02 October 2002 | Author: Iain Macaulay
It is one of the world's first research centres dedicated to studying the internet and the social consequences that spin off from it. The Institute has been set up to carry out its own research for internet projects and act as a collection point and clearing house aiming to establish its own research and surveys of internet use and analysis of the trend's that are discovered. The Institute is also set to become an 'outpost' of the World Internet Project, which is co-ordinating studies on the use of the internet around the globe. Delegates who attended the conference urged the institute to get involved with net lobbying groups and policy writers and not to mutate into a detached or aloof research group.
So now academics are starting to find out how important a catalyst of social change the internet has become.
Professor Bill Dutton who is the newly appointed director of the Institute, said the net was already profoundly changing many social relationships. While Eli Noam the Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Columbia, said the net was driving change because now, for many people, it was no longer a novelty and instead was part of everyday life. But he also warned that currently the internet is not breaking down barriers or flattening social structures but centralising and concentrating information into the hands of smaller groups. Learning more about the net, the way it accelerates change and harnessing it to help research was key to future political, social and economic policy, said Andrew Graham, economist, Master of Balliol College and a keen supporter of the new institute.
So are we going to find that the internet is going to be good or bad for democracy? If it is found, as stated above that information is being centralised and put into the hands of small groups does it not follow that it is mirroring certain western political trends in tribalism with the advent of devolved governments and local policy implementation but with a centralised stamp of authority? Just like some search engines. He who pays plays.
It is true that the internet is more akin to a necessary drug now, with the most popular aspect being the checking of emails every day. It has made the world a lot smaller yet at the same time still alienated a large portion of the worlds population due to a lack of knowledge or understanding on how to use the net. Not to mention those with no access to the internet itself.
Africa has become the latest part of the globe to be suddenly swept away with the technology leaving the country open for exploitation or advancement depending on your point of view while the governments of China and the Middle East are struggling and failing to keeping their populations net access away from Western ideals and marketing even going as far as getting Google to delete dubious information from its data bases. But then of course there was Yahoo censoring itself so as not to loose market space.
Finally Eli Noam also warned against simply accepting that the net was a force for good all by itself and that it needed no guidance by policy makers to shape its effects. Also going as far to say that, "We must save the internet from its founding myth that it is good for democracy and is open and cannot be regulated."
Hmm. So here's to waiting with baited breath their findings and deliberations and also to maintaining an independent voice out there. If you can.
Internet research institute holds first meeting
Last week saw the inaugural conference of the Oxford Internet Institute.It is one of the world's first research centres dedicated to studying the internet and the social consequences that spin off from it. The Institute has been set up to carry out its own research for internet projects and act as a collection point and clearing house aiming to establish its own research and surveys of internet use and analysis of the trend's that are discovered. The Institute is also set to become an 'outpost' of the World Internet Project, which is co-ordinating studies on the use of the internet around the globe. Delegates who attended the conference urged the institute to get involved with net lobbying groups and policy writers and not to mutate into a detached or aloof research group.
So now academics are starting to find out how important a catalyst of social change the internet has become.
Professor Bill Dutton who is the newly appointed director of the Institute, said the net was already profoundly changing many social relationships. While Eli Noam the Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Columbia, said the net was driving change because now, for many people, it was no longer a novelty and instead was part of everyday life. But he also warned that currently the internet is not breaking down barriers or flattening social structures but centralising and concentrating information into the hands of smaller groups. Learning more about the net, the way it accelerates change and harnessing it to help research was key to future political, social and economic policy, said Andrew Graham, economist, Master of Balliol College and a keen supporter of the new institute.
So are we going to find that the internet is going to be good or bad for democracy? If it is found, as stated above that information is being centralised and put into the hands of small groups does it not follow that it is mirroring certain western political trends in tribalism with the advent of devolved governments and local policy implementation but with a centralised stamp of authority? Just like some search engines. He who pays plays.
It is true that the internet is more akin to a necessary drug now, with the most popular aspect being the checking of emails every day. It has made the world a lot smaller yet at the same time still alienated a large portion of the worlds population due to a lack of knowledge or understanding on how to use the net. Not to mention those with no access to the internet itself.
Africa has become the latest part of the globe to be suddenly swept away with the technology leaving the country open for exploitation or advancement depending on your point of view while the governments of China and the Middle East are struggling and failing to keeping their populations net access away from Western ideals and marketing even going as far as getting Google to delete dubious information from its data bases. But then of course there was Yahoo censoring itself so as not to loose market space.
Finally Eli Noam also warned against simply accepting that the net was a force for good all by itself and that it needed no guidance by policy makers to shape its effects. Also going as far to say that, "We must save the internet from its founding myth that it is good for democracy and is open and cannot be regulated."
Hmm. So here's to waiting with baited breath their findings and deliberations and also to maintaining an independent voice out there. If you can.
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