N1039 Information Systems
N1039 Information Systems
Week 9, Lecture: The Internet & politics
Dr. Dimitra Petrakaki
20/2018/11
Outline
I. History of the Internet
II. Internet & politics: digital divide
III. Internet & Politics: electronic surveillance & governmental control
IV. Wrap-up
I. HISTORY OF THE INTERNET
History of the Internet
1940s/1950s
Use of computers for military (code
eaking) and for scientific purposes – Politics and science the driving forces behind the Internet too.
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) – one of the first computers
Limited business interest due to size & cost
Mainframes for processing large amount
of data (1960s)
History of the Internet
ARPAnet emerged during the Cold War to prevent nuclear attack & enhance the technological power of US. Initially it
ought together four computers (UCLA; University of California Santa Ba
ara; Stanford Research Institute; University of Utah).
1950s: computers/mainframes
1969:Advanced Research Project Administration (ARPA net) by the US Department of Defense
1972: The first email sent on ARPAnet
History of the Internet
CSN was connected to ARPAnet & provided Internet services and email
Expansion of CSN by 1986: 165 university, industrial, and government computer research groups belonged to CSN
1989: 100,000 computers connected to the Internet
Continued expansion in the no of members in the network and developments in the speed of computers. Need for expansion in the supporting infrastructure
1973: International Connections to ARPAnet: UCL & NORSAR, Norway
1981: US National Science Foundation develops the Computer Science Network (CSN) expanding ARPAnet
1984: 1000 computers connected to the Internet
History of the Internet
2004: Facebook is launched
2004: Voice over the Internet becomes available (Skype)
2005: 1 billion Internet users. In 2013: 2.5 billion users
1990: ARPAnet decommissioned/commercialization of the Internet
1990: Tim Berners-Lee invents the WWW
1993: Mosaic Web Browse
1995: amazon.com & ebay are founded
1998: Google begins as a project at Stanford
2001: Wikipedia is launched
What does this tell us about Internet?
It started as a technology that was not inclusive.
It was within government’s control.
It served governmental and scientific purposes.
Diffusion and technological progress led to its expansion and commercialisation.
II. INTERNET & POLITICS: DIGITAL DIVIDE
Internet as a democratic means
Associated with the creation of a ‘global village’
Facilitates open information (but does not ensure better quality of information)
Transcends boundaries (geographical; economic; gender; national; racial etc.)
Internet as a democratic means
Internet as a public sphere that supports plurality and diversity of voices (‘democratisation’).
Lacks intermediaries such as gatekeepers
Equality
“On the internet nobody knows you
are a dog”
Under what conditions?
Physical access: geographical and material access to infrastructure
Financial access: affordability
Cognitive access: skills to process, understand & evaluate information
Content access: language ba
iers (see next graph)
Political access: political regime that regulates access
Content access – the problem of language
Facts
By end of 2013 there was an estimated 2.7 billion people using the Internet worldwide.
4.4 billion people who are not yet online.
Internet penetration in households:
Developed countries: 80%
Developing countries: 28%
1.1 billion households worldwide that are not yet connected to the Internet; 90 % of these are in the developing world.
Facts
Digital Divide
“The digital divide can be understood as the difference in ICT access and use between countries, between regions, or between other groupings that share common characteristics” (MIS, p.39).
At the global level, a common way of identifying differences between countries is to look at national ICT levels in relation to the world average, or to group the world into developed and developing countries and compare their respective performance.
Digital Divide: typical indicators
Accessibility to ICT:
telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants,
mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants,
international Internet bandwidth per Internet use
percentage of households with a computer, and
percentage of households with Internet access at home.
Countries that score high in ICT development
Countries that score low in ICT development
Digital Divide: typical indicators
Uptake of ICT & intensity of use
Skills:
Literacy rate
Secondary enrollment
Tertiary enrollment
Affordability – see next graph
ICT affordability (ICT Price Basket)
Costs of fixed telephone, mobile cellular and fixed
oadband Internet services as a percentage of average Gross National Income (GNI) per capita.
Digital Divide: soft issues
The previous indicators measure outcomes but not reasons for non-use.
Digital divide exists in developed countries too!
Digital Divide: reasons for non-use
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Digital Divide
III. INTERNET & POLITICS: Electronic Governmental Control
Governmental control through information
Monitoring has been an inherent part of governmental control.
Information (systems) have played a fundamental role in this.
Paper-based systems (files, documents etc.) have assisted governments to exercise control over the population.
Internet becomes a much more pervasive tool in governmental hands due to real time information & possibility to collect aggregated data.
Internet & national cultures
Transparency and openness to information
Freedom of expression
Regulations to protect privacy
What kind of information are we comfortable to share?
Source: Oxford Internet Institute
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How much Internet regulation would we like to have?
Governing the Internet: how?
Encourage or discourage citizens’ use of the Internet.
Enact legislation that regulates data privacy.
Create regulations that affect competition between internet companies and the function of Internet companies.
Governing the Internet: how?
‘Russia passed a law in 2014 mandating that all foreign internet companies store Russian users’ personal data on servers based in the country. While some websites have said they will comply with the law, which came into effect last year, others including Facebook and Twitter are stalling, despite repeated public threats of a ban…Russia has sought to increase state control of the internet in recent years, sparked by protests organised on social media that rattled President Vladimir Putin during his return to the Kremlin in 2012.’ (FT 11/11/2016).
Governmental control through market
4. Government control over Internet through regulation of internet access price
‘Cuba’s government said it would allow ordinary Cubans to access the internet for the first time but for a pricey $4.5/hour. The average monthly wage is $20.’ (The Economist)
Governmental control through state’s laws
5. Freedom of speech laws:
‘China issued new guidelines that would jail internet users who spread rumours online. Those who make defamatory comments on websites that are visited by 5,000 users or are reposted more than 500 times could face up to three years in prison. Anyone who posts information that leads to protests or ethnic unrest could also be prosecuted’ (The Economist, 14/09/2013).
Governmental control over the Internet: the case of China
Governmental control over the Internet: the case of China
‘Great Firewall’ established in 1996
monitors and blocks internet content;
‘filtering’ results and information
has blocked “undesirable” foreign websites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube);
cost $160million
Blocked websites: https:
www.greatfirewallofchina.org
Governmental control over Internet: the case of China
‘Golden Shield’
monitors activities within China
$1.6 billion
100,000 employees working as Internet police
It regulates access to the Internet at local level: A region was cut off from Internet in 2010 after riots that occu
ed in the area. Similar event occu
ed in 2012.
An emerging market? China is selling its know-how and respective technologies to governments in Central and South-East Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe
Google in China
In 2002 the Great Firewall blocked Google entirely
In 2006 Google run its search engine service after complying with the Chinese government’s regulations that restricted access to sites that included terms such as ‘political prisoners’ & ‘Tiananmen Square’.
In 2009 Google withdraw from the display and provision of censored information.
Electronic monitoring in the UK
November 2015, Home Secretary, UK
‘internet connection records’ becomes a requirement for ISP and telephone providers
Records are at the disposal of police and security services
IV. Wrap-up
Internet & democracy
Internet freedom vs. Internet Regulation?
Political (dis)engagement in the Internet:
Even when we have access to information how do we evaluate and use it?
Information overload
Internet & Politics
‘Technological change expresses a panoply of human motives, not the least of which is the desire of some to have domination over others’ (Winner, 1999, p.24)
Governments use the Internet to reproduce their power and authority; to block external parties; to monitor internal activities
‘the technological deck has been stacked in advance to favor certain social interests and the some people were bound to receive a better hand than others’ (Winner, 1999, p.26)
Digital divide is a good example of this; it has divided the world between those who have access and those who lack access; the ‘haves and the have-nots’
XXXXXXXXXXE-/Digital government was encouraged by:
a) The rise of the welfare state
) New-liberalism
c) The success of the bureaucratic state
d) All the above
2. E-government was first introduced in:
a) the UK
) the US
c) Finland
d) China
3. The stages of e-government development are:
a) provision, interaction, transaction, integration
) provision, bureaucratisation, transaction, joining-up
c) provision, transaction, integration, joining-up
d) provision, interaction, transaction, exchanges
XXXXXXXXXXWhich types of interactions take place in e-government?
a) G2B; C2C; B2B
) B2B; B2G; B2C
c) C2B; B2B; G2B
d) G2B; G2C;G2G
5. The problem of treating citizens as customers comes from the fact that:
a) Government is a monopoly
) Public services are for all citizens, independently of the cost those services bea
c) Choice is not always available or possible
d) All the above
6. E-bureaucracy is a solution to:
a) Integration
) Bureaucracy
c) e-government
d) all the above
N1039 Information Systems
N1039 Information Systems
Meeting 8, 26 November 2020
Dr. Dimitra Petrakaki
Review: electronic/digital governing
History and conditions: administrative; political; technological
Stages of egov development: provision; interaction; transaction; integration
What are the challenges of digitalizing the public sector?
-integration: nature of citizens’ data; politics and fears of downsizing
-citizens as customers?
-the involvement of the private sector in the public
Q&A on Essays
Introducing this week’s lecture: The Internet and Politics
What does the history of the Internet tell us about the nature of the internet?
It was exclusive (government and scientific institutions)
It served scientific and political interests
Demand and progress led to its commercialisation
Introducing this week’s lecture: The Internet and Politics
Internet and politics: digital divide
‘Have’ and ‘Have nots’
physical; financial; cognitive; content; political ba
iers
Internet and politics: governmental regulation and surveillance
Costs; legislation over privacy and freedom of speech; regulation of ISP and internet companies
Internet in China
What you need to do next
1. Listen to the Week 9 Recording (Panopto Recordings on Canvas) and study the slides.
2. Read the essential reading for this week:
Dutton, W. & Graham, M. (2014) ‘Society and the Internet: An Introduction’ in Society and the Internet How Networks of Information and Communication are Changing Our Lives (Links to an external site.), Oxford University Press, pp.1-20
Participate in the Workshop on Monday or Wednesday (of week 10):
Prepare and present a one-page outline of your essay.