Sep 20, 2006 8:31:51 PM cite

needs to be allocated to all schools equally, regardless of imcome. Education is a human right and not a luxery. Everyone should be allowed to research, learn and experience that which the entire world has to teach each of us.

by Deannahawk

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: Of course, with information. Information is a big power - with information and education. Now people can have the possibility to use the internet for their own account because the internet means information and people are not so stupid and using the internet they are connected with the whole world they can [become a new carriage of it]. Of course, the world isn't closed now and it's a big power. I think it is very useful for social and economic development. People get more and more information and they can use it. People get more and more information and they can use it. On the other hand, the Internet could promote development and spreading of some negative things and information. Knowledge is power and information could help us to increase our intellectual potentials. We could gain knowledge alone, without teacher’s help because in some villages, small towns or housing estates there might be not enough teachers. The Internet promotes education and it’s wonderful. But we have to learn how to use the the World Wide Web in order to access only useful things for us which don’t destroy human world and don’t cut us off from other people. In many industrial countries there are some diseases now when children communicate only with their computers losing contact with the real world and people. They are depressive because they live in the virtual world. This is the other side of the coin but nobody is protected from mistakes. Generally, Internet and Computer are positive things which promote development.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: I just want to say that high technology knowledge can not develop the whole society, because when one owns his particular knowledge that would enable him to control himself, his time and his work. I also think that a good knowledge with technology in the 3rd world enables the societies there to get rid of the bad situations. These societies are ignorant with what is going on around them and they can not even organize the time and the work, so knowledge can really help them by making them ware of getting a relationship with the other parts of the world and to put an end to the underdevelopment.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: I think that in this period of access to the internet and to computers the access to knowledge has certainly been democratized. Low-income communities obviously need access to equipments and computers etc. And I think that internet and computers are certainly wonderful means for easy access to knowledge and for the economical and social development. Education could use the internet in order to diversificate the offer to the pupils. I think that it has really been an important step for the development of humanity. But sometimes we may criticise that the communication via internet and e-mails somehow led to the loss of romanticism that the communication via letters still had. But we have to accept the changes that technology proposes to us whithout losing all forms of humanity that we need in order to save our especie.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: Technology: There has been a great change in the world concerning technology, it has served us as communication tool. We can now communicate from any country in the world. But the rural areas don´t have access to such service, because there are no such technology services in the rural areas. We have to gain support to establish these technologies also in rural areas, so that these rural communities get to know how to communicate. These technologies could also serve as tool for commercialisation . But having all these technologies...

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Thank you for your question Rodrigo. You know I’m not exactly sure that having access to the internet and computer is going to promote social and economic development. Oh certainly, it’s going to disseminate information, yes, but I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to develop social and economic development. I think there are all forms of other knowledge systems that are transferred at different levels, but I’m not exactly sure how to answer this question. You know to be simplistic, I live in a community where most people, the majority of people, are not even literate, never mind have access to electronic intelligences. I think the assumption is that we need to focus on other levels of empowerment before we even consider the significance and relevance of internet technologies.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: The question of how technology, particularly the Internet and computers, can be used in low-income communities, I think begs an initial question, which is how many low-income communities actually have access to such technology. And the reality is the overwhelming majority of poor and working-class communities have no such access and have no such technology and that for literally billions of people around the world, this discussion is actually completely removed from the immediate concerns and life experiences of people. So, really, I think we have to ask the question whether or not this is really the urgent question of how we are going to address the concerns of those communities, is there a technological fix? And I think the reality is that this concern is quite distant from the immediate concerns that are needed to address the problems of poor communities, low-income communities around the world that face much more immediate questions about access to water, access to employment and access to basic social needs that are being denied, that kind of economic insecurity, the kind of political insecurity. It means so many people in this planet can’t even begin to have access to technology and don’t even necessarily have access to text books, to newspapers, to other forms of media than the Internet. So, while the Internet technology certainly has uses and might be profitable for those communities, I think the idea of routing the question how to address the concerns of those communities and the technological question jumps over a series of steps, and doesn’t raise bigger questions that need to be raised about what kind of social and economic development is possible under the capitalist system.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala:

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Well, there can be no technological fix to problems such as hunger and poverty. Instead of a technological fix, we need real social economic policy changes. So, if you look at a country like Brazil, where less than 1 percent of the richest population controls over 50 percent of the land, you cannot solve the problems by merely a technological fix such as providing a computer or an Internet. You have to really focus on providing resources such as access and control over land to the majority of people so that they can grow their own food. They can meet their own human needs. So, yes, Internet and computers, if they are there, can provide more information. But the kind of changes we are talking about to deal with hunger, poverty, some of the most pressing problems of the time, it’s going to take more than a technological fix. It’s going to require political will of the governments, of the policy makers, which will have to respond to social movements to make these changes.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: When we say that we are in the knowledge age, I would like to add a different twist to that. Because the technology is -- the technology of consciousness is important. We usually don’t consider that. And if we use the technology and the processes of ego, mental egocentric patterns of thought, information means one thing. But information becomes knowledge. Knowledge becomes wisdom. If we process it in a more integral, holistic way that connects and interconnects and sees deep connections and brings us a technology of consciousness into connection with the unified field that connects us all and all reality. And if we situate this question in that context, we are in a knowledge age, it says. And how can increased access to technology, such as Internet and computers, help disadvantaged low-income people to promote social economic development? I would rather say, can these technologies help to bring us to a deeper, more expanded, integral global consciousness and global spirituality that is the heart of our social and economic and human development, as we become more full human beings. And in that respect, I think, Internet and telecommunications and increased communications brought to the masses that didn’t have access before is a powerful potential for bringing us into a more connected global consciousness and global spirituality and global development as whole global citizens. And that’s the way I would like to see it, not only for economic and social development, but for this integral development as a full human being. And I think these technologies are gifts from this higher field, for us to get connected and come into deep connectivity in global community. And so I think the democratization of information and knowledge and of the technologies of awakened awareness is of enormous importance in our maturation as human beings and as one human family.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: First of all, I would say that we are in the information age as opposed to the knowledge age. And to the extent that we are able to increase access to technology, not only via the Internet and the computer by, but also the telephone and cell phones among low-income communities, we can help to put them on par with the developing world, the developed world, and give them some way to be able to compete in the world and not keep them in isolation. These technologies actually help them to understand the developed world and the ways that the developed world stays in touch with each other, uses technology to improve access to information, make decisions, learn about new technologies, learn about market economies, learn about the different Wall Streets, the Nikkei, the different commodities, and how they're traded, so it gives tremendous information to the developing world as well as learning about the, the cultures, about the lives of other people in other parts of the world, so it literally takes them out of isolation and brings them into the wider human community. I think that is very important because that fact alone expands consciousness and awareness into other realms and gives them different perspectives and also equips them with a way to be able to negotiate in the world as citizens who are able to utilize the advantages of technology to come into the bigger world.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: I don't think this is a big problem. I think that the internet will seep through. The only question is if the governments in dictatorships will allow it. There a many countries in which dictators avoid it but they can't avoid it for ever because it will seep through anyway. Even in a country like Iran it is trickling through and the young people get more and more aware of it. In my opinion it is possible that there are no limits. It will seep through. And that has the same influence as every other enlightenment. Like the media or education. At some moment that will surmount the dictatorships. It will destroy them. That still takes some time but in fact I don't think that it is avoidable. Even in countries like Cuba, Syria or others it will not be avoidable. The population must only be interested enough and interest is growing. There are some less developed populations that aren't interested in the internet at all. But where it has started it will grow. So in my opinion it is a sign for hope.

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: Information is knowledge, right? So that educated people that have access to more information can be more knowledgeable. Again, the group I worked with in the hills of the Southeast of Mexico in Chiapas, to their move of resistance, and the organization schools for Chiapas which is Kabob Village Schools to educate, not trained teachers, but trained promoters of education. A very different model as opposed to students looking at the teacher for the answers and information. The teacher actually sits with the students, and they’re looking at the information and what can they learn from the topic. In this very remote villages where information is very limited, the internet and computers have allowed them to access this information to then educate their community and their culture to be a better informed community and culture, and to have, with these resources they’re able to do a lot more with what they have, which isn’t much. So, low income communities all over the world can learn from each other socially and economically of how to make a more sustainable systems for themselves and not be so reliant or dependent upon their governments, their systems, that are oppressing them, or making them more of low income, or keeping them within that low income bracket. All these answers that I've said today are coming from my own self and not just what I have observed and what I have to offer. We don’t know all the answers. That’s why we need to ask more questions and have more discussion.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: Knowledge and imagination would be the most valuable resources in the future. A very important precondition is that knowledge should serve to transform people lives in a positive way, and not necessary to create marginalization or to create power disbalance in humanity. The increase of the access of local communities to technologies, internet, can be a very important tool to empower local communities to have access and information. And the public, a community well informed, can be a community that make the right decisions. On the other hand, it can also facilitate communities to have access to business and other opportunities as using internet as a communicating tool. It can also broaden people perspective, to have a broader context, and then it can serve as a mobilizing force that can bring society together to create broader social movements and also global movements to protect the environment.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: The first thing to recognize is that the advance of technology makes technology radically cheaper, what’s called Moore’s law. So that the cost of computers and internet access for low income communities continues to drop. And what this does is it gives the people who are curious and who can have the desire for education the opportunity to reach out into the net and find things that can stimulate their minds. For example, the company I helped start Sun Microsystems has recently provided a lot of funding to a foundation which is working on putting courses and educational materials completely freely available on the net. And other people are trying to do this also. So I believe, and I think it’s really important to acknowledge that there are smart people everywhere. And every head has a brain in it and the smart ones are uniformly distributed. They’re all over the place. And so in these villages there are many people with low income communities there are people with strong desires to learn and the access to the technology gives them access to information and to study and to learn and to explore and to experience things from all over the world. It’s amazing to me. I can sit in my house in Colorado today and I have a high speed internet connection, not super high speed, not much different from what I would expect to find in low income communities in the near future all over the world. And I can do video conferencing to almost anywhere in the world. I can see images from anywhere, one-to-one, for free! I mean, it doesn’t cost anything more, it doesn’t anything per minute. I’m paying a flat rate per month. And this kind of ability to have video sent real time through the net should allow people to take classes over the internet and to learn more about the world and also to publicize problems in their communities so people who care can help. So I think the internet and the computer access through this new media, the internet, is of great help and in the long run promoting social and economic development in local communities.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 4:10:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: We live in the time of ignorance there knowledge is concentrated in small groups of brains from which knowledge’s core energy is being scooped for needs of big companies, global mechanics of the word, or in one word authorities. On the other hand there is big mass of ignorance which increased by increase of population. It isn’t the problem that nowadays people don’t read enough but that they read more and more of literal savage. Which’s production, is very profitable and booming. Beside all this mourning conclusions it is a fact that modern technologies like computer and internet can intensely help undirected and poor population, there they deliver huge mass of information. It is other question if they contain the knowledge of the world, thus it will always be possible to selectively serve particular knowledge, I don’t believe always or all of it. If that mass becomes the recourses for intellectual production, that sickle and hammer, nowadays so called computer and internet, then they must them self’s make there found of knowledge, which will retain if they carefully use those items.

by Bora Cosic