Subject: NetAction Notes No. 40
Audrie Krause (audrie@netaction.org)
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 23:09:27 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 23:09:27 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <2.2.16.19980823231239.107fd7c8@pop.igc.org> To: audrie@netaction.org From: Audrie Krause <audrie@netaction.org> Subject: NetAction Notes No. 40
NetAction Notes
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Published by NetAction Issue No. 40 August 24, 1998
Repost where appropriate. Copyright and subscription info at end of message.
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In This Issue:
Learning From Your Friends
Digital Impact
Economic Security in Cyberspace
About NetAction Notes
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Learning From Your Friends
Like a lot of other public interest advocates, I would like to see the
universal service policy expanded beyond basic telephone service to
include universal access to information technology. Within the context
of public policy advocacy, efforts to achieve this goal have generally
focused on ensuring affordable access to advanced telecommunications
services and, to a lesser extent, ensuring that computers are affordably
priced or available for citizens to use in public libraries. In a
recent article entitled, "Can the 'Next Generation Internet' Effectively
Support 'Ordinary Citizens?'" Rob Kling of the Center for Social
Informatics discusses an important aspect of universal access that tends
to be overlooked.
While the cost of computer ownership, and telecommunications service,
are important considerations, they are not the only barriers to
universal access. In some parts of the world the barriers include high
levels of illiteracy, or the lack of an adequate telecommunications
infrastructure. Here in the United States, one of the barriers is what
Kling refers to as "social access." As Kling explains it:
"One reason that lower income families use the Internet
less -- aside from costs -- is because of various
"externalities" such as people needing technical support
and access to a community of other people who communicate
online. People tend to be able to get help from people
similar to themselves, so that low usage levels within a
group tends to be somewhat self-perpetuating (Agre, 1997).
In other words, to ensure universal access, some people will need a
little help from their friends. NetAction's Webmaster, Judi Clark, says
this is why people buying their first computer are often advised by
sales clerks to buy what their friends have. When questions come up,
as they inevitably do, the new user will have someone to turn to for
answers.
This point was brought home to me recently when my brother shipped his
used computer to our mother, complete with a Juno.com email account.
Since my brother lives in Northern California and our mother lives in
Southern California, she has been relying on friends to help her learn
how to use the computer. But her friends can only answer questions
about the operating system and application software they are familiar
with, which doesn't include the mail browser provided with a Juno.com
account.
Kling and other researchers who study the way people learn how to use
computers have found that there is a "social" element to this learning
process, as well as a technological element. One study that he sites in
his paper found that many ordinary people felt it was too difficult to
use the Internet. Other studies suggest that community networking
centers play an important role in helping people learn to use
technology.
The full text of Kling's article is on the web at:
<http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/1998/RRE.access.to.the.NGI.html>.
The role that these facilities play is also discussed in "Little Engines
That Did -- Case Histories From the Global Telecentre Movement," by
Richard Fuchs. The report is a result of an IDRC/Acacia-commissioned
study that examined telecentres in Canada, Australia, Wales, Senegal,
Sweden, and South Africa.
Telecentres, which we in the U.S. are more likely to know as community
networks, are described by Fuchs as the "locus for the diffusion of
skills and access to tools associated with the Information Society." As
Fuchs explains:
"In all our case studies it is clear that the 'people
resource' of the telecentre is the most important asset
and component of the service. Without knowledgeable,
community oriented telecentre staff who really want to
share the tools and capacities of the Information Society,
no telecentre can hope to succeed."
The full text of Fuchs' article is on the web at:
<http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/engine/index.html>.
There should be no question that these centers play an important role
in promoting universal access to information technology. Yet the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service has concluded that providing access to the
Internet to people who are poor or otherwise disadvantaged is _not_ a
charitable or educational activity. Right now, the IRS is threatening
one such center, Oregon Public Networking, with the loss of its tax
exempt status. If this happens, it may only be a matter of time before
the IRS goes after the other 350 community networks in the U.S., which
serve an estimated 600,000 Americans.
OPN, located in Lane County, Oregon, provides Internet access to a mixed
urban and rural population that includes people in areas too remote to
be served by commercial Internet service providers, and people too poor
to afford service from commercial providers.
"These folks use the Internet to hold their families together, to get
training for jobs, to access educational information, and for many
other worthwhile purposes," according to Shava Nerad, Technical
Manager at OPN.
OPN is organizing to fight the IRS, and has posted background
information on its web site at <http://www.opn.org/>. To build
grassroots support, OPN is asking supporters to post an icon on their
web site, which is available at: <http://www.opn.org/cn/afelogo.html>.
They also have information available for people interested in helping
with local organizing, which is on the web at:
<http://www.opn.org/irs/toolkit/index.html>.
For more background on universal access, see the following reports:
The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) recently released "Falling Through the
Net II," is at: <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/falling.html>.
The report contains the most recent and comprehensive census data on
telephone penetration and computer and modem ownership and use.
The Benton Foundation's "Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income
Communities in the Information Age" examines the technology gap that
separates America's low-income communities from the benefits of the
information age. The report is on the web at:
<http://www.benton.org/Library/Low-Income/>
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Digital Impact
The hype surrounding the impact of the Internet on society may be
rivaled only by the recent fixation on the possibility of a comet or
meteor colliding with Earth, according to Kristin Schneeman, Project
Director for Visions of Governance for the Twenty-First Century, a
project of the Kennedy School at Harvard University.
"We are routinely assured that the Internet will single-handedly rescue
democracy from the snake pit of citizen disaffection and distrust, and
alternately that it will be the death of all the communal values we hold
dear," she said.
Last month, at a retreat hosted by the Visions project, 35 faculty
members from a variety of disciplines examined the potential effects on
government of the "Information Revolution." Among the questions these
scholars addressed were:
-- To what extent is technology driving social change, and vice versa?
-- What happens to political jurisdictions in cyberspace?
-- Does this affect our values and our ability to enforce them?
The papers and commentaries that came out of this retreat are on the web
at: <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/visions/bw3.htm> and readers are invited
to comment, either directly to the authors about their papers, or to the
Visions Project staff about the project as a whole. As Schneeman
explained:
"Our ultimate goal in understanding the multiplicitous
changes being brought by information technologies is to
focus attention on maximizing the benefits and minimizing
the costs to society. At Bretton Woods it was agreed that
particular technologies do not determine specific paths of
action or consign us to certain fates but rather present
us with choices. _Information_ technologies in particular
increase the range of possible options manyfold. The
question with which we must constantly wrestle in order
to continue to govern ourselves is, what do we do with all
of these choices? Our goal is not to close down the range
of choices but to lay them out and evaluate them."
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Economic Security in Cyberspace
Wade Hudson of the San Francisco-based Economic Security Project is
inviting readers to comment on a book-in-progress as chapters are posted
on the web site. With assistance from Doug Dowd, Jerry Path, Sonya
Hotchkiss and Richard Koogle, Hudson is rewriting a previously published
book, "Economic Security for All." New chapters will be published on the
web site as they are completed, and readers are encouraged to offer
feedback as the writing progresses. The chapters that have already been
completed are on the web at: <http://www.igc.org/esp/newtoc.htm>.
The Economic Security Project is also circulating a petition for
individuals to sign to endorse the Fairness Agenda for America. The
Fairness Agenda for America is based on principles that are supported by
over 100 progressive organizations, along with many members of the
Congressional Progressive Caucus. The principles include: Dignified
Work; Environmental Justice; Economic Redistribution; Democratic
Participation; Community Empowerment; Global Non-Violence; Social
Justice, including Racial and Gender.
The full text of the Fairness Agenda for America is on the web at:
<http://www.igc.org/esp/FairnessAgenda.htm>. To sign the petition, go
to: <http://www.igc.org/esp/Petition.htm>. The Economic Security
Project's home page is at: <http://www.igc.org/esp/>.
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About NetAction Notes
NetAction Notes is a free electronic newsletter, published by NetAction to
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For more information about contributing to NetAction, or sponsoring this
newsletter, contact Audrie Krause by phone at (415) 775-8674, by E-mail at
<mailto:audrie@netaction.org>, visit the NetAction Web site at
<http://www.netaction.org/>, or write to:
NetAction * 601 Van Ness Ave., No. 631 * San Francisco, CA 94102
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Copyright 1998 by NetAction/The Tides Center. All rights reserved.
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