Springer -- Vienna, Austria
©1996 Jack Waters all rights reserved
Determination of socio-political divisions in exclusively spatial terms has been recognized as obsolete for some time now.
Lately there has been much debate over the exclusivity of access to lower income and otherwise so-called "under served"
segments of the population. The argument is that if you don't own a computer you can't reach the net. In actuality,
due to recently set precedents on proprietary issues, the subject of ownership as ordinarily understood
becomes increasingly moot. You don't have to "own" in order to access. Many schools, libraries, cyber cafe's
and other institutions have computers with modems that are available to the public. In an era when obsolescence
of hardware moves with such rapidity knowledge is everything. A scavenged computer and modem, freeware communications
applications make connecting an open possibility. Unless, of course powers of authorization like legislation
and restrictive standardization make it possible for large corporations to monopolize the technology that is now open
domain.These choices are possible only if you know:
1) That the resources exist.
2) How to assemble a functional device.
3) How to use the technology. Thus information and organization (in the form of popular campaigns), and not materials, are key to open access.
Once upon a time, and not too long ago you could access the internet directly, and completely free of charge. Posting material held relatively few restrictions on content. In the mid 80's a number of free services abounded known as BBS's for electronic Bulletin Board Services: Front Door's conferences and forums leaned towards a leftist politic; Brooklyn Bridge's focus had liberal activism and strong Jewish cultural ties. Sexual material was extremely unrestricted by current standards. Both had strong lesbian and gay areas, and both provided full access to the internet. Email was a device for the exchange of ideas, technique, and information. It was not as much a means for social correspondence as it is currently.
In 1993 Worth Magazine published an article, How To Make Cybercash by Jim Jubak and Curtis Lang (September 1993 issue). Worth, a monthly publishes topical items on business and finance. Earlier, Lang's investigative journalism analyzed the Texas savings and loan scandal of the late '80s -- early '90s in a series of articles in the Village Voice. The Worth article was a watershed, an early pronouncement of consumer access digital technology linking the personal computing and television via telephone. Even with Worth's readership limited to the business minded public, this was one of the first pieces on the subject to reach beyond the scope of techno-scientific journalism.
The impending "interactive media" that the article promised has not yet happened, even though a couple American cities (Boise, Idaho is one) have already been optically wired as a test. The corporations that can afford to provide high resolution access require domination of the field whereby the profit would far enough exceed the initial output. They are also trying to limit the average consumer's capability to transmit as well as receive, even though the technology to do so is not an additional expense. This endeavor will surely fail, similar to attempts to manufacture play-only devices in the early days of the VCR. The consuming public, knowing the technology existed, held out from buying video players until machines that also recorded were available. There will be a similar popular demand for the creative application of the new mass media technology, once it becomes mainstream. As with video, proprietary issues will eventually be addressed through copyright and licensing. Eventually Corporate will resign that, like airwave media, digital access can't be completely controlled--since the technology is principally about information (i.e.., data)-not materials.
It will also be eventually realized that public interest demands versatility. The market for commercially styled programming is already established. So far, corporate's idea of interactive media to add thousands more cable stations that program the same old crap. The public desire for more channels is to provide diverse programming that suits the broad interests of the rest of the world. Authoring will instigate a creative employment boom. The need for artists of all disciplines will be enormous.
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