I FOREGROUND

The following is a draft paper presenting, in a critical but documented fashion, the view of the role the International Organizations from the point of view of grassroots organizations in the IT field.

We kindly ask our grassroots colleagues from all over the world to contact us to share with us experiences and recommendations so we can include them in the final paper.

We will gratefully accept documented experiences which had a very positive or negative impact in grassroots development in the field of Internet and related technologies. We will mention the source of our information except if explicitly required not to.

II BACKGROUND

Most of the considerations of the draft are based on the field experiences of Foundation Networks & Developments (FUNREDES) , an NGO based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, working, since 1988 , for the empowering of communities, through the use of New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTIC), and the appropriation of the NTIC by the users. Other ideas emerged from non formal exchanges with other grassroots players who would not express publically, often worried that their criticisms could have negative consequences on the funding of their NGO activities.

The first expression of the preoccupation of FUNREDES, about the role of IO in the field of IT, has been expressed, within its electronic conferences, in 1995, and stored in web site by third parties . In opportunity of the participation of a WWW-based conference , triggered, in October 1997, by Unesco, and organized by University of Constance (Germany), on the theme of the Ethic of Information, the author started to structure a position on the subject. In November 1997, IDRC openly invited people interested by the theme of IT to participate in another WWW-based virtual conference and expressed that one of the objective was to help define its own strategy in that field. The author participated both in the virtual and physical conferences and this give the opportunity to conceptualize the message and share the draft with other key players of the field.

III ABSTRACT

This paper presents the evolution of the Internet in historical four succesive stages with different characteristics. This classification is suggested as a framework to be used to show the requirements from the field and the policies implemented by the IOs, at each stage. The comparison between requirements and actions shows a mismatch, and more especifically a time lag. When a strategical broad view was required only punctual supprt actions were reported; at the countrary when a common strategical view has emerged and generalized in the field the IOs are frenetically offering broad perpsective projects which collide with grassroots efforts. The current situation of the multiplication of agencies broad projects and the reduction of funding reaching the grasroots actors provoke a situation, unacceptable both at the level of ethics and/or of efficiency, where the IOs as competitors between themselves and, in front of the grassroots players, instead of supporting the field and dedicating their strategical thoughts to the priorities which correspond to today requirements, namely,, the reinforcement of civil society and the reflexion of the various global and local crisis which seems to converge to their top at the start of the new millenum. The author argues for a radical change of the way the IOs are performing in that field amd suggest, concretely, they orient there efforts to the systematical and professional censing of the existing context in the field, a honnest evaluation of the situation and the support of a selection of the most sustainable or strategical grassroots action. The paper is supported by a series of real and concrete case studies which are documented in synthesis with links to more detailled Internet based information. This is a first draft. The paper is published electronically in several electronic conferences focusing the development of IT in the South and a call is made for the collection of additional case story.

IV INTRODUCTION

In order to offer a framework for the discussion of the subject, we propose to distinguish four main steps in the development stage of the Internet:

70's to mid 80's: The genesis




It is only interesting for pure historical reasons. No social impact has been derived at that time. During that step, the technical ground of the computer networks has been established and only few large companies employees conformed the first virtual communities and perceived the first emergence of the cultural shift.

Mid 80's to 91 The research and development networks




This is when more than 90% of the users of the networks (BITNET/EARN, UUCP/USENET, and many others ) where belonging to the research field or to activities related to the development (the APC networks are a typical exampleof the last). During that step, the cultural ground of the networks has been established, based upon communication funcionalities and the following community values has emerged:

• free and open circulation of the information (including solidarity with the South),
• the information as a common good to be shared,
• the "netiquette", as an auto-regulated acceptable social behavior within virtual communities,
• the cooperative workspace within the perspective of the democratic participation in virtual communities without prejudices of any type.




91-94 The acceleration of factors:




In this four years time-frame the Internet process get an unprecedented acceleration in different ways:

• the percentage of non research and development users pass the 50% and the total mass of users cross the million;
• following Archie and Gopher, the birth of the WWW allowed the transformation form CMC to NTIC, adding the information factor and providing the information and tool for the mass market to join;
• the protocol Internet (tcp-ip) manged to become a convergent alternative ,
• the end of the support of National Science Foundation (NSF) for the funding of the North-American backbone.



The combination of these factors creates a worldwide phenomenon escaping to the control of any party. During this brief time-frame, the basis of what will become the Intranet concept for the companies was put in place. The users from the previous step started organizing there respective information contents, thus providing an extremely attractive information base for the professionals and, together with the hypermedia possibilities of the WWW, this provided the very ground for the coming mass access.

93-nowadays: The consumer networks attempt




Massive number of users with low netiquette and network culture knowledge joined the networks and became a target for the marketer of products and services. The main value emerging for this new mass of users (except or until they get trained to a broader vision) is "surfing the web", a way of life derived from the mass-media attitudes where the drive is the discovering, from the WWW, of "information spectacle", mediated with fancy graphics, or "consumer bargains". Large investments are being made and a struggle for the control is opened between different players.


Different visions and cultures of the Internet are nowadays trying to take their respective rooms: the initial vision, with its somehow revolutionary and subversive values, is made a minority by the mass market with its marketing and media dominance and traditional broadcast and economical values. The use of networks in companies, although it is related to the business environment, tend to be closer to the first segment in terms of values, with the cooperative work and information access oriented towards competitiveness and productivity rather than participative democracy or research.


Too many persons who joined the Internet in the step 4, including many within IO staff, ignore the history of the culture of the Internet and the existence of its original values. For them (including a large proportion of persons concerned by development issues within and external to IO), the Internet is just the technical appendice of the neo-liberal economic gobalization! And, depending of their conviction, they reject the technology or perceive it as a business as usual platform, loosing the complex and chaotic characteristics of the phenomenon.

This vision of the history leads to the distinction of three type of users :

Table 2: The four types of Internet users


SHARE TROC COOPERATION

	VISION OF INFORMATION	TYPE OF EXCHANG	BUZZWORDS
RESEARCHER DEVELOPMENT ACTIVIST	EMPOWERING	INTERACTIVITY KNOWLEDGE
EMPLOYEE	EMPOWERING COMPETITIVNESS	SHARE COOPERATION PARTNERSHIP	KNOWLEDGE BUSINESS
CONSUMER	SPECTACLE	ZAPPING SURFING	BROADCAST
SALES PERSON	ADVERTISING MARKETING	BROADCAST	PROFIT

The objectives of the different users communities are obviously not always compatible and can even become sometimes conflictive . The role of the IO in the field of IT cannot seriously be discussed without paying attention to the referenced time-frame and target in terms of users.

V COMPARING THE REQUIREMENTS AND THE IO ACTIONS

The requirements in the field of NTIC (as we perceived them from the filed) as well as the actions of the IO (as we see them impacting the field) field have evolved depending of the time-frame.

STEP 1:

As far as we know, the IO, the same as NGO or other grassroots efforts had no visible interest with this technology during the step 1.

The requirement on the other hand was not yet perceived, except by a tiny minority who was capable to have an intuition of the coming tremendous social impact of this technology.

STEP 2

The requirements, at this stage, were multiple:

• Provide a broad vision of the academic and social impact of the technology.
• Express the strategical statements to support that vision.
• Put in place the basic infrastructure to allow the growth.
• Systematic diffuse the technology based on the above complemented by sensitization and training for decision-makers and users.

At different point of time during the step 2, some IO have tried to take a pioneer role with a vision oriented towards the academic world (Unesco, RINAF and REDALC; OMS, with a project supporting BITNET in Medical schools; OAS, with CUNET and what will be called later REDHUCYT) or the development world (UNDP with supporting actions to APC). These projects or actions, which has been characterized by a low involvement of the IO at the strategical level, were often the result of the push of individuals, within the organization, having the intuition of the importance for development of the networks and trying to fight against the rest of the organization lack of knowledge and/or skepticism. If one focuses the few projects which managed to be maintained alive in the field, there mission has been reduced to limited and specific support to the technical infrastructure (modems, connectivity) rather than providing and implementing a broad picture. The balance of the role and impact of the IO during this stage has been extremely limited, most of the actions resulting from the push of groups of individuals in the field.

From the observation of the field comes the double diagnostic that:

1. The bottom-up network culture and the top-down IO culture were not fitting well together.
2. The IO at the strategical level had missed to fulfill their role and too many of their responsible for Information were not really trained for the job.

STEP 3

Most of the requirements of step 2 where unfortunately not satisfied and remained. Additionally, the need for expansion of the access (and, consequently, support and training) to persons without terminal capacity, and in general communities remote from the large cities, became more important. Furthermore, the requirement for the structured and organized production of information (what we will call infostructure) raised as the main new element, followed by the sensitization of the small and medium enterprises to the NTIC and the related productivity and competitiveness progress, and in general, a view of the IT as a key element for capacity building and cooperative work, with the requirement for sectorial applications (health, distance education etc.).

Most existing IO projects managed failed to add the information component to their picture while they keep focusing the need of the education and development communities. New projects start entering into the scenario with an orientation towards small and medium enterprises and the concept of competitiveness.

STEP 4

Progressively, with the growing fashion of the Internet in the mass media, all the IO are managing to create a broad strategical view, at the global level for some of them and at a department or sector level for most of them (implying then a multiplication of broad projects within the same IO). The number of projects aiming at the NICT starts to grow significantly while the target gets too often blurred between what we have distinguished as the four type of users.
Accidentally, this period corresponds, for unrelated historical reasons, with the decline of the funding possibilities for both the NGO and the IO projects. As a consequence, the IO start to transform themselves in competitors of several grassroots efforts who have started developing in the previous step. The emergence of "sustainability" as a buzzword for development allows the multiplicity of projects where the target is not clearly identified and make less and less sustainable grassroots projects obliged to struggle on their rights with the growing force of the market getting into in their field, while, in their left side, the IO arrive with a new impetus and funding, like elephants in a porcelain shop, taking the risk to destroy the fragile (but so far sustained) efforts pulled by the force of the field actor with very limited international support.

This is the terrible situation we are facing now while the real requirements are to:

• reinforce the existing field actions at infrastructure and infostructure levels .
• create a vision of the different forces acting together in the Internet field and form that establish a strategy for the role of IO in a field which is key for the chance of the south societies to escape to the crushing and tearing the economic globalization is producing.

Instead of that, the IO appear too often as the objective allies of the forces of the economic globalization and oblige the grassroots efforts which represent the active resistance to that vision either to disappear or to transform themselves into businesses. Is that the role of the IO? Is that the result of some type of hidden agenda? Or it is just the result of the lack of education of their staff in the field of NTIC? These are very difficult questions to answer. We, as most of the grassroots players, consider that the role of IO should not be to conceptualize strategy that has already been produced in earlier stages and are now consensual, but, rather, to reinforce the implementation of those stratgies by the most sustainable players. If any conceptual strategical statement need to be produced at the IO level, we believe this should oriented to the tremendous challenges the world is facing in the coming years and to the use of NTIC to contribute to the required change of paradigm of the way our societies are constituted.

TABLE 3: ROLE OF THE IT DURING THE DIFFERENT STEPS

STEP	ROLE	VISION	RELATION WITH GRASSROOTS	TRATEGICAL ASPECT
1	NONE	NONE	NONE	NONE
2	MARGINAL PARTIAL	PERIPHERICAL	LOW SUPPORT	NONE
3	GROWING	IN DEFINITION	LOW SUPPORT	IN DEFINITION
4	MAIN	BROAD BUT BLURRED	UNFAIR COMPETITION	YES BUT MULTIPLE

TABLE 4: REQUIREMENTS BY STEP

V A CRUDE BUT DOCUMENTED DIAGNOSTIC OF THE ROLE
OF THE OI IN IT

5.1 Heavy examples of a disaster in the field

5.2 Symbolic examples of the wrong doing

5.3 Positive trends or IO success stories

VI DIAGNOSTIC

• telecommunication environment
• academic networks infrastructure and infostructure
• NGO and development networks and infostructure
• Small and medium enterprises
• Application areas : distance education, health etc...
• Social impact of NTIC