Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

[tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>]

Larry Press, professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills,
mentioned:
"If the computers were connected, it would be possible to discover and
distribute audio and video recordings."

"As a musician, you spend a lot of time using the computer as a local
tool; while I tend to use it for communication.  That probably explains
part of your tendency to emphasize the computers and mine the network."
- - -
I think some assumptions were made that might not be accurate.  But, for
the sake of discussion, let's look at what his position is, and I hope
I'm not making false assumptions.

Larry is of the school of thought that an infrastructure that supports
connectivity between villages, and specifically, access to the Internet,
is foremost the primary objective to providing a solution to our
ever-growing Digital Divide in the world.

What this school of thought fails to acknowledge, is the early years of
the computer.  In the 1980's, developed nations obtained computers. 
There was no Internet.  The Digital Divide began to take shape.

This, I think, is an indisputable fact.

To counter the Digital Divide, it just seems natural, that developing
nations should be able to obtain computers.  Once those computers are
available, solutions that result in the added infrastructure we commonly
refer to as network, can be expanded.  We did it.  Why wouldn't we want
developing nations to have the same opportunity?  Instead, we have a
domineering school of thought (aside from Grameen Organization) that
insists such an approach is not to be offered.  Developing nations must
wait until by the good graces of developed nations, an infrastructure
will be provided.  Of course, since technology is advancing at such a
rapid rate, an infrastructure that is suitable for developing nations
will most likely have to continue to be put off until new approaches
that integrate the latest technology are in place.  

If one disputes the above comments, just think about it for a moment. 
If there was no Internet, what would the best approach be to provide a
solution to the Digital Divide?  Well, yes, we would have computers at
the heart of any such infrastructure, networking each computer with
another.  Those without telephone lines would have to carry the
computers back and forth, sometimes hundreds of miles, just to
participate.  Untenable?  Who knows?  Never had the chance to find out. 
The Internet came along, and the old approach of providing computers was
scrapped.  It was the old "oops, we better wait until we get Internet
infrastructure in place before we send anyone a computer." excuse.

As Open Studios grows, and the number of communities that join the Open
Studios network grows, we will begin to see just how harmful those who
bought into the World Bank nonsense have been to our world community. 

Larry's unable to appreciate what the computer means to communities,
here, or abroad.  Recording studios sit on a kitchen table, and that's
all there needs to be to make multi-media fund-raising campaigns that
rival anything created by international corporations.  Larry thinks the
term "recording studio" can only be used in the context of music. 
That's a shame, because the computer is much, much more than that. 
Communities will use the community-based recording studios for nonprofit
agencies to create multi-media fund-raising campaigns.  Small businesses
will use the recording studios for marketing programs, schools for
educational programs, and all of the above will generate revenues for
the states, for the government, for the individual.  God forbid, we make
such wonders available to developing nations.

Hopefully, this will cause the reader to ask questions.  I look forward
to them, and let's have fun with this topic.  The infrastructure or the
egg, computer or egg, what's your choice?
Tom