Web for "good" purpose or "less good" purpose...

[Tom Worthington]

At 02:48 PM 10/09/95 -0700, Jan Whitaker wrote:

>Hi, Tom et al.  Good point, but seeing that I think I can only vote for 
>US President now...just wish more people in Australia were as involved 
>as the members of the link list and that the government truly listened...

Even if you don't get a vote you can still have a say. You might be able to
help those who don't have Internet facilities to get them for "grass roots" use.

The Government, like the rest of us, has to work out what it can use this
technology for. In general I think the process so far has gone quite well,
but we need to expose senior public servants and politicians to the pratical
use of the technology. This removes the fear which leads to proposals for
heavy Internet regulation.

>...live in Victoria and don't see too much other than ..."Jeff's mates" having 
>much influence at the moment...

The Internet could make a very powerful lobbying tool, which could be an
undemocratic force. I have found the way that a discussion on LINK can
quickly be incorporated into national policy a bit disconcerting. However if
we can spread the knowledge of how to use this technology quickly, it can
become a method of consultation, rather than one of manipulation.

The most interesting part of this is yet to come. We are still trying to fit
the new capabilities of the technology to existing institutions and culture.
This is why there problems with where Internet regulation fits in
Government. The attempt is to find if the Internet is "like" printed
publications, phone calls, TV, radio or video tapes. The answer is that it
isn't any of these and so does not fit in the structures built up to
regulate them. We will slowly build some new structures.

Around the end of the year I expect concept of an organisation as a 'net
service will become current. This is when things will really start to get
interesting.


Tom Worthington <tomw@acslink.net.au>   Ph:  +61 6 2474830
Director of the Community Affairs Board Fax: +61 6 2496419
Australian Computer Society Inc.     AH/Pager: 041 1182326
http://acslink.net.au/~tomw/