.
Would make for great datacenters. Does any other place in the world have a higher density of nuclear resistant underground bunkers?
I am sure the US bunker buster bombs didn't get them all.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
FOOD/ELECTRICITY FIRST!
Well, duh. But Iraq is no third or fourth world country. This is a fairly rich country with a pretty educated work force. Do they need Internet first? No, but will internet infastructure improve life? YES.
Internet access is very much like phone lines. It's not just for leisure anymore-it moves information REALLY efficiently.
Anyone who suggests otherwise should get their heads out of the 90s.
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
I'm quite sure that people are aware of the fact that damn near all of the Iraqi infrastructure is pretty well hosed.
We're not that dumb.
Instead of pissing and moaning about a company that seems to be acting like vultures circling over roadkill, perhaps consider the possibility that they might be looking into the long term?
Yes the Iraqi people need food and water, that's a given. Yes they need stable power before the 'net can be rebuilt (that qualifies as a "no shit Sherlock"). But these are short term goals. If you want stability in the area you need to build (or in this case help build) a stable government and you need an economic foundation.
It's a wonderful thing that SoDamn Insane is either dead or so far in hiding that they have to import sunlight. It's the greatest thing in the Iraqi world since sliced bread that the regime is falling down under the "Rolling Victory" of the US/UK troops. It's a blessed thing that food, water and other humanitarian aid is starting to trickle in as areas get cleared out.
But without some way to build an economy, then it's all for naught. The Iraqi love us now. If we left them as a bombed out huck of a country then the attitude would change, they would hate us and we would probally end up once again with another warlord like Saddam and more terrorist acts against us.
Frankly I'd like to think that by helping them re-build and to become a player in the global economy (for which the internet is a damn handy tool), then the goodwill for the US/UK will grow and we'll have another ally in the middle east.
Or did you think that we'd just go over there, blow a whole lot of shit up for fun and oil profits then bugger back home in time for the summer trips to Disney World?
Phoenix
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
Let's not forget that Iraq is not Afghanistan. It is a "modern" country that had a scumbag for a leader.
--Joey
I am using modern in the context of the Middle East, it is not modern by Western European or American standards.
I mean, really.
First of all, the war is not over. Yet.
Second, what the hell kind of question is Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online? "Take the lead"? Yeah, let's all go to Home Depot and pick up spools of cat5e cable and get on one of those "human shield" buses that aren't needed any longer and get to stringing. Not only are there many other priorities as others have pointed out but more likely than not you're calling on people that don't do volunteer work in their own communities to do some unspecified good deeds far far away.
You don't need to ask slashdot if there are things to be done. If you want to help, then help, but you're asking the wrong people. You need to ask the Iraqis what they want and need (see above link on human shields). Perhaps you can contact the Iraqi Forum for Democracy or take a look at iraqipages.com for other contacts. If you are of a mind to do good works, help in your local community, which probably needs it since international attention is not focused on it and there are no lucrative contracts to be had.
I'm not knocking your willingness to help. I think it's great. I think posting here is barking up the wrong tree though. Perhaps you can find out what really needs to be done and make a page for others to visit and contribute what they can.
The true needs of the Iraqi people, like food and water, are what's most important right now. But things like Internet cafes seems like something we should be pushing for. The more that anybody knows about how the rest of the world works, the less likely it is that they will want to destroy it.
If Iraqi's knew, for example, how peaceful life is in America, even for people like them, perhaps the few who hate us would be more likely to want to bring the same peace to Iraq, rather than deprive us of it.
Yeah, look how well .tv did.
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
I don't understand the sentiment of posters who complain that this is a dumb idea because they need help with food/water first, etc... blah.
/. readers wouldn't be able to physically help deliver meal packets or dig wells (ay least not as ably as the Red Cross or United Way could), so why not do something else that you CAN do?
The best way to help the Iraqi's is to contribute whatever you can the best you can. If you're a skilled IT professional who can donate time to help rebuild their IT infrastructure.. GREAT! Why should anybody be complaining about that?
Sure they need food. But there are PLENTY of agencies that can help with that and if you can donate some money to that cause, wonderful. It shouldn't stop you from contributing your niche knowledge too.
When it comes to hands on skill I'll bet the vast majority of the
As a community the readership does have a skill in a particular industry and to suggest that the Iraqis won't need that kind of help because of other problems is nonsense. The sooner everyone does what they can according to their abilities the sooner we'll all be better off.
Sure, they need food and safe water first, but there is a future in Iraq that people can think and talk about. There's already huge aid packages being put together.
Iraq needs an economy in order to become self-sufficient. Things like this ARE going to be important. Let's try to make Iraq into a prosperous country.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
I have seen too many people making references to Iraq by appending other country's values to it. So read this from the CIA
/ iz.html
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos
It has information like literacy rates, religions, etc. I was surprised by a few things, for example, I thought all Iraqis were Arabs, but it turns out there are a fair amount of Turks, Assyrians etc.
I hope they can become a shining example of democracy in a region that is dominated by dictators.
After all, Italy, Germany and Japan have it pretty well now!
--Joey
Just last night I was listening to the shopping list of problems at Baghdad hospitals right now and thought to myself "well, I'm no help with that, but if they've got IT problems, I'd go help."
I realize there are far bigger issues in the conflict, and the world; but as another poster said, I'm a lot better at fixing technology then at fixing people or giving away food.
I'm not sure if there really is a requirement for an IT Peace Corp, but it's a nice idea. Post-war nerd squad to setup communications infrastructure. Internet, TV, radio, cell phones, we can do all that stuff.
Geeks Without Borders. Attractive idea.
I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not. But, YES. The US acted on the will of its people through their represented officials. It is the people who drilled themselves into this dillema; they financed an unneeded war out of their own pockets causing an astounding debt to accumulate. Surely they would have anticipated that Iraq will need money once the war is over and have taken that into account! The responsibility for re-building Iraq to a state equal to, or better than it's previous state is the sole responsibility of the United States and it's allies that joined the war. Everyone who had nothing-to-do-with it has already absolved themselves of both the guilt associated with the unneeded deaths, the financial requirements of war, and responsibility of the betterment of that country's future. It's simple common sense and fairness.
... in an area where children die from drinking water from the local river. Get the "life support" infrastructure back to "up and running" state, then think about getting the internet up.
Because, you know, the most efficient way for water engineers, doctors, and all the other people who make "life support" infrastructure work involves communication via messengers in jeeps. Get real! There are massive challenges facing the people trying to rebuild that infrastructure, and they're going to need access to information and expertise from outside of their local area. Setting up an improved telecommunications infrastructure could help get those water treatment plants, hospitals, etc up and running again faster than would otherwise be possible.
0 1 - just my two bits
From the office of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (aka Baghdad Bob):
"Republican guards have secured in Iraqi Internet services!"
More at 11.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
I think before CITRI plants their flag in Baghdad, they might want to consider the fact that somebody already owns the .iq root server.
From linked page:
Sponsoring Organization:
Alani Corp.
c/o InfoCom
630 International Parkway
Richardson, Texas 75081
United States
I'll pass up expected comment about Texans owning a chunk of Iraq... </troll>
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
That has been the case since the fall of the Soviet Union and will be true for at least another decade, when China gets its legs.
The point being, now everyone knows it. The gloves are off and the neo-cons will strike while the iron is hot. On the one hand, the U.S. denies that it intends to hit Syria and Iran next and on the other hand they're already setting up to do exactly that.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Absolutely, but not before giving at least a small contribution to the World Food Programme, which is in desperate need of funds to combat starvation in both Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa at the same time. Then there will be enough people alive to use the internet!
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
the bush administration secretly bought a few .iq domain names:
weaponsofmassdestruction.iq
chemicalweapons.iq
nuclearweapons.iq
official cited the domain names as clear evidence of banned Iraqi weapons program. Mr Bush was overheard saying "I told you so." It was unclear as to whether Mr. Bush was commenting on the Iraqi weapons domain names or a domain name registered by Mr. Bush: my.iq
This embarrassing project is doomed to fail for two very obvious reasons:
1) Very few (non-Iraqi) people or organizations will want a domain name visibly associated with an ignoble war, death and destruction, and a long-term dictatorship.
2) Very few people (and I include the members of Mensa which are mentioned as an example in CITRI's web page) will want a domain name that broadcasts how proud they are of their ability to pass standard intelligence tests. You see it's just not cool to be clever. Not that way, anyway.
I suspect the only takers - at a knock-down price - will be the tasteless owners of shoddy porn, gambling and con-merchant websites. And spammers great and small.
This is absolutely disgusting. These people are clearly taking advantage of someone else's (Iraq's) misfortune to try and make a buck. This group does not already control the .iq domain, but they know that if they can steal it, it'll be like having a licence to print money. Absolutely nothing is being said on their website about how much of this money they're collecting would actually be going to Iraq, and frankly, I suspect that "paying big salaries at Citri" will somehow also be considered to be an important part of the general welfare of Iraq's IT infrastructure.
Let's see, there's also the small matter of it's not necessarily the desire of the Iraqi people that their domain space be sold off to people outside Iraq. For all we know, they could want a more conservative approach to be taken with it, and have it only be allowed for use by companies and organizations that reside within Iraq.
From their web page:
"The auction is set to continue over an intense two month period, after which funds will be called upon from the winners of each bid, and registrations formalised."
Translation:
s/auction/looting/;
"In the case that a registration is not successful, no funds will be charged, unless the individual wishes to make a donation to the fund."
Translation:
"If the piles of money offered for domains doesn't change the minds of the people in the IANA and get us Iraq's domain, then you won't be out a penny."
Correction: They'd have lived like kings if it wasn't for the asshat who stole the money and built 12 palaces while his people starved. Now that he is gone the PEOPLE of Iraq can reap the rewards of that beautiful black gold by selling it to their liberators (at a modest profit and less than the OPEC per-barrel price of course.. we DID risk our asses of there remember).
Is this some company owned and operated by some of Blair's "close" friends?
This just goes to show that the politicians just wanted to profit in as many ways as possible from this supposed war of liberation.
is that the Iraqi people need a lot of other things before they need the internet. Why don't we start from the ground up. CLEAN WATER, FOOD, WORKING HOSPITALS, HOMES, FUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT, AN ECONOMY, POWER, EDUCATION.... and then when we get everything they need to live and take care of themselves, let the Iraqi's, with the help of the rest of the world if they want, build THEIR corner of the internet.
How does having an internet infrastructure improve the odds of freedom of information?
Well with truly unhindered access to the Internet one can see many points of view outside of one argument. For instance, an Iraqi citizen can read foreign newspapers and Al Jazeera and decide for themself what is "true" about the US occupation and decide for themself where they stand.
The Gutenberg press had the same affect by allowing anyone to print media for a low cost, helping the spread of information. Gutenberg's process, which permitted the inexpensive dissemination of ideas and knowledge, paved the way for dramatic cultural and social change in Europe, including the Protestant Reformation.
Although information one gathers might be _garbage_ I don't think one could argue that MORE information on a particular subject is a bad thing and I would argue that it does help citizens become more informed on what is going on in the world around them.
Also, the US had freedom of information (to one degree or other) before computers, although they didn't have as much knowledge.
And the US is considered a free country. What is your point? Wouldn't you agree that the Internet has helped US citizens stay aware of it's government's actions and also aware of the world around them? People can spread their words over the Internet with very little cost. Anyone in the US can walk into an Internet cafe and post a free web page spouting "truth" until they can no longer type. And that has changed the world. US citizens are more aware of it's government and the world at large because of the Internet. They are no longer restricted to the traditional media as a source of information.
When information is truly free governments and others in power will no longer be able to hide behind lies and deceit. Why do you think those in power try so hard to stop the free flow of information? Because again, knowledge is power.
In his weekly spiel, Bob Cringely commented on the Compaq computers that were being removed from government buildings, wondering in comment where they came from since apparently Iraq had none in 1991 and they were supposed to be under an embargo.
I don't know if those facts are right, but Cringely usually checks things out.
Jan Theodore Galkowski, (Oo) http://www.smalltalkidiom.net/ MySQL,PHP,ETL,SQL,MinGW C, and plucking the Web
No one seems to consider the possibility that entire population of human beings could be into a form of national BDSM or D/s where they enjoy the brutal, criminal oppression from a power hungry tyrant...
Sarcasm aside, there supposedly is a rather significant portion of the Shia population (either in Iraq or Saudi or both) that wants a Caliphant and not a democracy. So, yes, some people don't want a democracy as we have it.
I think a more valid, but difficult, question is do we believe in the UN charter that says people have a right to self governance implies only democracy in the world or does it suggest that a population can choose to support a different kind of government?
This is an actual question. We in the US have been brought up to be part of a democratic republic. It was certainly better than what we had before, and it's certainly better than most of the post colonial governments on earth. I certain don't want another. But is it the only valid form of government?
"One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place."
- Mick Travis, "If..."