roundtable: Multimedia: The channels towards social control, part 3

roundtable: Multimedia: The channels towards social control, part 3

Multimedia: The channels towards social control, part 3

ahis@fph.rio.org
Fri, 5 May 1995 16:54:11 +0000 

From: ahis@fph.rio.org
To: roundtable@cni.org
Message-Id: <0905.9400@fph.rio.org>
Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 16:54:11 +0000
Subject: Multimedia: The channels towards social control, part 3


Posted by:

Alain His, FPH, Paris FRANCE - may 4th 1995. 
Alain HIS - Fondation pour le progres de l'homme - FPH
38, rue Saint Sabin  - F 75011 PARIS
EMAIL: ahis@fph.rio.org
Tel: 33 1 43 57 44 22         Fax: 33 1 43 57 06 63 


This declaration was presented and explained to the public and to the 
press in Brussels, february 24th, the day before the G7 summit about new 
technologies.  We were able to sense how  strongly people shared our 
concerns: Europeans MPs, trade unions, non governmental organisations 
shared our fears as well as our hopes.

Please, find here after, the text of the declaration along with a list all
signatories todate. If you approve of them, your co-signature of the text 
would be most appreciated. Please send your name and position by Email to

Veronique KLECK  Email: eur66.vp@globenet.gn.apc.org
or by Fax: 33 1 45 78 34 02
******************************************************************************
Brussels,  February 24th


                               MULTIMEDIA:

                 THE CHANNELS TOWARDS SOCIAL CONTROL


Information highway projects and the horizons that they open up for the 
development of multimedia communication confirm the advent of a new era, 
that of the << information society >>.

The race against time between the world's rich countries has led their 
governments to hold an inter-ministerial meeting on the subject, within the 
framework of G7, at Brussels on nd financial aspects will dominate the major 
part of the discusions. However, the consequences of the changes, whether 
positive or negative, go far beyond these considerations. All over the world 
there are many initiatives aimed at making these technologies available 
for the use of humanity, the excluded and citizens. Those responsible 
for these initiatives are especially aware of the opportunities and 
risks created by these new information technologies and they want to 
influence their conditions of implementation and utilisation.

It is for this reason that the Foundation for the Progress of Humanity (FPH) 
and Transversales Science Culture, which both campaign so that scientific 
and technological progress is used for social and cultural development, have 
launched an appeal concerning these subjects. This declaration is the 
synthesis of contributions received from associations and personalities all 
over the world, involved in different ways in the challenges represented by 
these new technologies, with regard to society and citizenship. Before both 
governments and public opinion, the signatories want to use the opportunity 
of the G7 meeting to demonstrate their concerns and highlight the 
importance represented by these challenges and the principles that should 
regulate them. 

Citizenship and democracy are indissociably linked to the nature and 
progression of communication systems. However, nobody is able to 
accurately forecast the economic, social and cultural effects of the 
development of these new communication technologies. The basic principle 
of responsibility as regards the future therefore involves taking into acount 
these risks within the decision-making process.


                              THE RISKS


The effects of an exclusively mercantile approach
Observation of the past and current trends reveal the risks entailed by an 
exclusively mercantile conception of information. The currently predominant 
rationale supports the supply of equipment and services rather than the 
satisfaction of needs. The latter will to a large extent be those revealed 
by a market whose suppliers expend most of their energy tapping the most 
profitable segments.

We refuse to accept the assignment of a considerable share of the 
financing capacities of the world's richest economies to the production 
of communication systems intended to satisfy objectives whose urgency 
and even existence often remain to be justified, while at the same time 
the vital requirements of access to water supplies for farming and food 
receive only partial financing.

The marginalisation of diversity.

The globalisation of the economy and the dominance of certain markets 
generates an increasing concentration of supply, hardly compatible with 
the need for diversity, which is especially vital in this area. The 
transformation of more or less implicit expectations into real social 
demands risks becoming focused on the most privileged social groups 
and/or on the most futile areas (games), even the most perverse 
(violence), etc..

The aggravation of inequalities.

The growing bipolarisation of the world, between the rich and the poor, 
the << included >> and the << excluded >>, risks being accelerated due 
to inequalities, not only those of physical access to the new networks, 
but also those of individual and social capacities and those brough about 
by the control and profitibality of their utilisation. The widening of 
this chasm bears the seeds of disintegration, escape into tribalism and 
irrepressible violence.

Social segregation and disconnection
By generalising the disappearance of physical distance, new communication 
technologies open the door to the restructuring of social links, thus 
freed from the constraints of proximity. The emergence of specialised 
strata and networks, open to the world but closed within their particular 
interests, risks aggravating the trend towards social and cultural 
segregation. By generalising the disapearance of communication delays from 
all media, information networks risk bestowing primacy to immediacy and 
provoking behaviour disconnected from the reality which is nearest (the 
disconnection of the << financial bubble >> from the << real >> economy 
is especialy significant regarding this). However, the stability of social 
cohesion implies time and concrete integration within relationships in 
contact with the same physical and social reality.


                           THE OPPORTUNITIES

                                    
Nonetheless, the new information technologies also provide considerable 
opportunities for strengthening social cohesion and citizenship. Multimedia 
can provide inexhaustible sources of enrichment, on both an individual and 
collective level, with regard to private, professional and public life.

The social approach
The new communication technologies open up undreamt of possibilities 
concerning the creation of new uses, not only through the logic of market 
supply but via the investment of their users in directions which create 
transformed social links. These possibilities can only be made real within 
an approach that integrates social and cultural dimensions as from the 
design stage of new systems.

Dynamic forces ready to invest.

Basic communciation applications using existing media (radio, television, 
video, etc.) have spread throughout the world. Non-governmental 
organisations increasingly use electronic mail to weave their exchange 
networks. This proves that there is a desire to progress in the service 
of values other than those of trade. These applications should find new 
opportunities for development with these technologies.

Exchange and sharing

As the development of Internet shows, the new technologies privilege the 
exchange and the sharing of information, ideas and practices on a horizontal 
level and not only vertically, as is the case where a few informers are 
projected at a mass awaiting to be in-formed. These possibilities should in 
particular be used for better mutual correspondence between scientific 
research in the North and the South.

In the service of the public interest
The use of these technologies should render the relations between 
administrations, public services (health, education, initial and vocational 
training) and users more efficient and lead to broader diffusion.

In the service of democracy
Lastly, the arrival of local networks should permit the reorientation of the 
way these technologies are used towards the concerns of citizens and 
contribute towards reducing urban and cultural segregation. Democracy and 
political activity can find the means for their renewal.

             **********************************************
             *                                            *
             *               DECLARATION                  *
             *                                            *
             *       THE ROAD TO SOCIAL CONTROL           *
             *                                            *
             **********************************************


Brought together at the initiative of the Foundation for the Progress of 
Humanity and Transversales Science Culture, the signatories of this 
declaration hereby

1) solemnly draw the attention

of the member States of the G7 summit and of public opinion to the 
seriousness of the stakes in which the governments - especially the richest 
among them - and the major corporations active in these sectors are involved, 
for they share the responsibilty of the perverse effects as well as that of 
the positive openings that their decisions, or absence of decision, will 
make possible. The choices made will for long influence the progress of our 
societies.

2)  commit themselves to promoting and defending the following 
orientations:

- Hierarchization of needs: it is necessary to give priority to previously 
and clearly identified needs of human development rather than to the 
satisfaction of non-identified expectations.

- Transparency: the magnitude of the challenges and the diversity of the 
points of view, as much those of the experts as those of organisations 
and institutions, with regard to their nature and pertinence require the 
evaluation of impacts and that debate and controversy are brought before 
the public so that opinion, by way of active citizens and associations, 
is able to influence decisions.

- Progressive development and caution. Every measure should be taken to 
minimise the risks associated with the explosive development of the 
mercantile dimension and with the technical choices that will be 
subordinated to this single aspect. Deregulation must not be administered 
by force and the deadline of 1998, decreed by the European Union, must be 
maintained. The pragmatic approach of the progressive growth of networks 
will be preferable to a centralised approach pregnant with technocratic 
risks. Experimentation must be privileged, not only with regard to those 
sectors in which profitable markets are likely to be generated, but also 
also with regard to networks dedicated to public services (education, 
health, etc.) and to local social communication and citizens' networks.

- Diversity and openness. Everything must be done to reduce the risks 
of concentrating the supply of information in the hands of a few 
organisations which will, by consequence, wield exorbitant power. It is 
advisable to pay particular attention to the restrictions of entry to 
the future communication systems; this attention must not only take into 
account costs but also and above all structures dedicated to producing 
multimedia programs and their diffusion.

- Universal access. As with road systems or shipping lanes, everyone should 
be able to access the new information infrastructures, as and when they are 
made available, and have the right to communicate, which, for the user, 
might involve a minimum amount of training in order to use these systems. 

- Respect of privacy. The processing of all the messages and addreses of 
their transmitters creates considerable risks that must be neutralised by 
appropriate technical and legislative means. Likewise, it is desirable to 
safeguard the rights of creators and authors.

3) Strongly urge
governments to grant, via appropriate national or international channels, 
the financial resources to support the utilisation of these new 
technologies for active citizenship and the social good.

4) Lastly, commit themselves to aiding and supporting,
at national and international level, the emergence and strengthening of a 
collective voice and of experimentation able to influence the reduction of 
risks and promote the use of opportunities linked to new information 
technologies.

                             to collect and exchange
all the practices of which they learn concerning the utilisation of these 
technologies for active citizenship and the social good as well as the 
perverse effects of marketing the programs.

                             to contribute,
in this area, to the organisation of appropriate international meetings 
for the improved control by society of these new technologies.

4

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