Questioning the ICT Revolution: Structural
Analysis of Information Society
Partha Pratim Sarker
Co-founder, Bytes for All
http://www.bytesforall.org
[email protected]
ABSTRACT:
The idea behind this dissertation is to critically examine the overwhelming impact and the information society
that this computer generated network has seemed to generate against the backdrop of class disparities and
market economy and the widening gap between information have and have-nots.
The essay focuses on the concept of ‘Information’ and how it becomes a commodity and a tool in the context
of new information economy. The idea of Information Theory and its relationship with productivity and
development has also been discussed in line with this theory.
The article illustrated a brief history of the Internet and other associated technologies and focuses on some
of the interesting trends of development. These outlines were important as to note the consequences of
future development and the trajectory line through which most of the R&D have been made.
Ownership pattern and the penetration level of IT based infrastructure and services in different societies
have been an important point of discussion into this article. These issues are directly linked to its impact on
socio-economic sectors and are analyzed in terms of age, income and gender representation. The existing
pattern of information transmission and the distribution of wealth have an important influence in determining
the information society. These are the areas, which have been highlighted in this article.
The article has focused on the structure and the impact of ownership pattern. A theoretical structure of the
evolution of new communication technologies and its outcome in developing different interest groups in
terms of access and privileges, have been outlined. As a result of this, two controversial schools of thoughts
have emerged which in turn put an effect in analyzing the outcomes. These trends at the one hand, focused
on the overwhelming and trouble-shooting nature of the technology which has been thought to be driven by
market forces and on the other hand, emphasized on the existing disparities that has been widened by the
advent of ICTs. An argument that the market forces alone will not ratify this structure of information
disparities has also been discussed. The essay urged the need of an alternative information source where
these issues could have been critically analyzed and could be discussed with the idea of an equal
perspective. Accordingly, a website and a CD ROM for an alternative information source (New
Internationalist) has been recommended to develop.
INTRODUCTION:
Like the caveman in the ‘Allegory of Cave’ of Plato’s Republic, we live at a confusing digital cave where
media bombards information, shapes our opinions, develops hype surrounding a digital revolution and ‘the
top down approach with which it is meant to provide deliverance, hides the politics of corporate ownership,
the way in which this media is being controlled’. **1 A media grown global middle class might weave for an
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 194
‘Information Superhighway’, might consider cyberspace as to be altering every sphere of their lives but it also
has got little relevance to the majority of the world where even intermediate technologies are
underdeveloped.
Yet, we can not underestimate the emergence of new network based digital communication system that is
integrating the production and distribution of words, sound and images of our culture and are customizing the
tastes & moods of individuals. Nor can we ignore the fact that a nation’s success in harnessing the
information and knowledge-based enterprises is now directly proportional to both the density of penetration
and the variety of bandwidths available within its telecommunications infrastructure.
The shape of Information Technology revolution has been developed by the logic and interests of advanced
capitalism, without being reducible to the expressions of such interests. In this economy as we can
functionally observe the productivity and competitiveness of units and agents depends heavily on the
capacity to generate, process and to apply efficiently knowledge based information. The emergence of a new
technological paradigm organized around new, more powerful, and more flexible information technologies
makes it possible for information itself to become the product of the production process. To be more precise:
the products of new information technology industries are information processing devices or information
processing itself. **2
It means information is becoming an object in terms of its production and distribution and thus establishes
the very essence of Information Theory. The current process of technological transformation expands
exponentially because of its ability to create an interface between technological fields through common
digital language in which information is generated, stored, retrieved, processed and transmitted.
What is Information Theory?
Information theory commodities information, draining it of semantic content. Encoded electronically and
treated as being without meaning, messages became far more malleable than they were traditionally. The
theory is based on Norbert Wiener's famous book - "Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the
Animal and the Machine" which was published in 1961. **3 The concept of Information society has also been
supported in some other earlier work of few social scientists such as Daniel Bell (1974, 1988), Alain Touraine
(1974), Tom Stonier (1983), Alvin Toffler (1980)etc. “They all share the notion that Society is being
transformed by a revolution in information technology, which is creating an entirely new social structure.
Such advocates suggest that, we are witnessing the demise of the industrial age with the replacement of
capital and labour as the chief resources of economic growth by information and knowledge as the primary
means of development”. **4
In this dissertation we would look at different perceptions of Information and Communication revolution and
would critically evaluate the impact, controversies and values of this information society within the paradigm
of media, society and development. As an extension of this dissertation my final project will be to experiment
with an alternative information source (New Internationalists) both in online (website) and offline (CD ROM)
digital mode.
ANALYSIS OF HISTORY
At this stage we won’t focus on the detailed history of Internet and Communication technologies but would
rather illustrate some special features of this historical evolution that might help us to understand the process
of developing new information economy/society, the courses that determined the history or played a
significant role in spinning off other crucial developments.
(1)
Interesting would be to notice the growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in
itself and much of its usage has been accelerated by the declining trend of prices in hardware sectors.
It seems that the growth has gone much faster than our abilities to understand its impact on society
and economy. The processing power of microchips is doubling every 18 months. From 1989 to 1995,
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 195
Internet traffic doubled every 12 months, and it is now doubling every 6 to 9 months. Since the 1960s,
semiconductor chipmakers have increased the density of transistor circuits at a rate of about 10
percent a year. Combined with numerous other technological advances, this capability has led to a
doubling of microprocessor power every 18 months (Figure 1.1), a trend known in the computer
industry as "Moore's Law" after a 1964 prediction by Gordon Moore, a founder of Intel Corporation.**5
FIGURE 1.1 Moore's Law: The
number of transistors per chip
has grown exponentially for
several decades and is projected
to continue to do so for some
time
to
come.
SOURCE:
Brynjolfsson and Yang (1996),
using data from the U.S. Bureau
of Economic Analysis and from
Intel Corporation.
Improvements in semiconductors and other components account for the annual 20 to 30 percent decline in
the quality-adjusted price for computers (Berndt and Griliches, 1993; Gordon, 1990), even as the costs of
other industrial equipment have been increasing steadily (Figure 1.2).**6
FIGURE 1.2 Real computer
prices. The price of computers
has declined relative to the
costs of other types of
producers' durable equipment
(PDE). SOURCE: Brynjolfsson
and Yang (1997), using data
from the U.S. Department of
Commerce.
(2)
Prototype activities leading to the Internet started when people wanted to operate a single computer
remotely by telephone wire. This seemed to be first done by George Stibitz with the IBM Model 1 in
1940. By the 1960s both GE and a specialized firm, Tymeshare, sold systems allowing for remote
access to computers via telephone links (Hardy 1996:5). Time-sharing involved programming a
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 196
computer so that it could deal with numerous separate jobs at the same time without any individual
user being aware of delays. It is the creation of programming protocols to allow users to share the
computing power of a single machine with maximum efficiency that is important to the development of
the Internet. From this comes the use of real-time main frames linked to many distant terminals for
such purposes as airline reservation systems. **7
(3)
Internet emerges in the US as a species of spin-off from a national security project rather any sort of
discrete ‘invention’. But its also true that BBN team **8 left the main frame programmers free to deal
with a number of issues, the protocols for incoming data for example, has been one of these. Very
rapidly the mainframe teams formed themselves into a Network Working Group (NWG) which
established the prompt system, now used for log-in name and password, by creating the L-O-G-I-N
command, Host-to-host protocols, Telnet, Network Control Protocol (NCP), File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) etc.
Today’s Internet grows out of ARPANET, which was based on PDP8, and PDP11 computers located
in American Universities that were all linked by permanently open telephone lines. Originally used to
facilitate communications between the military and academic researchers working on military
contracts, ARPANET underwent a major reorganization in 1983 and it split into military and civilian
sections. The Internet is basically a direct outcome of the civilian section of ARPANET which
recommended for IP and IP was adopted by academic and government organizations as a means of
exchanging information between their mainframe computers and also as a method of scholarly
communication using electronic mail. Gradually all other LAN in the world adopted IP. While this
evolution was on, some other ideas and technologies, such as, queuing theory, packet switching and
electronic mail etc. also added a valuable component to the improved utility of the electronic
networking jigsaw. In those early days academics used the new network for electronic mail, bulletin
boards, news groups, sharing software and drawing down large fields of statistical information. We can
see the following time line to briefly describe the development graphically. **9
A Time Line of Internet Development
(4)
Commercial part of the Internet actually began in 1989 when Compuserve a US company previously
concerned with providing data bank services, began to offer full Internet access to subscribers wishing
to use e-mail. CompuServe services were followed in 1993 by America Online Ltd. and Delphi who
offered access to data banks, electronic mail, as well as online chat services. These service providers
also permitted their subscribers to receive and send software and computer file using the file transfer
protocol (ftp), as well as use remote computers interactively. But this computer mediated network
reached a dramatic turn when optic fiber cable took the medium of transmission as it transmits
photons (i.e. light) where cable or telephone wires transmit electrons (i.e electricity). Optical
technologies promise a greater expansion in the bandwidth of the telecommunication network. Optic
fiber cables are hair thin strands of pure, highly transparent glass through which pulses of light from a
LASER are transmitted. The electronic signal is encoded digitally and then converted into pulses of
laser light by an 'emitter' which are then transmitted down the fiber to an optical detector which
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 197
converts them back to electronic form. **10 By even 1990s, data rates of 1000 Gigabits per second
had been achieved over optical fiber and many countries have taken advantage of optical technologies
to enhance their network carrying capacity.
OWNERSHIP PATTERN: TECHNOLOGICAL ELITES AND THE QUESTION OF ACCESS
As Ben Bagdikian (1989, 1992) and others have noted in studies of the global media empires, very few
private transnational corporations (TNCs) dominate the news, information, ideas, entertainment and popular
culture that most people in the world receive. **11 Huge corporations are controlling ever-growing shares of
the global market. The top 10 telecommunications corporations held 86 per cent of the market in 1998. In
pesticides, the top 10’s share was 85 per cent; computers, almost 70 per cent; veterinary medicine, 60 per
cent; pharmaceuticals, 35 per cent; commercial seed, 32 per cent. Patents, too, are concentrated, with
industrialized countries holding 97 per cent of all patents worldwide.**12
Production and efficient utilization of scientific knowledge are highly concentrated in a few countries. About
22 years ago Davidson Frame et al. ** 13 estimated that the top ten countries produced more than 80% of
the world's mainstream scientific literature as against 6% by more than 120 developing countries and the
situation has not changed. In 1993, ten countries accounted for 84 percent of global R&D and controlled 95%
percent of US patents of the past two decades. It is said that a single company such as the General Motors
in the United States invests far more on research and development than the entire R&D budget of India, a
leading performer of science in the developing world. **14
“How then do we see the most dominant of modern cultures, the Internet? The ownership of the Net is
almost entirely Northern globally, and exclusively urban and elite locally.’ **15 Some facts might illustrate this
point more clearly.
(a)
(b)
(c)
By the late 1990s one fifth of world population living in the high-income countries had at their disposal
74 percent of telephone lines, and accounted for over 93 percent of Internet users.
According to 1998 UNDP Human Development report, 18.5% of the world population have a radio,
14.5% have a television, 0.4% have a telephone line, 0.7% have a computer and 0.05% have Internet
access. Tele-density in many African countries is less than 0.5 per 100 inhabitants, says a March 1999
ITU report. In India it is 1.86 lines per 100 persons, compared to over 60 per 100 inhabitants in the
United states and Canada. Says the Human Development Report 1997.
Internet is growing at exponential rates but is overwhelmingly located in the already industrialized world
where users are wealthy, white and highly educated **16 Following table shows the major constellation
of Internet servers and hosts in the industrialized countries.
Distribution of Internet Hosts by region, July, 1998
USA/NAFTA
Europe
Japan/SE Asia
Central Asia
Australasia/South
Pacific
Host Number
25, 038, 086
6,815,721
1,935,291
23,366
932,137
Percent of hosts
70.9
19.3
5.5
0.1
2.6
No. of countries
3
50
18
18
22
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 198
Middle East/North
Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
South America
115,851
0.3
20
145,801
302,954
0.4
0.9
41
44
Sources: Network Wizards, Quarterman (1997)
(d)
Representation of women on the Internet varies significantly. Though it has witnessed a slower growth
of users online over the years still the women in the South are significantly left out.
Gender Online over time
Sources: Pitkow and Recker (1994a, 1994b), Pitkow and Kehoe
(1995a, 1995b, 1996a, 1996b, 1997), Pitkow et al
(e)
An approximation to the evolving architecture of information flows in the global economy shows the
hierarchy of information being transmitted from United States to most of the developed and
industrialized countries of the world. Michelson and Wheeler analyzed this traffic of data transfer and it
again shows the northern countries in a pioneering position in terms of their data and information
exchange and communication.
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 199
Exports of Information from the United States to Major World Regions and Centers
SOURCE: Federal Express Data, 1998, elaborated by Michelson and Wheeler
(f)
Even within the developed countries and societies the IT penetration and access to telecommunication
facilities are not equal. Computer ownership patterns even in USA correlate strongly with age and
income. About 20 percent of households with incomes between $10,000 and $20,000, but more than
60 percent of households with incomes of $60,000 to $75,000, have computers. Some of the largest
annual gains in computer ownership were found in middle-income groups. For example, households in
the $40,000 to $50,000 income group reached the 50 percent level, and there was a nearly 5 percent
increase in penetration in the $20,000 to $30,000 income group. Almost 60 percent of households with
children own a computer today.**17 In the U.S., the professional and middle classes have found the
Internet to be useful for communication with some government agencies, for some forms of shopping,
for tackling investments, maintaining ties with friends and family via email, and as a source of
entertainment. There are also many examples where the Internet enables the middle class public to
have better access to important information
From all these illustrated points one thing is clear that only the rich, powerful, elite and middle-class within
the societies are connected and would be able to rip off the benefits of this technology while the rest is being
dominated with the outcome of this information domination and will always be in technologically dependent
economies.
ANALYZING THE STRUCTURE AND THE IMPACT OF OWNERSHIP PATTERN
Ownership pattern does not tell itself the social consequences of information revolution in its full-length as it
is also important to understand some of the algorithms of this technological pattern that affects different subsystems.
What characterize the current technological revolution are not the centrality of knowledge and information,
but the application of such knowledge and information to knowledge generation and information
processing/communication devices, in a cumulative feedback loop between innovation and the uses of
innovation. The uses of new communication technologies in the past two decades have gone through three
distinct stages.**18
(1)
(2)
(3)
The automation of tasks
An experimentation of uses
A reconfiguration of applications
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 200
In the first two stages, technological innovation progressed through learning by using, while in the third stage,
the users learned technology by doing and reconfiguring the networks and finding new applications. The
feedback loop between introducing new technology, using it and developing it into new realms becomes
much faster under the new technological paradigm. New information technologies are not simply tools to be
applied, but processes to be developed. Users and doers may become the same. Thus users can take
control of technology as it happens for the Internet. This is an important point, as for the first time in the
history, the human mind is a direct productive force, not just a decisive element of the production system. It
might put the peripheral and underdeveloped economies in a position where they can reverse the trend
against the monopolies. But that might not be as easy as we are writing about and the interests of global
trade usually act against this process.
Global economy is politically constituted. Restructuring of business firms and new information technologies,
while being at the source of globalization trends, could not have evolved, without the policies of deregulations, privatization and liberalization of trade and investment. And these policies were decided and
enacted by the industrialized country’s governments, multinationals and international economic institutions.
They did so to preserve/enhance the interests of their states, within their given paradigm of values and
priorities. If we look at different groups that has emerged in this social architecture of cyber space then we
would be able to understand as to how the system is kept this way to protect the staus-quo in favor of their
own interests.
Three Groups of Information Architecture
If we study the ownership and users pattern of Information Technology we can see the existence of three
groups.**19
(a)
First, elite groups seem likely to be the ‘information users’ experiencing the full benefits of this global
and computer generated network. They are actually the primary agents of operating this global
economy and they activities rely on constant mobility and access to interactive global computer
networks on a continuous basis to ‘command space’. Friedman (1995) argues that the emergence of
such groups in western cities needs to be seen as an integral element within a world-wide shift of
capital accumulation, dominated by transnational corporations and the associated social elite.
(b)
There are the lower strata of less affluent and mobile wage earners, who seem more likely to be, as
Dordick et al (1988) put it, ‘the information used’-experiencing different technological topologies. This
consumer model of the Information Superhighway will have only limited capability for interactivity
supporting the development of horizontal discourses. As Calabrese and Borchert described “..wage
earners, the precariously employed and the unemployed will interact infrequently on the horizontal
dimension, except primarily in commercial modes which are institutionally and hierarchically
structured and controlled for commercial purposes such as games and shopping and also do more
routine forms of telework”.
(c)
Finally, in the ‘off-line’ marginalised spaces there are disadvantaged groups living in poverty and
structural unemployment who seem likely to be excluded altogether from electronic networks. Here,
poverty and unemployment means that access to any electronic network or telecommunication
facilities will be financially problematic. Access is denied in many cases as ‘with technology and
language both being owned by the wealthy, class divides are intrinsically linked to this hegemony’.
**20
CONTROVERSIAL TRENDS:
In analyzing the trends of social impacts of information technology, it is possible to be driven by a dilemma
and the dilemma is of two controversial thoughts. One trend seems to be a bit euphoric and emphasizes the
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 201
benevolent and overwhelming nature of this technology as if the information and communication technology
being a subversive tool itself will improve the socio-economic conditions if only some interventions can be
made. But the other trend focuses on the widening gap between information have and have-nots and how
the existing social patterns continue to keep the socioeconomic disparities and/or work in favor of power and
wealthy. Lets examine some details of these countervailing trends..
First and Dominating Trend:
The dominating trend define the network as "Virtual societies" and "....are marked by political, technological
and cultural pattern so intimately connected as to be nearly indistinguishable. ...For example, a virtual
discussion may allow all to speak and all to be heard at once. Each participant types their contributions and
places them in a centrally held discussion, accessible to all other participants....In this way all contributions
are always available, no one can be silenced because their voice is the quietest and no one can be heard
with more effect simply because they are more aggressive..Such distinctive forms of computer-mediated
discussion give rise to the hope that, perhaps, virtual technology creates a more politically egalitarian
debate.." **21
The rethorics of this trend lies on the principle that technology is used by everyone in the same way and
affects everyone similarly, regardless of their life circumstances. Wired Magazine’s articles often illustrate
this popular standpoint. In the January 1998 issue, journalist George Gilder wrote about the way that
computing power has increased a hundred millionfold since the 1950s. Computer scientist Danny Hillis wrote
about the ways that computerization is leading to a transformation of a new civilization in a few paragraphs
and with high spirits. The highest of its optimism has been echoed in Nicholas Nigroponti's statement in June
Issue “[India, China] and other developing nations have the chance to rethink the meaning of being rural. If
just a few political leaders were to reexamine their telecommunications agenda for the rural populace,
poverty could be redefined in the digital age.” **22 In most of its technological part the hype is certainly true.
The rapid advancement of Information Technologies specially the development of the Internet, Email, Digital
Television and Mobile Telephony has created a sort of 'digital renaissance heralding a new information age
in which individual tastes are catered for, citizens become better informed, and new wealth is created. But
subscribers to this trend are actually fashionable to view Information Technology from individual perspective
as Bill Gates wrote "The information highway is a tool of the individual"**23
Prophets such as Peter Drucker, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, and Esther Dyson believe that the information
revolution will make hierarchical bureaucracies obsolete and will lead to a new electronic feudalism with
overlapping communities and jurisdictions to multiple layers of citizens' identities and loyalties. John Naisbitt,
Nicholas Negroponte, Bill Gates, Kevin Kelley and Yoneji Masuda expect to see an array of positive
developments and foresee radical changes in economics, politics and culture. They hope to see expanded
productivity, improved employment opportunities, and improved democratic process with a majority of people
empowered to participate in public decision making.
Analyzing of impact according to this trend is more based on market forces and is somewhat thought that a
combination of digital technology and free markets would bring rich and diverse media offerings to
consumers which would lead to a boost of general economy. This optimism is actually rested on to a
historical fact that deregulation and privatization of early 80s gave birth to the introduction of digital
technologies in the 1990s. The rhetoric associated with these changes was that they would allow the fresh
wind of competition to blow through the formerly monopolistic broadcasting and telecommunications
industries. According to this thought, a competitive market in digital media products will take the place of
monopoly, precipitating 'de-massification of the media' in which 'the monolithic empires of mass
media...dissolve into an array of cottage industries."24 Typical of this optimistic belief that new media
technologies will result in even widening choices and a consequent empowerment of media 'consumers', is
the introduction to the US Government's 'The National Information Infrastructure: The Administration's
Agenda for Action'.
Much of the current efforts to theorize democratic implications of new digital technologies rests on German
philosopher Jurgen Habermas's concept of 'Public Sphere'. He argues that the development of early modern
capitalism brought the concept of public property and reflected critical opinions in letters, novels, coffee
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 202
houses, salons etc. and helped emerging of an independent, market based press with critical judgment. He
saw the ideal Public Sphere as being space distinct from both the state and the market. But nevertheless
Habermas's concept provides the theoretical backbone to thinking about the role of computer mediated
communications in further democracy. Cyberspace enthusiasts suggest that, computer based network tends
to bring back the Public Sphere concept which might be important for democratic discourse. This nostalgia
as told earlier has been exemplified by the front cover of the December 1997 issue of Wired which displays a
picture Freedom of Speech by the American
painter Norman Rockwell. This nostalgic notion that there is some lost golden age of democracy that
computerize media technology will allow us to recover, is characteristic of the ideology of cyberspace.
The current structure of the Internet still reflects its 'no central control' evolution with no one body owning or
controlling the use of it. Something like a cross between the PC and citizens band radio its rules are made
and policed by the users or, more precisely, by those users who are active enough to want to make rules and
police them. New users, particularly commercial users do not always find it easy to comprehend the
decentralized, free wheeling and somewhat anarchic nature of the Internet. "The bigger players have the
money, the clout, the physical strength and the social control to bludgeon their way through, but they do not
have the flexibility, the ability to pop up and disappear at will, the speed of action or the elasticity to slip
through the holes, that the well trained indivi dual has" over the Internet. *25
For theoreticians like Mark Poster Internet is important as a decentralize communication system, it can
question the assumptions of older positions: "If the technological structure of the Internet institutes costless
reproduction, instantaneous dissemination and radical decentralization, what might be its effects upon the
society, the culture and the political institutions?"*26 Some characteristics of virtual communities like the one
of Multi-user domain, games, news groups and other forms of networking can allow the participation of
voices (such as minorities, women, greens etc.) who have been previously excluded. With the advent of new
media technologies, audience segmentation and the advent of alternative political movements, Dahlgren see
'the contours of historically new conditions for the Public Sphere' emerging.
An Alternative Trend:
This trend focuses on the issues of pattern, access and distribution of information in terms of its ownership
and hierarchy. It is based on the argument that, the impact of exclusion both in the developed and
developing countries may result in a wide-spread discrepancy which can not be ratified by technology and
market factors. It has ever been the case that the affluent in our society have always had new discretionary
wants crated for them by the market while the economically backward class tend to adjust their wants
downward to cope with new conditions. ‘The very sophistication of the information handling and processing
options available to rich corporate environments, their ability to pay over the top for quite mediocre
information solutions, and the strongly emerging imperative that all information should be regarded as a
market driven commodity, has had a deleterious effect on current perceptions of publicly funded
information.’**27
Thinkers like Neil Postman, Joseph Weizenbaum, Theodore Roszak and Frank Webster who believe that
deployment of ICT will simply reinforce historical trends towards socioeconomic disparities, inequalities in
political power and gaps between knowledge elite and the disenfranchised. Unafraid of being dubbed neoLuddites, they predict massive job displacement and deskilling. Between the two extremes is a small group
of technorealists treading the middle ground **28
"Although the information revolution could well exacerbate existing economic and cultural faultiness, thus
widening the global rift between the North and the South, it also offers the possibility of a truly interconnected
'global village,' says Alan Hedley, the University of Victoria, Canada, sociologist, whose position is close to
that of the technorealists **29. There could be three possibilities, he says.
(1)
In the first, left to grow unchecked information technology will more than likely solidify and reinforce
existing cleavages. The 'do-nothing' approach is basically a strategy of exclusion or apartheid and it
would lead to an unstable and inherently unsustainable world. The gap between technology "haves"
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 203
and "have-nots" is unrelenting, says a US Department of Commerce report renewing concerns about
how the info-chasm could contribute to economic injustice in the 21st century.
(2)
The second scenario is all too familiar - the world will be increasingly homogenized and the dominant
culture would push the other cultures to the background. The United States exports 120,000 hours of
TV programming to Europe alone every year. The cola wars are fought on the Indian TV, celebrity
cricketer and film stars backing one or the other cola. Music TV channels from the West have virtually
destroyed interest in classical and native musical traditions among the youth even in countries like
India which have well-developed and long-standing traditions. US style junk food chain stores and
branded clothes have invaded every country edging out less expensive and better suited local
products. The age of political imperialism may be over, but cultural and economic imperialism is
emerging with a vengeance.
(3)
The third and the more desirable scenario is that of a global village wherein for the first time all people
of the world will have an opportunity to interact over a virtually seamless communication network. For
the hitherto disenfranchised of the world, the new order could provide the means to organize and
articulate their needs, such that they could eventually participate in a more just and humane, and
hence sustainable world.
The Commodification of Public Sphere seems to be the major argument to establish the fact that this network
though may be democratic or neutral in nature (like any other technological development) is not actually
representing all classes and voices at the end. During the 1980s and 1990s the multimedia conglomerates
passion for digital convergence has been encouraged by governments who saw market competition as the
essential spur to the growth of the media and information industries. The New Right rhetoric associated with
building 'information superhighways' has stressed that only unrestrained market forces will build the
infrastructure that is predicted to bring so many benefits to the general population. But in real world,
increasing domination of capitalist global multimedia monopolies is taking away all the benefits that are being
expected. The lesson of media history told us that, in an unregulated or lightly regulated media regime, what
gets transmitted is primarily serve the interest of the people who are vocal and powerful and profitable rather
than what is in the public interest. Even the free access culture is being motivated towards a business
interest. Microsoft MSN services used to provide free distant calling in 1999 and 2000 but from the beginning
of this year that started to put charges on it which is a common example of making people dependent on
certain commodities and then to charge on these.
However, even if access to cyberspace was more equitable it is not clear that this in itself would result in a
more democratic and responsive political system since power does not depend on information alone. The
head of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, has often lauded the new media technologies as having the
potential to empower people from the once powerful press barons. Yet, when the Chinese government
objected to the BBCs coverage of their brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests, Murdoch did not
hesitate to remove the BBC World service from his Star satellite, a move seemingly designed to placate a
government with which he hoped to do business."*30
"Where information is power, denying information to marginalized communities, actively prevents the rural
poor from overcoming the unequal power structures that they are trapped within. While it is in the interest of
the powerful in society to restrict such access, it is also in the interest of the powerful nations to deny access
and maintain domination. The unrestricted flow of general information is an essential prerequisite for an
egalitarian society..."31
CONCLUSION: SEARCHING FOR AN ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION SOURCE
Before we finish let’s go back to the beginning of the ‘Introduction’ where we had been talking about the state
of bewilderment that the Internet and Information Technology has created over the years. Media (Internet
and all) is bombarding information, acceptance and denial both are projected and “cultures dominate by
creating norms that are not questioned by creating ‘accepted practices’ that become tools of oppression and
by defusing the need for critical analysis. Dominant cultures define who is primitive and who is civilized.”
**32. As to define the confusing situation of this information society, Kunda Dixit, the Editor of Himal
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 204
Magazine in South Asia, wrote in one of his articles, "Parts of the world will be enslaved by information
transnationals, others will be liberated. Some will cash in on a commercialized Internet, others will do just as
well without it. Some will be smothered in an avalanche of information overload, others who yearn for
freedom will use it to bypass tyranny. The degree to which South Asia can benefit from the Internet's
potential for democracy, bring about true decentralization, or spread knowledge will depend on how much
support the information- poor get to log on. In the final analysis, Information Technology is like a tiger. You
can either ride it or be eaten up by it. You may be eaten up anyway, but at least you get to ride it for a while."
33
In a search for an alternative source of information where a more equitable form information can been seen
to be distributed, I have decided to develop a website and a CD-ROM for New Internationalist, a news
source organization based in Oxford. New Internationalist says in its prologue, ‘The New Internationalist
exists to report on the issues of world poverty and inequality: to focus attention on the unjust relationship
between the powerful and powerless in both rich and poor nations: to debate and campaign for the radical
changes necessary within and between those nations if the basic material and spiritual needs of all are to be
met and to being to life the people, the ideas and the action in the flight for world development’. **34
NOTES:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
(16)
nd
When a Modem Costs More Than a Cow, Shahidul Alam, Bytes for all, 2
Issue,
http://www.bytesforall.org
The New Economy: Informationalism, Globalization, Networking: The Rise of Network Society,
Manuel Castells, Page 78
Media, Technology and Society, A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet, Brian Winston, Page
321
Cyberspace Divide: Equality, Agency and Policy in the Information Society, Edited by Brian D.
Loader, Page 4-5.
Fostering Research on the Economic and Social Impacts of Information Technology: Steering
Committee on Research Opportunities Relating to Economic and Social Impacts of Computing and
Communications Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Commission on Physical
Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications National Research Council.
Fostering Research on the Economic and Social Impacts of Information Technology: Steering
Committee on Research Opportunities Relating to Economic and Social Impacts of Computing and
Communications Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Commission on Physical
Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications National Research Council.
Media, Technology and Society, A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet, Brian Winston, Page
322).
Bolt, Berenak and Newman: Its a Boston based Consultancy Company. BBN employed Licklider in
the late 1950's because of his psychoacoustics background and had provided him with one of
Olsen's first machines, a PDP 1. The Pentagon attended IPTO's first briefing of BBN. Page 328,
Media, Technology and Society: A History- From the Telegraph to the Internet.
A Brief History of the Internet, By Internet Society, http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.html
The Evolution of Network Multimedia, Multimedia: A Critical Introduction, Richard Wise, Page 60
Communication, Technology and Politics in the Information Age, by Gerald Sussman, Page 125
UNDP Human Development Report, 1999 http://www.undp.org/hdro/E3.html
J. Davidson Frame, F. Narin and M. P. Carpenter, World distribution of science, Social Studies of
Science, 7, 1977, pp. 501-516.
Information and Knowledge in the Age of Electronic Communication: A Developing Country
th
Perspective by Subbiah Arunachalam, Bytes for All, http://www.bytesforall.org/indexmarapril.htm) 5
Online Issue.
When a modem costs more than a cow, Shahidul Alam, http://www.bytesforall.org/2nd/shahidul1.htm
nd
Bytes for All, 2 Issue
Cyberpower: The Culture and Politics of Cyberspace and the Internet by Tim Jordan, Page:49
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 205
(17)
(18)
(19)
(20)
(21)
(22)
(23)
(24)
(25)
(26)
(27)
(28)
(29)
(30)
(31)
(32)
(33)
(34)
Fostering Research on the Economic and Social Impacts of Information Technology: Steering
Committee on Research Opportunities Relating to Economic and Social Impacts of Computing and
Communications Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Commission on Physical
Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications National Research Council.
The Rise of Network Society, by Manuel Castells, Page, 31
Cyberspace Divide, Equality, Agency and Policy in the Information Society, edited by Brian D.
Loader, Page 63
nd
When a Modem Costs More than a Cow, Shahidul Alam, Bytes for All, 2 Issue
Power and Cyberspace, The Culture and Politics of Cyberspace and the Internet, Tim Jordan, Page3, Routledge
WIRED Magazine (http://www.wired.com) has been one of the most popular computer magazines
and is published from USA. It features the latest developments of computer technologies and
publishes articles and editorial colums from reknowned computer scientists/researchers.
Bill Gates (Gates, 1995: 166-7)
N.Negroponte, Being Digital, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1996, Page 57
When a Modem Costs More than a Cow, Bytes for All, 2nd Issue, Dr. Shahidul Alam, Dhaka,
Bangladesh http://www.bytesforall.org
M. Poster, CyberDemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere: Available on-line at
http://www.poster.democ.htm (9 May, 1997)
Global Networks and the Myth of Equality, Cyberspace Divide, Equality, Agency and Policy in the
Information Society, Edited by Brian D. Loader
C. J. Hamelink, New information and communication technologies, social development and cultural
change, DP 86, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva, June 1997, p.
27.
N. Garnham, The Media and the Public Sphere, Intermedia, Vol 14, No.1, January, 1986, PP 28-33
The Myth of CyberSpace, Multimedia: A Critical Introduction, Richard Wise, Page 198
When a modem costs more than a cow, Shahidul Alam, http://www.bytesforall.org/2nd/shahidul1.htm
nd
Bytes for All, 2 Issue
When a modem costs more than a cow, Shahidul Alam, http://www.bytesforall.org/2nd/shahidul1.htm
nd
Bytes for All, 2 Issue
Does Information Technology Really Promotes Knowledge? by Kunda Dixit, Bytes for All, 1st Online
Issue
New Internationalist http://www.oneworld.org/ni/index4.html
Conference Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications and Development (ITCD 2001),
November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net
Page 206