Check out this article on CNN, 03/09/2000: http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/03/06/china.mp3 .idg/index.html/
..while China is a prominent global power, certainly not a 3rd-world country, this article highlights the extent to which centralized state apparatus' (apparati?), specifically those of fundamentalist states, will be able to control the content provided to its people. While many 3rd world countries struggle for democracy, many are ruled by regimes whose interests are put in danger when a vast amount of information is available, suggesting alternatives to the current status quo..
it will be interesting to see which states choose to regulate Internet access, and to what extent. though regulation is nothing 'new' (Putin's recent demand that ISP's in Russia feed all their content through black boxes - allowing Russian intelligence total access - or be sanctioned), smaller 3rd world governments might succeed in creating a more tightly-controlled system due to those nations' relatively tiny geographic size, or the concentration of technology in a few small, urban area (i'm thinking of several of the smaller splinters of the former Soviet Union, as well as the Central American states and the Pacific Rim.. sadly, most of Africa is further from any consistent government).
Regulation creates jobs, as well.. as Houston InterWeb Design in the article above proves. If there is money to be made in censorship, money will be made. Not to mention the irony of the positions of power created, akin to the Chief of the Firemen in Fahrenheit 451.. your job, regulation, keeps you in constant contact with what you can regulate, and affords you privileges, access to that information, that others can't legally have..
Technology in that sense can be seen to be facilitating the maintenance of fundamentalist regimes, instead of the West's much-articulated hope that access to technology will break down barriers... i actually think that the latter will one day occur. But in the meantime, there's money to be made in censorship..
Slashdot Mirror
Check out this article on CNN, 03/09/2000: http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/03/06/china.mp3 .idg/index.html/
..while China is a prominent global power, certainly not a 3rd-world country, this article highlights the extent to which centralized state apparatus' (apparati?), specifically those of fundamentalist states, will be able to control the content provided to its people. While many 3rd world countries struggle for democracy, many are ruled by regimes whose interests are put in danger when a vast amount of information is available, suggesting alternatives to the current status quo..
.. sadly, most of Africa is further from any consistent government).
it will be interesting to see which states choose to regulate Internet access, and to what extent. though regulation is nothing 'new' (Putin's recent demand that ISP's in Russia feed all their content through black boxes - allowing Russian intelligence total access - or be sanctioned), smaller 3rd world governments might succeed in creating a more tightly-controlled system due to those nations' relatively tiny geographic size, or the concentration of technology in a few small, urban area (i'm thinking of several of the smaller splinters of the former Soviet Union, as well as the Central American states and the Pacific Rim
Regulation creates jobs, as well.. as Houston InterWeb Design in the article above proves. If there is money to be made in censorship, money will be made. Not to mention the irony of the positions of power created, akin to the Chief of the Firemen in Fahrenheit 451.. your job, regulation, keeps you in constant contact with what you can regulate, and affords you privileges, access to that information, that others can't legally have..
Technology in that sense can be seen to be facilitating the maintenance of fundamentalist regimes, instead of the West's much-articulated hope that access to technology will break down barriers... i actually think that the latter will one day occur. But in the meantime, there's money to be made in censorship..