Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/hold me in your arms/Nexus/nexus.politics/diac

Internet Message Format | 1994-05-22 | 24KB

From: [e-mail] (Dave Hurst)
Date: Wed, 18 May 94 09:25:37 CDT
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Notes from Jim Davis's Workshop (long) (fwd)

----- Begin Included Message -----

From: "Whitney, Mara" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Notes from Jim Davis's Workshop (long)

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Originator: [e-mail]
From: "Doug Schuler" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Notes from Jim Davis's Workshop (long)
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Welcome to the DIAC Vitual Conference!  We had over 300 people at DIAC-94
and there was excitement in the air.  The issues that we discussed there
seem to be getting short shrift in the NII discussions and I hope that
the discussions here will help change that.

The following post is the first set of notes or findings from a DIAC-94
workshop.  If you convened a workshop or took notes at one, please share
them with us.   Also feel free to participate in any way - you needn't
have attended DIAC-94 in order to express your thoughts.  Thanks for
your interest!

-- Doug Schuler

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jim Davis, [e-mail]

WHAT IS UNIVERSAL ACCESS?

During the DIAC-94 workshop, "The NII and the Rest of Us", (April 25, 1994
at MIT, Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing [DIAC] is
sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility /
[e-mail]) we brainstormed ideas about universal access. These are the
notes from that workshop. I have also added other statements and quotes
about access I have collected from other places.

                                                 -- Jim Davis

FROM "The NII and the Rest of Us", a DIAC 1994 Workshop (4/25/94)
(Panelists included Dottie Stevens, National Welfare Rights Union; Abdul
Akalimat, Northeastern University; and Peter Miller, Playing to Win.)

1. Access needs to be empowering. It's not enough just to have access, we
need access in such a way that it empowers us. (See also the excerpt below
from the talk by Abdul Akalimat.)

2. Access to communication (as opposed to just strictly access to
information) is key.

3. Access means that the design of the network and the tools to use it
should involve the people who will use it. We need a dialog between
designers and users. Planning and design should take into account the
reality of people's lives. For example, childcare and transportation are
real costs, and may present barriers to involving parents and/or poor
people.

4. Models for access already exist. We should learn from them.

5. Access needs to be politically secured.

6. Access needs secure public financing.

7. The principles of universal access need to be clear and understood at
the front of the process -- grafting them on late in the game will not
work.

8. Access means more than just access to information -- it needs to be
access to _useful_ information.

9. Universal access means a new Bill of Rights, a new consensus or social
contract, something that only result from a broad political debate on these
topics.

***
OTHER QUOTES, etc.
***


FROM DIAC-94 Workshop Description: The National Information Infrastructure
(NII) and the Rest of Us (3/94)

Who will be able to use the National Information Infrastructure (NII)? Most
of the discussion has by-and-large ignored a widening gulf in U.S. society.
Over the past 15 years, 20% of Americans saw their incomes grow, 20%
managed to stay the same, and 60% saw their incomes drop.  The number of
citizens receiving food stamp assistance is at an all-time high. The number
of Americans without homes (numbers vary from a few million to several
millions, without jobs (anywhere from six to 20 million or more, depending
on who one counts), without health care (close to 40 million), without
basic literacy skills (perhaps 90 million) are at alarming rates... The
recent large-scale layoffs from all sections of the U.S. economy, including
profitable companies, high tech and telecommunications companies, do not
suggest an optimistic picture. How will this growing section of our
population relate to the NII?

Or, to state the problem in another way, how can we talk about a national
information infrastructure, without providing for a functioning educational
infrastructure that can provide the skills necessary to utilize the
information? How can we seriously discuss an educational infrastructure
without considering a functioning social infrastructure, that can provide
homes, health care, food, and basic economic security so that education can
take place? Can the NII debate be isolated from these bigger social
questions? Can we afford to allow this isolation to take place?

All players in the NII debate, from Vice President Gore on down, have said
that they are for "universal access." But what does "universal access"
mean? Who will define it? This will be the arena of conflict around the
NII.

Any positive resolution to these questions can only happen if those most
affected by this polarization are allowed to step forward and speak with
their own voice. This workshop will provide an opportunity for
representatives from "the rest of us" to discuss these questions with DIAC
participants.

***


FROM CPSR's "Serving the Community: A Public Interest Vision of the
National Information Infrastructure" (10/93)

After listening to much of the early debate concerning the NII, we have
identified the following areas of concern:

   o  The NII may fail to provide universal access.  The principle
      of universal access is much easier to articulate than to
      achieve.  If network connections are not readily available,
      particularly in rural or economically disadvantaged areas, the
      NII will fail to serve those communities.  If the pricing
      structure is not carefully designed, individuals and public
      institutions lacking the necessary resources may be frozen
      out.  Even if the network itself is accessible at a reasonable
      price, the NII will remain outside the reach of most
      nontechnical users unless training programs and well-designed
      software tools are available.  It is critical that the
      designers of the NII undertake the necessary measures to
      ensure full network access to people in all sectors of the
      United States.

...

CPSR believe[s] that the NII cannot meet its public-policy objectives
without some combination of government initiative and regulation.  In
particular, we recommend that the Administration seek to establish the
following general policies.

...

 P2.  Guarantee equitable and universal access.  To the extent that
      free-market principles cannot guarantee affordable access to a
      full range of NII services, the Administration must be
      publicly accountable for the achievement of this goal through
      some appropriate mix of legislation, regulation, taxation, and
      direct subsidies.

...

 D2.  Provide full service to homes, workplaces, and community
      centers.  From the beginning, NII designers must strive to
      provide a high level of service to users where they live and
      work -- to private homes, libraries, community centers, and
      businesses.  If the public at large is offered only
      restricted, second-class service, the NII will be unable to
      serve as a medium for individual and community empowerment.

****

>From the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable statement "Public Interest
Principles" (9/93):

1.  UNIVERSAL ACCESS

All people should have affordable access to the information
infrastructure.

Fundamental to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in
the Information Age is access to video, audio, and data networks
that provide a broad range of news, public affairs, education,
health, and government information and services.  Such services
should be provided in a user-friendly format, widely available
to everyone, including persons with disabilities.  Information
that is essential in order to fully participate in a democratic
society should be provided free.

****

>From a posting by Rob Kling to cpsr-nii (4/5/94)

But another part of the story is the cost of equipment. While a basic phone
can be bought for $10-$30 these days, a basic computer and printer costs
$800 .. and while power for price is going up, the bottom price is
declining very slowly.

InfoGizmos will be too pricey for many people; perhaps creating a big
divide between a middle & upper class that can afford the Gizmo and a poor
class that has little access, except through public facilities, like
libraries, which are having their funding cut and cut. And cut some more.


and from an announcement for a talk by Rob Kling, posted to cpsr-nii (4/6/94)

"Assuring 'universal access' to the computer nets within the
NII requires that many people and groups are able to afford
relatively expensive equipment and to possess complex skills.
Without effective social and technical support, visions of
wiring up classrooms, libraries, and homes to an NII can be
an expensive policy sham. "

****

>From "The Poor Will Always Be With Us...", posting by Karen Schneider ("I
am a librarian in a "poor but proud" city--Newark, New Jersey.") (3/27/94)

>... We dream of a network that
>will ensure that every Newark resident will have access to
>information--and by access we mean not only physical availability
>but *awareness of resources* and *resource relevance*--two
>stipulations which make our paradigm of access unusual and, in
>some ways, extremely progressive.  We can only hope that other
>communities join us in repaving the information highway to meet
>the needs of not just its present but also its potential
>travellers.

>Our efforts demonstrate that unless things change, the
>information revolution will only aggravate the inequities
>underlying current policies for providing basic services in our
>country.  Out of necessity, many of us now assume that the funds
>essential to maintaining this network will come from local (city
>and county) resources.  (We are hopeful that we are eligible for
>a special infusion of funds to help us initiate this project, but
>experience teaches city workers that we cannot rely on federal
>resources for program maintenance.)  This is not new for
>libraries; in our country, the vast majority of funds for public
>libraries are provided at the city or county level.  If it is the
>de facto funding standard for the new information resources,
>however, it bodes poorly for our country's future with respect to
>equity in information access.  Jonathon Kozol, in _Savage
>Inequalities_, spoke to the inherent unfairness of using local
>funds to pay for education; just as we will perpetuate
>information poverty if we do not provide people relevant
>information in ways they can access it, so too will we perpetuate
>poverty in all its forms if we persist in funding national
>policies with local taxes.  We must not codify inequality for the
>next generation.
>
****

>From "A Computer & Information Technologies Platform", published by
CPSR/Berkeley (Fall 1992):

A. ACCESS TO INFORMATION and INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

The body of human knowledge is a social treasure collectively assembled
through history. It belongs to no one person, company, or country. As a
public treasure everyone must be guaranteed access to its riches. We must
move beyond the division between information "consumer" and "provider" --
new information technologies enable each of us to contribute to the social
treasury as well. An active democracy requires a well-informed citizenry
with equal access to any tools that facilitate democratic decision-making.
This platform calls for:

1. UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION: ... We reaffirm that quality education is
a basic human right. We call for full funding for education through the
university level to insure that everyone obtains the education they need to
participate in and contribute to the "Information Age." Education must
remain a public resource. Training and retraining to keep skills current
with technology, and ease transition from old technologies to new
technologies must be readily available. All people must have sufficient
access to technology to ensure that there is no "information elite" in this
society... The public education system must provide students with access to
computers, as well as the critical and analytical tools necessary to
understand, evaluate and use new technologies. Staffed and funded computer
learning centers should be set up in low-income urban and rural areas to
provide such access and education to adults as well as children. Teachers
require an understanding of the technology to use it effectively, and to
communicate its benefits and limitations to students. These skills must be
an integral part of the teacher training curriculum, and must also be
available for teachers to continue to upgrade their skills as new tools
become available. Finally, to learn, children need a nurturing environment,
including a home, an adequate diet, and quality health care. Pitting
"welfare" versus "education" is a vicious prescription for social failure.
We call for adequate social services to ensure that our children have the
environment in which they can benefit from their education.

2. ELIMINATION OF BARRIERS TO ACCESS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Democracy
requires an informed public, with generous access to information. ... We
must assure access to needed technology via methods such as a subsidized
equipment program that can make basic computer and information technologies
available to all. We call for the nationalization of research and public
information databases, with access fees kept to a minimum to ensure access
to the data. ... We strongly encourage the research and development of
non-proprietary interfaces and standards that simplify the use of new
technology.

3. AN OPEN NATIONAL DATA TRAFFIC SYSTEM: ... We call for a "National Data
Traffic System" that can accommodate all traffic, not just corporate and
large academic institution traffic, so that everyone has access to public
information, and has the ability to add to the public information. This
traffic system must be accessible to all. ... We propose that the highway
adopt a model similar to the federal highway system -- that is, a system
built by and maintained publicly, as opposed to the "railroad" model, where
the government subsidizes private corporations to build, maintain and
control the system. The "highway model" will guarantee that the system
serves the public interest...

4. EXPANSION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM: The public library system
represents a public commitment to equal access to information, supported by
community resources... We call for an expansion of library training
programs, for an increase in the number of librarians, and for additional
training for librarians so that they can maximize the use of new
information-retrieval technology by the general public. Every public
library must have, and provide to their clientele, access to the national
data highway.

5. EXPANSION OF THE PUBLIC INFORMATION TREASURY: ... Information collection
should pro-actively meet broad social goals of equality and democracy. We
must ensure that the widest possible kinds of social information are
collected (not just those that have a ready and substantial market), while
ensuring that the privacy of the individual is protected.

6. FREEDOM OF ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT DATA: Public records and economic data
are public resources. We must ensure that the principles of "Freedom of
Information" laws remain in place...

7. PROTECTION OF PUBLIC INFORMATION RESOURCES: ... Public resources must be
public. We call for a halt to the privatization of public data...

(Full text is available by e-mailing [e-mail])

****
>From "Universal Access And The National Information Infrastructure" by
Steve Miller, a talk given at the Technology & Employment Conference, MIT
(1/94)

Setting aside "civic space," "common meeting grounds," "community
bandwidth," or other non-commercial capabilities on the NII is necessary
but not sufficient. First of all, none of this will happen unless we
mobilize people, on the grassroots as well as the national level, to
organize themselves and demand such an orientation. The businesses of the
world have the resources to create their own lobbying groups. We need to
create a national "citizen's user group" that will push for the public
interest. In fact, I think that some of the money the government is
spending on NII development ought to be channeled into the creation of this
kind of user organization.

Food, shelter, clothing, jobs, health care, and education are all more
fundamental to people's well-being than access to the NII. But, as we move
into the 21st century, electronic connection will become another barrier
for much of our population unless we take steps now to make it truly
universal.

Over the next few years, we will see frantic efforts to "prefigure" the NII
through a variety of commercial pilot projects. These are more than
technological experiments. They are also efforts to establish a series of
assumptions about what the NII will be, who will control it, and what
social purposes it will accomplish. It is vital that public interest groups
not sit by and let this pioneering work be dominated by big businesses. We
need to create local civic networks, small business networks, international
networks and other alternatives that show what is possible if this
technology is used for universal benefit.

Finally, we need to build on the struggle to create the kind of NII that
will truly meet public needs and attract public access by keeping people
involved through using the NII to help make their own lives, and our
collective existence on this fragile planet, more secure, more satisfying,
more humane, and more fun. This is a very long term effort. But it is the
foundation for any true realization of the goal of universal access.

(full text appears in DIAC 1994 Symposium Proceedings)

****

>From a talk by Abdul Akalimat, given at the National Freedom of Information
Day of the American Library Association, Harold Washington Library, Chicago
(3/16/94).

There are at least five aspects of access:

1. access to hardware: there are few computers in poor communities;
2. access to software;
3. access to training;
4. access or entry points to the highway; and
5. access to the financial resources to not only get on but to stay on the
highway.

These are critical issues, but they are not my main points of emphasis.

The overall discussion of access is being led by many enlightened forces
who understand the relationship between information and democracy.  In
fact, everybody agrees with access they just mean different things by it.
What we need, and what is more inclusive, is "information empowerment."
For example, people have access to voting, but half of the US electorate
doesn't because they have been functionally disenfranchised... The
electoral democracy we have in the US is dominated by great wealth, so it
is rare to have a peoples candidate like Harold Washington break through,
and as you remember the promise of empowerment in that 1983 Chicago mayoral
race led to unprecedented levels of voter registration and voter turnout.
We need to think in terms of empowerment because as with Harold Washington
it means change, it means social transformation, it means a step toward
freedom in fact, and not just in possibility.

Information empowerment begins with access, but goes further in the
following ways:

1. empowerment means that there are data bases designed to answer the
questions being raised by people in poverty and people fighting forms of
exploitation and oppression;

2. empowerment means that we have enough grass roots people on line
engaging in conferences for the sharing of experiences and forging the
levels of consensus necessary for informed united civic action;

3. empowerment means grass roots groups utilizing the technology to engage
in publishing newsletters at the grass roots level with the required
technical skill to take advantage of the data bases and graphics available
on the highway;

4. empowerment means that education is transformed based on a new formula:
every student has a computer, every school has computer labs, every class
room is smart, and every teacher gets summer and weekend workshops to keep
up (we need to go way past the innovations that followed the Soviet Sputnik
crisis of 1950s); and

5. empowerment means a new kind of library system by which the library is a
technical service institution guiding people to information, training them,
sending organizers out to transform the community into an electronically
smart space of human habitation, and, as it has been, a repository of hard
copy.

Overall, information empowerment is not a technical matter, but a matter of
politics, of morality, of action.  Not only do we have to make this
superhighway free, we have to change the society in which it operates so
its possible to have information empowerment."

****

Other quotes, positions, proposals, etc.? Please send them to me
([e-mail]).

From: "Whitney, Mara" <[e-mail]>
To: nexus-gaia <[e-mail]>, nexus-chicago <[e-mail]>
Subject: Pricing the Internet
Date: Thu, 19 May 94 13:10:00 CDT

FORWARDED FROM: Whitney, Mara
Date: Wed, 18 May 1994 08:45:47 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Buford Terrell)
To: Multiple recipients of list <[e-mail]>
Subject: Pricing the Internet
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Whether the technology or the politics comes first is really a
chicken or egg question -- the two are really inseparable.  To
some extent the questions of access and use must be answered before
the technology is frozen, but technological implementation must
proceed to some level before the possibilities of access and use
can even be discussed.

Among other things, we should be looking at the histories of the
other times the country has been networked, the economics of the
structures, and the social effects to find models to consider in
planning the NII.  Among other things, we can look at the canal
movement, telegraph, railroads, telephone, highways, the electrical
grid, airlines, and radio and television.

A couple of important things to note is that those grids with distributed
costs and no direct charge for access, like the Interstate Highways and
boradcast television, have had the greatest penetration into society
and the widest use and that electrification was primarily limited to
major cities until the REA enabled the COOP movement and connections
more than doubled almost overnight.  In all these cases, the indirect
effects on industries -- trucking, motels, travel guides, home
appliances, etc. was breath-taking.

I think the implications are that we should be planning for free or
low-cost indirect flat rate charges and universal access.  The choice
of government or private ownership or control is not that important,
but avoidance of fee-for-service and differential rating is.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
 Buford C. Terrell                             What I don't know
 Professor of Law                              isn't nearly as
 South Texas College of Law                    dangerous as
 1303 San Jacinto, Houston, TX 77002           what I think I know
 \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/