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Reports
These reports, written by volunteers, summarise information
for people not able to attend the sessions. Their comprehensiveness and
accuracy are not guaranteed. For more information, please contact the presenters
directly. Their e-mail addresses are available at http://www.isoc.org/inet98/program.shtml
Track 2: Social, Legal and Regulatory Policies Session: Democracy, the Internet and the Organization of Information By Celia Boyer, 22 July 1998 From Chiapas to the World Harry Cleaver, Prof. of Economics, University of Texas, USA According to the Zapatistas community who have been fighting for their rights to keep
their culture and political autonomy since Jan. 1994, the Internet is the Voice of the
democracy. The Zapatistas is an example of indigenous rebellion via the Internet. It is
interesting to point out that Zapatistas have no telephone, no electricity, and obviously
no Internet access. In fact no direct access. Despite this fact, the Zapatistas community
is a networked community, as diverse and world-wide as the Internet. The information
circulates via the Internet with up-to-date information relating the status of their
community in Mexico, bypassing state and mass media through discussion lists, newsgroups,
on-line conferences, web sites proliferating texts and images. An example is the Massacre
at San Juan de la Libertad on June 13 1998 where information with images and reports were
only available on the Web in real time. The Internet Zapatistas community has encountered difficulties due to the diversity of
languages, the understanding of the content provided, and its multiplicity. The solution
to their problems seems to lie in the transparency of information related by the author
and the critical acceptance of multiplicity.