BKINTIGA.RVW 20000302 "In the Net", Jim Walch, 1999, 1-85649-759-3, U$25.00 %A Jim Walch jwalch@igc.apc.org %C 7 Cynthia Street, London, UK N1 9JF %D 1999 %G 1-85649-759-3 %I Zed Books %O U$25.00 +44-02078378466 fax: +44-02078333960 %P 188 p. %T "In the Net: An Internet Guide for Activists" The preface is not particularly clear about what the purpose of this book is, nor the audience for whom it is written. The tome is asserted to be "action research," while other statements seem to imply that it is a partial report on some of the work that is actually being done in promoting social action using the Internet. In view of the stated intention to base the book on actual occurrence, it is ironic that chapter one relies so heavily on models of social theory, and so little on real studies. In the discussion of virtual communities, for example, the opinions of Postman's "Technopoly" and Rheingold's "The Virtual Community" (cf. BKVRTCOM.RVW) figure prominently and the reportage of Cohill and Kavanaugh's "Community Networks" (cf. BKCNLFBV.RVW) is ignored. Chapter two starts off with a rather skewed history of networking, detours to wander through several attempts to distinguish different types of computer mediated communications, starts another short history of another area of computing, and trails off in a few anecdotes about using computers to communicate with people. Given the citations in the prior material, chapter three appears to be the central point of the book, but consists only of some details about the establishment of a network of electronic bulletin board systems, primarily in Bosnia, during the war in the former Yugoslavia in the mid '90s. Unfortunately, the real particulars of getting computers and connecting them are not included. Chapter four describes a number of network based social initiatives, but the assessment of utility is based almost entirely on subjective opinion. We are told that the use of technology has some problems, that trying to create utopia has some dangers, and that the computer industry itself faces some political issues, in chapter five. These are all valid points, but hardly news. Late in the book there is a rather odd sidebar in praise of Doing Nothing Useful. Now, I found this ironic, given that I almost did not review this book today. I had already Done my allotment of Useful Things for the day, but the fact that I possibly had enough time (plus some probable Scottish heritage that abhors idle time) prompted me to read and review it. Walch, in all likelihood, would maintain that in producing this review I still haven't Done Anything Useful. However, by the same token, I have to say that he hasn't, either. Opinionated, hypothetical, and slanted, the writing in the book is difficult to follow and even, at times, hard to read. While there may be some material here that can add to the growing body of literature on the topic of social and political use of the net, nothing in it will convince those of little social conscience to become involved, nor will the very scanty technical material be of assistance to those who are involved in political causes with getting connected to, and involved in, computer mediated communications. Socially aware hackers will, of course, already know about pretty much everything in the book. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2000 BKINTIGA.RVW 20000302 The author has requested that the following response accompany the review. It is included unedited. The only modification from the message as received is to reformat, and remove extraneous material to reduce length. Date sent: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 11:01:36 +0100 From: Jim Walch Copies to: JULIAN.Z@zedbooks.demon.co.uk Reply to Rob Slade It seems that Rob Slade and I are on different wave lengths. We may have different ideas about social action and computing. This "we" also includes a rather large community of scholars, such as co-author of the Peoples' Communications Charter, Cees Hamelink who did the foreword, and social activists around the world who, like myself, have been working for more than two decades in putting the technology to meaningful uses. These people are now mainly in the South. This book, like other writings, collect and document experiences so that learning and sharing may take place. An example of this is the "Global Knowledge" movement, with the GKII taking place in Malaysia in March, 2000. What I have attempted to do in the book is to reflect back upon and analyze this work. This is the meaning of the term 'action research'. It means a linking of social history with social theory. It is always a tricky business connecting theory with practice. I have chosen to do this through exemplification of actual uses of computer mediated communication by peace, environmental and human rights groups, with a short start in social theory in order to set a framework for description. A more careful reading by Rob Slade would bring this out. And he might be able to see that the point of such things as "Doing Nothing Useful" was an allegorical argument for the fact that what many may see as not being useful may, in the long run, be very important. The case he took exception to was that of young people in the 1960s sitting around "not doing anything useful", when in practice this was the start of the peace movement against the US war in Vietnam. The connection to computer technology, as covered earlier in the book, is that the broadening of access to computer mediated communications came out of the environment of protest and movements for social change. While both Rob Slade and I know this, most people do not, but see the Internet and computer technology in general of something of, by and for big business. And now, as then, there are those who treat political analysis, of necessity done from a political perspective, as mere opinion. In the Net is not, as Rob Slade correctly experienced it, for computer technicians, but for students of social history who are interested in the connection between technology and social change. A more careful reading would probably erase his question marks for example that the central chapter on comuting in a war zone, was written in close collaboration with the people who were actually "connecting the computers". And more importantly, connecting the people on all sides of the battle lines. + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + Jim Walch Stockholm Institute of Education Box 34103 R†lambsv„gen 24 tel: +46-8-737 55 00 fax: 737 97 95 100 26 Stockholm email: jwalch@lhs.se Sweden home: +46-8-754 19 88 jwalch@igc.apc.org mobile: 070 773 82 35 homepage: + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +