The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Cyberghetto or Cybertopia? Major Keary majkeary@netspace.com.au

Public interest in the social impact of the Internet needs to be developed to the point where an informed community can engage in rational discussion. At present we are in the hands of a narrow base of pseudo experts who are often more opiniated than they are informed.

Cyberghetto or Cybertopia: Race, Class, and Gender on the Internet is a anthology of fourteen essays that follow a formal academic style. They are based on American studies, but general readers with an interest in the social impact of the Internet should find this absorbing reading. A degree in sociology is not required to appreciate the arguments.

There are significant differences between the kind of society the authors discuss and the Australian experience. The important issue is that this represents real studies as distinct from generalised opinions expressed by journalists and politicians. The studies are not proof positive of the hypotheses articulated by the various authors, but they do provide a foundation for further research.

The thread that connects the essays-the fact that the Internet is producing losers as well as winners-is universal and points to a problem that needs to be understood by everyone with social and political concerns. Neil Postman's Technolopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology is quoted: "there are losers as well as winners in a world tyrannized by this technological juggernaut", and the author of the particular essay says, " ... there is some evidence that a substantial segment of educational and journalistic agenda-setters and gatekeepers are concerned that the information highway, previously the domain of high-end users, the equivalent of Mercedes and BMWs, is filling too rapidly with drivers of Fords and Chevrolets".

The information-poor cannot be empowered by the new medium unless they are trained to use it and given access to necessary resources. A chapter, Training the Information-Poor in an Age of Unequal Access, has relevance for Australia. What the author says should be of particular interest to people concerned with lack of funding for education; she says in her conclusion, "As the Information Age progresses, there is evidence that this distribution [of information technology] continues to become more unequal, resulting in a small information elite". A chapter, Equity and Access: Grades K-12, examines the American situation in respect of access to computer technology, teacher skills, and funding issues. Under the heading, Computers and the construction of knowledge, the author says, "Technology and computers are becoming the predominant mode of communication in our society" and goes on to explain that access to computers is not simply the number in a school, time available for use, "or even the extent to which teachers use and integrate computers into their classes". She also makes an interesting point that technology is often used in the exclusive sense of "hardware inventions", whereas the term derives from a Greek word meaning skill, or art; we should think of technology as including "physical tools used to organise the material world, the conceptual and cognitive tools used to organise information, and socioeconomic tools used to organise society". Simple physical access to computers in schools is not the same thing as access to those technologies, and without them individuals will be sidelined.

There is much hyperbole about the potential of the Internet. Business is exposed to dire warnings that lack of a Web presence spells doom and we are now seeing and hearing the use of dot com and similar allusions to Web URLs in advertising, simply for the purpose of suggesting a product or company is right up there with the digital-age frontrunners.

A chapter, How the Web Was Won, examines its commercialisation and discusses how user expectations evolve, and how the promise of benefit-for-all may be frustrated by commercialisation. The argument is that "the real threat of commercialization of the Internet ... comes not from the shadowy world of corporate scheming, but from the innocent ... behaviours and expectations of media users like you and me". The author conducted a controlled survey, the results of which he describes in statistical detail. However, the essay is not just dry figures and graphs, but makes interesting reading. In the context of the essay commercialisation means advertising (banners and other awful stuff used to dazzle users). There are, of course, commercial sites that provide useful services (including the opportunity to buy goods) without garish promotional aids.

A valuable contribution to research, this collection presents a sound and well documented base for those who deal with opinion and policy makers, who are part of-or represent-minority groups, and who have a passion for social equity.

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Reprinted from the June 2000 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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