There is an interesting discussion underway at the
Pakistan Telecom Grid Community on the possible use of
Blackberry services by the government (
to read the discussion visit here) and the discussion is getting more interesting by the second. Why, well the first thing I feel is that we don't have that educated or aware lot in our parliament that would know how to access their email messages or use facebook to connect with their stakeholders or voters. Yes, they can make calls, anyone is able to do that with out a literacy level requirement, isn't owning a handset the first step to being able to dial a number!
As far is RIM
Research In Motion's Blackberry is concerned in terms of its regulation, its just a paranoia as there are a multitude of other methods used by people that want to do unlawful activity. For example,
Credit Card fraud being the largest in the world is not done 100% online. Instead, the percentage of offline fraud is far more greater than that using the
Internet.
These are only regulatory controls that have seen to be going paranoid and nuts all across the globe in an attempt to gain more control of the network due to its social and economic dynamics and impact. Its like someone or something slipping for under the noses of the regulator that they are trying to overcome.
If you watch recent
Hollywood flicks like the
American etc, you will see how the
cell phone is disposed off as it is now very commonly understood that there are facilities to trace and trackback on mobile and wireless networks.
Using Blackberry's is one thing, it may be useful to help challenge the status quo from elitism to going and being 24/7 accessible and accountable to citizens using
Mobile,
Messaging, Email and the Internet by our representatives in the parliament and assemblies?
Mobile/Cellular Driven Democracy anyone?
Image via CrunchBase
