Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
I agree with Michael Menou - it is important that people must be educated to be able to make sense of information, and this should begin with basic education (as early as possible). The availability of technology must be accompanied by an improvement in the quality of education to enable grassroots human development. The research conducted by Ipsos-Reid illustrates the need for people to be enabled and empowered to use ICT - and to understand the value and potential of ICT and information for their personal lives as well as for professional and economic reasons. There is currently a great deal of emphasis on technical issues, on providing access to the Internet, the development of technical specialists, and the need for skills training. These issues are only part of the picture - people need to be empowered to use ICT with confidence and competence, to exploit information and become creators of knowledge. If the objective is to enable the development of knowledge societies, then investment must be made into improving the quality of education for the young. Young people can become leaders of change and development, given the opportunity. Lesley Andrews EOS Educating for an Open Society [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.globalknowledge.org
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
If at the begining (1995), Quipunet found apathy and indiference from the people we wanted to help the most to use ICT -- that is not the case anymore! During the years we have been on GKD we have learned so many things: from our own experiences, from seeing other experiences, from friends' advice, from the wonderful pool of knowledge from this list! What have we learned? That it is more economical to have virtual seminars and forums that can be attended by people from countries who cannot afford to attend real seminars. That, using ICT, we can really help, at times almost inmediately, the victims of disasters (we helped during El NiNo's disasters and again this last series of earthquakes in the Southern part of Peru). Our network of Peruvians on e-mail was put into effect with very good results. To (virtually) plan, execute and carry out tasks done by committee work, such as the effort we just completed (the most difficult one) of managing the paper work, shipping, receiving, storing, distribuiting, collecting money, and completing the donation of 600 brand new CPUs. That we ARE CONNECTED, even if sporadically (due to costs)with our Ashaninkas, the kids in Guadalupe (who are doing amazingly well), with Father Alfonso, in Cusco, with many rural places that send us messages whenever they are near to the cabinas of cities close to them. Our rural people are using the donated computers for teaching. Dreaming of the days when they can have better access. After all, their impossible dream of ever owning a computer came true, why not the next dream? That we Peruvians (inclusing those of us the USA) are using computers more and more everyday. Why, the other day we had a meeting to organize ourselves as a Chapter of a much bigger Asociation of Peruvian Institutes in USA and Canada (AIPEUC) and everyone of us present at the meeting (10) had e-mail, and half of us have our own web pages! Our company, E-Connexions was started from an idea taken from the GKD list: Merchant account in USA (given by no other that Janice Brodman). We haven't expanded the idea even though it is working well, mostly because most of the owners of E-Connexions are still working at other jobs. But the concept works...beautifully! Maybe there are not as many people on line as predicted and hoped. But there are a LOT of people using computers. They will get on line when the prices come down. That is one of the impediments! The other? Not having enough content in our language. I said it before and I will say it again, the GKD List, with its low-tech format, accessible to many of the developing countries with only e-mail, is more powerful and more useful that any fancy Gateway. Sincerely, Martha Davies ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.globalknowledge.org
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
John Lawrence [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Perry, thanks for expressing the crucial message underlying this thread... i.e. how can we be smart and experienced enough to avoid the pitfalls of past `revolutionary' innovations...I think why I have so much faith in the Internet is its fundamental democratic promise admittedly not anywhere near realized yet since so few are using it... but I couldn't drive my own little train along the railroads, nor can I shout, cry or laugh to my friends/colleagues or anyone else on TV except under circumstances that are entirely controlled by the moguls..but the Internet (potentially) allows individual expression a creative freedom, reciprocity, reach and scope that seems unparalleled in human history...my idealistic reading of these tealeaves leads me (personally) towards fostering/supporting wherever possible the extension of that (new?) human capacity and empirical study of its dissemination and impacts is certainly a factor... There's a lot to these issues. Here's my take for what it's worth: THE major issue involved in the evolution of the Internet over the next few decades is as ancient as civilisation itself - centralisation vs decentralisation, or economic and political monopoly vs the alternatives The communications theorist of the 1950s -Harold Innes (Empire and Communication)- who was McLuhan's mentor, said a lot that was relevant. Innes attributed the destruction of the knowledge monopoly of the church to the invention of movable type - all of a sudden lots of people could reproduce knowledge -not just institutions with people who could use a quill- and they could do it faster. Innes also draws significant attention to the inherent conflict between decentralising and centralising tendencies in comms technologies. Clearly, some technologies are inherently centralised (e.g. despite the 1950s popular mechanics mags - you were NEVER going to have a nuclear reactor for a home furnace). Some are highly decentralised- e.g. the original internet based on UUCP protocol and dial up, store and forward propagation. Indeed the original ARPANET was actually designed to be decentralised to withstand a nuclear attack. I guess it's just a flavour of technological determinism to say that lots of technologies have the capacity to be either centralised or decentralised - depending on the contexts and influences that shape them. In the case of the current internet/web, that is certainly true. In one corner we have the Larry Ellison (Oracle) CENTRALISED approach to using the web as the medium and the message - the web stores your data and serves your applications as you need them. In the other corner we have Uncle Bill Gates' original DECENTRALISED Shrink Wrapped Individualism in the form of MS operating systems and applications. Both of these are heavyweight contenders, however it is important to note that Bill's strategic position has significantly shifted toward Ellison's model in recent times. A third contender is the flashy, smart mouthed, but skinny pugilist- Linux/Open Source/Free Software- with its array of towel bearers including civil liberties/civil society groups, social advocates, international aid people etc. The big question is how will this all pan out? To understand that, we have to understand some motives and gains. And of course, I'm just guessing as much as anyone else. If we take the issues of consumer demand and technology push, I speculate that a number of things will become true for the western industrialised world: 1. The Death of The Home Mechanic. Those with the incomes to afford communications services will become increasingly harried, stressed and pushed in their daily life. The prospect of maintaining increasingly sophisticated hardware and software in home computational/Comms devices will eventually become too tedious, difficult and specialised. Like a new car, you will eventually become too busy and too unskilled to maintain it to even the most basic level needed. Besides, systems of the future will be designed NOT to be touched by you. A model T Ford can be maintained by you. A chip controlled fuel injected car of now can't. As for IT devices of the future- you won't have the hardware or proprietary software tools and you'd void the warranty anyway. OK, so you work fulltime as a knowledge worker and could do it. So what? If you have neither the time, or would prefer to be doing other things with your leisure - you won't. If you want to have fun tinkering, then buy an old VW. Otherwise get a new computerised Toyota, get it serviced and put the spanners away. 2. The Rise of Home Delivered Pizza People like defaults. They like decisions being taken away from them - especially if they are busy and the decisions are about issues they think are unimportant and/or need intellectual investment. About 60% of a complex user interface is never used by most users. They accept the defaults, use what they need and forget
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
At 8:12 AM -0400 07/19/01, Sam Lanfranco wrote: The more proper question is Why be online?. Sam, our 'real world' (if partial) response to that question is the opportunities of tele-work. During Global Learn Day 5 we hope to show the connections between radio, telecenters, basic keyboard training and on line job acquisition. One illustration will come from an Indian firm which offers programming services worldwide. Another will be e-commerce developments in South America. In Mexico we are about to launch a project in the border city of Mexicali, where, among other things, the hope is that we can slow down some fence jumping. Why risk your life for a job washing cars in a foreign country when you can get a much better job tending web sites from home? John Hibbs www.bfranklin.edu/gld5 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Those who know of on-line telework activities are kindly requested to contact me. We would like to feature those. ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.globalknowledge.org
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
Dr. Perry Morrison mentions the effects of the railroad. I just finished an in-depth series of interviews and visits to rural US ICT and community organizing projects in 12 states. Here in 2001, the after effects of the railroad (some good, but a lot not so good) are still being felt. Many of the small towns were started as real estate investments by the railroads, and they were totally dependent on them. Now some of these places still have tracks, but no train stops (nor any busses, for that matter). Others take only freight. A century ago, in 1901, Frank Norris wrote the novel the Octopus about the negative effects of the railroad. It is still read in schools to this day. Nobody has done the same for the Internet! A couple of years ago I attended a conference organized by the Annenberg School of Communications. It was called Technological Visions: Utopian Dystopian Perspectives Not a whole lot has been answered since then. My old report is here: http://home.inreach.com/cisler/tech.htm Steve Cisler ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.globalknowledge.org
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
I think the issues raised under this thread are central to a huge number of ICT development efforts. It might be very useful to fund a study which examines the impact of major past technological changes in terms of equity, distribution of benefits etc. I know such material exists, but a focused study that concentrates on the relevance of ICTs would be very useful. Even my own cursory reading suggests that the invention of railroads and electicity production were predicted to act as great equalisers of society. And TV was going to be the engine for cheap, worldwide education. In many places the green revolution displaced poor farmers who couldn't pay for the technology into the urban slums and many 3rd world countries became the victims of multinational agribusiness. As a technology enthusiast and implementer, I would like to know how I can promote more good than harm in my activities. Perry Morrison ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.globalknowledge.org
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
My response to John Lawrence would be to say work aggressively to extend and put in place the necessary infrastructure where the demand is evidenced. In fact, that is what my organizaiton, the Tutor/Mentor Conneciton (T/MC) is attempting to do. Our focus is on the entire universe of CBOs who are offering various forms of tutoring, mentoring and school-to-career services to inner city youth living in Chicago. We have built a database of more than 370 service providers and use GIS maps to show where thos providers are located in relation to high concentrations of poverty, poorly performing schools, and incidents of youth violence. Our www.tutormentorconnection.org web site serves as a virtual library anyone can go to for information that they might use to build the capacity of any tutor/mentor program, in Chicago, or any where in the country. On August 1 we'll kick off a 7th annual Chicagoland volunteer recruitment campaign, with Mrs. George Ryan, First Lady of Illinois, serving as honorary chair. This campaign will peak the first weekend after Labor Day when more than 100 CBOs will host displays at at least 20 different volunteer fair sites around the city. The goal is to build visibility that draws volunteers, donors, tech partners, etc to every single program in the city's poorest neighborhoods. An on-line directory on our web site enables volunteers and donors to find these programs even if they don't go to the volunteer fairs. You can read about this campaign, and a year-round schedule of follow up activities that are intended to help agencies keep these volunteers and convert them to leaders and more effective tutors/mentors. Visit www.tutormentorconnection.org You can also get involved with this campaign, as a communicator, or business partner to any of these programs. You can also help duplicate this in other cities. The more aggressive we are, and the more personal responsibility each of us takes for the result, the more likely we are to put technology, as well as mentors and operating dollars, in places where help is most needed. You can also document your actions, if you choose to take them, at www.tutormentorexchange.net. This is an on-line system where various stakeholders can document what they are doing to achieve an organization's mission. We've been piloting this for the past year and you can now view a six-month report of 200 actions which have been documented from Sept. 2000 to March 2001. Without accountability it is unlikely we'll have the type of on-going actions that will ever bridge the economic divides that separate the poor from the rich. I hope you all take a look and that some of you join in this campaign. My response to John Lawrence would be to say work aggressively to extend and put in place the necessary infrastructure where the demand is evidenced. In fact, that is what my organizaiton, the Tutor/Mentor Conneciton (T/MC) is attempting to do. Our focus is on the entire universe of CBOs who are offering various forms of tutoring, mentoring and school-to-career services to inner city youth living in Chicago. We have built a database of more than 370 service providers and use GIS maps to show where thos providers are located in relation to high concentrations of poverty, poorly performing schools, and incidents of youth violence. Our www.tutormentorconnection.org web site serves as a virtual library anyone can go to for information that they might use to build the capacity of any tutor/mentor program, in Chicago, or any where in the country. On August 1 we'll kick off a 7th annual Chicagoland volunteer recruitment campaign, with Mrs. George Ryan, First Lady of Illinois, serving as honorary chair. This campaign will peak the first weekend after Labor Day when more than 100 CBOs will host displays at at least 20 different volunteer fair sites around the city. The goal is to build visibility that draws volunteers, donors, tech partners, etc to every single program in the city's poorest neighborhoods. An on-line directory on our web site enables volunteers and donors to find these programs even if they don't go to the volunteer fairs. You can read about this campaign, and a year-round schedule of follow up activities that are intended to help agencies keep these volunteers and convert them to leaders and more effective tutors/mentors. Visit www.tutormentorconnection.org You can also get involved with this campaign, as a communicator, or business partner to any of these programs. You can also help duplicate this in other cities. The more aggressive we are, and the more personal responsibility each of us takes for the result, the more likely we are to put technology, as well as mentors and operating dollars, in places where help is most needed. You can also document your actions, if you choose to take them, at www.tutormentorexchange.net. This is an on-line system where various stakeholders can document what they are doing to achieve an organization's
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
Hi all, We at AWO are pondering the same issue: Our editorial on 8 July: The Internet, e-commerce and knowledge nations have become buzzwords. Journalists, politicians, business people all spout and mouth the same term and sport the same jig: the Internet will liberate us and provide for all. It was to be the great leveller - empowering and enabling everyone. The Internet and its accompanying technologies are ostensibly new technologies enabling the construction, organisation and dissemination of information and knowledge. The relative freedom and speed of communication it offers provide and unrivalled mechanism for the production and dissemination of information. In countries with strict media censorship, the Internet provides an alternative sources of news and views. The question remains: Is this great enthusiasm and optimism over the web just hype? While we can see the potential of the web, we have to realise that this same technological wonder will be the bane of many poorer countries which have little access to it and doing catch-up with the better developed infrastructure in wealthier countries. When access and inequality issues are raised, corporations typically deride the critics. They claim that the Internet, instead of restricting options, enables greater accessibility. But as the development of the Internet progresses, there is now a chorus of growing concern that the Internet may actually accentuate the gap between the poor and the rich, men and women, across and within countries and marginalise millions of people. And indeed this condition has caused concern and prompted both national governments and international agencies to develop policies addressing this issue of the digital divide. According to the International Labor Organisation World Employment Report 2001, despite the communications revolution given the speed of diffusion in wealthy and poor countries, the information and communication (ICT) revolution is resulting in a widening global digital divide. Vast areas of the globe remain technologically disconnected from the benefits of the electronic marvels revolutionising life, work and communication in the digital era. Perhaps for those living in the west, it is harder to envisage the issue and problems in developing countries. While developing countries grapple with the high costs of technology and Internet access, consumers in the west have access to wide ranging services like cable access and broadband services. A few statistics will easily illustrate this gap. There are more telephones in New York City than in all of rural Asia, more Internet accounts in London than in all of Africa. As many as 80% of the world population have never made a phone call. The Internet connects hundreds of millions of computers globally but recent statistics put the percentage of people having Internet access at 6%. Of course this divide is felt most acutely in Africa, Asia and Latin America. About three billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation and over one billion people lack access to safe drinking water (UNDP 2000). Another one billion live in absolute poverty with a subsistence rate of less than US1 dollar a day (UNDP 2001). Access to the net in Asia is a real problem for many. Costs are high for both access and also purchase of equipment. Internet users tend to use it at work or come from the middle-class and well-educated professionals. Apart from the costs, this access and participation in the global information society presumes some level of education without which the vast treasures of information and knowledge become meaningless. Is there anything that can do to arrest this increasing divide? The World Bank is bent on launching its global development gateway - the mother of all portals. Or perhaps we should launch more community-based access to the web? How feasible can these proposals and projects be? One can always plan for a computer in every village but does that address the underlying problems? It does not address the issue of content production, control and management. It does not address the issue of corporations and governments who control broadcasting and transmission rights. It fails to respond to the issue of control of infrastructure and the development of associated new technologies. There are also numerous other issues - the issues of governments, regulations, power and governance. Even if all villages have access to a computer, who controls access at the village level? Who designs the project for them and if governments are repressive, what does that mean for information access and dissemination? In reality, the poor will languish in hyped-up cyberspace while questions of access, the barriers of language (if not addressed) are not resolved. The reality is that many will be cut off from participation: language barriers; literacy issues? and reliance on middle men or women will only further aggravate access issues. Notwithstanding the
Re: [GKD] Why aren't more people online?
Very useful analysis I would add illiteracy and language restrictions to this causal pattern, but doesn't this raise an important policy question concerning the digital divide? Since time can only exacerbate the gap between those who are already profiting (in various ways) from Internet technology, and those who are not even able to access it, what should be the policy approach? Just let time pass? Or work aggressively to extend and put in place the necessary infrastructures where the demand is evidenced? Steve Cisler wrote: Why aren't more people online? The answer is obvious to many GKD readers. Here's an interesting international study about the situation The San Jose Mercury News' writer David Plotnikoff alerted me to it: http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/daveplot/dp062101.htm ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.globalknowledge.org
