[At-Large] A huge day for Internet in Tunisia

[Roberto Gaetano]

Khaled,

> @ Roberto,
> I want to say that havn't seen the real Internet community 
> but only what the old regime want to make you see. You have 
> not seen any of our problems.
> The festival was their to choose a "Miss Net" and not to 
> discuss Net Neutrality issue. A word that was forbidden even 
> to be mentioned.
> Tunisian Internet community is free today and will soon show 
> to the world what we are capable to accomplish.

I am aware of this. I was invited, with another couple of guests, to be in
the jury of Miss Net, and we were also taken to a place where a community
center was being opened, full of portraits of Ben Ali, and with all the
ingredients that I know well for having seen them in different countries
around the world.
However, what I was talking about was a different thing, which is how on one
hand there was an effort to reach out to people (even if the driving force
for this effort might have been the need for getting popular consensus) and
on the other hand the real interest of the people for the internet (even if
this was the interest for the tool without the slightest understanding of
issues like net neutrality).
I am fully aware that I have not seen (m)any of the problems of the Tunisian
internauts, but I think I have enough experience to see things beyond the
scenery that is proposed to me in the foreground. Indeed there has been
smoke, and there have been mirrors, but that does not mean that I saw only
that.
All this to say that my (limited) observation during that most enjoyable
experience leads me to agree with your statement that the Tunisian Internet
community "will soon show to the world what we are capable to accomplish".
Last but not least, a word of caution: not always those who claim that they
are going to change everything have really the intention of doing it. The
Tunisian Internet community must therefore remain vigilant to check that the
change is really happening.

Cheers,
Roberto