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From: Molly Molloy <mmolloy@lib.nmsu.edu>
Subject: [82] INTERNET SPREADS GLOBAL HOPES OF DEMOCRACY AND PROSPERITY (fwd)
Here's an interesting story about the spread (or lack of it) of the
internet into the (so-called) third world. Some interesting comments
from Mexico.
Molly Molloy mmolloy@lib.nmsu.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Internet Spreads Global Hopes of Democracy and Prosperity
By David Bank, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News
HONOLULU--Jun. 29--The Internet is spreading rapidly around the world, carrying
with it a heavy burden of expectations that getting connected to the global
network will foster both economic development and democracy.
The annual meeting of the Internet Society, under way here, has become a major
training ground for engineers, academics and activists who in many cases are
bootstrapping the first primitive Internet connections for their countries and
tackling the challenges of providing broader access. The participants were
unanimous that the Internet was the key to bringing the benefits of the
information revolution to their countries.
``We don't have the Internet,'' said Pedro Teta, chairman of the
telecommunications department at Agostino Neto University in Luanda, Angola.
Neto attended a week-long training camp that preceded the conference for
representatives of developing countries. ``It's very, very important.''
He said Angola's long civil war had hampered the development of communication
links, but that the government is now committed to establishing a satellite link
to the Internet as well as an overland line to South Africa. He predicted that
Angola would be ``on the Internet'' within a year.
In general, Africa remains the biggest gap in the Net's global reach. For years,
Larry Landweber, a professor of computer science at the University of Wisconsin
at Madison, has maintained a map of countries' levels of connectivity. The
areas shaded in purple, indicating full Internet connections, are growing. In
addition to Africa, the Middle East and southwest Asia remain the most
underserved. There were 180 people from 80 countries at the Internet Society's
training session for representatives of developing countries.
Not, coincidentally, those least connected countries also represent many of the
world's poorest nations, struggling to provide basic needs to the populace. And
in many cases, those attending this week's event are looking at the Internet to
help link themselves into other nations and companies that might help them pull
out of poverty.
But even among connected countries, there are huge differences in the speed of
the connections, the availability of access outside of major university campuses
and the development of local information services, such as government
documents, on-line libraries and discussion groups in local languages.
Tunisia, for example, is connected to the Internet through a leased line to
France that runs at the speed of 19,200 bits per second. That means all the
users in that country, about 1,000 people, share the capacity that's enjoyed by
the user of a single computer modem in this country. Algeria's connection,
through Italy, runs at 9,600 bits per second. In the U.S., individual home users
typically have modems that send information at least 14,400 bits per second and
sometimes at speeds far greater than that.
So far, the evidence is mostly anecdotal that the Internet, or any
communications technology, has had a direct impact on democratization. The
oft-told tales include the international fax network that sustained Chinese
student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and the electronic mail
dispatches from those standing vigil outside the Russian ``White House'' during
the failed coup of August 1991.
Moreover, the question of cause and effect is not clear. Do connected countries
become more democratic, or are democratic countries already better connected?
Nonetheless, Christopher Kedzie, a researcher at RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, has
found, statistically, that interconnectivity is the single most powerful
predictor of democracy. As a result, Kedzie argues that the U.S. government
should juggle its foreign aid priorities and make support for international
communication projects at least as important as foreign economic development and
perhaps as important as national security programs.
In Russia, a $10 million project to create regional information networks is
based on the belief that the spread of communications technologies can help
prevent a return to authoritarian rule.
In Yaroslavl, a provincial city of 750,000 people about 150 miles northeast of
Moscow, the International Science Foundation is spearheading a project to link
140 high schools, libraries, City Hall and even private homes to the Internet.
For many Internet boosters, the spread of the technology can't come fast enough.
``We are not taking advantage of our geographical position close to the United
States,'' said Jeffry Fernandez, director of information systems at the
University of Guadalajara in Mexico. ``We need somebody like (Vice President) Al
Gore in Mexico, a high-level authority realizing how important it is to have a
good information infrastructure in Mexico.''
But Mexicans themselves are pushing the development of Internet-based services.
The Internet seized the public imagination when leaders of the Zapatista
uprising in the southern state of Chiapas, who had strong connections to
university students in Mexico City, made a splash by sending communiques by
e-mail. A supporter in the United States established a World Wide Web site for
the rebels.
``This kind of political motivation was driving people to get onto the
Internet,'' said Fernandez. ``They realized something was happening with the
Zapatistas on the Internet.''
Similarly, Mexican newspapers have literally been dragged on-line. After readers
of La Jornada, a left-leaning newspaper in Mexico City began re- posting
articles to the Internet, a supporter in the United States created a Web site,
without permission of the newspaper. When the paper's directors realized how
popular the site had become, they agreed to cooperate with the project,
Fernandez said.
Countries with advanced telecommunications systems in place are wrestling with
the implications of the Internet's rapid spread. Singapore, with a long
tradition of media censorship, has found that the Internet poses special
challenges.
Recently, accounts of one Singapore service provider were scanned for graphic
images, reportedly because of a misinterpretation of an official request. Of
80,000 files scanned, five pornographic images were found and users were given
warnings.
``You can't ignore the Internet - there's too much value there,'' said Barry
Greene, an American who works as project manager of SingNet, the Internet
service of Singapore Telecom. ``But a country can't just throw out its own
values and adopt Internet values.'' END!R3?SJ-INTERNET
AP-NY-06-29-95 0008EDT
This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without permission of
the originating newspaper or wire service. NewsHound is a service of the San
Jose Mercury News. For more information call 1-800-818-NEWS.
Prof. Chris Chase-Dunn
Department of Sociology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD. 21218 USA
tel 410 516 7633 fax 410 516 7590 email chriscd@jhu.edu