Computing and Computer Education > The Internet — Uses and Abuses

The Internet — Uses and Abuses

This was a presentation to the Green Door Society, sometime while I was employed as a lecturer of computer science in Pietermaritzburg. The Green Door was a student group that met monthly over a meal at the Green Door Tavern, with a guest speaker leading a discussion.

Congratulations and Thank you

Congrats on the formation of the Green Door Society

Sounds like the Dead Poets Society, but I’m certainly neither a poet nor dead.

Thanks for the privilege of being the very first speaker, I’m sure it will look good in my c.v.

Intro

My aim tonight is to …

  • Outline the idea and the technology behind the Internet
  • Examine the potential benefits and possible problems which may arise from the Internet. I say “potential” benefits and “possible” problems because neither one nor the other are necessarily going to happen

History of the Internet

The history of computing as a whole is short, and so the history of the Internet is very short.

The first programmable computers were developed during the 1940’s. This was barely 50 years ago and yet since then we have experienced change more rapidly than at any other time in history.

One of the well respected pioneers of computing (I think John McCarthy) once said that there would be a need for about 10 computers around the world!

The concept of a computer network is simple — in order to allow multiple computers to exchange information efficiently, we link them together with a cable (or more recently via microwave transmitters and satellites).

In Dec 1969 the US Department of Defence linked four computers together and called it the ARPANET.

As time went by more and more computers within the DOD and related military research institutions were linked to the ARPANET.

Later, a number of universities became linked to the ARPANET

It became clear by the end of the 1970’s that this network was no longer dedicated to military research nor even controlled by the DOD.

As the network grew even more, it came to be known as the Internet — the International Network.

Various other networks saw the benefit of linking themselves to the Internet. For instance, DEC had one of the largest private networks in the world, with some 10,000 computers in 1988. All it took was for one of those computers to be given a link to a computer in the Internet and all 10,000 were immediately accessible from anywhere in the Internet.

Now everyone (both companies and individuals) wants to be connected to the net. A lot of money is currently being made by Internet service providers, who, for a fairly small fee, provide public access to the Internet.

In 1991 there were an estimated 5 million people connected to the Internet. I’m sorry not to have a more recent estimate.

Tools currently available

Why all the fuss? What does the Internet offer that we couldn’t do in other ways? I will describe the capabilities of the Internet in 3 categories.

  1. Person-to-person communication
    • Electronic mail
    • Personal distribution lists
    • Talk
  2. Multi-party communication
    • Automated distribution lists (List Servers)
    • Multiple person talk
    • Bulletin boards (aka News Groups)
  3. Access to remote computers and information
    • Telnet
    • FTP
    • Hyper-information systems (eg Gopher, WWW)
    1. The concept of hypertext has been around for a while. Imagine an electronic encyclopedia…
    2. But now we can take such a system one step further. Why should the whole encylopedia be physically located in one place? In these international hyper-information systems, there are buttons to press which are linked to further information, but that further information could be physically located anywhere on the Internet.

What place will the Internet have in everyday life?

A metaphor which is often applied to computers is that of a brain.

  • These machines resemble brains in that both computers and brains take input (sensory perceptions in the human case), undertake some processing (what we used to call thinking) and produce output (physical behaviour).
  • It is easy to extend this metaphor in order to think about the Internet as a global brain. A linking of computational power.
  • But this is a very cold metaphor. It is a particularly masculine perspective which emphasises logic, rationality, rigid organisation, technical solutions, sequential thinking, and reductionism
  • What about the warmth of relationships, emotions, creativity, co-operation and compassion? Are these things completely outside the realm of computers?
  • Could we think of the Internet in terms of a global heart rather than a global brain?

In many people’s minds the appropriate metaphor to use for the net is a meeting place.

  • The term cyberspace is often applied to the Internet. It is a conceptual space which is not restricted by physical location. It cannot be defined in terms of geography. Nevertheless, bulletin boards, multiple person talk environments and hyper-information systems provide a place, or a setting in which people can meet.

I belong to an organisation called CPSR, and their recent newsletter contains a number of scenarios which help us to imagine how the Internet capabilities may benefit our day-to-day lives. Let me mention a few—

  • Local neighbourhoods may have an electronic noticeboard for lost dogs, odds jobs, and announcements of school fetes.
  • A church could organise the details of their annual picnic via e-mail. This could include voting on the most appropriate day and location, arranging transportation for the elderly and rosters for child-minding
  • Parents could link their home computer to their child’s school in order to check up on the homework that has been set
  • Looking for a hardware shop which stocks door knobs and is open on Sunday morning
  • Before an election, you might like to do some research into the candidates. A government-maintained database could inform you about how the currently elected member has voted on educational issues during the previous term (or whatever topic concerns you).
  • Look up the library catalogue before leaving home. Even reserve the book.
  • Download samples of some new music or a movie before buying the CD or video.
  • Looking at a department store catalogue and ordering goods from home

We must drag all of these pictures out of their North American context. How is all this going to fit into our African context?

  • An age-old saying is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We must ask to what extent this will apply to te availability of information. Will the information rich get more and increasingly cheaper access to information while the information poor become more and more informationally impoverished?
  • I won’t have time to explore this issue in detail, but want to mention that there is at least one initiative in South Africa which seeks to address this issue. I’m referring to an organisation called SANGONeT — the South African Non-Governmental Organisation Network.
  • SANGONeT is a communications network, linked to the Internet, which seeks to provide informational resources for development and human rights organisations.
  • SANGONeT provides access to government documents  (including Reconstruction and Development Program policies), management resources, the Weekly Mail archives, SABINET bibliographical services, and international news groups devoted to development and human rights issues.
  • In so doing, they not only provide access to important information but also encourage communication between organisations with similar interests.

Some other problems

As I said near the beginning of the talk, the Internet has a number of potential disadvantages. Let me outline just two —

  1. Information overload.
    • The Internet makes too much information too readily accessible. It is very easy to spend several hours each day reading news groups and browsing through WWW pages. Such activities are called “surfing the net” an can easily trap one into becoming an info-junkie, dependant on frequent fixes.
    • Access to information is one thing — access to relevant and accurate information is quite another.
  2. Individual rights v’s social responsibility
    • The Internet is fundamentally anarchistic. That is, everyone can do whatever they like, with the only restriction being informal social pressure.
    • The Internet is so vastly de-centralised that no one person, company or even country can regulate its activities.
    • Some see this as the Internet’s greatest advantage. It is the first large-scale example of pure anarchy. It allows absolute freedom of expression.
    • But others see this fundamental structure as the greatest threat of the Internet. The emphasis on individual freedom is too excessive, they say, allowing people to completely ignore any sense of social responsibility.
    • So there are debates, legal cases and political battles being fought at the moment. On the one side are those who demand censorship of pornography and racism on the net. On the other side are those committed to complete freedom of speech.
    • It is not at all clear how the Internet may be restructured to integrate both views.

Finally, I want to give a word of advice — be sceptical about technological progress.

Our world is changing extremely rapidly in order to adjust to the rapid advances in technology. But it is incorrect to think that all our problems can be solved by technology, and it is naive to imagine that all advances in technology will bring about real progress.

Real progress will only result if the new technologies are designed appropriately and integrated into human society in a way which helps people in the task of meaningful and satisfying living.