I’m sorry for not having reported on time what happened during the 9th meetup I was supposed to organize downtown Tunis (which wasn’t welcomed by all the participants). I feel myself very lazy these days with writing especially with the coming of my new baby at home. Don’t worry, it’s just a new laptop which took all my weekend plus two days to understand some technical issue I’ll explain in a dedicated post later. Anyway, Adib did the great job of compiling some comments of the participants you check here. Thank you man, I’m looking to see your 24/7 webcam !

This post is a kind of answer to Sup’cominan life’s inquiries about the reasons of having expensive ADSL connectivity prices in Tunisia comparing it to the situation in Europe. I’ve been thinking on the same way five years ago. But day by day, while entering into the IT field and discovering the professional world, I understood that it is more complicated than what we can imagine.

I had the opportunity to answer to this question many times, when I did introductory presentations on Internet Governance, few weeks before the WSIS week, in two computing universities in Tunis. And since I have often this question at the beginning, I always ask the person asking to wait until the end of the presentation and I’ll be back to him. Then, when I did that, he told me he get the answer. Internet governance is one of the mojor topics of the WSIS and I don’t think it would be if it wasn’t a very complex issue involving many actors including governments, telecom companies, ISPs, IBPs (Internet Bandwith Providers) etc… . And all these actors are responsible of the digital divide they are trying to bridge.

I’m not going to defend Tunisie Telecom’s pricing policies but I want just to remind you that this “BIG” company (at least for Tunisia), still having the monopoly in wired connections, is just the last link a long chain (on the technical and international level). It’s not fair to compare xDSL rates in Tunisia with rates in Europe or North America because we don’t have the same levels of opportunities. Many variables at the national and the international levels are deciding this price (ie: IBP rates, contracts with “carrying” companies, peering between countries, ITU laws ….).

At the end, I want you just to compare what happened 4 years ago in France concerning the issue of ADSL between France Telecom and the other operators/ISPs with what is happening now. The same with Morocco and Tunisia. Things are changing smoothly …. but at least changing.

Ciao, sono sempre io, lo stesso marouen, lo stesso tunisino e sempre dello stesso paese, la Tunisia. Non so perche scrivo in italiano questo messaggio. Forse perche ho avuto un bisogno urgente di parlare in italiano, di scrivere in italiano, di ricordare l’italiano che non ho più usato da quando ho lasciato in liceo. Magari é perché ho visto che ho ogni settimana più d’italiani che leggiono il mio blog dell’Italia anche se ho sempre scritto in inglese. Oppure perché ho avuto l’idea che nessuno nella blogsfera (se questa parole esiste) tunisina nessuno non l’ha mai fatto (non sono securo). Comunque sono contento di poter’ ancora esprimermi in italiano anché se sono certo che farò un sacco di sbagli ma questo non mi preoccupa molto. Non so se scriverò ancora in italiano nel futuro ma almeno posso dire che sono orgoglioso di questo piccolo paragrafo che significa molto per me perché amo molto la lingua italiana che ho imparato della TV prima del francese oppure l’inglese. Mia madre dira anche che l’ho imparato prima dell’arabo.

Allora a presto !!!

After missing the 8th meetup which took place about a month ago, I decided to not miss the next one by being the first to suggest the date and the time (clever no ?). I think that next Sunday, November 25th will be the best because we may make a small celebration while discovering the results of the Tunisian Blog Awards 2005 through some of the board members. We may even invite all the nominees if they are in Tunisia and make a show like the Grammies or the Oscars (we may organize that really).

Well, my suggestion is:

• Date: Sunday, November 25th 2005
• Time: 6pm Tunis Time
• Venue: Café 112; end of Av. Palestine Tunis Downtown (almost in Place Pasteur)

The date is suitable for those who will be in Tunisia for Christmas holidays and I know the venue very well since I did a lot of meetings there (I may ask if we can use their projector and sound system if we need it).

Suggestions for topics:

• - A Drako’s new question
• - Report from our representatives in London’s Summit 
• - Tunisian Blog Awards 2005 results
• - Wishes for 2006

Welcome to any comments or suggestions or early confirmations (I have Tom’s one and I don’t need to ask Karim’s one)

A quick post about an interesting thing (at least for me) I did yesterday which is the 1st unofficial FLOSS community meetup organized in hurry through the - unofficial too – mailinglist Tun_LL. The meetup took place in the Café Etoile du Nord which is private cultural space downtown I’ve visited few years ago and, I have to confess, I never liked it because it overcrowded of people not caring of non-smoking people and thinking that attending this place is enough to prove they are “artists” or linked to art. Well, even after yesterday I have the same feeling but meeting old friends there and speaking about our “boring” “geek” topics gave me hope that I may back soon. I’m happy because we had a very good discussion about new topics – compared to our usual bloggers meetups – like FLOSS movement (and competition) in Tunisia or the future of ATU2L (the first FLOSS NGO in Tunisia) and it’s impact on the academic and the decision making process levels in IT field and even some extra topics like “Hardoussmania” (Hard rock mania) in Tunisia and Stallman’s behaviour during the WSIS. I hope attending more this king of meetings especially in case that we agree of someone’s suggestion of having it every month on a same day.