Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: This is a repeated question. It keeps coming up. You know I think there needs to be an appreciation that the majority of communities do not have access to any form of electronic information. And it’s going to be some time until they do have access. And very much you know the empowered, or the wealthy, or the middle classes, or the educational middle classes, really are the people who access to information technology. And so, how will it enhance our own communities? I’m not exactly sure at this particular point in time how that’s going to work. But I do believe that there’s a disparity in resources which would always render the vast majority of people outside of that net incapable and unable to have access to this. So we mustn’t just simply, you know, we mustn’t just simply assume that this great boom in global information technology is going to be a form of panacea or a solution to our problems. It certainly isn’t. There’s got to be another kind of look at simple low-tech technologies, certainly for the next hundred - fifty or a hundred years. I suppose that’s why certain communities just will never keep pace, and they’re just never gonna get ahead, or because they’re measuring, the way in which we measure value, increasingly is done in such a manner that still renders certain members of our society, the vast majority…

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: The one thing about the Internet is that it is a means of communication. And any means of communication has the potential of bringing people together, allowing people to communicate, allowing people to learn from one another, allowing people to form relationships. Technology can also be something that is used towards destructive ends, that can increase people’s alienation, people’s isolation, and that can be a hindrance to human relationships, can be a hindrance to enlightenment and education. In the case of the Internet, we see that it has a potential to bring people into communication more -- in a more timely fashion across national boundaries. That’s a positive development that brings us closer to the possibility of imagining forms of collectivity that cut across national boundaries, that cut across the arbitrary divisions that have been imposed in the curve up in the world into states, into nations. But, in order to turn that technology into something that enhances our communities, we need to direct the technology towards a specific end, we need to organize, and then technology alone won’t enable us to do that, it’s just a tool in – among many tools that have to be used to fight for that kind of vision.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: Internet global information as a tool that can criss-cross entire continents [inaudible]

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Well, I think Internet is an interesting way of sharing our experiences. People would say that there are no solutions to the world’s problems, people would actually -- are being told that the only way to increase food production is to say through genetic engineering. But actually, we have incredible examples of success around the world where communities, whether it’s through urban gardens, whether it is through community supported agriculture, whether it is through sustainable ecological agriculture, whether it is communities saying no to GM food, there are amazing examples of hope that we can share through the Internet. So, Internet is not the end result, but it can be a medium through which we can solve and enhance the capacity of our own communities. We can share our experiences, we can learn from each other, and social movements so far have used this Internet as a technology in a very interesting way. If you look at mobilizations against trade agreements, you think of Seattle where activists were talking to each other, sharing experiences, garnering knowledge, or you look at the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong in December last year. People were able to organize. So, it is not really about technology being the answer, but we as communities can use this technology for basically improving our access to information, for communicating with each other, and learning from each other.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: I think the Internet is a powerful tool of interconnectivity that in a way reflects the emerging new global consciousness. In this global consciousness, we recognize, and global spirituality, the wisdom of all ages that we are profoundly connected in an inter-net of relations in the fabric of reality itself. So, if you see Internet as part of that "inter-net" of reality itself as serving that and part of that fabric. Then in that humane sense, Internet is a powerful miraculous tool for connecting us. Almost like the -- some people have pointed out the global brain, the infrastructure of the brain that connects us literally across the planet, as almost individual cells being connected. And that would create an incredible power of community and genuine community. Because some argue that the Internet keeps us separated in our own separate spaces of our computers. But there is another face to that. That the computer also, as in this occasion of speaking into this camera and reaching out through the Internet to people around the planet to share this global dialogue here in Berlin, is a good example of how the Internet creatively used can bring people together, and help create true global community. So, I think the potential of Internet and webcasting and all of the potentials that are coming are yet still, before u,s can be a tremendous force to create and make global community a living reality for our global age.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: One of the greatest ways that this global informational tool has benefited the human family is by opening the door to information sharing by taking people, whole peoples, out of isolation in their communities to the bigger world, and this information sharing, in all sectors of life, whether it's cultural life, social life, political life, has been a great boon to the understanding of the lives of other people and the political processes and social and cultural institutions of other people. So it has been a great enhancement to be able to have this information sharing, to see how what may be appropriate information can be utilized to the benefit of any given community.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Avi Primor:

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: So, the internet to enhance our own communities is about connection. It’s about connecting us more, internationally as well, because there is movements and communities around the world. They’re facing the same issues and problems that we faced in our own communities, that we can then have a dialogue, a multilogue, as we say in dropping knowledge, right? And that, from this we can a learn lessons, and we can really benefit from each other. And I believe that is a whole intention in the seat of dropping knowledge is to really take this information and begin to really make the connections pay the platform. That people can then begin to communicate and accelerate this communication and this connection. This can really enhance our whole trip, I mean, if we get connected, if all these people in this circle connect their resources that we have, Oh my gosh! That groups like the Bioneers and Eco-Farm in the States, people like dropping knowledge here, and then multiple groups all around the world. They are all connected, the other world that we’re dreaming of would be present, we’ll be living in it. And so, hopefully we can take this time and this opportunity to really connect with each other and create some relationships. So, mutually beneficial relationships where it's not, what do you have that I can get or what do you have that can’t get? No, it’s about what do we have to give each other? Man, just close your eyes and dream, and come to a presence of being of that type of world.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: I think a good example is what happening or taking place right here at the moment. There are more than 10,000 people around the world that are connecting with this dialogue, space, in dropping knowledge. This just show how powerful a tool like internet can really communicate and link our communities around the world. And it can enhance our understanding and we can start to create the basis for a broader dialogue and connectivity among community, among people, among minds, among cultures, creating consensus and building a society that is inspired and based on diversity and integration of strong sense and importance of humanity as a whole, as a entity. So, to answer the question we can say directly that internet as a global informational tool can be very important to serve to enhance what our own communities are doing. We can mobilize societies. We can really - if people are really informed, people can move and make the right decisions and really organize in a better way to have equity, to have fair justice, and very important values, that can lead the way they shape the future of their communities.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: The internet allows both globalization and localization and relocalization so the great works of art, the great works of literature, the library of the world all can be put online. And this benefits us all. But also a local community can preserve its culture digitally, can share that culture with others, can find support for the cultural institutions, music from all over the world can be shared and appreciated, promoting peace. So all of our communities are enhanced when we have access to this kind of diversity. We don’t have a monoculture, we don’t have a broadcast media culture instead we have a rich diverse access and we can learn about the world and experience the great beauty of other local communities.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: We already spoke of positive aspects of the internet somewhere else. However economical usage of the words without repetition is also being thought by the niggardly rigors of cybernetics.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: Okay, this is a great question. Firstly, how, by being free from government and corporate control. By sharing best practice for local approaches to protecting our land culture food. Things like that. Now, this is a cool idea. Empowering local democracy through really secure local voting. This is something I think really needs to be looked at. Because if you think about enhancing local communities, I mean the number one, the number one thing is the need to empower local democracy. You know, fewer and fewer people are voting and I think technology could have a huge part to play if we could secure proper locally controlled, Internet-based voting. I know there’s a lot of concern about that in America right now with companies like Diebold and others, because there’s been all kinds of concerns about vote rigging. But I’m sure there are ways, actually, of really having a safe and reliable and secure way of doing that. So, I think promoting local democracy and particularly making local democracy more responsive on a day-by-day basis rather than having to wait every two years or four years to have our voice heard. I think if more of us were having our voices heard even on a daily basis about what we want and don’t want; giving our priorities to our politicians and having those counted, having those votes counted and our voices counted; I think that would have a huge impact on local decision making in communities. Look out for virtual country.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Catherine David: One probably expects the answer, that the internet represents a manner to communicate with others. But, we have to be a bit precise and a bit realistic. There are parts of the world that have still not been made available by the internet and if we take a look at the spreading of the screens, it is very illusive and in some cases even criminal to imagine that it is an alternative, a recipe. This is impossible. We are still far away from the moment, that it will possible to share the internet with everyone. I think that the internet is a very useful and efficient technology but it still cannot be used by anyone. We should not extol the gainings and capacities of the internet and forget at the same time, that there are millions of individuals that are not alphabetised and I really do not know how an illiterate person could use the internet.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: Answertext will be available soon.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Constantin von Barloewen: […] I am thinking of Birma, I am thinking of China, I am thinking of some dictatorships in Africa. There, the internet can turn into a democratically subversive force and can really be used as an information medium, this is unquestionable. It can also be used as an information medium in education, in university education, in school education, this is unquestionable. On the other hand technology is never neutral, technology has to be acculturated, the internet has to be acculturated and if it is used in cultures that have not yet reached the same level of civilization as the states of the first world, in Africa, in Latin America, it can lead to the isolation of people that cannot combine this alienation with their own culture. They come into conflict with values, with moral values that do not fit in with their cultural traditions, in this context they are culturally beheaded. This is a great danger. The internet can build up constructively, but it can as well destroy identity. I am thinking of the Maputschi-Indians, I have mentioned this before, or of other Indian groups in Latin America, the Guarani-Indians in Paraguay, they did not want internet, even though Microsoft wanted to provide them with a free internet access, this was also the case in Bolivia, because they were scared to lose their archaic cultural traditions, their authenticity, their indigenous forms, their own idea of time, and they did not want internet, they did not want to confront the English language, this should also be considered. Technology is not only […]

by Constantin von Barloewen

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Cornel West: I think what is taking place right now is a grand example of how the Internet can be used as a global informational tool. And, I want to thank my dear sisters, Cindy and Jackie, and my brother Ralph for having the vision to use the Internet to constitute this kind of socratic space to be in dialogue and interaction with you, not to provide definitive answers but to awaken our minds to think critically and to use the new technology such that we can think critically together in dialogue with each other, bouncing off each other’s voices as it were, but in doing so to focus on the most pressing issues facing all of us on this planet. And to do it in a spirit not so much of paralyzing pessimism, debilitating sadness, but to recognize that the tears that now flow, the wounds that are now felt must never have the last word, that there is hope. There’s hope through dialogue, there’s hope through compassion and there’s hope through willingness to serve others and to sacrifice for causes bigger than ourselves. I think the answer to the question is what is taking place right here in Bebelpaltz, Berlin, Germany, this blessed day.

by Cornel West

Sep 9, 2006 5:05:00 PM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron