Comments on: Tolerance and the Internet: Scenarios by 2020 http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/tolerance-and-the-internet-scenarios-by-2020/ Exploring the use of information and communications technology for conflict transformation Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:07:18 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Are we all writers now? « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/tolerance-and-the-internet-scenarios-by-2020/#comment-27345 Are we all writers now? « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:21:53 +0000 http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/?p=1193#comment-27345 [...] While I’ve written about media literacy in a digital age (see Media Literacy and Web 2.0 and Tolerance and the Internet: Scenarios by 2020), my column in the Sunday Leader recently flagged the urgent need for professional journalists as [...] [...] While I’ve written about media literacy in a digital age (see Media Literacy and Web 2.0 and Tolerance and the Internet: Scenarios by 2020), my column in the Sunday Leader recently flagged the urgent need for professional journalists as [...]

]]> By: The Internet strengthening democracy? « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/tolerance-and-the-internet-scenarios-by-2020/#comment-27060 The Internet strengthening democracy? « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:28:41 +0000 http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/?p=1193#comment-27060 [...] There are already a plethora of ways, some of them under the radar of traditional media, that the Internet and web are helping prop up democratic governance, human dignity and humanitarian aid. Yet Morozov makes an important point, The idea that unfettered access to the Internet will bring democracy suggests one of the worst fallacies of cyber–utopianism. Once they get online unsupervised, do we expect Chinese Internet users, many of them young, to rush to download the latest report from Amnesty International or read up on Falun Gong on Wikipedia? Or will they opt for The Sopranos or the newest James Bond flick? Why assume that they will suddenly demand more political rights, rather than the Friends or Sex in the City lifestyles they observe on the Internet? [...] [...] There are already a plethora of ways, some of them under the radar of traditional media, that the Internet and web are helping prop up democratic governance, human dignity and humanitarian aid. Yet Morozov makes an important point, The idea that unfettered access to the Internet will bring democracy suggests one of the worst fallacies of cyber–utopianism. Once they get online unsupervised, do we expect Chinese Internet users, many of them young, to rush to download the latest report from Amnesty International or read up on Falun Gong on Wikipedia? Or will they opt for The Sopranos or the newest James Bond flick? Why assume that they will suddenly demand more political rights, rather than the Friends or Sex in the City lifestyles they observe on the Internet? [...]

]]> By: Edward Cherlin http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/tolerance-and-the-internet-scenarios-by-2020/#comment-26454 Edward Cherlin Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:54:21 +0000 http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/?p=1193#comment-26454 I am one of those firmly convinced that the Internet will lead to more tolerance and decreased violence. But not by itself. We have seen the influence of the Internet in elections in a number of moderately repressive countries that made the "mistake" of allowing free access. We can see far greater international cooperation among NGOs on sites like Wiser Earth that do not make the headlines in the way that purely social networking sites do. The biggest impact that I predict is from connecting schoolchildren globally in the One Laptop Per Child project, which began as an economic development program, but includes human rights, by enabling large-scale organization in countries that have lacked effective means to do so before. The most difficult environment where their XO laptops are in use is around Medellin, Colombia, in FARQ/druglord territory. It will take years to see major social shifts there. None of this can happen overnight. According to the analysis in The Evolution of Cooperation, the most important factor in reducing violence and oppression is continued opportunity for more positive (or at least less negative) interaction. The famous British/German Christmas party in No Man's Land between the trenches in World War I may be the most extreme example. If Norman Axelrod, the author of the study, is correct, then hundreds of millions of schoolchildren making billions of friendships is our best hope ever. What is missing from this vision is the political will to make it so. OLPC has been sold purely as an education and economic development program. Its peacemaking potential gets no attention. Most of those involved don't even think about it. But check out this video: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Py3wB-7JeOE I am one of those firmly convinced that the Internet will lead to more tolerance and decreased violence. But not by itself. We have seen the influence of the Internet in elections in a number of moderately repressive countries that made the “mistake” of allowing free access. We can see far greater international cooperation among NGOs on sites like Wiser Earth that do not make the headlines in the way that purely social networking sites do.

The biggest impact that I predict is from connecting schoolchildren globally in the One Laptop Per Child project, which began as an economic development program, but includes human rights, by enabling large-scale organization in countries that have lacked effective means to do so before.

The most difficult environment where their XO laptops are in use is around Medellin, Colombia, in FARQ/druglord territory. It will take years to see major social shifts there. None of this can happen overnight.

According to the analysis in The Evolution of Cooperation, the most important factor in reducing violence and oppression is continued opportunity for more positive (or at least less negative) interaction. The famous British/German Christmas party in No Man’s Land between the trenches in World War I may be the most extreme example. If Norman Axelrod, the author of the study, is correct, then hundreds of millions of schoolchildren making billions of friendships is our best hope ever.

What is missing from this vision is the political will to make it so. OLPC has been sold purely as an education and economic development program. Its peacemaking potential gets no attention. Most of those involved don’t even think about it.

But check out this video:

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Py3wB-7JeOE

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