00267 the internet and society

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Artigo Maria das Graças Targino The Internet and Society JUST ANOTHER DREAM?

Transcript of 00267 the internet and society

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Artigo

Maria das Graças Targino

The Internet and SocietyJUST ANOTHER DREAM?

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THE INTERNET AND SOCIETY: JUST ANOTHER DREAM?

Maria das Graças TARGINO

Doctoral Degree Candidate in Information Science University of Brasília, DF, Brazil

Universidade de Brasília. Faculdade de Estudos Sociais e Aplicados. Departamento de Ciência da Informação e Documentação. Curso de Doutorado em Ciência da Informação. Campus Universitário. Asa Norte. Caixa Postal 04561. 70910-970 Brasília - DF, Brasil. FONE: (061) 348-2422 ou 348-2840. FAX: (061) 273-8454

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:

Maria das Graças TARGINO Av. Pres. Kennedy, 650

São Cristóvão 64052-800 Teresina _ PI

Brazil FONE/FAX: (086) 232-1007

Abstract Scientific and technological progress has always had society as an essential element. Based on this principle social impacts upon Brazilian reality caused by Internet as an electronic information network with the strongest penetrating power worldwide are discussed. Initially general information of the nature of Internet, its history, evolution and services are presented. Social impacts are listed and discussed, in spite of the analysis being impaired by the complexity underlying every social process, and of the scarcity of data regarding the network recent utilization and its consequences in Brazil, due to its rather recent implementation and fast expansion, without systematic follow-through and evaluation parameters. Conclusions, recommendations and a list of bibliographical references follow as the final part. INTERNET - SOCIAL IMPACTS ELECTRONICAL NETWORKS - SOCIAL IMPACTS INFORMATION AND SOCIETY

Portuguese Translation

O avanço científico e tecnológico tem sempre a sociedade como referente. Com base nesse princípio, discorre-se sobre os impactos sociais da Internet na realidade brasileira, como rede eletrônica de informações, hoje, de maior penetração em níveis mundiais. De início, apresentam-se informações genéricas sobre redes, histórico, evolução e serviços da Internet. Os impactos sociais são arrolados e discutidos, ainda que a análise seja dificultada pela complexidade subjacente a qualquer processo social, como também pela incipiência de dados referentes à utilização e repercussão da Rede no Brasil, decorrente de sua implementação relativamente recente e de sua expansão acelerada, sem parâmetros sistemáticos de acompanhamento e avaliação. Seguem considerações finais, recomendações e a bibliografia consultada.

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INTERNET - IMPACTOS SOCIAIS REDES ELETRÔNICAS - IMPACTOS SOCIAIS INFORMAÇÃO E SOCIEDADE

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THE INTERNET AND SOCIETY: JUST ANOTHER DREAM?

Maria das Graças TARGINO

Doctoral Degree Candidate in Information Science University of Brasília, DF, Brazil

INTRODUCTION

In society´s present stage, wherein the so-called fourth wave of economic growth is

emerging, knowledge becomes the mainspring of the economy, so much so that with the increased

value of knowledge we witness “info-wars” over control of knowledge. We are witnessing a

vast increase in the production of discourse, besides the constant changes in their technological

support. There is visible competition for publicity of such discourses in an attempt to reach the

largest possible audience. Such a battle results in a proliferation of data and texts. The amount of

hard copy information doubles every eight years. About one thousand books are published

throughout the world every day. In the last three decades alone, a volume of new information was

produced that was nine thousand times larger than all the publications of the five thousand

previous years1. Just in the United States (USA) in 1992, about 50,000 titles were published, in

addition to an incalculable number of general and specialized periodicals, communications etc.2,

not to mention the so-called underground literature.

If, on the threshold of the 21st century, post-modernism culture holds sway and information

figures as a quaternary sector of the economy, it is unreasonable to attribute to techno-science the

command of the historical process. Information technologies cannot be disassociated from social

practices, since no technology appears as an autonomous and independent “corpus”. Science

and technology emerge from society and are applied within society, incorporating the dynamism

inherent in social processes. The great technological revolution moves forward pari passu with the

history of humanity. Scientific and technological progress always have society as a point of

reference - there is harmony between the historical continuum of civilizations and the

sociocultural and scientific mentality. Under such a perspective, the quaternary sector, having

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science and technology elements present, becomes universal, without limits or boundaries,

safeguarded by anonymity and extrapolating space and time. Professionals from all fields agree

that in view of the sweeping rhythm of technology and the massive emission of data, electronic

information networks, neural and unplanned architectures, are primordial. They confront the

hypervelocity of the changes, making possible the retrieval of millions of pieces of information

previously unattainable or attainable only after a long period of time, by distinct factors such as:

country or institution of origin; form of dissemination; precariousness of the publishing process.

Therefore, the Internet, the world´s largest representative electronic network, is part of the

panorama of the new information and communications technologies, interacting with social

practices and with the very historical evolution of complex societies. Our objective here is to

discuss the social impacts of the Internet in the context of Brazil, without any concerns of a

technical order regarding available tools and services, or operational aspects, despite the

initial qualitative and even quantitative data referring to the repercussion of the network in Brazil,

resulting from its recent implementation and its rapid expansion, without parameters for monitoring

or evaluating it.

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THE INTERNET - GENERAL INFORMATION

Along with the other non-commercial international networks, such as the Unix to Unix

Copy Program (UUCP); the Because It´s Time NETwork or Because It´s There Network

(BITNET), the Internet is the one that is most widely found throughout the world and nationally

and the one mostly used by the Brazilian academic community. No “true story” can be written

about it, in the light of the amplitude of the conceptual dimensions which represent more a

consensus of ideas, gentlemen´s agreements and the result of contemporaneous technological

trends rather than a tangible “object”. Even so, it is known that it began in 1969, as an initiative

of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), under the name ARPAnet, at the height of

the Cold War and the Cuban Blockade, for the purpose of increasing arms research and

production in the United States. The idea was to set up a bomb-proof network connecting

strategic points such as research centers, in order to continue to operate as an independent

communications system, even if Washington were to be the victim of a nuclear attack. The solution

was to be a totally decentralized network whose nodes would all have the same status, in order to

allow replacing any computer that would be destroyed 3,4.

Consequently, in 1975, it passed under the control of the American Department of Defense,

serving as the foundation of the program of information networks related to National Defense. In

1983, the ARPAnet split into ARPAnet and Milnet, also military. Meanwhile, other networks

appeared with their own purposes. The Computer and Science Network (CSnet) and the

National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet), both during the ´80s aimed at connecting

scientists to the major American computer centers, incorporating academic and scholarly

networks. The BITNET, started in 1981, absorbed the CSnet to give way to the Corporation

for Research and Educational Networking (CREN). It remains active as an international

educational network, but is losing more and more users, due to the decreasing costs of the

Internet connections.

This is because of the basic principle of ARPAnet which optimized resources by

interconnecting networks, and the Internet consolidated itself as a major network of networks.

Thus its name. The Internet is a chain of networks of distinct natures and dimensions, turning

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itself into a major dynamic being that communicates at amazing speeds and in real time5, all

within a hierarchical structure - institutional, state, regional, national and international networks.

These networks “dialogue” in various fashions, ranging from a simple telephone line to optical

fibers. However, since the basic principle of a computerized network is its communication

capabilities that require the use of a communications protocol, that is, standardized norms which

make dialogue among the machines possible, the Internet networks employ the Transmission

Control Protocol/Interworking Protocol (TCP/IP), a protocol that allows connection between

computers that link up with physical networks having distinct technologies. However, even by

adopting other protocols, networks such as BITNET, DECnet, FIDOnet interact with the

Internet, thanks to special gateways. In practice, the user needs only a telephone line and a

modem that transforms the digital codes for overwire traffic in order to interact with the network.

Although the figures may vary among authors, everyone agrees that the surprising thing is

not the size of the Internet but its growth rate, higher than any other form of communication in

human history. This explosion is the result of distinct factors, such as the fact that it is easy to use.

Another element contributing to this expansion is the commercial use of the network, despite

protests made agains “raw capitalism” and the prohibition of its commercial use in the USA until

1991. Commercial use is in vogue in almost all the countries in the network. There are more than

20,000 companies, with 2,000 more joining up each month, so that any business or manufacturer

can put its products on the network and sell them to customers in remote places. This market has

also grown very much. In 1993, 70 million dollars, 476 million in 1994 and 1.5 billion expected

for this year, with the presence of major companies such as General Motors, Pizza Hut and Visa.6

The Internet brings together in this virtual world about 146 countries from the five

continents, 10,000 networks and 15 million users, involving more than two million computers7.

From 1994 until now, it has expanded by about 300% and now includes more than 40 million

users. In 1995, it is expected to grow by 900% which is the equivalent of “. . . almost four

new users for every baby born in the world in 1995”, since “130,000 new users join the

network every day, or 5,416 every hour.” 6:48-49

In Brazil, access to the Internet is controlled by the National Research Network (RNP)

founded in 1990 under the direction of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) and

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managed by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

The RNP was created to maintain and expand a network service for the country´s modernization

program. It operates in 23 Brazilian states, linking about 550 institutions, mostly universities and

research centers, plus military, government and non-governmental organizations. However, in

January of this year it was announced that the state-owned Brazilian Telecommunications

Company (EMBRATEL) would be taking over the management of the RNP, and therefore of the

Internet, which would come under the Ministry of Communications. Within this context of

uncertainty, this Ministry formed a committee to administer the network under its direct

coordination and with representatives of the MCT and of the major users mentioned above. Brazil

also officially joined the Internet commercial service in May, 1995, and including by way of

experiment in Infoserv (business information service) companies such as Mappin, Grupo Objetivo

and Globo Informática.

In reality, we do not know what all this may mean for the users, who lack trust in

government intervention and are protesting this move which goes against what made the Internet

strong: free and democratic territory. Besides the situation of a monopoly, there is also the

aggravating fact that EMBRATEL ignored it when it was not firmly implanted as a viable and

powerful entity: currently there are more or less 50 thousand Brazilian users, despite regional,

state and institutional differences. Furthermore, one of the first moves made by the government

was to limit new users to a maximum of 1,000 for a period of four months, until April. The

negative reaction forced the government-owned company to promise that, beginning in May,

1995, access service would be extended to include those registered at the rate of 500 a week.

According to company figures at the end of April about 20,000 users had been registered,

although EMBRATEL had promised to connect 30,000 by the end of the year. And, perhaps to

satisfy its critics, the Official Government Journal of April 24, 1995 published a note from the

Communications Services Secretariat of the Ministry of Communications requesting

suggestions from the public regarding network conditions, including commercial use.

The basic services provided by the Internet include: (a) electronic or e-mail,8 which

consists of message exchange among various users simultaneously or within a predetermined

group. Among its applications are interest groups (forums for specific topics); news services

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(changes in discussion lists); (b) file transfer (File Transfer Protocol allows the transfer of any

files between network computers; (c ) remote access or remote login allows the user to

connect with any computer in any network of the Internet, with benefits such as on-line

searching in any of the databases incorporated into the Internet (more than 500); the Bulletin

Board System (BBS) which operates as a separate service or as a login application abstracting

and disseminating information in real time concerning various topics; interactive conversation

(dialogue, also in real time among two or more users simultaneously connected). Innovations will

become available with the continued implementation of information technologies. For example,

there is the incorporation of the multimedia system in the electronic mail environment and that of

the National Research and Education Network (NREN) intends to include it by means of

interlinking more than a million computers in all 50 American states.

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INTERNET - SOCIAL IMPACTS

The Internet’s influence on information dissemination is decisive. It provides a new

distributive information model, dynamic and hypertextual, in that it meets the needs of the user, no

longer in a linear fashion, but respecting its cognitive structure. Such dynamism presupposes

agility, precision, completeness and consistency. These changes are reflected in the means of mass

communication. They inform, form and deform. They stimulate a consumer society. They

consolidate ties of dependency. They encourage massification of habits, customs and attitudes,

under a vertical perspective, that is, in an in-formative model, in which the sender manipulates

the transmission probabilities of the data. The Internet, in turn, points toward the perspective of

demassification of society9, within a co-informative model, with a horizontal and vertical structure

in which senders and receivers interact. It tends toward directional or democratic communication

that units common interest groups, in which respect for the individual and his or her agenda

predominates. The Internet is configured as a truly democratic forum, where one´s profession,

race, age, sex, religion, status in society etc. is not important. The messages are all treated the

same with consideration given only to the mode and context of expression10, which justifies the

insatisfaction caused by the intervention of EMBRATEL. Persons have the full right to disseminate

their information or retrieve data that interests them. Without inhibition, independent of frontiers

and laws, they are exploring the almost infinite possibilities of cybernetic space, whose “streets”

are travelled in seconds, making real time dialogues possible, regardless of distance or peculiarities

of the persons.

It may be argued that, for the scientific community, the virtually infinite amount of data

available through the Internet cause problems of selection and learning the mechanisms for using

the resources. This trend is contrary to the elementary principles of network information services,

that attempt to answer requests in record time and in a form as friendly as possible 11. Thus, even

though it would be impossible to list all of the social potential of the Internet, we may make

projections based on the fact that “the proliferation of information technology is making

daily life easier for individuals in some ways, more difficult in others, but certainly

different” 2:232

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The Quaternary Sector of the Economy

At the macro level, the Internet, like other information technologies, has contributed to the

consolidation of the quaternary sector of the economy, which includes activities related to the

information and knowledge industry, whose professionals, like any other worker, are subject to

changes in their world and, therefore to technological innovations. For Daniel Bell, Alvin Toffler,

Marc Porat and Fritz Machlup, the economy prevails as the dominant element in society. The

argument of these Americans is based on statistics regarding the percentage of the Gross

National Product (GNP) earmarked for information, and the labor force involved in the

quaternary sector. From this point of view, the new technologies automatically involve economic

impacts, but are not disassociated from the other social processes.

The quaternary sector interacts with the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors.

Technological progress is decisive in the sociocultural process, reinforcing the effect of information

technology in the modern means of communication that act as factors for setting social, economic,

political and cultural changes in motion. But it is society that allows this to happen serving as

support to innovations. Therefore it would be senseless to accept any form of determinism,

whether of economic or technological nature. This is because technology is only one more

productive force, the fruit of societal evolution, whose basic product is knowledge, serving the

interests of humanity to dominate nature and its existential problems. Therefore, the quaternary

space determined by new technologies is not superimposed on the human condition, culture or

society.

In sum, in the measure that new technologies are imposed as a factor of social and cultural

changes, the economic aspect stands out, with the replacement of the industrial society paradigm

by the post-industrial society, whose economic axis is the production and spread of information

and knowledge. This is what characterizes present-day societies and is the seed of other social

changes, since the economic element is basic in the contemporary capitalist world, permeating the

transformations that occur in the natural environment and on the sociocultural scene, such as the

globalization of markets, transnationalization of cultural practices, labor relations, new forms of

leisure and consumption, the valuation of private life and the weakening of public order.

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Democratization of information vs. Political-Economic Dependence

The features of the Internet as a democratic space brings advantages that complement

each other: (a) ease of organization and dissemination of large amounts of information, at

high speeds; (b) encouragement of cooperation in joint actions in order to optimize human

resources, financial and information materials; (c) popularizing of information, since anyone

who is plugged into the Internet can retrieve in almost no time at all a almost infinite amount of

information; (d) social leveling, since social stratification gives way (at least in theory) to similar

opportunity for all to satisfy their needs; (e) less rigidity in administrative hierarchies, since

staff members can now access information which previously was for the privileged few.

In Brazil, however, the present democratization of information and the less unequal social

stratification are more apparent than real. In the first place, information management continues to

be subject to governmental or private enterprise criteria, without interference from the general

public. Secondly, the contrasts existing among the various “Brazils” persist. As one example

among many, EMBRATEL has connected São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro by optical fiber. Here

we have a country that is using optical fibers, but lacks telephones with people waiting up to two

years for their telephone. Only 19 in each 100 residences have a telephone and only about 60.000

residences have cable TV. With the State controlling telephone service (at least until now) a

telephone line costs as much as 5,000 dollars in comparison to the prices in the developed

countries which are laughable 12. For Tofler 13, even in worldwide terms, the poor distribution of

telecommunications reaches levels that are more drastic than the poor distribution of food: there

are 600 million telephones, 450 million of which are found in just nine countries. And the unequal

distribution of computers, data banks, techno-scientific publications, resources for research are

more expressive statistics than figures relating to the GNP regarding the interrelationship of

society, information and development.

Moreover, it is not enough to have access to an information circuit in order to participate in

public decisions. Many Brazilians receive information through the mass communication media. But

the majority remain on the margin of public debate, since they have not learned the meaning of the

facts. Indifferent to technological progress, the predominant socio-economic stage of the

population corresponds to the evolution from the oral state to the audiovisual state, without even

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having learned to read. Because of this, the Internet will only act as a democratizing agent in the

degree that it incorporates into its universe of users, all those who always remain on the margin of

social processes, such as: the poor; the aged; the illiterate or recently literate; minority racial and

ethnic groups. What appears to be utopian is the seeking of the true meaning of the terms

democracy, citizenship and quality of life14,15, aimed at strengthening the principle of universal

access.

Also, since the Internet favors the academic/scientific/technological community its

social responsibility is broader, in the light of the isolationism of Brazilian universities and research

institutes. With rare exceptions, they are indifferent to community concerns. The teacher-

researcher must bring his work closer to the public, by publishing not only in “high level”

periodicals but also in the popular media in simpler language in order that the opportunity which

the Internet provides to immediately access information from other nations on the international

circuit may be used to advantage by Brazilian society.

Contrary to the vision just mentioned, there are those who attribute to the Internet the risk

of the transnational public space engendered by technological development tending toward

elitism and inequality16. The indiscriminate transfer of technologies and information reinforces

the political and economic dependence of countries. It threatens their cultural identity. Linguistic

universalization, for example, with English becoming the universal language of the scientific and

computer communities, in addition to eliminating in an authoritative and artificial manner cultural

and ethnic differences, can imply the death of languages that do not modernize themselves. The

more economically powerful nations continue to dictate the directions of humanity, as they

predetermine the perspectives of the development process. It is affirmed2 in an analysis of

information technology in the business world that the USA has the chance to regain its position as

a world economic power with the new information technologies and the changes resulting

therefrom.

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Ethical Use of Information

Another aspect requiring attention in the Internet context is the ethical use of

information. There are no pre-determined standards of behavior. However, several authors3,5

are concerned with strengthening what they refer to as netiquette - network + etiquette, as a

means of providing an appropriate posture for the network in order to ensure its credibility. Any

social group, without exception, has implicit or explicit rules of behavior. It is impossible to allow

technical evolution to move along without accompanying current social values. Responsibility and

non anonymity could be the maximum normative principle. This, because along with the innocent

cybernetic romances and electronic friendships, the number of abuses has exploded. The

increasing insertion of pornography, for example, has reached alarming proportions, along with the

use of vile language. Approximately 50 racist groups have used the Internet to preach violence

against blacks, foreigners, jews, homosexuals and other minority groups. Viruses are being

introduced, destroying individual and institutional files. In the USA, a boy from the state of

Missouri made a bomb following instructions that he received on-line. The Zapatist rebels in

Mexico use the Internet for sending messages, and it is also thought that the drug traffic also

makes use of the network, which has moved the BBS coordinators to systematically sift through

some electronic correspondence in order to control and prevent such practices. More caution is

necessary in the case of Brazil. The rapid expansion of the Internet, without guidelines in a

context marked by profound differences, wherein misery exists side by side with technological

sophistication, can greatly influence moral and ethical values.

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Authorship vs. Consistency of Information

The question of authorship and intellectual property must be also examined.

Information disseminated electronically and a “paperless society” imply relevant legal problems

that are rarely questioned 17. They call for a restructuring of authorship, in conceptual and legal

terms. Messages put on the circuit without the pretension of wide circulation, but with the intention

of receiving feedback for improving initial ideas and/or as a way of guaranteeing authorship, are

forming the basis for new studies 8,11.

This fact in itself is serious. In the first place, in most cases there is no authorization or

knowledge of user-author. Secondly, it denotes unconcern with the nature of the information, data

reliability and consistency, perhaps due to its instantaneity, volatibility and complexity of storage.

The records do not pass through a quality filter, giving priority to the quantitative growth of the

network, to the detriment of the qualitative aspects and social impacts15,18. This has repercussions

on the information cycle, with many risks of deformation and insecurity that virtual reality in its

various modalities (banks, libraries, shopping centers etc.) may cause among members of society.

Connected to this question regarding message consistency, like the case of exaggerated

“xeroxing”, the uncritical use of electronic information can aggravate the trend toward the

horizontalizing of reading, jeopardizing the educational process. The probability of an overall vision

of a theme is lessened and interest is lost in more profound, basic works or those of classic

content, that are indispensable to professional education.

Privacy vs Impersonal Relations

Based on the premise that the public sphere is the place where everyone interacts, it is

inferred that the Internet exercises the function of an agent of this space, which is consolidated

beginning with the expansion of the private sphere. However, if there are advantages, such

technological possibilities compromise cultural enrichment, in proportion that the vigor of each of

the spheres weakens. They confer on everything that is subjective the appearance of objectivity

and publicity. For many, the Internet invades the privacy of individuals. What is intimate

becomes public and public issues are discussed in the world of the intimate. We are reaching a

stage “x” in which the history of the lives of people and institutions are reconstituted in database

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records. To the degree that companies become more and more dependent on electronics, the

entire business system becomes more vulnerable as a target for information services. 13

In the same way, there is a reduction in face to face contacts which eliminates the

potential for mutually enriching exchanges by means of body language, tone of voice and even the

use of paper. To minimize the lack of emotion in these impersonal relations , many users of the

Internet have recourse to emotion icons or funny faces. However, by way of an opposite

position, there are those who attribute to the network the gift of diminishing the solitude of

persons, by favoring contacts with individuals in other distant countries, and as the only

opportunity for exchanging experiences 4. And, in fact, virtual friendships and electronic romances

with partners who are never seen increase significantly.

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FINAL COMMENTS

Discussions of this nature do not provide for hard conclusions. Even so, it is said that the

Internet expands a new basis for social cohesion electronically, able to promote new forms of

symbolic participation and forming of the social conscience. It (re)affirms the post-industrial

paradigm. Its social effects, in terms of Brazil, are diffused, diversified and complex. But it implies

radical changes in the lives of individuals and social groups. It allows them to satisfy their

information needs more quickly, more accurately, and above all, in the context of massification.

However, it is necessary to reject the magical aura that appears, by considering the following

assertion “. . . The notion of an international information revolution is nothing but

ideological rhetoric” 18:355. The author of the statement demonstrates with qualitative and

quantitative data the inequalities in the use of information, using the Internet itself as a point of

reference. While use in the USA in 1992 reached 94.94%, in Brazil it was a paltry 0.10%.

It is possible that this significant difference does not result only from the fact that the USA

hosts the managerial databases. In Brazilian terms, the resistance is almost always cultural and

educational, when one fears the loss of privacy because of data bank controls or when one

considers the Internet as an element capable of exacerbating social inequalities, allowing the few

privileged ones contact with the wealthier and more developed world, excluding the absolute

majority of Brazilians condemned to isolation. As a result, access to the Internet requires a solid

scientific culture. This stimulates individual participation in the country´s collective life, with the full

exercise of citizenship, which calls for awareness and discernment. If not, the network will not

serve as a public sphere strictu sensu. In any case Brazil needs to establish priorities in every

region and state based on the people´s quality of life. It is urgent to analyze to what point massive

investments in telecommunication and telematic infrastructures are valid, to the detriment of other

sectors such as health, sanitation, public transportation, education, farm production. Without

defending divisive tendencies a balance should be sought to ensure that the socially and

economically disadvantaged receive the same rights to information under the broad principle of

universal access.

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In sum, it is impossible to ignore the inequality existing between societies that have

information and the monopoly of the production of these technologies and societies such as Brazil

remaining destined to use them without questions, making their citizens be conformists in their daily

life. The technological gap corresponds, inevitably, to the knowledge gap which, in turn, generates

a cultural gap until it reaches the level of a gap even in human awareness. In this sense, the

INTERNET may act as an instrument of alienation. Much more than the information revolution 18,

it may serve, within the context of SOCIETY, as ideological rhetoric: ONE MORE DREAM -

utopia for many and reality for a few. This is so because if the world has changed, the idea of

democracy cannot be replaced by a technocracy, at the cost of exploitation of the many, working

for a salary and exploited day by day, those, who in the logic of industry, are worth less than the

machines that produce.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

To provide the Internet with greater force as an instrument for the democratization of

information in Brazil, it is recommended that: (a) incorporation into the management of the

network, at a consistent and firm level, of predetermined parameters for achieving universal

access; (b) implementation of interfaces and applications that are useful to the general

public; ( c) promotion of changes in the educational system, for training in the use of

information technologies at all levels of instruction, and the process of continuing education; (d)

guarantee of availability of network services, gratis or at a low cost for schools and public

libraries and other non-profit organizations; (e) promotion of interaction among universities

and research centers for the purpose of passing information along to the public; (f) contributing

to netiquette by means of suggestions for standards compatible with the national situation; (g)

attention to integral professional training by means of a permanent critical stance regarding

superficiality of texts or messages; (h) systematic ongoing cost/benefit studies of the

Internet; (i) encouragement of the creation of national or regional institutions destined for

social impact studies of new technologies on the population, or in the case of the Internet, after

the example of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.

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REFERENCES

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