Manuel Castellis is one of the best-known internet
sociologists. He has
been employed as a
consultant on telecom policy by around 20 national
governments (though not the
U.S.). His new book
The Internet Galaxy
was released in late 2002.
Follwoing are my notes on a talk Castellis gave at the
University of Michigan on September 24th, 2002. Important points are in bold, my comments are in brackets, and direct
quotes are in quotes.
Remember, this guy is very well-known and highly respected in government, business consulting, and academic research circles. You may not agree with everything he says (neither do I), but it's interesting to see what these bigshots are thinking about the internet right now.
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The internet is a fixture of societies around the world, on the same level
as the electrical grid.
However, it has attracted a tremendous amount of "
hype,
exaggeration, and
fantasy."
Hype is not just a social phenomenon -- it led to great suffering during
the
tech crash of the 1990s, and also led to the devaluation of robust
corps like
Nokia and
Cisco.
otoh, some researchers discount it entirely -- one calls it "just another
telephone"
You can't extrapolate from technology to society -- an
invention won't
necessarily be used.
This error led to the tech boom and crash.
The net now has ~5X10^6 users. Expansion has been practically
exponential,
but now it's slowing.
Net access:
N. America: 60%
UK: 45%
Scandinavia: >> 60%
Latin America: 6%
China: 2%
Worldwide overall: 7%
How the internet is used
Central thesis: People have always adapted technology to their own
values and cultures.
In this sense, the internet is typical. It's changed the how, but not the
what.
A lot of research focuses on fake identities and fantasy
role-play. This
is
very rare.
The people who explore
identity are
teenagers, who have always explored
identity anyway!
Purely recreational chatting is also almost exclusively youth.
Usenet and other kinds of chat aren't, but these aren't free-form. They're
mostly special-interest single-issue.
Email is overwhelmingly the most popular use of the net.
People use the net [presumably the web] for information: News,
reference, health.
most
bandwidth is used to download
MP3s (and now,
DVDs).
Decentralized filesharing has made this unstoppable. "No one is catching
Gnutella"
(
porn sites are dying; porn DVD downloads are up)
Online shopping is failing -- except for books. CDs were also big,
before filesharing.
People don't accept the idea of paying for news and services,
especially things that were once free.
One exception:
Wall Street Journal (people consider it a business
necessity)
"You cannot commercialize the internet. The internet is a space of
social communication."
If it were commercialized, ppl wouldn't use it.
BMG survey reveals that
2/3 of music DLers wouldn't use a pay service [he doesn't address the fact
that current pay services
5UX0R]
"I know this is a very serious problem for record companies, but I'm not
in a record company..." so I don't care.
Internet and socialization
"The Internet does not shape people's lives. People's lives shape the
internet."
NO to technological
determinism -- technology is always in a cultural
context.
NO to social determinism -- technologies fundamentally do some things and
not others.
The big question... Does the internet lead to
sociability or
isolation?
Net users have larger social networks and are more socially active.
(it drops when use exceeds 30 hours/week, but that would be true of any
activity).
So, where does time for net use come from?
1.
TV (youth today watch 25% less than youth 10 years ago)
2.
SLEEP
"
Virtual communities are real
communities of a different kind."
Most net communities have some IRL component.
Strong vs. Weak personal ties:
Net bad for creating strong ties -- these usually require IRL contact.
Net good at creating and maintaining large numbers of weak ties.
BUT also good at maintaining strong ties.
ppl can stay in touch with family and distant friends. The big difference
is that the net is
"chosen time" [asynchronous].
"networked
individualism". "The
privatization of sociability". ppl form
more
idiosyncratic communities.
Society has been moving in this direction for a long time, but the net is
PERFECT for it.
Some cultures like IRL contact more, and they've adopted
cell phones
instead.
The Net and social movements
1) Structured organizations are being replaced by loose movements and
coalitions
2) Movements are increasingly around values and cultural codes, rather
than directly around material demands
3) Don't fight directly -- use the media.
Ppl don't like the anti-
globalization movement. BUT they know about the
issues, and they agree with them! This wouldn't have happened if the
anti-globalists hadn't raised some hell in the media.,
thanks to the media, local action has global import.
In the old days, a
radical wing could disrupt a meeting and derail a
movement. Now, you can just
/ignore them.
The
Zapatistas! Their organization just sort of appeared.
Net generally good for non-powerful and traditionally silenced. Women's
rights, environmentalists,
unions
[During Q&A, I said these all seemed like
liberal causes, and asked if
there were similar
conservative grassroots net movements. He said they
weren't all liberal at all. (??)]
"The only thing in the world the Chinese communist party is scared of
is Falun Gong" because FG uses the internet and can affect the world.
Of course, there's also
militias and
nazis, but terrible things exist in
the real world too.
"the internet isn't just a medium, it's a fundamental dimension of the
dynamics of social movements today."
Net has changed
NGOs, but it has not changed government.
Government databases and decision processes could be totally
transparent and open, with very simple steps adequate to protect
confidental information. But the gov does nothing. No government in the
world does anything. They use the net as a "
billboard."
Governments are "obsessed" with controlling the net. Clinton and
Gore tried twice to pass the
CDA. Ashcroft tried to fundamentally
reconfigure the structure of the net.
"The internet attacks the very source of control and power throughout
history: control of information."
No government can control the net too thoroughly, though -- they want
the commerce!
1996 CDA decision: "The internet is
chaos, but citizens have the right to
chaos."
U.S.
first amendment is very important, because if the U.S. is allowed to
put something on the net, anyone in the world can get it. [and the
converse too --
Kazaa in
New Zealand and
Olga in
Russia]
China's firewall is easily circumvented -- if you're a chinese hacker.
What they really want to suppress is "widespread net literacy and hacker
power."
What we have to fear is big relational databases tracking everything we do
on the net. Cookies, etc. "Not
big brother but
little sister. Thousands of
little sisters."
The solution?
PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION.
Net systems -- including govt systems -- are always cracked at the weakest
link. Almost always a careless employee working from home. Why not have
all employees use
strong crypto? Why not have everyone use strong crypto, incorporated into the deepest level of
common operating systems?
Strong crypto means "really escaping control."
Microsoft and the government have made a CONSCIOUS DECISION to forego
security for controllability.
Internet and Media
An old idea of the "
magic box"-- one appliance for TV, radio, net.
Collapsed again and again. No one seems to want it, and current bandwidth
doesn't support it.
People reject it for the same reason that they don't really want 500
channels -- it's 500 channels of the same damn thing!
AOL predicts no magic box til 2010 -- mostly because it will take that
long to create enough content.
BUT -- ppl use the net to find the TV, radio, and public events they
want.
horizontal networks. "my
hypertext."
otoh, less
universal cultural experience. Where are the codes of
communication?
Internet and commerce
B2B has vastly changed the way businesses communicate with each other.
Most net commerce is B2B.
Only around 20% is B2C. Models of internet based on net retail all
collapsed.
Amazon is "
brick and click." only one purely online business:
EBAY.
People want to connect. The big thing isn't B2C, it's C2C!
ppl don't want to use net sales because of security concerns.
But... online banking is exploding. Why? Because ppl see banks as big,
think they can take responsibility.
The Digital Divide
Sex and SES divide is almost gone in developed nations. Almost everyone
can get access.
BUT there's a skills difference. Poorer ppl don't use the net much,
because they don't know how to use it.
We must start teaching kids how to "combine information into
knowledge."
EU used to think that net growth required business initiatives. But no,
business wires itself. New focus is on teaching everyone -- especially
schoolikds -- how the net can be useful.
Conclusion
The internet is changing the world. And The government is making a serious
counteroffensive, trying to delink the internet from the culture of
freedom. We're not going to let them.