Internet for the Village

As President elect Joko Widodo awaits his inauguration next October 20 he has been laying out the ground rules for his administration. In his usual style, he is talking to the common people in the villages, street markets, sports halls as well as diplomatic representatives and visiting business leaders.

Jokowi and Mark FB

Jokowi took Mark to Tanah Abang a traditional market. There, he got him pair of pants.

Yesterday, Mark Zukerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook was in Jakarta for the Internet Developers Summit.

Indonesians are hooked on Facebook. There are 69 million Facebook users out of a population of 251 million (estimate 2014). Making the country the fourth largest FB user in the world, 1 in 4 locals are FB active!

Jokowi, as the new President is affectionally known, wants to empower all Indonesians through education and sustainable business practices and he is convinced that the Internet plays a key role in that process.

Zukerberg’s initiative internet.org has been specifically designed to make that possible. He describes it as a global partnership dedicated to making affordable internet access available to the two-thirds of the world not yet connected by making information available to more people everywhere and by providing more affordable devices, Mark’s initiative is at the forefront of empowering the people in the village at every level.