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The Power of Ten Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida has put up a very interesting page on their site. It begins as a view of the Milky Way Galaxy viewed from a distance of 10 million light years and then Zooms in towards Earth in powers of ten. 10 million, to one million, to 100,000 light years and then it finally reaches a large Oak tree. If ever there was a witness to creation, these folks have captured it for our viewing pleasure! Once you click on the site, the software does all the work. Sit back and imagine how perfect our universe is! You can play it forward and backward to be amazed over and over. At the end it says AUTO....click on that and review the process in reverse! http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html Organizing the Organic Internet By Alfredo Lopez September 7, 2006, Exclusive to Portside There was a time some years back when progressive activists debated the importance and usefulness of the Internet. It is a reflection of our movement's progress that, today, that debate is over. Most progressives now use the Internet as an important component of our campaigns and organizing; some rely on it entirely. That welcome development now it raises a new question, critical to our future and, I think, that of the world: Now that we know how to use the Internet, how do we organize it? At first blush, the idea of organizing the Internet may seem strange. After all, most of us still define the "Internet" as a technology, a view deepened by the relentless messages that batter us through marketing, punditry and highly touted "new products" that frame discussions of the Internet's future in lifeless terms: connectivity, processing power, redundancy, application. But all that misses the point. Humans have had technology -- the tools we use to move forward -- for our entire history and those tools have never been more than that: tools. Technology only comes to life when people use it and the Internet's technology is no exception. Erase all the tools for a moment and you still have a network of people communicating with each other on a scale and with an efficiency heretofore inconceivable. That network breathes, creates a culture, changes with every log on and log off, grows beyond any expert's expectations and shifts direction in defiance of any institutional control. In fact, those interactions between people define the technology and where it's going not the other way around. The Internet is an organic response by much of humanity to the excruciating oppression we collectively and individually face. The Closet If we picture each of our lives in contemporary society as unfolding in a physical space, we might envision a closet. It's dark, restrictive and isolated. The door is closed and no information of any value can get in. We can occasionally, momentarily and with some difficulty, push open that door a crack but we only catch brief glimpses of others doing the same. There is so much we want to know about them but there's so little time before the door shuts again. In this society, our psyches, social interactions, routines, and thinking are pushed into so many small, dark closets. Life in contemporary capitalist society is dominated by this individual and collective alienation. It's the fulcrum of our existence -- in everything we do, we're constantly damaged by it and our hopes of unity and relief of oppression are dampened by it. It's an oppression that facilitates all other oppressions. And it's an oppression we're constantly fighting as we all keep trying to push the door open. In a society that discourages truly deep and intimate human relations, we figure out all kinds of ways to counteract the painful alienation of the closed closet: personal relationships, organizations, events and ways of sharing thinking, feelings and aspirations. Yet, as rich and fruitful as we courageously make these things, they are never enough. We want and need to relate to more and more people in an ever deeper way, to grasp great and broader realities, to learn more about everything so we can make sense of what we're experiencing. The Organic Internet The Internet arose because that need has become so acute that it can't be denied. It was inevitable and when this technology became available, we seized it and created and expanded this thing we call the Internet: the largest social movement in human history -- a movement against alienation. It is huge beyond any imagining -- hundreds of millions if not billions of people log on every day. They communicate about everything with a diversity and range of people that is nothing short of remarkable. They collaborate around its technological development, its use, and its culture using the instinct to collaborate that has made humans the Earth's dominant species. It is essentially democratic: you log on, say what you want and people all over the world can read what you say...no matter who, where or what you are. Never before has that been true. It's the most International network in history: the number of people using it in Asia, Europe and North America is about the same and its use in other places is growing explosively. And it grows like a movement. No matter what the commercial Internet does with its marketing, customer development and product releases -- the great majority of which fails miserably -- the Internet grows in one basic way: people who are experienced in it talk to others about it and help them become part of it. Think about your own experience in getting on the Internet; in most cases, I think, people will remember somebody they knew and trusted telling them what to do. Like a movement or campaign, the Internet's growth doesn't just happen; it's organized. In that context, Internet participation isn't only about doing our political work more effectively, it IS political work. As progressives on the Internet, we are part of a larger movement around an issue that involves people of many political perspectives. We work in that movement, contributing to its struggles while logically injecting our own opinions and aspirations into its growing discourse. That's exactly what you're doing on the Internet the moment you log on. It's what you're doing now reading this and it's what I did while I was writing it. You log on and combat alienation through the mere act of communicating, you enhance the struggle against alienation by enhancing your use (and that of others) of the Internet's technology and you take leadership by advancing your ideas about it -- and the world. The Challenge Once we see the Internet as a mass movement, the Internet issues and developments we all know about start to look different and defining and acting on the challenges we face as Internet members become a much more important part of our political and strategic discourse. I think, right now, there are four areas that demand our leadership. I'm probably missing a few but these are a start. 1 - Protection. The protection of the Internet as a technology and as a movement is a priority. The key here is that the attacks on the Internet aren't primarily attacks on the technology; they're attacks on the Internet itself as a movement. Seen this way, anti-spam "protection" and the issues related to Net Neutrality aren't subjects for the often term laden, confusing and mis-directing debate among "technology experts", they are threats to the very essence of human interaction and the essence of the Internet: the ability to communicate. Puts that issue in a somewhat different light and with somewhat greater urgency, I'd say. 2 - Inclusion. The Internet is led and controlled by white men. Most of its leadership, including its developers, are male and the additional fact that women are clearly and shamefully discouraged from participating (as the unbelievable treatment of women on tech forums demonstrates) is a major issue within this movement. From personal experience, I can tell you volumes about the way people of color are treated by Internet's leadership and the racism, sometimes subtle and sometimes quite overt, that one faces every day when one works in the Internet. With that kind of leadership, it's no surprise that the Internet is still inaccessible to so many people and its content falls short in reflective so many people's realities and needs. If this isn't rectified, the Internet will fail as a movement and so progressive activists must take leadership in challenging it. This is especially true because our movements, particularly the social justice movement, reflect an impressive level of leadership by women, including women of color. It's the most diverse progressive movement leadership I've seen in my 40 years as an activist. So, what we've done inside our movement, we need to do inside this larger movement. 3 - Technology expansion. Several of the most important technological enhancements, particularly tools used on the Internet, have come from progressive activists and movements. And we're involved in the development of many more. But we do this without the conscious support of the movements we belong to. It's almost a "side-job" for us and that makes this work more difficult to do and more limited in what we end up doing. If progressive activists participate in the discussions about Internet expansion -- what's being built and programmed and what is needed -- in a more organized and directed way, not only would we have better tools that better address our organizing and communications needs, but we'd help protect the Internet and make it more inclusive. It's a movement, after all, so the more you participate in discussions about its future, the more influence your ideas have about its present. Of course, doing these first three things requires a fourth ingredient. 4 - Unity. A unified progressive presence within the Internet -- coordinating work, discussing ideas and supporting each other -- would redefine people's vision of the Internet and redirect this incredibly powerful movement. We have no such unity and efforts to build it need the entire progressive community's support and participation. The time for all this is now. People who don't want to change the world for the better or don't care are doing things that could damage, limit and possibly destroy this movement. Our intervention would save and expand it. And that's what we're facing. In an era in which the very survival of humanity and the world as we know it is in the balance, we all crave a movement that incorporates all humans everywhere. We have one that can become that. Whether that happens depends on us. ----------- --------- --------- ----- Veteran activist Alfredo Lopez is Co-Director of May First/People LInk. | ||
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