Cybercafés and national elites: contraints on community networking in Latin America

What follows is an exercise in inductive thinking whereby some simple facts, a few strategic omissions in Mexico´s Internet public policies, and experience with telecenters allow me to profile a larger scenario challenging the current design and prospects for Latin American community networking and digital inclusion projects. Community networking refers to locally anchored and driven information and communication services. The argument is straightforward: a survey of cybercafés and their clients in Mexico in relation to a new publicly funded connectivity program, scarce, useful online content, and qualitative data from this horizon elsewhere in the region, suggest Latin American social and political elites share no significant commitment to digital inclusion policies in their respective national spaces. At the same time, traditional cultural parameters and economic conditions discriminate against extensive public community networking. The emergence of networking among indigenous organizations and amidst migrants¿ kin groups are notable exceptions. The overall pattern has dramatic implications, discussed here, for IT public policy and community networking initiatives, their proponents and sponsors in the region, and their opponents as well, now and in the immediate future