Andy Carvin wrote:
What Does it Mean to be a Technology Activist?
Taran Rampersad has just authored an insightful essay...Some
highlights...technology activism ... means "trying to bring about
change with technology."
I think that hits the nail on the head. Being a technology activist
and working to bridge the digital divide isn't about putting an
Internet PC so we can grow the market for e-commerce, online gaming or
entertainment.... Instead, being a technology activist is something
more basic: fostering equitable access to tools that will improve
people's quality of life - quality as they define it, on their own
terms....
Many thanks to you Taran for the term "technology activist" - I
anticipate that those words will save me - and many other technology
activists - lots of long complicated descriptions. Now we can simply say
what we *are* - instead of having to describe what we are trying to do.
Brilliant.
Ref Andy's comments on quality of life
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/quality_of_life>. Yes. I agree completely
- and it's something I'm very aware of when I am in rural Nigeria. There
are good and bad aspects to all cultures. Ideally ICTs can help us to
learn from each other and gradually adopt things that are better.
Quality of life isn't simply a matter of the latest ICTs (or time-saving
gadgets or glossy-magazine-style living and other things people find
attractive about the "developed world"). It is about other, less
visible, things too, some of which I find are in more plentiful supply
in rural Nigeria than back home in urban UK.
For example - somewhere I read a description of "social vitamins" as a
life-quality measurement. It was something to do with belonging and
being recognised - e.g. a smile was worth 5 social vitamins, and being
greeted by name was worth 20. Social vitamins are much higher in rural
Nigeria that in urban UK. There are other things too that I appreciate.
For example - here we have light pollution - there you can see the
stars. There pea-nuts, sweet-corn, mangoes, bananas, pineapples and all
kinds of exotic fruits are available locally and are usually organic -
it's very different here. Such things contribute to the quality of life
and are easily lost.
I've heard mention of the "law of unexpected consequences" - and I am
concerned about negative as well as positive implication of ICTs.
Experienced ICT users know about the down side as well as benefits.
Newbies can think it's all good.
As a technology activist I want ICTs to do good. As a step in that
direction I want ICTs to enable people from different cultures to
exchange ideas and experience: to educate each other; to explore
problems and possible plans of action. I believe we must "rub minds"
across the digital divide in order to solve local problems that have
global implications because (like it or not - and largely due to ICTs )
we are all, increasingly, part of a global society.
Pam
Pamela McLean
CAWDnet convenor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.cawd.info
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