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On the risks and challenges of the infobahn...


This declaration was presented and explained to the public and to the press
in Brussels, february 24th, the day before the G7 summit about new
technologies.  We were able to sense how  strongly people shared our
concerns: Europeans MPs, trade unions, non governmental organisations
shared our fears as well as our hopes.

Please, find here after, the text of the declaration along with a list all
signatories todate. If you approve of them, your co-signature of the text
would be most appreciated. Please send your name and position by Email to

Veronique KLECK  Email: eur66.vp@globenet.gn.apc.org
or by Fax: 33 1 45 78 34 02
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Brussels,  February 24th


                               MULTIMEDIA:

                 THE CHANNELS TOWARDS SOCIAL CONTROL


Information highway projects and the horizons that they open up for the
development of multimedia communication confirm the advent of a new era,
that of the =C6 information society =D8.

The race against time between the world's rich countries has led their
governments to hold an inter-ministerial meeting on the subject, within the
framework of G7, at Brussels on nd financial aspects will dominate the major
part of the discusions. However, the consequences of the changes, whether
positive or negative, go far beyond these considerations. All over the world
there are many initiatives aimed at making these technologies available
for the use of humanity, the excluded and citizens. Those responsible
for these initiatives are especially aware of the opportunities and
risks created by these new information technologies and they want to
influence their conditions of implementation and utilisation.

It is for this reason that the Foundation for the Progress of Humanity (FPH)
and Transversales Science Culture, which both campaign so that scientific
and technological progress is used for social and cultural development, have
launched an appeal concerning these subjects. This declaration is the
synthesis of contributions received from associations and personalities all
over the world, involved in different ways in the challenges represented by
these new technologies, with regard to society and citizenship. Before both
governments and public opinion, the signatories want to use the opportunity
of the G7 meeting to demonstrate their concerns and highlight the
importance represented by these challenges and the principles that should
regulate them.

Citizenship and democracy are indissociably linked to the nature and
progression of communication systems. However, nobody is able to
accurately forecast the economic, social and cultural effects of the
development of these new communication technologies. The basic principle
of responsibility as regards the future therefore involves taking into acoun=
t
these risks within the decision-making process.


                              THE RISKS


The effects of an exclusively mercantile approach
Observation of the past and current trends reveal the risks entailed by an
exclusively mercantile conception of information. The currently predominant
rationale supports the supply of equipment and services rather than the
satisfaction of needs. The latter will to a large extent be those revealed=
 by a
market whose suppliers expend most of their energy tapping the most
profitable segments.
We refuse to accept the assignment of a considerable share of the financing
capacities of the world's richest economies to the production of
communication systems intended to satisfy objectives whose urgency and
even existence often remain to be justified, while at the same time the vita=
l
requirements of access to water supplies  for farming and food receive only
partial financing.

The marginalisation of diversity.

The globalisation of the economy and the dominance of certain markets
generates an increasing concentration of supply, hardly compatible with the
need for diversity, which is especially vital in this area. The
transformation of
more or less implicit expectations into real social demands risks becoming
focused on the most privileged social groups and/or on the most futile areas
(games), even the most perverse (violence), etc..

The aggravation of inequalities.

The growing bipolarisation of the world, between the rich and the poor, the
=C6 included =D8 and the =C6 excluded =D8, risks being accelerated due to in=
equalities,
not only those of physical access to the new networks, but also those of
individual and social capacities and those brough about by the control and
profitibality of their utilisation. The widening of this chasm bears the
seeds of
disintegration, escape into tribalism and irrepressible violence.

Social segregation and disconnection
By generalising the disappearance of physical distance, new communication
technologies open the door to the restructuring of social links, thus freed
from the constraints of proximity. The emergence of specialised strata and
networks, open to the world but closed within their particular interests, ri=
sks
aggravating the trend towards social and cultural segregation.
By generalising the disapearance of communication delays from all media,
information networks risk bestowing primacy to immediacy and provoking
behaviour disconnected from the reality which is nearest (the disconnection
of the =C6 financial bubble =D8 from the =C6 real =D8 economy is especialy s=
ignificant
regarding this). However, the stability of social cohesion implies time and
concrete integration within relationships in contact with the same physical
and social reality.


                           THE OPPORTUNITIES


Nonetheless, the new information technologies also provide considerable
opportunities for strengthening social cohesion and citizenship. Multimedia
can provide inexhaustible sources of enrichment, on both an individual and
collective level, with regard to private, professional and public life.

The social approach
The new communication technologies open up undreamt of possibilities
concerning the creation of new uses, not only through the logic of market
supply but via the investment of their users in directions which create
transformed social links. These possibilities can only be made real within a=
n
approach that integrates social and cultural dimensions as from the design
stage of new systems.

Dynamic forces ready to invest.

Basic communciation applications using existing media (radio, television,
video, etc.) have spread throughout the world. Non-governmental
organisations increasingly use electronic mail to weave their exchange
networks. This proves that there is a desire to progress in the service of
values other than those of trade. These applications should find new
opportunities for development with these technologies.

Exchange and sharing

As the development of Internet shows, the new technologies privilege the
exchange and the sharing of information, ideas and practices on a horizontal
level and not only vertically, as is the case where a few informers are
projected at a mass awaiting to be in-formed. These possibilities should in
particular be used for better mutual correspondence between scientific
research in the North and the South.

In the service of the public interest
The use of these technologies should render the relations between
administrations, public services (health, education, initial and vocational
training) and users more efficient and lead to broader diffusion.

In the service of democracy
Lastly, the arrival of local networks should permit the reorientation of the
way these technologies are used towards the concerns of citizens and
contribute towards reducing urban and cultural segregation. Democracy and
political activity can find the means for their renewal.

             **********************************************
             *                                            *
             *               DECLARATION                  *
             *                                            *
             *       THE ROAD TO SOCIAL CONTROL           *
             *                                            *
             **********************************************


Brought together at the initiative of the Foundation for the Progress of
Humanity and Transversales Science Culture, the signatories of this
declaration hereby

1) solemnly draw the attention

of the member States of the G7 summit and of public opinion to the
seriousness of the stakes in which the governments - especially the richest
among them - and the major corporations active in these sectors are involved=
,
for they share the responsibilty of the perverse effects as well as that of
the positive openings that their decisions, or absence of decision, will
make possible. The choices made will for long influence the progress of our
societies.

2)  commit themselves to promoting and defending the following
orientations:

- Hierarchization of needs: it is necessary to give priority to previously a=
nd
clearly identified needs of human development rather than to the satisfactio=
n
of non-identified expectations.

- Transparency: the magnitude of the challenges and the diversity of the
points of view, as much those of the experts as those of organisations and
institutions, with regard to their nature and pertinence require the evaluat=
ion
of impacts and that debate and controversy are brought before the public so
that opinion, by way of active citizens and associations, is able to influen=
ce
decisions.

- Progressive development and caution. Every measure should be taken to
minimise the risks associated with the explosive development of the
mercantile dimension and with the technical choices that will be
subordinated to this single aspect. Deregulation must not be administered by
force and the deadline of 1998, decreed by the European Union, must be
maintained. The pragmatic approach of the progressive growth of networks
will be preferable to a centralised approach pregnant with technocratic risk=
s.
Experimentation must be privileged, not only with regard to those sectors in
which profitable markets are likely to be generated, but also also with rega=
rd
to networks dedicated to public services (education, health, etc.) and to
local social communication and citizens' networks.

- Diversity and openness. Everything must be done to reduce the risks of
concentrating the supply of information in the hands of a few organisations
which will, by consequence, wield exorbitant power. It is advisable to pay
particular attention to the restrictions of entry to the future communicatio=
n
systems; this attention must not only take into account costs but also and
above all structures dedicated to producing multimedia programs and their
diffusion.

- Universal access. As with road systems or shipping lanes, everyone should
be able to access the new information infrastructures, as and when they are
made available, and have the right to communicate, which, for the user,
might involve a minimum amount of training in order to use these systems.

- Respect of privacy. The processing of all the messages and addreses of
their transmitters creates considerable risks that must be neutralised by
appropriate technical and legislative means. Likewise, it is desirable to
safeguard the rights of creators and authors.

3) Strongly urge
governments to grant, via appropriate national or international channels, th=
e
financial resources to support the utilisation of these new technologies for
active citizenship and the social good.

4) Lastly, commit themselves to aiding and supporting,
at national and international level, the emergence and strengthening of a
collective voice and of experimentation able to influence the reduction of
risks and promote the use of opportunities linked to new information
technologies.

                             to collect and exchange
all the practices of which they learn concerning the utilisation of these
technologies for active citizenship and the social good as well as the perve=
rse
effects of marketing the programs.

                             to contribute,
in this area, to the organisation of appropriate international meetings for =
the
improved control by society of these new technologies.




****************************************
*        Ricardo Gomez                 *
*           706 E. Seneca St. # 3      *
*           Ithaca, NY  14850          *
*           USA                        *
*                                      *
*           (607) 275 0536             *
*  fax  255 7905 (Communication Dept)  *
*       e-mail:  rg33@cornell.edu      *
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