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Estonia: Where the Internet is a Human Right

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the five-year-plan dept.

securitas writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports on technological change in Estonia, where an enlightened post-Soviet era government believes the Internet is essential for life in the 21st century and backs that up with legislation declaring Internet access is a human right. Estonia is a country where hot, running water was a luxury a decade ago. It's now a place where farmers have broadband Internet, 80% of the people use online banking, Internet usage and broadband penetration rates are comparable to Western Europe, and the government conducts most business (meetings, votes, document reviews, etc.) virtually through a system of networked computers. Not bad for a country that only 10 years ago was a crumbling, bankrupt mess with a network infrastructure to match."

10 of 499 comments (clear)

  1. mmm. Estonia FTP's by YodaToad · · Score: 4, Funny

    I always love downloading my ISO's from Estonia mirrors. I always seem to get my max download speed. Good for them!

  2. Carefull .... by bizitch · · Score: 5, Funny

    You don't know what those wacky Estonians will do with thier "rights" and their "freedoms" ....

    They might start a decentralized peer-to-peer network and start trading files or something!

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  3. Re:A further comment by Surak · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about the human right to friday's off every six months?

    I second that motion!

    Motion carried!

    Everybody has Fridays off every six months.

    Next.

    --
    My journal has hot /. gossip.
  4. America needs to worry about the basics, first. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I mean, we JUST decriminalised Homosexuality, for petes' sake! I think it'll be some time down the road before we have to tack on gratuitous 'human rights'. First we'll have to have the human right to medical treatment, the human right to privacy and the human right to fair elections first!

  5. Re:Russia by erikharrison · · Score: 2, Funny

    It might have something to do with being larger than a couple of Australia's

  6. They're also good at wife-carrying by aliens · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah it's strange, but hey who are you to judge?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/815978.stm

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    1. Re:They're also good at wife-carrying by zangdesign · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey, what's the ping time using an average Estonian wife as the packet carrier?

      I can see it now - an RFC on WifeNet or WiFi!

      We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

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    2. Re:They're also good at wife-carrying by sstory · · Score: 2, Funny
      The festival originated in the 19th century when it was common practice in Finland to steal women from neighbouring villages.

      I didn't realize they had mormons in 19th century Finland.

  7. The right to Life, Liberty, ... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... and an Inexhaustible Source of Porn.

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    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  8. ha HA ha Ha by xenocytekron · · Score: 2, Funny

    right

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