Item Subject: Message text
Sam ...

Another very powerful and meaningful message.  Thank you!

I, in my everyday working life feel frustrated (and at times angered) by the
"heel draggers" who are preventing/stalling more universal access to the
Internet.  Internet access stations need to be everywhere ... until and as an
addition to the Internet being available over our television at home (coming
soon!!?).  The Internet is capable of "opening doors" and making "things
possible" for all ... no matter their income, educational level, cognitive
level, gender, age, culture, or location in the world.

We need to continue PUSHING the "heel draggers"/ end point decision-makers to
mobilize funds to provide public Internet access at every workplace / service /
community resource / safe street location and not so safe street locations.

And on it goes ...

Debbie Bang
[log in to unmask]
St. Joseph's Community Health Centre
Consumer Health Information Service
Hamilton, Ontario Canada


> A recent posting to CLICK4HP included the following passage which is so
> pregnant with presumptions that I am having to constrain myself to comment
> on only a few of the presumptions and them implications. The posting was
> well intended so I hope that individual doesn't take too great an
> exception to using this exerpt from their prose.
>
> ----clip from earlier posting by CLICK4HP member -----
> My reason for doing this is to highlight to my fellow classmates the
> demographics of internet users.  This way, they could decide if the
> internet is a good medium for finding (for example) social research
> subjects.  I think that because most of our friends (and many family
> members) have internet access, students fail to realize that internet use
> is not widespread in ALL groups in society.  As future health
> professionals we need to keep this in mind before conducting research or
> program planning that heavily involves the use of the internet.
> ----------- end of clip ------
>
> This is what I would call a consumerist approach to the existance of the
> internet. It treats the internet like a "big box retail store" (e.g. Home
> Depot, Walmart, etc.) One only goes there, or recommends it, if it carries
> what one wants, is conveniently located, and isn't too priy. The other
> approach is to see it as a territory in which social process will develop
> and in which -for good or bad- humans will pursue human pursuits. It is a
> place to make things, and to make things happen. It is only a place to
> 'find things' if someone else has taken the time to make them.
>
> I have just returned from two weeks abroad, looking at how others use the
> internet among other things. Finland, for example, has about 3 times the
> internet access level of Canada and it will rise to 4 times by the middle
> of this year. Finland's cellular phone use is a multiple of Canada's and
> has allowed Finland's Nokia Cell Phone producer to take a significant
> slice of the global market - from a small community as far north as
> Yellowknife.
>
> Ireland, the fastest growing tourism destination in Europe, and for
> Europeans, has put every Bed and Breakfast in the country on the internet.
> I can book a B&B from here. Does that mean that every B&B has a computer
> and modem. No! It means they got their act together, zoned who did what,
> and created a web production process whereby a B&B can update its data on
> the web site using an ordinary touch tone phone. Both the 'experts' and
> the delegates' at a recent internet and tourism conference in Edinburgh
> voted their top awards to the Ireland site.
>
> Other countries are using public kiosks to connect homeless people to
> social services, to emergency aid, and - to their families in a
> non-threatening venue -. I have looked at two Canadian sites dealing with
> the government funding cuts in Ontario. One, act.cuts.ont, is located at
> the community oriented Web Networks and is active as hell. Another is at a
> local university, is just as old as act.cuts.ont, but has no subscribers
> and no traffic. I have looked at CLICK4HP with its 380+ subscribers and a
> nicely modulated traffic flow. On the same machine I run an academic list
> on participatory research, set up at the request of a group of academics.
> It has about two dozen members and no postings in the last 18 months.
>
> There is a lesson here. The internet is not a virtual 'big box' goods
> outlet. Women, when asked about intended internet use, smartly always list
> 'shopping' in last place. It is a place to do things. The one thing you
> can get there is 'empowered'.
>
> The head of the Thomas Cook travel agency, talking about why Thomas Cook,
> and 140 airlines have taken such a keep interest in the internet said
> recently. We are there because it is there and it is a place where things
> will happen. As for those who don't get it, or don't want to get it, he
> commented "They will really get it!".
>
> The head of the VISA credit Card's joint Secure Electronic Transaction
> (SET) project, jointly with Master Charge, commenting on their SET billing
> system which will roll out in weeks and be MORE secure than using a card
> in a store, explained why they were out in front and trying so hard (they
> take 51% of travel credit card billings). He said it in terms that should
> be clear to Canadians. He said in a dog sled team if you are not the lead
> dog you have to run just as fast, you have no say in where you are going,
> and - worst of all- the view never changes.
>
> My colleagues keep telling me that they are 'to old' to adapt to the
> territories of the internet. They say it will come naturally to the kids.
> I, like a number of us on CLICK4HP make my living teaching "the kids" -
> and others. If what we teach them is the critical skills of a big box
> retain consumer we have failed. Canada is a country whose vision has
> always been one of people trying to domesticate the edges of a vast
> wilderness. We have done that well and we have done that badly, for both
> sides of the frontier.
>
> We now have a new frontier before us. It is neither a glass half empty nor
> a glass half full. It is a place to stand and a place to build. Or future
> will depend on what we build there, not on whether it has boxing day
> sales, or has my shoe size.
>
> At a recent meeting a young South African entrepreneur, talking about the
> difficulties he faced in Africa, talking to others facing similar
> difficulties said: "If you cannot find a door, build a door, if you cannot
> find a bridge, build what". As one dreams about the future it is what you
> cannot see that should inspire you, not the Club-Zed, PetroCan or AirMiles
> points that come with the purchase.
>
> Health promotion (social and personal) is listed as a major reason why
> people seek access to the internet. The other is education (formal or
> otherwise). Fulfilling the promise will depend on what we build there, not
> what we find there.
>
> Back to the tool shed -
>
>  Sam Lanfranco (usually quiet CLICK4HP list co-owner)
>
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