The Internet in Brazil: Origins, Strategy, Development, and Governance

How was the Internet born in Brazil? Who were its pioneers? How did they interact with the Internet's fathers in the United States and Europe? What strategies guided the development of Brazil's Internet? How has it developed in terms of coverage, usage, speed, pricing, and quality of service? What needs to be done to better realize its potential for accelerating economic, social and political development? What is the Brazilian model of Internet governance and how is it evolving? These are the major questions addressed in this book.

The author has been an observer and participant in the development and use of the Internet in Africa, Asia, Russia and the United States, but above all in Brazil. He has interacted with many Internet pioneers around the world who have inspired his work.
This book, completed immediately after the Global Stakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (NETmundial) in São Paulo, seeks to provide background that will be useful to participants in that important gathering and to Internet enthusiasts in Brazil and around the world.

Peter T. Knight is an economist specialized in the use of information and communication technologies for accelerating economic, social, and political development. A resident of Rio de Janeiro since 2000, he is a founding member, researcher, and member of the Board of Directors of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics in São Paulo and has worked as a consultant since 1997.

In a career of over 20 years with the World Bank, his last three positions were Lead Economist for the Brazil Department, Chief of the National Economic Management Division of the Bank?s external training arm, and Chief of the Electronic Media Center. Previously he held positions at Cornell University, the Ford Foundation and the Brookings Institution.

Peter holds a PhD from Stanford University and degrees in Government from Dartmouth College and Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. He has published ten other books, six of them dealing with the use of the Internet for development.