Making Waves: Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change - Introduction - Internet: A Present Still to Shape

Although often perceived as the future of communications,the Internet is already here and represents a presence that is still unchanged in terms of its potential benefits for social change.

Because of its own nature as the product of scientific researchand intellectual development, the Internet has received much moreattention from scholars than any other medium for development. While the actual experiences of the Internet as a tool for socialchange are only two or three years old, the number of evaluationsand studies is far ahead of this reality. The willingness to make theInternet a useful tool for social development and social change leadsto many assumptions and idealisations. Much is said about the potential benefits, while most of it is yet to be realised. Somehow, this competition towards defining on paper (actually, mostly throughe-mail discussions and Web-based debates) what the Internet shouldbe is a legitimate reaction to the fact that the Internet is alreadysomething which does not correspond to what we would prefer.

The very evolution of the Internet is amazing. First it was aU.S. national security project, then a noble tool for democratisinginformation exchanges, finally a gigantic virtual worldwide supermall. The military lost it to computer wizards and scientists at thebeginning; the well-intentioned scholars lost it more recently toglobalisation and advertising.

In terms of what the Internet represents for social change indeveloping countries, a reality check shows a mostly dim picture. The United States has more computers than the rest of the worldcombined. Currently, around 50 percent of the Internet users arein the U.S.; about 25 percent are in Europe; and only 12-13 percentare in Asia. South Asia, with 23 percent of the world's people, has lessthan one per cent of the world's Internet users. The typical Internetuser worldwide is male, less than 35 years old, with a universityeducation and high income, urban-based and English speaking a member of a very elite minority. In a world with thousands oflanguages and cultures, 9 percent of Web-based information is inEnglish. The ten other most important languages in the world arelargely under-represented within the remaining 1 percent, includingSpanish, which has more speakers than English worldwide. [5] Thepattern is similar in terms of content. U.S. Web sites largely dominate, and consequently, the content is mainly of interest to U.S.-basedusers. A peasant in India or a factory worker in Brazil, just to nametwo important and populated countries in the Third World, will notfind much of interest on the current World Wide Web, even whenhe or she gets around fairly well in English.

Certainly, we could say the same about television. Cable andsatellite TV have flattened the landscape of television worldwide. Thesame concept of television, the same information, the same featurefilms or documentaries, the same advertising campaigns are available(or imposed) throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe andNorth America. Often the same television channels or Web sites, by the way are available in Spanish, Portuguese or Japanese, butthe content is just a mirror image of the original.

Video for social change is new and radically different fromcommercial television. It is not yet happening on the Internet. Thereis only one Internet, and it is largely commercial. In terms of thesocial use which up to now has been a synonym of planting computers in areas previously deprived even of telephone and electricitythe existing models are mixed and confusing.

Too many different initiatives are called by the same names, to thepoint that we don't know any longer what a 'telecentre' is in termsof its social use. Many are just 'cybercafes' for upper middle classstudents or tourists visiting developing countries. Other telecentres inrural areas are commercial ventures aiming to provide communicationservices to those that didn't have access before, which as such is notat all a bad thing. These rural telecentres or Internet cabins manageto get telephone land lines or radio and satellite links that are alreadybenefiting community users, who often visit the place to access thephone more than the web. There is clear improvement in terms ofaccess to communications technology, though it is not yet clear if thisaccess will contribute to development and social change or is only afashionable new gadget.

Many will argue that the introduction of new technologiesonly widens the gap between the rich and the poor, just exactly ashappened in the 1970s with the modernisation programmes.

While there had been some success in agricultural, health, nutrition and educational extension programmes, the main beneficiaries were the better-offsections of society. There was little evidence of thehoped for 'trickle down' effect. The diffusion of innovations that was believed to have brought about theGreen Revolution, for instance, benefited the richerlandowners and farmers…. Indeed, the knowledge gapbetween the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' has widenedas the elites have greater access to the mass media. [6]

In any case new technologies don't seem to frighten away anyone. The technical skills needed are not a barrier for poor and almostilliterate people to access. Knowledge of how to use a computer isnot an obstacle in the Third World. Experiences such as El Limón ina small and marginalised village of the Dominican Republic or thehole in the wall in India show that people with no previous computertechnology contact whatsoever can easily find their way using themouse and the keyboard. The 'hole in the wall' is a particularlyinteresting experiment conducted by Sugata Mitra from the NIIT, which is a multinational company specialising in informationtechnologies and e-commerce: a computer screen and a control stickwere placed in the wall of a poor slum. Within minutes, the childrenthat started playing around with this mysterious object found outhow hyperlinks worked, and within a week they had figured outhow to write a few words without a keyboard, how to drag anddrop documents, and how to browse the Internet. Of course, playingaround with a magic box is not the same thing as being able totake advantage of the Internet and finding something useful whilebrowsing the Web. The Web is not yet ready for their needs.

Shaping the Internet, or some of it, in a way that serves theobjectives of development, democracy, social change and culturalidentity through a participatory process may not be easy to achieve, but some are trying hard. The few Internet-based projects selectedin this report are attempting to develop a critical mass of knowledgeand experience, which may eventually contribute a more socially-oriented use of new technologies.

The convergence between radio and the Internet, which wehave mentioned earlier, is one of the most interesting symbioses thatnew technologies can offer. Not only does community radio getempowered to reach new latitudes, but also Internet users learn froma participatory experience that has done much for social changeduring the past fifty years. The Púlsar network in Latin America, Kothmale Radio in Sri Lanka and the Local Radio Network inIndonesia are some of the relevant examples of this trend.

The Internet has a better chance to succeed as a tool fordevelopment and participation if linked to existing communicationor information experiences. The Sistema de Información Rural (InfoDes) project in Peru has taken this into consideration when basing itsinformation system on community libraries that were created in ruralareas of Cajamarca thirty years ago. In Colombia, Colnodo is helpingexisting NGOs and community organisations to build Web sites andmake available to others a wealth of information. Similar projects suchas Ecuanex (Ecuador), Cabinas Públicas (Peru) and Conectándonosal Futuro (El Salvador) have recently been established. Both Colnodo and InfoDes- as Kothmale Radio in Sri Lanka are aware of theneed to develop a local database, designed to make the Internet usefulto communities, and not so alienated from local reality. Developinglocal Web sites, in local languages if possible, could catalyse and renewthe interest in the Internet and encourage participation.

In India, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) iscarrying out an experimental project in villages in Pondicherry, about160 kilometres south of Chennai (formerly Madras). Half the peoplelive below the poverty line earning less than $1 per day. The project, known as 'Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Food Security', isdesigned to provide information to local rural people according totheir needs and demands, using both analogue wireless technologiesand dial-up Internet connections. Information is tailored to localneeds, especially relating to women and children. Also available torural families is a directory of government projects, health issues, prices of agricultural produce, information on public events, localtransportation schedules, crop insurance projects, and a directory ofhospitals and medical practitioners.

The other important condition for success is the linkage of theInternet component to a concrete project of social development. Bangladesh is always surprising everyone with the most creativeinitiatives. Donors are also pleased to see that most of these are 'inscale' given the size of the country and the population density. Though huge programmes such as Bangladesh Rural AdvancementCommittee (BRAC) or Grameen Bank may not be replicable inother countries, they provide a wealth of information that cancertainly be of use.

Though not directly related to the Internet, since 1998 GrameenBank established a Village Phone System that uses cellular phones toprovide access even in the most remote villages. The whole project, which has a commercial component and a social change-orientedobjective, is linked to the existing Grameen Bank loan system, whichfacilitates many aspects. Cellular phones are sold at very low prices toselected Village Phone operators, mostly women. They are in chargeof managing the phones as a community service. Accessible priceshave been fixed to avoid speculation, and these allow the operators topay their monthly installments to the bank, to the phone company(Grameen Telecom) and to earn an additional income for their families.

There are various model examples of providing access to theInternet in rural areas of Africa, one of them being particularly interesting, the Nakaseke Multipurpose Community Telecentre (1998) in Uganda. Four similar units have been established by a joint UNESCO/International Development Research Centre (IDRC)/InternationalTelecommunications Union (ITU) project in Mozambique, Tanzania, Mali and Benin. These offer access to computers and the Internet, a fax and a photocopier, a basic library, video shows, newspapers, audio recording, and community listening. The core user groups ofNakaseke MCT are women, youth, teachers, students and local leaders.

A passive use of the Internet may only result in a more homogenisedand globalised world, a huge marketplace with many consumers andfew products. The potential of the Internet can only be fully exploredthrough a process of occupying spaces and opening windows forlocal users.

The comparative advantages of the Internet look good on paper; however, the challenges in making the Internet a useful tool in placeswhere safe water is unavailable, let alone electricity, are large. Wirelesstechnologies and the convergence with community radio and video, are already signalling the way. But technology alone may not be theanswer if culture and identity are not at the heart of the discussion. When new technologies are introduced to a different social setting, what is transferred is not only technology itself, but also the social useof it, a set of assumptions and practices that emerged from anothercontext and other needs.

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