Mark Zuckerberg kondigt lancering Internet.org aan

Afgelopen nacht heeft Mark Zuckerberg de lancering van Internet.org aangekondigd. Deze wereldwijde samenwerking met tussen Facebook, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm en Samsung wil ervoor gaan zorgen dat iedereen toegang heeft tot een internetverbinding.

Vandaag de dag hebben ‘slechts’ 2,7 miljard mensen, iets meer dan een derde van de wereldbevolking, toegang tot een internet verbinding. Het doel van Internet.org is om internet toegang beschikbaar te maken voor het andere deel van de bevolking (twee derde) die nog geen toegang tot het World Wide Web hebben.

The Internet.org website staat inmiddels online en geeft een overzicht van de missie en doelstellingen, alsmede ook volledige lijst van alle partners.

Enkele reacties:

“For more than 100 years, Ericsson has been enabling communications for all and today more than 6 billion people in the world have access to mobile communications,” said Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. “We are committed to shaping the Networked Society – where everyone and everything will be connected in real time; creating the freedom, empowerment and opportunity to transform society. We believe affordable connectivity and internet access improves people’s lives and helps build a more sustainable planet and therefore we are excited to participate in the internet.org initiative.”

“Today, more than 300 million people use Opera every month to access the Internet. Tomorrow, we have a chance to serve the next 5 billion people connecting on mobile devices in developing countries. It’s in Opera’s DNA to save people time, money and data, and through internet.org we think we can help advance these goals.” — Lars Boilesen, CEO Opera Software.

“Mobile has helped to transform many people’s lives in the emerging regions where often a computing device will be the first and only mobile experience they’ll ever have,” said Paul Jacobs, chairman of the board and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. “Having shipped more than 11 billion chips, Qualcomm is a market leader that is committed to the goal of bridging the digital divide. We’re pleased to be a part of internet.org and to be working with key ecosystem players to drive this initiative forward.“