A Human Right: Kostas Grammatis at TEDxAthens

Kosta Grammatis at TEDxAthens 2010, in Athens, Greece, gives a great talk on why the Internet is a Human Right and analyzes his idea behind buythissatellite.org.

(Greek): Hello, Athens!
How are you doing, fine?

Don't go any further.
I don't speak any more Greek.

My Dad is from Volos,
so hi, Volos.

I'm here to talk to you today
about the Internet.

Now, we've already heard
two speeches about the Internet:

Wikipedia in Greece,
as well as, what was it?

Using your mind on the Internet?
Incredible stuff!

So, me, telling you that we think
the Internet should be a human right.

You don't need to know
any more - I'm done.

My name is Kosta Grammatis.

I believe that we have the power

to improve the human condition
on a global scale.

The reason for this is because,

today, we are in a world
that is in a bit of a crisis.

And what we need to do
to overcome these dilemmas

that we're all in, Greece,
all the other countries

that are in the midst of a recession,

there's starving people,
there's people with no water.

We need to address
these issues head on.

And myself and people like me,
all came together one day

for six weeks in Berlin,
a group called Palomar Five,

to discuss these issues, to discuss
how we could change the world.

And what we came across was
some incredible ideas

of how to address these issues.

And the number one thing
that we learned

was that people need to have the power

to solve their own problems.

There's a thing called the aid industry,
I'm sure you've heard of it, right?

I don't know why they call it an industry.

If it was doing its job,
there would be no more aid industry.

And the story goes, for this gentleman,
William Kamkwamba,

maybe you've heard of him,
he gave a TED talk, maybe a year ago.

He couldn't afford to go to school,

the $80 it costs to go to school,
he couldn't pay.

So, he spent the four years that
would be his high school, in the library.

And he read physics books
and textbooks

and he tried his best to learn
what he wanted to know.

And with that information,
he went and assembled a windmill.

He basically reinvented the windmill.

It took him four years.

And some reporters came,
they came and saw what he'd done,

and they said,
"What did you do here?"

And they took him
to the United States

to go talk about his windmill
that he reinvented.

And he was on the Today show
with Jon Stewart

and Jon Stewart asked him,
"What do you think about America,

about all these technological innovations?

You're a technological innovator
in Africa."

And he says,
"Well, Google was pretty cool."

Because he was on a TV show,

and somebody asked him
what Google was,

and he goes,
"What animal's a Google?"

And they put a computer in front of him,
and he Googled "windmill",

and when he found all of the instructions
on how to build a windmill,

he's like, "Where was
this Google all the time?"

This struck all of us as ridiculous,
because

why is this young man
forced to reinvent technology

that already exists?

Why can't he just have information
at his fingertips?

So, we went to work doing
some research, finding about that:

83% of the world is literate.

78% of the world
has access to electricity,

but only 26% of the world
has Internet access,

which means five billion people
are not online at this time.

That's not cool.

And as Benjamin Disraeli, who was big
into imperialism, once said,

"As a general rule, the most
successful man in life is the man

who has the best information."
And we agree.

Let me tell you some stories
regarding education.

In India, this man, Sugata Mitra,
he had an office in the slums of India.

And he cut a hole in the side of it,
and put a computer to answer the question:

“Could children teach themselves
how to use a computer

and maybe learn something
along the way?”

His results were astonishing:

Kids were going, playing with
the computer on a daily basis,

and learning all sorts of things.

Learning how to speak English.

Nobody believed his results.

So he took a computer,
he put it out in the middle of nowhere,

where no English speakers were.

He came back two months later,
and the kids asked him:

"We need a faster processor,
and a better keyboard."

(Laughter)

He asked,
"Where did you learn all that?"

And they said,
"From the CDs you left us."

And so it goes on.

You know, you can multiply
the effectiveness of ten teachers

by a hundred or a thousand fold,

if you give children
access to the Internet.

In Iran, I bet most of you
have seen this image,

Neda Agha was shot and killed
by the Iranian forces,

just for demonstrating.

The video was put on YouTube - the most
widely viewed death in all of human history.

Millions of views and it strengthened
the revolution so much

that I guess Iran had
to turn off the Internet.

And some say that because Iran
turned off the Internet,

that led to the slowdown and eventual stop
of the revolution, among other things.

In Papua New Guinea,

which is ranked 148 out of 182
on a human development index,

Michael Somare, the prime minister,

has an idea to put a satellite up
over his country,

because he needs to bring
information services to all of his people.

Those information services
will promote his government,

promote the work he's trying to do,
bring education to places.

It's the first step in becoming
a developed society, in his eyes.

We envision to empower our people
to the power of information,

to enhance their quality of life
and to be on par with their peers

in developed urban centers
and peoples of this world.

In New Orleans, in America,
the first thing that happened

after the hurricane was
they rolled out free Wi-Fi service.

Intel donated 1.2 million dollars
worth of equipment,

and the results were as follows.

"You would have thought
you were bringing starving people food,

from the reaction on the street."

Chris Drake, the Wi-Fi project manager.

They used it to coordinate
their efforts, it was amazing.

Internet penetration is correlated to
the Gross Domestic Product of a country.

The poorer you are,
the less access you have to the Internet.

And it goes, not just for the country,
but for the people, as well.

In America, 38% of American households
earning less than $25,000 annually,

do not have Internet access,
which is terrible,

because 95% of companies
are using LinkedIn to find employees.

Now, I worked in a soup kitchen
in Boston for a little while.

And you could see
the homeless every morning,

they'd come in with their laptops,
they'd sit, they'd eat the free soup,

and they'd find jobs. It was incredible.

The Internet is a tool
that helps people to help themselves.

We believe that the Internet
is a basic human right.

And not only are we trying
to enforce the human right

from a political standpoint,
but we're trying to make it happen,

because four out of five people
agree with us,

that Internet access
should be a human right.

And five countries, including Greece...
Greece started it:

in 1999, Greece said that
they should legally protect - yes!

(Applause)

In 1999, Greece said that they legally
protect their citizen's rights

to Internet access,
which I find incredible.

We plan to fulfill this human right.

And now, your next question is,
how do you do that?

We have three big ideas.

Lobby governments and industry,

in order to provide
a free segment of their network.

So, let's say you have a Telco company
that provides cell phone services.

25% of that would be devoted
to free services for anyone.

Or the government would roll out their own.

We could build our own network,
which would be like a satellite thing

for the whole entire world,
or we can buy existing infrastructure

and repurpose it for this cause
of free Internet access

for every person on planet Earth.

The results of the lobbying,
we have a few stories.

In America, there was a company that
nobody has really heard of, called M2Z.

They tried for four years to lobby
the FCC to get a chunk of spectrum.

Now, spectrum is basically the radio waves,

the license to use
a certain amount of radio waves.

They were going to offer
768 kilobits per second for free.

And the FCC, who was
in charge of approving or denying

whether that happens, said no.

The reasons why they said no,

is because 768 kilobits per second
was too slow!

Now, 768 kilobits per second allows you
to download 12 MBs in one minute,

if that means anything to anyone.

Sorry [for] all the data.

But, just for purposes of comparison,
the average download speed

of America's biggest wireless network
in 2010 is 988 kilobits per second.

So, between 768 and 988, I don't really
understand why it's too slow.

It's not that much slower.

We think, some people say
that it's because of industry.

Industry lobby and they're,
of course, very afraid

of free Internet,
how could you do that?

The CTIA, which is in charge of lobbying
on behalf of wireless providers, says:

"We are pleased to learn that
the FCC's closing the spectrum debate

and will continue to focus on finding
a proper pairing for the spectrum."

Which I think is fascinating,
because what could be more proper

than free Internet
for the whole of America?

I don't know, what else would you do?

In Panama they tried something different.

Ricardo Martinelli actually ran
his campaign on the idea of,

"We will provide free Internet
for all of our citizens.

If I am elected,
I will do this within 100 days."

And he said the project does not compete
with private broadband providers,

because its aim is digital inclusion

and not the provision
of high speed Internet access.

And he was elected, and he's rolling out
free Internet for all of Panama.

We agree with him.

We agree with this idea that
you can have a free wireless service

for all people to enforce
the basic human right of Internet access,

which allows you to do things
in many different ways.

And it will not compete with
local telecommunications companies.

You don't have to worry.

So, that's on the sides
of lobbying government.

And actually, on that end, we encourage you
to talk to your government

wherever you are, and see
if you can make it happen.

On the second front, we're trying
to build our own network.

Imagine Internet access
as ubiquitous as the air you breathe.

The foundation that we run
is called ahumanright.org.

And they would be
the administrators of this idea.

We are working with NASA and
some other companies to design

a very low cost satellite, 4 million
dollars, 2 - 4.5 million dollars each,

put them up in space on the back
of the burgeoning space tourism industry

that's just beginning.

Or the low cost launch
vehicle companies, called SpaceX.

And then, for the easy sum
of one billion dollars,

the whole entire world
is connected, right? ...Easy!

Now, I have a story for you,
because, while I was in the cab

on the way over here,
the taxi driver was telling me,

he says, "Look over there. You see that?
That's the Olympic Stadium.

The first Olympic Stadium."
And I said, "Wow, who paid for that?"

And he says, "Not the government.

Because the government didn't have
any money. The people paid for it."

And he was really proud of that.

And I love that, because
I think we could do this, too.

For comparison purposes, 48 hours
of war in Iraq and Afghanistan,

one billion dollars.
Two day cease fire, we're good.

(Applause)

And if there's any billionaires looking
to leave a legacy... we only need one.

Our third idea, and my favorite idea...
I only have 5 minutes, guys, come on.

My favorite idea,
I'm so excited about this,

I'm getting really excited,
is to recycle old infrastructure.

I'm really into recycling.

You take the old stuff and
you turn it into brand new stuff.

There's an interesting thing
going on right now.

There's a company called Terrestar, that's
been bankrupt as of October 19th, 2010.

They own the world's most powerful
communication satellite ever put into orbit.

This thing is like a bus.

And its job was to put Internet and
phone services for all of North America.

Now that they're bankrupt, let's buy it!

Let's move it over a country that could put
some use to it, or a number of countries.

There are a lot of places
that are interested in this,

Papua New Guinea
being one of them, per se.

Anyone who can see
the value of the Internet,

can see the value of providing
free Internet to its people.

And we're very much interested in that.

The handset that will access this
will be available entirely open source,

so we would build something
that would access this satellite.

And we could connect millions of people.

This would be like the first shot,
this would be how we get started.

This isn't just an idea, though.
We made a website.

And my programmer, who's asleep
right now, just launched it today-

buythissatellite.org. And what
our plan is, is to accept some donations.

We're trying to raise $150,000,
and with that $150,000

we're going to finish up
some of our business plans

and we're going to go start talking

to world leaders and those billionaires

who might be willing
to put down some money

to take this satellite,
move it to a new place,

and do something
truly incredible with it.

buythissatellite.org
is what we're trying to do.

Please go, please spread the word.

My name is Kostas Grammatis

and I believe that Internet access
is a human right.

I believe that we can enforce
and bring this human right

to every citizen of planet Earth.

And I think it is imperative
that we do this as soon as possible.

I thank every one of you
for being here today.

I thank my team.

There are about a hundred people,
volunteers from all over the world,

collaborating online
to bring this vision to life.

I thank NASA Ames, Deutsche Telekom,
who's our primary funder,

and everyone else who's helped.

Thank you so much.

(Applause)