Internet Governance Priorities and Practices: Indonesia

Internet use in the Asia-Pacific region has grown in leaps and bounds over the last decade. Between 2000 and 2003 alone the Internet population in the region grew by an annual average of 38 percent to 250 million users, making the Asia-Pacific region the world's largest Internet community. Estimates put this number today at over 300 million and predict further strong growth. These impressive numbers notwithstanding, overall penetration rates are still very low in most countries...

A product of the Open Regional Dialogue on Internet Governance (ORDIG) project, this 25-page report shares results from a year-long process of various online and in-person consultation as well as research activities on internet governance priorities for the Asia-Pacific region. Overall, more than 3,000 individuals from over 37 countries in the region participated in some way in this initiative, which is implemented by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) in collaboration with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.

Specifically, the report draws on an online survey of 160 individuals from all stakeholder groups in Indonesia. It examines internet policy issues, such as how people living in Indonesia regard viruses, cyber attacks, and spam - finding that "Virus attacks and online fraud are on the rise and becoming ever more sophisticated and although Indonesia's spam problem is still relatively small, it is growing steadily." The report also addresses governance issues and opinions about two new and emerging technologies - internet telephony and wireless internet - tracing such trends as this one: "With the official de-licensing of the 2.4GHz band in January 2005, Indonesia has taken an important first step towards unleashing the potential of wireless Internet technologies, leaping ahead of China and Pakistan..." Among the other findings shared here:

• Infrastructure issues, such as access, affordability and reliability of the internet, continue to feature very high on the list of concerns in Indonesia; Indonesia's difficult geography is partly responsible. "But policy also matters....Current regulations and practices in Indonesia with regard to backbone access, Internet exchange points and Internet telephony are not optimally supportive. However, worth noting is Indonesia's progress on the governance of Wi-fi technologies that could set an encouraging precedence for the treatment of future wireless technologies."
• Topics related to multilingualism, such as the availability of local language software and local content, are major concerns for the Indonesian internet community.
• Indonesians are significantly more dissatisfied with the protection of privacy on the internet and the availability of government information online. The latter is a challenge that relates directly to e-government strategies of the state and thus, could be most directly addressed through appropriate policy changes.