Internet Day is an event that started in Spain in 2005 and has been spreading throughout the world thanks to the United Nations, which designated May 17 as the World Information Society Day [1]. This year, in many countries across Latin American, there were events that were promoted and organized through blogs and Twitter.
In Mexico, there was event held at the National Palace Museum in Monterrey, whose central theme was how to boost the growth of the industry during this time of economic crisis, through workshops about new internet companies and digital marketing for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MIPYMES for its initials in Spanish). In addition, the day of reflection also could be followed online through the live coverage at www.diadeinternet.org.mx [2].
[3]Photo of Internet Day Festivities in Peru by Juan Arellano and used with permission.
Executive Vice-President of the Mexican Association of Internet, Fernando Solcá spoke about 2 large obstacles that the country must overcome in order to move forward [4], including the speed of the internet “here 512 KB is considered broadband,” as well as the lack of fibre optic connectivity, “the government will ‘concede’ to us only 2 strands of fibre optic, this stinginess and it is not possible that many years pass by and there is so much bureaucracy in this area, the only thing that is letting the country stall even more.”
In Lima, Peru, the municipality of San Martín de Porres organized an exhibit that included a stand [es] [5] where people could record a video responding to the question about their thoughts about the internet, which was an activity highlighted [6] by Juan Arellano of the blog Globalizado [es]:
En otro stand, o kiosko, estaban motivando a los asistentes a dejar un mensaje respondiendo a la pregunta “¿Qué significa internet para tí?”. Vi varios niños y adolescentes pensando que decir y luego usando las dos lap tops acondicionadas para tal fin.
In Venezuela, the initiative “Todos en Red [es] [7]” (Everyone Online) provided reflections on the day's events, as well as cyberactivism in the country. Information could be found on Twitter under the hashtag #Todosenred [8].
Finally, the city of Cali, Colombia was one of the cities with showed its presence on the day. The digital magazine Equinoxio [es] wrote about the day's activities [9] that surpassed expectations of all of the attendees and who followed along the official website [es] [10] and Twitter account (@DiaInternetCali [11]). In addition, there was also a YouTube channel [es] [12] where highlights of the events can be seen.