[8861] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: NTIA Universal Access Hearing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Hughes)
Wed Dec 8 12:07:35 1993
From: dave@oldcolo.com (Dave Hughes)
To: rciville@civicnet.org (Richard Civille)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 10:01:14 -0700 (MST)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com (compriv)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.05.9312081036.A11859-c100000@cap.gwu.edu> from "Richard Civille" at Dec 8, 93 10:39:38 am
The question to me, of course, is whether or not, now that NII
minds are somewhat open, and there is an effort to gather public
input, that 'input' that tries to lift the statement of needs
beyond what we can fully expect everyone to say everywhere all
the time - technical access, economic access, and training.
And to raise the need for thought of an NII which really is
configured, or can support, all the population groupings in
the US (and foreign? with all this chatter about GII - with
it *enormous* differences from needs in the US) - including
my Rogers Bar buddies with 6th to 8th grade-and-drop out
education, who are NOT reading/writing adult types, but would
and could interact *if* the NII and things attached to it
were thought through. As well as the elderly, completely
retired, and the very young - who need a lot more thought
put into how - with technology, not simplistic statements
about how 'parents' should control their kids viewing habits,
can be protected from extremely innappropriate online
experiences by giving responsible adults the ways to control
it at their end, not the producers end.
As well as for the cultural minorities with their different
'ways' of communications.
Tall order. But if we are going to go to so much effort to
find ways to serve the *entire* US population, down to
minorities of 1, we might as well raise the questions even
if we don't have all the answers, or can't afford them. But
as for myself, I would rather the debate start with the
ideal and total vision, than blithly 'assume away' half
the opportunities to bend technology to our human purposes
in a nation which, after all, proclaims its commitment to
'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' for all.
Electronically as well.
BTW, one of the reasons I carry my laptop into Rogers neigborhood
working class Bar, is to keep myself honest when I plug it into
the RJ11 jacks at the booths, while looking at the truck drivers
and dry wallers, and half educated ladies who work at what they
can while raising a kid singly, and ask myself "What does the
Information Age have to do with them, and their future welfare?"
For they largely represent the labor force of the Late Great
Industrial Age, where manual labor and vocational skills were
in enough demand - but which are being laid off by the millions.
Its easy to talk about 'retraining' but only in the reality
that if it can be done with the right 'distance learning'
techniques, the gal at the bar in Rogers can do so while
at work cleaning the dishes, or at home at night tending the
kids. And its easy just to dismiss them and 'wait for the
next generation' which will grow up with these machines -
except that their parents can too often be the reason they
never 'get it' in school, or even go there.
But I doub't if anyone from Rogers Bar will stand up at the
podium in New Mexico and say these things on *their* behalf -
the ones who opposed NAFTA, because they see no future for
themselves in the American economy. But I can tell you this,
I find more acceptance from the bar crowd for what *I* am
doing online, which they watch, interested, upbeat even,]
seeing the practicality of it, than I do in lots of
highly educated forums where terrified professionals think
this will kill *their* jobs.
But I was delighted when the Hispanic woman from New Mexico
who *will* stand up at that hearing, said to me "We need
a multi-lingual communications network *because* NAFTA has
passed! And it suddenly struck me that, sure, not only
so the Spanish speaking on THIS side of the border can
cope, but so that those in Mexico can learn from us at
the working level, just as they are presumed to be
learning at the high science, higher education, and
professional business and governmnet level." Her comment
was as good a justification for GII as I have heard
on compriv.
