Dr. Sam Lanfranco discusses the digital transition in Cuba, emphasizing the potential for rapid advancement through innovation and technology. He identifies obstacles such as slow political will and outdated thinking, while highlighting the opportunities presented by Cuba's educated youth and natural resources. The document draws comparisons with other countries, like Estonia and Myanmar, demonstrating successful transitions driven by political will and stakeholder engagement.

1. Dr. Sam Lanfranco, Prof. Emeritus & Senior
Scholar
York University, Canada - ISOC Canada -
Chair, NPOC Policy Committee, ICANN
Havana March 16th
2016
La Historia de la computación e Internet
en la región
¿Qué? - ¿Por Qué?
¿Para Quién?
América Latina, el Caribe y Cuba: de Ayer a Mañana

2. América Latina, el Caribe y Cuba: de Ayer a Mañana
Learning Lessons: Latin America, the
Caribbean, Cuba & The World
1. History: Documents and Celebrates Human Effort
2. Its Purpose: Learn Lessons to Build a Better Tomorrow
1. The Speed of change means
1. A better tomorrow for our children and ourselves
2. Digital History is both young and thin
3. Digital Artifacts are mainly obsolete
2. Global Lessons Learned: use global digital history
3. Ride the Wave: use the right technology in the right context
4. Context: Use less old thinking and more new innovation

3. Latin America, the Caribbean & Cuba: From Yesterday to Tomorrow
My Focus
Building a Digital Transition Cuba
Ride the Wave or Face the Tsunami

4. Building Transition Cuba
and
the Potential for Digital Leadership
Cuba can move fast and ride the digital wave
into a better future
– or –
Cuba can move slow with damaged by inertia from
within and damage by tsunami from without
Transition Cuba learning from:
 Internet Ecosystem Lessons from everywhere
Digital Transition Lessons from elsewhere

5. Fixed-broadband price as
Percentage of Gross Personal Income
Obstacle or Opportunity:
•Technology: Wi-Fi – Wireless – Mesh – Internet of Things – IXPs
•Political Will: Spectrum – Fiber/Towers – Technology – Tariffs/Duties
•Privacy & Security: Personal – Business – State/National
Evidence: Broadband in Cuba

6. Evidence: Cuba’s ITU ICT Development Index
Obstacle – or - Opportunity
•Technology: Wi-Fi – Wireless – Mesh – Internet of Things – IXPs
•Political Will: Spectrum – Fiber/Towers – Technology – Tariffs/Duties
•Privacy & Security: Personal – Business – State/National
Source: ITU

7. Access and Use rank near the bottom - Skills and Ability rank near the top
Build Infrastructure - Put Talent to Work
subirse a la ola
/ 10.00

8. Cuba’s Potential Dynamic Comparative Advantages for Tomorrow?
• Highly Educated Youth
• Education, Research, Technology: sector pockets of strength
• Favorable Natural Ecosystem: for Farming / Solar Energy / Tourism
Obstacles to Development using Cuba’s Dynamic Comparative Advantages
• Slow political will for infrastructure and innovation support
• Slow innovation around ecosystem strengths (Farming/Solar/Tourism)
• Lack of bottom up opportunities in innovative activities
Cuban Opportunity:
Example: MakerSpaces: A Wave or a Tsunami?
Cuban Shared Technology & Skills
Start-up Structures for Cuba [??]
Enterprise Skills and Funding [??]
Initiative Innovation

9. Internet
of Things
•Disruptive Internet of
Everything - all the Time
•Driven by:
•IPv6 addressing
•Nano technology
•3-D additive technology
•Wireless connectivity
•Political Will
•Government and Business
80% of IoT spending:
Opportunities and
Challenges Large and Small
•Software 40% of spending

10. Cuban
Financial Sector
Innovation
and
Collaboration?
or
Foreign
Capture?
Commerce apps
mAgri farm apps
Tourism apps
Remittance apps
http://www/gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment

11. Cuban Transportation Planning
Old Vehicle Planning: Vehicles; Roads; Traffic and Parking
New Transportation Ecosystem Planning: e-Vehicles; Travel Apps; Shared Transport
Challenges are Opportunities
•Urban transport (Old Havana)
•Tourists & Tourism Travel
• Individual travel
• Group Travel
•Solar vs Carbon Fuels
•Imported vs Local Apps/Tech
•Micro/Nano Production
•Owned Cars vs Shared Fleets

12. Transition Estonia: Rode the Wave
 2000: Declared Internet access to be a human right
 Refused land line phone system & built a digital cell system
 Spread free Wi-Fi and embraced online e-government
 2007: First country with online general election voting
 Today: 95% of Estonians file annual tax returns online
 From no land ownership registry to a digital land registry
 Health records are stored in the digital cloud
 In 8 years all schools were online
 Skype developed in Estonia:
 2005 Skype sale produced pool of venture capital
 Estonia’s capital: home to more than 150 tech companies
 Tech companies are engaged in global partnerships
 Tech represents 15% of Estonia’s GDP., up from zero
 Transition Estonia:
 discarded legacy thinking
 Political will to embrace the Internet
 Embraced innovation potential of it education youth
 Rode wave to transition success.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/07/economist-explains-21

13. Ride the Wave: Pre-Transition Myanmar
From 0.002% Internet access in 2012 to over 50% access today
 SIM card prices fell from over 2,000.00 $US to less than 2.00 $US
 Imports were restricted to smart phones (low cost Chinese)
 A contract was granted to build 8,000 cell towers by 2018
 The Political Will for policy was in place
 Pubic/Private/Foreign partnerships were encouraged
Transition Challenge to Myanmar’s government, business
community, and civil society
 Engaged in little awareness raising or stakeholder engagement
 Will face major stresses from rapid ICT and Internet access.
 Risks: Swamped by a foreign tsunami or retreating into stagnating

14. A Poorly Planned Transition Strategy Results in:
 An ICT strategy that retards good innovation
 Poor ICT incentives & opportunities
 Oligarchs that impede innovation
 Oligopolies that impede innovation
 Bad income and wealth concentration
 Dependent foreign export and investment relationships
Russian Transition Strategies
Damaged Societies & Damaged Prospects
Excessive dependence on Neo-Liberal Transition Ideas
Little attention to innovation based on domestic strengths

15. Ride the Wave – For Transition Cuba
Rapid Transformation
from Laggard to Leader
Needs:
Political Will
Stakeholder Engagement
Internet and Innovation Policy
Needs:
Political Will
Rapid Infrastructure Roll Out
Cooperative enterprise
Public Private Partnerships
Immediate
Sustainable
Strengths
Infrastructure
Temporary Obstacles
Easily Remedial
(e.g. Myanmar)
Human Capital

16. Transition Cuba Agriculture:
Potential Knowledge & Collaboration
Regional and Global:
> IDB & India <

17. Transition Cuba Agriculture:
Potential Knowledge & Collaboration
> Canada <
Grow Cooperatively to Compete Globally:

18. Ride the Wave at Home & Harness the Tsunami
Rapid infrastructure roll out
Bottom Up Stakeholder Engagement in Domestic Internet Policy
Broader and Deeper Cuban Engagement in Regional and Global Policy forums
 Multilateral, UN, and non-governmental Internet organizations
 ICANN’s Multistakeholder Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
 Engagement with the Internet Society (e.g. IXP efforts)
 Technical participation in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) & IAB
 Business, Academic, Civil Society engagement in ICT for Development
 Stakeholder engagement in the IGF and WSIS activities
Cuban Political Will at all levels: more open processes within Cuba’s values

19. Start to Ride the Wave
Approach:
Multistakeholder Consultation
for a decade of digital Innovation

20. Para comentarios, preguntas, críticas,
ideas, ponerse en contacto conmigo por
correo electrónico:
<Lanfran@yorku.ca>
<Sam@Lanfranco.Net>
Adios Ramon
1924 - 2016
Sam Lanfranco
Prince Edward County Ontario
Lanfranco Farm
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