roundtable: Re: Nonsense (fwd)

roundtable: Re: Nonsense (fwd)

Re: Nonsense (fwd)

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Fri, 25 Mar 1994 12:01:05 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 12:01:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
Subject: Re: Nonsense (fwd)
To: roundtable@cni.org
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.07.9403240827.B3092-c100000@cap.gwu.edu>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9403251145.A5510-0100000@access3.digex.net>

Simon Hernandez's conclusion implicitly indicates that there is a 
serious gap between the promises being offered by the "one-eyed prophets" 
of the information superhighway, and the lack of serious planning at the 
normative and strategic levels (e.g., whose values will guide the system, 
what are the necessary institutional goals) that can yield desirable 
outcomes.  This lack of competent planning, and the lack of meaningful 
public participation in the decision making process is the natural result 
of our political leadership paralysis, in which high-tech propaganda 
schemes outweigh serious investigation and deliberation.  Now we are 
going to be bombarded with a made-for-TV propaganda blitz, being billed 
as a "Public Interest Summit."  With their blatant use of front groups 
and a corps of sympathizers, citizen participation in "planning" for the 
NII, with TV town halls on video tape, is being packaged up for a full 
scale media circus. 

  Talk about nonsense!  What citizens need to do for this propaganda
showcase, is tell Al Gore and his gang that we will not participate in 
nor willingly accept this outrageous chicanery as a legitimate way to 
design the information highway that will radically change the global
civilization. 

  There are two conferences now being planned to explore the future of 
the National Information Infrastructure (i.e., by the CPSR at MIT in 
Cambridge, MA, April 23-24, <contact: Marc Rotenberg at 
marc_rotenberg@washofc.cpsr.org> and by the Center for Art Research at 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, MA, next October 
14-16 <contact: Jay Jaroslav at jaroslav@artdata.win.net>).  The network 
community should support those two events.  They will be devoted to 
serious exploration of the important issues, and will include all of 
the important stakeholders, rather than trying to package political 
propaganda with a little gang of chosen insiders.  Through those two 
important conferences we will be able to make real progress. 

Vigdor
<fins@access.digex.net>


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 02:12:52 -0800
> From: "S. J. Hernandez" <image-au@garnet.berkeley.edu>
> To: summit@tmn.com
> Subject: Nonsense
> 
> None of this talk about a link to every house
> makes any sense unless we educated those who
> are wired to EFFECTIVELY use the services they
> are being offered.
....
> 
> Without a clear vision of how information works in a
> community or how it is shaped by shifts and develop-
> ments in technology, this kind of talk about "link to
> every house" is nonsense.  Are we to suppose that the
> accompanying systems to the "links" are completely self-
> explanatory and self-referencing?  Do they come from a
> vacuum?
> 
> How do you educate a community to operate "links" that
> have no roots?  Can I plop a fiber optic cable in a 
> government housing unit in some inner city without any
> explanation?  Can I expect immigrants to be able to use
> my system without any training or access to reference
> resources (libraries)?

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