.
In the highly influential perspectives of the IT industry, the "society" in "information society" is often synonymous with market. Bill Gates' vision is constructed largely around companies and homes, seamlessly connected in a "perfect" marketplace without intermediaries (Gates, 1996). In modified versions of this view, "society" is presented as commensurate with households and/or schools and the government-citizen relationship in this perspective is presented in terms of more efficient delivery of information-based public services. The economic competitiveness or national "preparedness" emphasis of many official reports on the "information society", including the most recent, Information Society Ireland (1996 [1997]), typically constructs the social dimension of the "information society" as an agglomeration of market, households, schools and public services.
Many IS and IT textbooks and readers, public discourse and academic theories on the IS also follow this sub-division of society into market/household/schools/government services. Equality issues are represented in terms of a (insuperable?) gap between "information-rich" and "information-poor". Social or civic action is overlaid on the electronic marketplace as electronic direct democracy, i.e. individualised relations between consumer-citizens and central and local powers, with electronic referenda envisioned as the highest form of democracy.
In contrast, the DCU project, the Voluntary Sector in the Information Age (VSIA), is premised on an understanding of "society" in which active citizenship and participatory democracy are central. A point of departure was that: certain implementations of ICTs could enhance and expand democratic practices by strengthening existing and developing networks of voluntary and community organisations, their work practices, and their negotiations with established powers; and the failure (for whatever reason) of the voluntary and community sector to effectively use ICTs could contribute to its weakening.
The VSIA project sees membership in voluntary and community organisations (V&Cs) as a vehicle for active citizenship. Individual members of society express their belonging in part through membership of and participation in residents', workplace, trade union, professional, cultural, sporting, social action, political, etc. organisations. The Irish voluntary and community sector comprises hundreds of charities and national organisations with budgets of more than o1 million as well as thousands of small neighbourhood development groups on shoestring budgets, and tens of hundreds of organisations in-between. The sector contributes to all areas of public life in Ireland and to a healthy democratic environment, "through its capacity to act independently of the government, by providing channels for citizen involvement, widening the range of choice available, redistributing resources, and contributing to more diverse and decentralised institutional structures" (Faughnan and Kelleher, 1993:11).
From this perspective, the study of V&Cs' usage of ICTs may provide important pointers as to the relationship between citizenship and access to, and production and control of, information. It may, further, be a means of understanding:
- social diffusion of new ICTs (emulation, innovation)
- social uses of new ICTs (exchange, sharing)
- social constraints on implementing new ICTs (finance, know-how)
- social influences on shaping new ICTs (participatory communication, negotiation with information and service providers = technical empowerment)
- potential of new ICTs to be harnessed for active citizenship.
The VSIA project is cautious not to make the assumption that ICTs are necessary to the effective functioning of all V&Cs or a necessary or sufficient condition of active citizenship, or that ICTs can of themselves create a more participatory political culture. Many V&Cs are functioning effectively without using computers and have no interest in using them or hooking up to the Internet. Further, the Internet is obviously not the most useful means of communication for all community or voluntary work - there are many situations in which a face-to-face meeting, a phone call, or a fax message is more appropriate than exchanging e-mail. As well, the Internet or any other ICT does not have the power to create a vibrant political culture where none existed previously. Research on traditional ICTs (Laudon, 1977) found that the use of IT will not likely result in a drastic increase in participation or political interest, and analysis of Internet has developed a similar argument (see McChesney, 1996). Politically active people are drawn to the Internet as a tool to facilitate their political activities (see McChesney, 1996; Rogers et al, 1994; Hacker, 1996), and in this sense, the technology may be useful for strengthening and expanding existing democratic networks and processes.
The VSIA research is guided by theories of democratic social change, not techno-utopian or deterministic arguments. Three theoretical frameworks have been useful to the research: the public sphere, civil society, and new social movements.
The work of Jürgen Habermas on the public sphere has been central to recent empirical and theoretical work on the democratic potential of the Internet. Robert McChesney believes that the Internet could nurture "a 21st-century Habermasian 'public sphere,' where informed interactive debate can flower independent of government or commercial control" (McChesney, 1996:108). Lewis Friedland's research focuses on how the Internet can be used "to extend democratic practices and lead to a broadened public sphere," by strengthening social capital relationships, grounded in the concrete practices of citizens (Friedland, 1996:207). However, a key difficulty with using a "public sphere" argument in relation to the Internet is the limited access to the technology - only a minority of the population in Ireland and elsewhere use it. It may be more useful to speak of pluralist "public spheres" along the lines of theories developed in critical response to the Habermas perspective of one legitimate public sphere (see Fraser, 1992). Lisa McLaughlin uses a "parallel public spheres" perspective to suggest that "women can take advantage of new media developments and alternative forms of media and participation in order to develop new forms of public life" (McLaughlin, 1993:616), and this perspective could also describe communities of interest based in V&Cs on the Internet.
Theories of civil society are also useful for understanding the use of the Internet by V&Cs. Two meanings of the term "civil society" are in current use. Using the classical meaning - the realm of social relations separate from the state whose centre is market relations - Paul Wapner points out that environmental organisations are using channels of public communication to influence collective behaviour amongst non-state actors, to change "consumption patterns, reproductive practices, technological imperatives, life-style choices, and widespread poverty - none of which are completely amenable to government directives" (Wapner, 1994:393). The second use of the term sees "civil society" as "constituted by voluntary unions outside the realm of the state and the economy" (Habermas, 1992:453). In this sense, Howard Frederick believes the Internet can be used to coordinate the worldwide network of nongovernmental organizations and citizen advocacy groups (Frederick, 1993). Internet networks are beginning to have an impact on international relations, for example by supporting activists in Tianenmen Square, carrying uncensored news reports from the Gulf War, and building a broad-based coalition of organisations opposed to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).
Finally, new social movement (NSM) theory - which emerged in response to the inability of classical Marxism to analyse collective action, and highlights other collective identities and sites of action, such as feminism, environmentalism, Third World solidarity, and gay and lesbian identities - has also been guiding the VSIA research. For NSM theorists, symbolic action in the cultural sphere is seen as a major arena for collective action, and cultural practices common within social movements - such as production and dissemination of alternative information and media - help maintain the movement by providing alternative forms of self-understanding and friendship networks (Scott, 1990). From the NSM perspective, the Internet is only the latest form of alternative media - alongside video, fax machines, newsletters and community radio - used by social movement organisations for explicitly alternative political and cultural projects. A case study on the role of traditional alternative media in the Iranian revolution found that they: "[were] channels of participation, extended preexisting cultural networks and communicative patterns, and became the vehicles of an oppositional discourse that was able to mobilize a mass movement. They must be seen as technologies or channels of communication, but also as the web of political solidarity and as the carriers of oppositional discourse" (Sreberny- Mohammadi and Mohammadi, 1994). However, a difficulty with the new social movement perspective is its tendency to conceive the movements as prefiguring a new society or to overestimate the movements' potential role in bringing about radical social change.
The Voluntary Sector in the Information Age (VSIA) research includes three components: surveys, action, and advocacy/policy. The survey component involves three activities:
1. The first survey, conducted a year ago, was a postal questionnaire of 300 randomly-selected community and voluntary organisations (response rate of 82%). Objectives were to identify the levels of use of information and communication technologies - including fax machines, computers, the Internet, and factors associated with encouraging and discouraging the use of these technologies.
2. A second survey using telephone interviews, currently being conducted, is investigating how these organisations are using the technologies, particularly the Internet.
3. Focus groups will be conducted in the late spring this year to explore if and how networks of organisations are using the Internet to strengthen and extend existing communication and support patterns and networks.
The action research also has three strands:
1. An action research project, the Inner City Computer Network, set up in conjunction with the Dublin Inner City Partnership, which links community organisations dealing with long-term unemployment.
2. Participatory research on an ongoing basis with several community-based IT projects.
3. A conference including practical workshops, Harnessing the Internet, held at DCU in September 1996, attended by more than 140 representatives of 80 community and voluntary organisations.
Analysis of the survey research to date allows us to sketch broad patterns of Internet use among V&Cs. The survey found that an organisation's income was the most significant factor related to its use of IT but there were also other factors related to poor organisational resources, such as lack of time for training and lack of technical support. Most organisations were using computers but the rate of use varied considerably according to annual income.
The computer and Internet situation among V&Cs in Ireland in early 1996 was as follows:
* Organisations with incomes more than o100,000:
96% used computers
27% had an e-mail address
* Organisations with incomes between o10,000 - o100,000:
90% used computers
11% had an e-mail address
* Organisations with incomes less than o10,000:
65% used computers
3% had an e-mail address
The projected Internet situation for Ireland in 1998 is:
* Two of three higher-income organisations online (income more than o100,000);
* One in three middle-income organisations online;
* One in five lower-income organisations online (income less than o10,000).
The action research project, the Inner City Computer Network, found that organisational barriers to using the Internet included a high turnover of staff members, lack of available time to use the technology, re-organisation and refurbishment of premises, inadequate computer resources, and lack of a systematic means of sharing information within the organisation (Ennals and Trench, 1996). It has also become clear through this project that V&Cs - in this case, community organisations - were considerably less interested in sharing information and, therefore, in computer communications, than had been suggested in the earliest preparations for the establishment of the network. Issues of territoriality have tended to outweigh the influence of any sharing ethos.
At the time of writing, the analysis has just begun of the second (telephone) survey, but a few preliminary observations will be made: it is becoming clear that we should speak not of "the Internet" but rather of "Internet technologies" because there is a considerable difference among the technologies, their usefulness to V&Cs (and by extension to other organisations and individuals), and their patterns of use. The distinction should be made between electronic mail, mailing lists, bulletin boards, and the WorldWide Web. By making this distinction, it becomes clear that for V&Cs, the Internet is more a communications tool than an information resource.
* Electronic mail (e-mail) - a single message exchanged between different V&Cs or different offices of an organisation separated geographically, or a single message sent to a group of V&Cs - is clearly the most widely-used and useful of the Internet technologies.
* The automatic interactive technologies (mailing lists and bulletin boards which allow automatic many-to-many communication) are rarely used. Electronic mailing lists - users exchange e-mail by sending their message to a central computer which automatically distributes it to a group of subscribers - are used by only a small minority of organisations. None of the V&Cs surveyed reported using electronic bulletin boards - a bulletin board is an updated accumulation of e-mail messages on a specific subject, and users can read messages posted by other users and post messages of their own.
* The WorldWide Web - the graphical face of the Internet which includes public information Web pages - would appear at present to be of only occasional and limited use as an information resource to the V&Cs using the Internet.
Cost and technical problems are the major reported barriers to using the Web as an information resource. Of all the Internet technologies, the Web is the most expensive to use. V&Cs may not realise when they first hook up to the Internet that using the Web is much more expensive than exchanging e-mail but they learn quickly when the first phone bill arrives. Most V&Cs cannot or are not willing to pay for it. A comment from a small community-based group is typical: "Because the Web is connected to the phone, we don't use it that often. It ties up the phone and it's getting a bit too expensive." Many organisations are also experiencing difficulties with computer crashes while using the Web, which discourages more frequent use.
Many V&Cs have an interest in publishing on the Web - putting up a Web page - but this process appears somewhat removed from the core communication processes within an organisation. For instance, many V&C Web pages are designed and maintained by "a friend of a friend" - an organisation may have a Web page but most of the staff, members and volunteers would not have seen it. This would be in contrast to other information produced by the organisation, such as newsletters or promotional material, which would be familiar to everyone in the organisation.
In general, the findings of the Irish research to date concur with findings from a comprehensive study of ICT use by community and voluntary organisations in the UK, namely that: "adoption and use of IT will continue to be problematic, and its exploitation will continue far below potential, while organisations lack money, appropriate advice, and the appropriate training, in order to commit the kinds of investment which technology calls for" (Community Development Foundation, 1992:8). From another perspective, it could also be said that the Internet technologies in their current configurations may not be appropriate to the cultural environment of many V&Cs, or that the technologies are failing to meet their communication and information needs.
However, the Irish survey also found that scarce resources within an organisation does not necessarily discourage Internet use. For instance, environment and international development organisations showed a very high interest in hooking up to the Internet. Some of these organisations had a low income, no premises and few or outdated computer resources.
Further project research will focus on the current Internet activities by V&Cs. The research task is to ground these activities in theories of social change to understand how they are expanding democratic practices.
Overall, despite the difficulties they are experiencing with the Internet, many Irish V&Cs have clearly demonstrated a strong desire to use the technology. The high level of interest was in evidence at the Dublin conference, Harnessing the Internet, mentioned earlier. The conference included presentations by organisations using the Internet on an daily basis for a variety of purposes (Dublin City University, 1996).
Currently, two Internet service providers are dedicated to supporting V&Cs in Ireland: Connect Ireland and ARENA/AONAD in Dublin, and a further two in the North: CINNI (Community Information Network of Northern Ireland) and a second emerging network in Belfast.
Irish Internet networking initiatives include: NODE (Network Outreach of Development Education), Icarus Ireland, CavanNet, Info Capital 2000 in Kildare, the LEA/NOW (Lesbian Education and Awareness) initiative, the TORC (The Organisation of Radical Communications) initiative, and the Inis Islands Telecommunications Network based at Cape Clear Island. Initiatives in the North include: the Women Talking project of the Women's Resource and Development Agency in Belfast and the Glenarm Rural Network in North Antrim.
Outstanding Web pages produced by Irish V&Cs include the Irish Woodworkers for Africa (http://www.iol.ie/~woodlife), the European Institute for Women's Health (http://www.eurohealth.ie) and the Chernobyl Children's Project (http://www.aardvark.ie/ccp).
A singularly interesting example of an activist use of the Internet is a new Irish environmental "organisation" with the WorldWide Web at its core. According to one of its members, the "organisation" doesn't exist in fact - legally, financially or organisationally, yet is "taking and has already taken several actions in defense of the Irish environment in the EU. [They] also aim to force major national and local environmental issues onto the political agenda." They are "really just the Web site, [used] as a conduit to promote news and other issues, and to allow communications from a lot of 'correspondents' via a central point."
The thirty-year-old Internet remains the single most frequently cited element of the "new" information infrastructure, therefore also of the information economy. Its manifestation as the WorldWide Web has been a spur to more V&Cs to explore the Internet's application to their purposes. This appears somewhat paradoxical, as the WorldWide Web is less amenable to direct applications by persons and organisations with moderate or low computer skills than are earlier Internet technologies such as electronic mail, mailing lists and bulletin boards. Survey and anecdotal evidence suggest that the commercial sector's focus on the Web and its revenue-generating potential, and the attendant media interest, has produced an 'emulation' effect among V&Cs.
Commercial interest in the Internet might also be taken as an augury that the networks are or will become increasingly closed to the kinds of participatory- democratic uses indicated above. A number of recent trends certainly point that direction:
- privatisation of Internet infrastructure
- intensive development work on secure financial transactions
- more rapid growth of .com domains than any other
- accelerated development of Intranets and 'virtually private' networks
- growth of top-down, centre-out applications, e.g. Webcasting
Despite all of this, however, the Internet remains
- largely based on collectively agreed standards
- resistant to proprietary takeover
- incapable of central global control
- open to participatory-democratic exploitation
Based on the project research to date, and with a view to enlarging the space for participatory communication through ICTs, we recently made the following policy recommendations regarding the inclusion of Irish V&Cs in the "information society":
1. The Irish Information Society Commission, and any similar body established at the EU level, should include meaningful representation from the community and voluntary sector.
2. Monitoring procedures should accompany all "information society" policies to ensure that the benefits of new initiatives and technologies reach marginalised and disadvantaged groups.
3. Funding arrangements for community and voluntary organisations should be made more secure, to allow them to build capacity within their organisations and use the new technologies if they so wish.
4. The government should support the development of an indigenous computer technical support structure in the community and voluntary sector, including: training, technical support, acquiring computer hardware and software, and maintenance. Raising the general level of competency on computers should be the primary objective of this support infrastructure.
5. Funding should be made available to facilitate Internet use and provision of content by organisations facing specific barriers to the technology: low-income organisations, neighbourhood organisations and women's groups. An initial step would be to target these groups in existing funding schemes, such as the Department of Social Welfare's grants to voluntary and community organisations.
6. Telephone and Internet service providers should be regulated to ensure affordable access for community and voluntary organisations to telephone and computer communications networks (from O'Donnell and Trench, forthcoming).
In this context, the Information Society Ireland report (1996[1997]) is a disappointment, though perhaps only a predictable replection of its composition and remit. The report places strong emphasis on the competitive aspect of the "information society," stressing the business and national-economic opportunities and advantages to be had from developing to a fully fledged IS. It posits, without any supporting evidence, that 48,000 new jobs could be created over eight years in the ICTs-based industries and services. It advocates the establishment of advisory groups to "further study IS benefits and actions required in individual sectors of the economy" (page 68) in which it does not include 'social' sectors other than libraries. The headings under which the IS committee organised much of its work, including contracted research - Infrastructure, Awareness, Enterprise, Government and Learning - restricted the view of society as a complex, differentiated whole.
The report's proposals or observations with a 'social' aspect are at varying levels of precision and detail:
- tax break to promote PC usage and easier Internet access in the homes
- funding to promote PC usage and easier Internet access in schools (immediately acted on by the Minister for Education)
- references to possible lessening of social disadvantage
- even more purely rhetorical references to the need for "an inclusive IS"
- repeated exhortations to government to develop citizen-centred services to which access could be had through local access points.
The references to communities as, for instance, in a passing mention of possible (and much-to-be-encouraged) linkages between colleges and communities, are vague. There is no hint of an awareness of communities as self-directing entities with representative organisations.
The report refers frequently to citizens and to the possibility that they could participate more actively in government in the IS by means of a certain application of information technologies and IS structures. It holds out the prospect of "more accessible, more responsive" government, as did an earlier Forbairt report (Forbairt, 1996).
But in not acknowledging the role of community, voluntary, charitable, campaigning, sporting, political etc. organisations, ISI leaves it to individualised citizens to develop, each on her or his own behalf, an unmediated relationship with the government. The prospects for achieving greater accessibility or responsiveness by this means are not great.
The government which appointed the IS Steering Committee and will shortly appoint the follow-up Information Society Commission has declared, through several representatives, that it wishes to see ICTs applied to achieving easier access to government. The failure of the government to integrate its IS policy development with the simultaneous formulation of freedom of information legislation and the dramatic failure to develop a modestly coherent government Web site point to a considerable gap between the rhetoric and the reality.
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