Internet proposed for all schools and towns

Fernando Espuelas (Photo: Courtesy of Starmedia)

“We are living in a moment of incredible opportunity,” Espuelas told a seminar on youth development held in March in conjunction with the IDB’s annual meeting. He said the impact on the region of the coming of the Internet is “nothing short of the impact of the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese.”
Espuelas is chairman and CEO of StarMedia Network Inc., a global online network for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking audiences.

The Internet, Espuelas said, represents the “end of the age of monopoly” and the “beginning of the age of competition.” It will bring about huge educational and economic opportunities that did not exist before and strengthen democracy, he added. “Wiring every school and town to the Internet is not a utopia, not a panacea,” he said. “It is $1 billion.”

Internet for the poor. The nonprofit StarMedia Foundation, created by Star Media Network, Inc., has formed an association with the IDB’s Youth Development and Outreach Program to support programs that train underprivileged youth in information technology.
The foundation is also supporting a project to connect 117 schools to the Internet in poor neighborhoods in Brazil. The project is being carried out by the Committee to Democratize Information Technology, led by youth entrepreneur Rodrigo Baggio, who also attended the seminar.

The seminar was organized by the IDB, StarMedia, and the Japan Program. Attending were 64 youth leaders from the Americas and Japan who had been selected from among thousands of candidates who had applied to participate.

—Daniel Drosdoff