Rebuilding Iraq's Internet

Why don't we... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-04-10 05:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

Try and feed them first.

Re:Why don't we... by missing000 · 2003-04-10 05:14 · Score: 5, Funny

Here's an idea:
How about we give them food, PC's, cars, etc. in exchange for oil.
This could be facilitated through an intermediate form of exchange we could call "money".
Re:Why don't we... by Cloud+9 · 2003-04-10 05:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

Let me give you a scenario. Your village has been bombed, your house is destroyed, you've lost 2 sons and a leg from the war, and your fields have been razed.
Which would you rather have RIGHT NOW, food or kazaa?
I don't argue that rebuilding their communications infrastructure is a fantastic idea, LATER. Right now, it's probably more important that people don't starve waiting for it.

--
Karma: Dyn-o-mite!(mostly affected by Jimmy Walker reading your comments)
Re:Why don't we... by Iguanaphobic · 2003-04-10 06:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

As far as the internet infrastructure... I think that's a little premature. That's like kicking the mob-rule out of Afghanistan and then debating what fashion designers to bring in to help the women with their new look

Even the Afghani's have stopped hoping for U.S. assistance in rebuilding. Read the entire article and tell me how many references to the U.S. reconstruction efforts there are. Not like the promises weren't made. It may be different in Iraq though. They have oil.

--
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Re:Why don't we... by Iguanaphobic · 2003-04-10 06:12 · Score: 4, Insightful

Let me give you a scenario:

You wake up in hospital with no arms, your entire family is dead and the guys who did it are playing Pinochle at an air base in Britain.

You think you might be a wee bit pissed off?

Or a shot at freedom and self-rule with a little assistance from America, Australia, Spain and Britain?

Why would you care. You have no arms and everyone you loved is dead. I guess you could thank your lucky stars that they didn't use a GBU-31 to do it. Then you'd just be pink mist. Or maybe that would have been a blessing.

--
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Re:Why don't we... by broter · 2003-04-10 06:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

But those aren't the people who need the help.

I disagree. From what I've heard (not much different from what many others have), every Iraqi will need aid. The restructuring of the government will likely disrupt much of the basic services that are required to live. In the short term, water and food delivery, medical supplies (that were taxed before hostilities broke out), and electricity. In the long term, local food production, a reliable law enforcement and judiciary, and (yes) a communication system.

But it's rather silly to ignore work on the long term necessities while securing the short term goals. Many of the short term goals need the long term goals to work. Without law enforcement, distribution to the needy of food and water is difficult. And, yes, a communication infrastructure (not what the article is talking about at all) to coordinate local departments is essential.

Some of these can be bandaided by the USUK forces in the region, but movement to a permanent system in important.

--
"One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place."
- Mick Travis, "If..."

Come one by Joshuah · 2003-04-10 05:11 · Score: 4, Insightful

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...

Re:Come one by AndroidCat · 2003-04-10 05:26 · Score: 5, Funny

how many iraq's have a computer
Well, from the pictures of the looting, a lot more than a couple days ago.

--
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.

First things first by igaborf · 2003-04-10 05:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online?

Yes, because, God knows, getting on the 'Net is every Iraqi's first priority at the moment.

Re:First things first by outsider007 · 2003-04-10 05:28 · Score: 4, Funny

no, first priority is hitting the saddam statue's head with a shoe. then breakfast. then getting on the net

--
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won

IQ domains? How does it help? by cmburns69 · 2003-04-10 05:13 · Score: 5, Insightful

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!

Huh? by Evil+Adrian · 2003-04-10 05:13 · Score: 5, Funny

I thought Halliburton had a lucrative contract to do this too?

--
evil adrian

Won't work by LowneWulf · 2003-04-10 05:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

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!

knowledge is power by e2d2 · 2003-04-10 05:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

Re:knowledge is power by jefu · 2003-04-10 06:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

Clearly things like food, water, medical support, electricity need to be the top priority.
But I'd say that access to information and freedom of speech/press are also essential parts of a healthy democratic society - and I'd even suggest that the lack of such is usually a major factor in the survival of totalitarian regimes. It is not coincidence that early symptoms of a government in the process of becoming fascist include restrictions on what people can say and to whom, the construction of an information monitoring infrastructure to spy on what people are thinking, and increasing numbers of things (rules, groups and the like) which are maintained as secrets.
Selling ".iq" domain names though is just a transparent way for some company with no other products worth selling to make a quick buck or three.
Somehow though, seeing things like the Patriot Act and Patriot II, I doubt that the current administration has any more interest in supporting free speech in Iraq than they do in the US.
<personal-odd-note>
I suggested rather a while back that it might be an interesting alternative to war to find an effective way to increase free speech in Iraq (and Afghanistan) by building and distributing simple/cheap internet access devices along with a robust network and sufficient encryption to foil attempts by the totalitarian governments to block/intercept communications. Undoubtedly a completely crazy notion. But I look at what must be done to produce and maintain a stable democratic government and believe that education and freedom of speech are surely essentials. So I wonder if its probably not more effective to try to make a totalitarian regime difficult to maintain (or to build) than to need to destroy it afterwards. (Isn't it generally cheaper to provide vaccinations than to have to cure a disease?)
</personal-odd-note>

We need to stop the profiteering by JoeBuck · 2003-04-10 05:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

The .iq TLD.. by molo · 2003-04-10 05:23 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

Datacenter capital of the world? by peterdaly · 2003-04-10 05:26 · Score: 4, Funny

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

damn people! by Ender+Ryan · 2003-04-10 05:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why is it that every other post is some self-righteous tirade about how Iraq has so many other problems right now that people shouldn't be concerned about things like this.

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

Before commenting on Iraq read this.... by Joey7F · 2003-04-10 05:59 · Score: 4, Informative

I have seen too many people making references to Iraq by appending other country's values to it. So read this from the CIA

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ iz.html

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

stumbling blocks ... by Combuchan · 2003-04-10 06:16 · Score: 4, Interesting

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

Re:HAHAHA 0WN3D, B3330000TCH35!! by Iguanaphobic · 2003-04-10 06:22 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

Priorities by 90XDoubleSide · 2003-04-10 06:38 · Score: 5, Informative

Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online?

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

This is morally reprehensible. by Dagmar+d'Surreal · 2003-04-10 07:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

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."

24 of 410 comments (clear)