Now that water has been poured over the 'burning issue' of who controls the internet - with yesterday's agreement to set up a new Internet Governance Forum, the focus in Tunis has switched to tackling poverty.
Developing nations are sharing their experiences in Tunis
Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) have now become the buzzword in development circles.
From countries as set apart as Rwanda and Malaysia, everyone is talking about how they are enabling their rural communities to jump on to the digital bandwagon.
At a superficial level, the issues are straightforward. People in villages live far away from urban centres of economic growth. Typically they are peasant farmers with small plots of land and large families to support.
And for them, accessing a whole raft of information, such as the latest market prices for their farm produce, is an equally difficult task.
Entrepreneurs won't touch, governments don't have the resources, and NGOs are often incapable of serving every rural need. It therefore leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and keeps them out of the circle of prosperity.
All across the summit venue in Tunis, I found this pattern reflected in the projects that have been showcased. In Hungary they call it telecottages, in India e-chaupal, in Malaysia rural internet centres and in Iran plain old telecentres.
These hubs, typically post offices or public libraries serving a cluster of communities, are the bridge heads over which the five billion people who are still outside the information society will cross the digital divide.
Globally to date, US$5 trillion have been invested in laying fibre-optic cables to connect the people of the world. Now is the time to spread their benefits.
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