---

faculty | home | people | work | events | hyperlinks | help

THE GOVERNANCE OF CYBERSPACE - DAY TWO

Email: d.p.hill@mmu.ac.uk

Read report on DAY ONE

The Governance of Cyberspace Conference

Day two started with a paper by John Taylor, Barbara Bardzki, and William Webster from Glasgow Caledonian University, called "Superhighways and Public Services: Is Information Age Government Viable?". This principally concerned empirical evidence on various Scottish projects providing public access to ICTs, with a discussion on the concept of universal access. The authors identified three main issues concerning ICT: the notion of the information society; the reinvention of government; and the perceived opportunities for innovation, service and democracy. Three key questions were also posed: how to provide the appropriate technological infrastructures; whether existing telecommunications policies are suitable; and whether a liberalised, competitive telecommunications industry can deliver the necessary levels of access and availability to ICTs. New forms of electronic services and citizenship were proposed, such as the commoditisation of information, the development of electronic services, informatisation processes and electronic citizenship. A particularly interesting development is the Lambda project, an initiative wiring the Highlands and Islands with fast ISDN links for a wide variety of applications from accessing museums and art galleries to remote interviewing of (remote) social security claimants.

The discussion on provision of the infrastructure focussed on the assertion that market forces alone may not be suitable to carry the burden of implementing universal access, also discussing the relative scarcity of cable networks in Britain, the technical requirements of different types of on-line information service, and the UK governments response to the notion of the "information superhighway" (which significantly understates the notion of universal access). Current concepts of the nature and meaning of universal access were compared, with an enlightening comparison to the penetration of telephones into US and UK homes. The US homes, based on a system of 'universal service', rate high penetration rates (94%), whereas some areas of the UK have telephone penetration rates below 50%. Moreover, the authors suggest that the areas in which uptake of telephony is lowest may well require the most effective consumption of public services.

Charles D. Raab's (c.d.raab@ed.ac.uk) paper, "Privacy, Democracy, Information", although described as a "work in progress", was an extensive investigation into the difficult concepts of democracy and privacy, within the context of the information society. Exploring the perceived dialectic of decentralised, anarchic networks and the desire for new 'rules' pertaining to privacy of personal communications, Raab's key themes were that state surveillance using ICTs may isolate individuals and destroy democracy; that the data-processing capabilities and increasing ubiquity of ICTs will severely test current implementations of privacy and data protection; that the 'information superhighway' has stimulated public debate about concepts of privacy and democracy; that the perceived democratic properties of ICTs need careful evaluation; and that notions of democracy and privacy may actually reinforce each other, rather than being seen as a "zero-sum relationship" - more of one implies less of the other.

Raab sees the work of the Canadian Government as the nearest thing to a contemporary model of good practice. This was summarised as a mixed approach of legislative state regulation and organisational or individual self-regulation, with an emphasis on encryption technology as a means of ensuring privacy.

The Q & A concerning these two papers witnessed vigorous debate concerning the interplay between the increasing amount of 'personal' information being 'informatised' via ICTs and the potential democratising influences of the same technology. Examples of individualising personal services necessitating more information about the person, were contrasted with the power of 'data-matching' across databases, converging previously disparate data to reveal previously hidden relationships. New technology such as public-key encryption was viewed with a cautious optimism as potentially enabling secure communication via ICTs. Raab's personal view was that well-known privacy principles may apply equally well to the information society given sensible implementation.

Concerning Taylor, Bardski and Webster's paper "Superhighways and Public Services", the distinction between services to the home, and services to the library or public space was seen as important, with TV playing a significant role in the development of the former. Further discussion centred on the assertion that the private sector, particularly the ICT infrastructure providers, must also look beyond the belief that supplying universal public access is 'charity' and view this work as crucial 'social investment' in communities.

Roger Burrows' (R.Burrows@Tees.ac.uk), "Cyberpunk as Social and Political Theory", concerned the appropriation of cyberpunk media (particularly literature) as tools for social and political theorising regarding the contemporary condition. The value of this approach was examined, amid discussions of postmodern critiques of William Gibson's work (by Jameson, Kellner, Davis, Kroker etc.), discussions identifying the cyberpunk ouvre and sociological themes within it (merging technology:human; cyberspace, particularly played against urban settings; 'postmodern tribes'; the 'hyperreal'; the privatisation of public space), and the recursive relationship between contemporary social theory and cyberpunk.

Burrows created the semi-ironic notion of 'passe-ification' - in which the latest sociological concepts are passe within seconds of their creation, as sociology becomes 'fashion-victim' (recent bursts of theory on postmodernism, then cyberpunk/space, then globalisation and so on). He suggested that this may be connected with a fin-de-millennium exhaustion of social theory, and, combined with the rapid technological change provoking ontological insecurity within sociology, may have led to this frantic search for enlightenment from unexplored territory such as cyberpunk. Burrows does not see any particularly advanced or sophisticated analytical possibilities for cyberpunk, especially when compared with the truly revolutionary ideas of Manuel De Landa, who proposes complex computer programs (imagine an incredibly complex SimCity 2000) for the creation of "epistemological reservoirs" to enable the simulation of cultural, social and economic processes. These would not digitise the predictive deterministic models previously employed in sociological theory, but must be sophisticated enough to simulate non-deterministic models of constant processes interacting contingently in differing environments.

David Lyon (lyond@qucdn.queensu.ca) has produced two well-respected works in the area of the information society so far ('The Information Society' (1988) and 'The Electronic Eye' (1992) Both Polity Press). His paper, "Cyberspace Sociality and Virtual Selves", addressed the need to reconsider the range and modes of social relations affected by the development of cyberspace. His approach to studying the interaction of cyberspace with 'real' space was analogous with Zygmunt Bauman's analysis of intimations of postmodernity - we must think in terms of "intimations of cyberspace". The presentation discussed the nature of indirect social relations modified during the shift from modernity (exemplified by the 'corporation') to postmodernity and the radical differences enabled by development in ICTs i.e. the increase in remote yet personal indirect social relations, and the emergence of virtual relations, democratised authorship, and virtual surveillance.

Work needs to be concentrated on devising the analytic tools for normative analysis appropriate to virtual relations, and the modified indirect social relations of the postmodern condition. Here Lyon appropriated Bauman's concept of sociality as focussing on "responsible action rather than regulation and compliance" in order to present a useful starting point for approaching a development of the 'governance of cyberspace'.

Klaus Lenk's paper was entitled "How will cyberspatial forms of human interaction challenge, change or reduce territorial government and policing by the state?". This largely concerned the effects of innovation in ICTs on crime, policing and the state or territory. Lenk posited that the territory still has value and meaning as the place we physically live, despite the rampant theories of globalisation. The classical function of the state has been to protect and provide safety for a territory. As national territorial borders are eroded, both physically and virtually, new problems emerge for policing. These include ICTs enabling the ease with which complex operations can be planned by small organisations or individuals, crime by remote control and the advanced monitoring capabilities enabled by cheap technology available beyond the state.

'Organised crime' may take on a new meaning as the notion of organisation itself has changed (as previous papers discussed) to take on new forms of networks and 'webs'. Arguably, the model of the Mafia as embodying organised crime may be as irrelevant as the modernist corporation or nation-state. This is a theme Lenk would have like to have developed. He asserted that we must develop new regulations for information infrastructures, beyond regulations for human behaviour or existing data protection regulations. These should be rational models which will need constant monitoring and frequent modification to 'best fit' society to its instruments. Lenk expressed doubt that, citing past experiences (the road traffic system) and due the complexity of technological systems and their implications, modern states will find suitable regulatory infrastructures. While attempts at regulation are not entirely useless, society may have to realise that technology and its (mis)use is now partly out of the control of traditional state machinery. Lenk proposed a reappraisal of the functional view of the state - an abstraction beyond the territorial space into the functions of space. This may prove the most useful approach to discerning the extent of influence the state may continue to have in policing a territory.

The final paper of the conference was Dave Carter's (dave.carter@mcr1.poptel.org.uk) "'Digital Democracy' or 'Information Aristocracy' - Economic Regeneration and the Information Economy". The paper outlined the opportunities for economic regeneration and urban development presented by ICTs, with particular regard to Manchester and its fellow cities in the European Telecities consortium. The necessity for increasing public access to these technologies at a local level was emphasised and seen as the crucial factor in determining the democratising possibilities and success in general of ICTs. Contemporary theories of urban planning were seen as useful models for maximising the potential of ICTs in cities. These concepts include the shift towards investing in small organisations and local businesses, particularly in the culture industries, and focussing on 'quality of life' and employment generation as well as economic return on investment. ICT projects must also shift from being technology-driven to user-driven, and see supplying public access as social investment rather than merely capital investment.

Carter also proposed the simple idea of using and upgrading existing technology as opposed to heavy investment in untested and unknown technology, as an easy way to increase public access to ICTs, and to 'set the scene' for the imminent broadband revolution. A model of public service must also drive the implementation of ICTs, particularly to help overcome the 'tyranny of structurelessness' that presently enables young technically skilled white males to dominate ICT culture. Market forces alone were seen as unlikely to enable universal public access, but the "anarchy of the market" could enable social and cultural innovation in ICTs given intelligent design and implementation. Examples of projects in Manchester, Bologna, Amsterdam, and Edinburgh demonstrated particular aspects of innovative use of ICTs, including the use of telematics to enable effective communication between networks of European cities. Carter's final point was that we must ensure that ICT systems reflect the cultural diversity of the communities using them. English, or rather American, must not become a de facto standard language for digital communication. ICTs should be able to support a variety of languages, dialects, cultures and input/output modes.

I found the conference stimulating, useful and enjoyable. Most people I spoke to gave the same impression, although some felt that the conference occasionally suffered from too wide a gulf between theoretical papers and empirical research. I personally feel that the convergence that ICT embodies necessitates this combination of analytical approaches. Content-wise, I was surprised that, with a few notable exceptions, the public access issue was under-represented relative to its importance. The composition of the conference attendees was sadly predictable - white, technically-fluent, non-disabled males - a privileged minority largely reflecting current ICT culture, although it was good to see an attempt to bring together academics and practitioners. Overall, I felt that several papers (particularly Frissen; Taylor, Bardzki & Webster; Raab; Burrows; Lyon; and Carter) were excellent discussions on subjects which are likely continue increasing in importance for social, political and cultural research. Many thanks to Manchester Telematics Partnership for enabling me to attend the conference.

FEEDBACK WELCOMED

Send email to: d.p.hill@mmu.ac.uk