2012, Journal of Social Affairs, Vol. 29, No. 114: 11-37.

Changing Societies:

A Sociological Study of the Emergence of New

Knowledge and Culture

Dr. Ali Z. Al-Zu'abiAnthropologist, Dep. Of Sociology and Social Work, College of Social Sciences,

Kuwait University

Abstract:

The current study explores the essence of 'information', today's most important

commodity of exchange. It also explains three conceptual societies based on

information communication, namely; information society, global information society

and cyber society. Finally, it describes Information Technology as the base of

contemporary societies.

1. Introduction

Contemporary societies are highly information based, and communication

technologies have become today's one of the major topics of discussion. Today, there

are various ways of communication due to advancement in technologies. As a result,

communication has become easier and faster and the distance between people and

their requirements have become shorter. People living at the opposite poles of the

earth are reachable within seconds through internet, mobile and other services. With

the spread of internet, it has become cheaper and faster to talk, chat, send voice mails,

and even see each other with the help of a web camera.

For thousands of years people had little need for long-distance communication

because they lived very close to one another. Today, communication technologies

have woven parts of the world together into an electronic web. No longer is

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community or dialogue restricted to a geographical place. With the advent of fax

machine, telephones, international publications and computers, personal and

professional relationships can be maintained irrespective of time and place.

Communication relationships are no longer restricted to place, but are distributed

through space. Today we are all members of many global "non-place" communities1.

Children of this era are born in a cyber society with full of technologies and can't

imagine a life without information technologies. The communication technologies are

so developed that all places are under one roof and the concept of a global village is

an apt usage for contemporary society. Any information on any place, people or

happenings in this world are available on your laptop within seconds and world has

become such a small place.

"According to its own narrative, the information age will change every aspect of

human life, therefore establishing, in effect, a "new society". The foremost

commodity that will be exchanged presumably will be not industrial products, but

information"2. Since "Anthropology defines itself as the study of difference"

(Lewellen, 2002:143), the emergence of new technology based societies and cultural

changes are important aspects of Anthropology.

One of the central paradoxes of the information society is that it makes information

easily reproducible, leading to a variety of freedom/control problems relating to

intellectual property3. The scholars write copiously about particular features of the

information society, but are curiously vague about their operational criteria. As a

result, they often fail to establish the ways and why’s of information being more

central today, so critical indeed that it is ushering in a new type of society (Webster,

2002:8). The spread of computer technology made the information society global.

"Cyber culture is the culture that has emerged, or is emerging, from the use computers

for communication, and entertainment, and business"4 which is the base of all these

three concepts.

The objective of current paper is to provide a detailed account of the three concepts,

Information Society, Global Information Society and Cyber Society through review of

literature and to examine the interrelationship between these three concepts. It also

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highlights the increased demand of Information Communication Technologies and

explains Information Technology as the base of modern societies.

2. Information Society

There is currently no universally accepted concept of what exactly can be termed

information society and what shall rather not so be termed. “Although scholars agree

that we are becoming an information society, there is little consensus on what it is that

inherent in information societies” (Steinfeild & Jerry, 1989:12). Most theoreticians

agree that we see a transformation which started somewhere between the 1970s and

today and is changing the way societies work fundamentally. One of the first people

to develop the concept of the information society was the economist Fritz Machlup5.

According to Porat (1978), the characteristics of information society are different

from earlier agricultural and industrial societies. An information society is a nation in

which a majority of the labor force is composed of information workers and in which

the use and application of information is the most productive element in its economy

(Fathy, 1991:25, 26).

The information society emerged in three developmental stages. First, beginning in

the middle of the 19th century, was characterized by the electrification of

communication. The second, beginning in the late middle 20th century, was

characterized by convergence of technologies and by awareness of the centrality of

information to society. The third stage, beginning with the 1990s, is characterized by

harmonization of information and communication systems with each other, with

systems across national borders and with other social systems (Braman, 1993: 133).

Electrification of communications increased the speed and capacity of information

flows and made possible the building of a fixed global information infrastructure.

Information flows became ever more ubiquitous and penetrated ever more deeply into

society; vastly increased their capacity, speed, manipulability, and reach; and opened

opportunities to design systems with fungibility, redundancy, interoperability, and

intelligence. Harmonization has been dependent on the increased capacity, speed, and

ubiquity of the global information infrastructure, on the mobility of its intelligence,

and on its geodesic (nonhierarchical) nature (Huber, 1987). Finally it becomes clear

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that postmodernism and network economics, mass communications and

telecommunications, popular culture and management theory are all talking about

qualitative social change in the third stage of the information society (ibid, pp134-39).

Though as a heuristic device the term information society has some value in exploring

features of the contemporary world, it is too inexact to be acceptable as a definitive

term (Webster, 2002:21). Information societies are characterized by intensive

knowledge bases, coupled with efforts to convert information into knowledge.

Decision sciences, computer models and future studies are just a few of the methods

that have evolved in information societies in an attempt to convert information to

knowledge. Another new dimension of information societies relates to the speed at

which information is generated and distributed (Steinfeild & Jerry, 1989:12).

In short, an information society is a society in which the creation, distribution and

manipulation of information is becoming a significant economic and cultural activity6.

Webster distinguishes analytically five definitions of the information society. These

are technological, economic, occupational, spatial and cultural. Each of the definitions

presents criteria for identifying the new (Grantham & Tsekouras, 2004:359; Webster,

2002:8-9).

The major element to the technological definition is the growth in and power of the

networking capabilities of information processing technologies i.e. data transmission

and processing (Grantham & Tsekouras, 2004:359). Technological conceptions centre

on an array of innovations such as cable and satellite television, computer to computer

communications, personal computers (PCs), new office technologies, online

information services and word processors, CD. Rom facilities etc that have appeared

since the late 1970s. New technologies are one of the most visible indicators of new

times, and accordingly are frequently taken to signal the coming of an information

society (Webster, 2002:9).

The economic definition surrounds the concept of the 'knowledge economy'; i.e.

wealth is generated increasingly from knowledge and information rather than

manufacturing (tangible resources and assets). Alternatively, information becomes a

factor of production of a source of value creation rather than a support activity

(Sampler, 1998:345). Porat distinguished the primary and secondary information

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sectors of the economy. Primary are susceptible to ready economic valuation since it

had an ascribable market price. Secondary are harder to price but nonetheless

essential to all modern-day organization, involving informational activities within

companies and state institutions (Porat, 1978:32).

The occupational definition is similar in its emphasis on numbers as the key indicator

entering the information age. Again, it relies on weak categorizations of knowledge

work where teachers, clerks, scientists and inventors all share the same classification.

Importantly, this definition suffers from a shortage of ethnographic studies capturing

the detail and complexity of the work experience of people (Webster, 1995; Hacli &

Webster, 2000). Daniell Bell opined that, we have achieved an information society

when the preponderance of occupations is found in information work. "We inhabit an

information society, since the predominant group (of occupations) consists of

information workers (Bell, 1979: 183).

According to Webster (1995), the spatial definition emphasizes the centrality of

information networks linking locations within and between towns, regions, nations

and continents (Grantham & Tsekouras, 2004:359). The electronic highways result in

a new emphasis on the flow of information something which leads to a radical

revision of time/space relations (Castells, 1996).

Cultural definition states that, contemporary culture is manifestly more heavily

information laden than any of its predecessors. We exist in a media-saturated

environment which means that life is quintessentially about symbolisation, about

exchanging and receiving - or trying to exchange and resisting reception - messages

about ourselves and others (Webster, 2002:19).

There is a sixth definition of an information society which is distinctive in so far as its

main claim is not that there is more information today, but rather that the character of

information is such as to have transformed how we live. The suggestion here is that

theoretical knowledge/information is at the core of how we conduct ourselves these

days. This definition is not much favored by information society proponents, though it

may be the most persuasive argument for the appropriateness of the information

society label (Webster, 2002:9).

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Garnham (2000) and Webster (1995) added a temporal definition for information

society for analysis. This definition is based on wireless ICTs' (Information

Communication Technologies). This highlights the impact of mobile technology in

areas such as identity, time, surveillance and privacy. The conditions for embracing

the transformative potential for wireless ICTs are largely political. If connectivity is

important, then it is important for everyone, and access for all has to be secured. The

other side of the coin is protection through regulation of the veracity of information

provided by key organisations and the ability to control the content of data held by

public and private bodies ranging from marketing companies to public authorities

(Grantham & Tsekouras, 2004:359).

For Castells (2002:465), communication technologies herald the notion of timeless

time. The technologies are crucial because they often dispense with human decision-

making, being pre-programmed to respond to changes in prices of internationally

traded stocks. Critical optimists such as Cubbit (1999:136) pointed to this as being

indicative of a nihilism that is widespread amongst media commentators. According

to Castells (2002:507-43), information society is more than an expression of

technological determinism. It encapsulates shifting power relations and organisational

and cultural change. For this reason he used the term network society. In other words,

"information society is a component of the broader concept of post-industrial society"

(Bell, 1974: 481,423; Stonier, 1983; Townsend, 1979).

As a result signs lose their meaning and people simply take what they like from those

they encounter (usually very different meanings than may have been intended at the

outset) and then, in putting together signs for their homes, work and selves, happily

revel in their artificiality, playfully mixing different images to present no distinct

meaning, but instead to derive 'pleasure' in parody or pastiche. In this information

society we have then 'a set of meanings which is communicated but have no meaning'

(Poster, 1990:63).

Supporters of critical approach believed that information society are best

characterized by the omnipotence of large and powerful corporations who can best

afford the high cost of the technology (Salvaggio, 1983; Schiller, 1981; Mosco, 1983;

Smythe, 1985). These authors highlighted the problems of information society. The

critical theorists have helped to focus our attention on the influence of the existing

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socio-political order in moderating any effects of new information technologies

(Steinfeild & Jerry, 1989: 8-10).

Masuda (1981; 1982) developed a similar multidimensional framework to compare

the technology, socio-economic structure, and values of an information society with

an industrial society. Bates also suggested that there may be more than one type of

information society. Bates (1984) pointed out that any information society is a

complex web consisting not only of a technological infrastructure, but also an

economic structure, a pattern of social relations, organizational patterns, and perhaps

other facets of social organization.

Finally, Huber (1984) warned against developing conceptions of information societies

that are totally based upon extrapolations from recent trends. He noted that any

system that is supposedly in a transition phase will undoubtedly engage in exploratory

behavior in order to cope with environmental changes.

Comparative Perspective

Most frameworks for comparative research in communication have focused on the

mass media particularly the press, radio, and television (Ferguson, 1986). Implications

of communication technology are shaped by both universal and particular forces

which we have distinguished in three broad categories, namely technological change,

national setting and national policy (Dutton & Blumber, 1989:64).

Technological change refers to inventions, research and developments in science and

engineering that have applicability to the efficiency of communication media.

Technological changes have a variety of impacts such as industrial and economic

development, trade and economic development, business opportunities etc on society

(ibid, p.66). National setting encompasses a variety of factors that mediate and

differentiate national responses to technological change, including the organized

interests in support or opposition to technological change, institutional arrangements

governing communications, environmental resources and constraints, and the nation's

communications culture (ibid, p.67).

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The third category, national policy, defined from a behavioral, normative as well as a

legal perspective. Communications law and regulations are important components of

policy, but so are actual patterns of adoption, development, and implementation of

communication infrastructures and services. According to Pressman & Wildavsky,

(1973) in communications, as in other areas, the ways in which policies are eventually

implemented can differ significantly from any abstract definition of national policy

(ibid, p.68). These patterns of development and implementation of communications

might be referred to as a nation's communication policy. A comparative framework

should guide more discussions of the information society because it focuses attention

on how and why nations respond differently to the problems and opportunities posed

by new technology (ibid, p.79).

The Role of public Sphere

The core idea of information society is the social communication between human

beings and thus is based upon the concept of public sphere. “Although the public

sphere is now a fashionable concept and has undoubtedly served a useful purpose in

critical thinking about the relationship between economic developments in the

information sector and the maintenance or development of democratic politics, as it is

now used it often disguises rather than clarifies the issues at stake” (Granham, 2000:

43).

Habermas and his followers have stressed the role of the public sphere as a site within

which the formation of public opinion, and the political will stemming from and

legitimised by such opinion, is subject to the disciplines of a discourse, or

communicative ethics, by which all views are subjected to the critical reasoning of

others. The public sphere is defined, as being public in two senses: because the

opinions, 'truths' or agreements arrived at within it have to be validated by publicly

presented and challengeable arguments, and because the sphere is equally open to the

access of all citizens (ibid, p.44).

In the debate over privacy and media reporting, first, we find those defending privacy

against media intrusion-including celebrities and 'public' figures such as politicians

objecting to intrusions in their 'private' as opposed to their 'public' lives. Second, we

find the media defending their behavior as in the 'public' interest because it makes

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publicly available information necessary for the making of informed political

judgments as to the suitability for public office of the individuals concerned. Now

through internet public communication within the public sphere has become easy and

much faster. Public gets information and knowledge much faster than any other

media. Thus, the role of public sphere in an information society is on increase and

participation is even higher (ibid, pp.47-8).

Issues and Problems

Benjamin J Bates (1989:19-21) highlighted the issues and problems in an information

society under the areas such as work, access and political implication. In an

information society, the focus of work would shift from the exercise of physical

power to mental skills. Reduction in employment opportunities for unskilled workers

and decreasing levels of employment in all sectors is a result of the spread of

information technology. Bates explained the problem of unemployment and quality of

life as major problems under work. Psycho-biological impacts of prolonged exposure

to use of computer terminals or VDTs are a serious problem.

Three basic issues have been raised with regard to the question of access to

information and information technologies, i.e., censorship, equity and privacy.

Potential to restrict or deny access to information, limit the options of the user either

economically or politically, information technologies are industrialized and as access

is controlled by the ability to pay, impact of differentiation based only on economic

class, enormous capacity to collect and store information on individuals etc are the

major problems come under this (ibid, pp.21-3).

Masuda (1981, 1982) foresaw the Issues of Political implication which include; rise of

a participatory democracy based on agreement, self-restraint, and synergy. Others

have noted the great potential in the rise of information systems for surveillance,

control through censorship, and the possibility of a social transformation resulting in

an authoritarian regime rather than a participatory democracy (ibid, p.24).

Thus, many scholars have given various aspects of information society, its

implications and values. The anthropological usage of information society is that it

represents human being's progress by utilizing modern technology.

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3. Global Information Society

This world only has a chance of survival if it is endowed with a common, universal

standard of values, ideals and goals7. "The vision of a knowledge-based economy

where integrated communication infrastructures and services would provide new

opportunities in an enormous range of activities is now being grasped by policy-

makers. The significance of these developments has been underlined by the

formulations of many national studies and plans for the development of information

infrastructure" (Paye, 1995:4). These lead to the formation of a global information

society.

A global computer communications network has now arisen benefiting the common

good of humankind by loosing the bonds of the marketplace and the strictures of

government on the media of communications and allowing that part of human

endeavor known as global civil society to communicate outside the barriers imposed

by commercial or governmental interests. The growth of such global interdependent

communication relations has been greatly accelerated by the advent of decentralizing

communication technologies such as computer networking. Today's "lords of the

global village" are huge corporations that "exert a homogenizing power over ideas,

culture and commerce that affect populations larger than any in history8.

The technological developments and the way they are organised and interconnected

seems set to create a knowledge-based revolution in society to which information is

the key. In essence, it involves the processing, retrieval, communication and

dissemination' of all forms of information. The impact of new applications, whether

entertainment, educational, commercial, information or public services, of the

infrastructure will be felt by everyone: individuals, households, businesses and

governments themselves. There are many obstacles on the path towards such a global

information society and decisions on policy must be taken after careful consideration

(Paye, 1995:4).

The global community has emerged in the last decade and has increasingly become a

force in international relations. The emergence of a global civil society is a part of our

collective lives that is neither market nor government but is so often inundated by

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them. The concept of civil society arose with John Locke, the English philosopher and

political theorist. It implied a defense of human society at the national level against

the power of the state and the inequalities of the marketplace. The development of

communications technologies has vastly transformed the capacity of global civil

society to build coalitions and networks. In times past, communication transaction

clusters formed among nation-states, colonial empires, regional economies and

alliances.9

The gathering pace of progress in information and communications technologies,

combined with the globalisation of modern economies and the movement towards the

liberalisation of regulation, has cleared the path for the development of a 'global

information infrastructure'. That will form the cornerstone for transforming economic

and social systems into a global information society (Paye, 1995:4).

Yarbrough explained the stage wise development of communication technologies as

follows; in 1844, the first message was sent over a telegraph line between Washington

and Baltimore. By 1855, people communicating over long distances commonly used

telegraphy. In 1865, twenty European states signed the first International Telegraph

Convention establishing a multinational communications network. Since 1947, the

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has been a specialized agency of the

United Nations. In the past 130 years, the membership of the Union has increased

nine-fold, as countries have sought to streamline, coordinate, and regulate

telecommunications on an international basis. Although telecommunications

technology has become more advanced, many developing countries still do not have

access to basic telephonic services. Consequently, the international

telecommunications community established the Telecommunications Development

Bureau, a division of the ITU designed to further cultivate telecommunications and

information technologies available in developing countries. The ITU established the

ITU Regulatory Colloquium in 1993 to utilize the knowledge of the foremost experts

in fields such as technological development, economics, and public policy in an effort

to achieve universal access. In 1998, the ITU published the Chairman's Report of the

Eighth Regulatory Colloquium which focused on the goals of facilitating e-

commerce, developing a modern information infrastructure, and achieving universal

access. Innovation and development provide the foundation for the advancement of a

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global society. To keep pace with the growing world market, the development of the

Global Information Infrastructure (GII) must occur so that every person in every

nation has access to telecommunications services and information technology

(Yarbrough, 2001: 188).

Ethnicity and Internet

At first glance, ethnicity and communication technologies seem to be two very

different subjects. On closer examination, it becomes obvious that this combination

touches on essential issues regarding the "information age" and the identity of

individuals and groups.

The new technologies will have an influence on the way people perceive the world.

As technology's uses seem limitless, people can gain the impression that it has the

ability to solve all political and social problems. The information we get shapes our

picture of the world or parts of it. Ethnicity is one of these identities and therefore

stands at the intersection of technology and the information age. The possible

intersections of ethnic identity and technology will be put into four analytical

categories that examine the persistence and dynamics of ethnicity in the medium itself

(i.e., the Internet), and in areas outside the media that are nevertheless influenced by

modern communication technologies and effects of globalization.

First: Ethnicity in Usenet which appears to be the simplest form of ethnicity on the

Internet. Second: Ethnicity and the World Wide Web, the information presented on

the World Wide Web (WWW) has a more complex nature. Third: Cultural and

informational self-determination which becomes a central issue for groups regarding

the dependencies and means of manipulation inherent in communication technology,

both inside and outside the Internet. Forth: Ethnicity, resistance, and information

technology. Individuals and groups are persecuted, discriminated against, denied the

right of self-determination, and politically oppressed or even killed because of their

ethnic identity.

The blessings of the information age have by no means reached all people and

countries of the world. To speak about a global information society is to overlook all

these groups, even if they do make use of these technologies to improve their

environment and their living circumstances. The value of the Internet as a means of

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resistance will have to be proven in the future. The Internet proved to be an excellent

tool of resistance and networking toward social change. Ethnicity, and other social

organizing principles such as gender and class, will continue to be important as long

as global inequalities remain unsolved. Technology must be a part of the process of

social transformation and social change toward a better world, rather than an end in

itself.10

Economic Progress and Global Information Society

Globalisation has undermined the ability of states to steer their economies according

to given aims, such as full employment, growth or redistributive taxation. Broader

international cooperation and coordination are needed to reverse this tendency. The

process of globalisation influences the financial markets. Shaping of these markets in

accordance with global sustainable development means, reforming the Bretton Woods

institutions, the regional banks as well as global taxation in order to fund global

public goods and global development11.

There is a need to reform the IMF and the World Bank, including a modification of

the quota system so that developing countries are better represented, to adopt better

regulations on speculative funds and to combat money laundering more effectively.

Globalisation has considerably undermined the ability of states to steer their

economies according to given political, social and economic aims, full employment,

growth or redistributive taxation (ibid).

Globalisation cannot be understood merely as a continuation of internationalisation

and the growth of interdependence in the world economy – a familiar process which

has been going on for centuries. Given the sheer quantity of cross-border trade and

capital as well as other factor movements, present-day globalisation is qualitatively

different from the internationalisation of the past. Even more important are the new

elements brought about by the development of technology in general and by

information technology, in particular. The markets for commodity services, capital

and labour are globally interdependent. As borders and protection of the respective

markets are disappearing, global regulations are needed to achieve the goals of

welfare-oriented protection and welfare-oriented balance. These regulations can differ

between regions depending on the level of their economic development. Special

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attention has to be paid to public goods, which cannot be distributed solely according

to the rules of free markets (ibid).

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a rules-based, multilateral trading system

that provides objective procedures to deal with trading conflicts and is designed to

protect its members from unilateral and unfair treatment. Since its inception, the WTO

has proved effective in solving trade disputes and has undoubtedly contributed to the

enormous rise in international trade. Nonetheless, while the present system may serve

as a basis, it remains completely inadequate and unsatisfactory (ibid).

The benefits that flow from rising volumes of trade are distributed unevenly. Large

parts of the developing world remain economically marginalized and have not been

able to integrate into world markets. Finding a way to reverse this trend and to ensure

that international trade contributes to the eradication of poverty remains one of the

key challenges to global policy making. The WTO has yet to produce an adequate

response to this challenge. Policies are needed that enhance the capacity of

developing countries to participate on a more equitable footing in the multilateral

trading system. These policies must be embedded in comprehensive and coherent

country-specific poverty reduction strategies with trade issues comprising an essential

element.Civil society, trade unions, business and NGOs should be offered a formal

consultative process ensuring that they can present their views and voice their

concerns to organs of the WTO (ibid).

In Anthropology of organizational studies, global economy is explained with

reference to culture. "According to Deal and Kennedy (1982), 'the culture concept' is

used in four ways. First, it refers to problems of managing companies with production

processes or service outlets distributed across the globe, each located in a different

'national culture'. Second, it is used when management is trying to integrate people

with different ethnicities into a workforce in one plant. Third, it can mean the

informal 'concepts, attitudes and values' of a workforce; or, fourth, 'company culture'

can refer to the formal organizational values and practices imposed by management as

a 'glue' to hold the workforce together and to make it capable of responding as a body

to fast changing and global competition" (Wright, 1994:2).

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Internet and information technologies are inevitable in the process of globalization.

Mode of information communication is the most important matter in any sector

throughout the world. The concept of Global Information Society has reduced the

distance between people, and even between the continents.

4. Cyber Society

Since the boundaries of cyber culture are difficult to define, the term is used flexibly.

It generally refers at least to the cultures of on-line communities, but extends to a

wide range of cultural issues relating to "cyber-topics". It is a wide social and cultural

movement closely linked to advanced Information and Communication Technologies

(ICTs), their emergence and development and their rise to cultural prominence

between the 1960s and the 1990s. Some authors aiming to achieve a more

comprehensive understanding, distinguish between early and contemporary cyber

culture (Jakub Macek), or between cyber culture as the cultural context of ICTs and

cyber culture as "a particular approach to the study of the 'culture + technology'

complex" (David Lister et al.). Early cyber culture (from the beginning of the 1960s

to the first half of the 1990s) developed outside the cultural and social mainstream.

This early cyber culture produced its own representations of an emerging world of

advanced information and communication technologies. Contemporary cyber culture

can be understood, on one hand, as a set of cultural practices enabling us to deal with

new forms of information, and, on the other hand, as a set of Non Governmental

Organisations (NGO), civic activities and sub cultural social groups forming a

discursive opposition to the governmental and commercial interests in ICTs12.

Cyberspace is not only a site for communication and community but also a generator

of discourse, a very real and very imagined place where a variety of interests claim its

origins, its myths, and its future directions13. Miller (1995) notes the ways in which

the Net-as-frontier metaphor serves to construct cyberspace as a place of manly

hostility, a space unsafe for women and children (Silver,2000). Basically, it can be

said that cyber culture encompasses the human-machine. Social and cultural levels

involved in what is popularly known as cyberspace.14

Allucquere Rosanne Stone (1991) defines cyberspace as "incontrovertibly social

spaces in which people still meet face-to-face, but under new definitions of both

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'meet' and 'face'". In other words, while cyberspace may lack for the most part the

physical geography found in, say, a neighborhood, city, or country, it offers users very

real opportunities for collective communities and individual identities.

For optimists, the net represents a new stage in the development of human culture.

This global culture, existing in ‘cyberspace’, enables human beings across the planet

to share and invent new ‘virtual realities’, to be free and to communicate via new

forms of art, and to collaborate in the development of scientific understanding and

new technological developments. For pessimists, the net is one more part of a process

whereby American capitalism imposes a commercialized and vulgarized English-

speaking culture of pop songs, pornography, block-buster films, jeans, hamburgers

and commercial profiteering on a previously much more diverse and culturally

sophisticated world. In the future it seems likely that most people will spend most of

their day learning or working at a computer and also spend much of their leisure time

interacting with computers or television monitors (Tansey, 2002:211).

The influence of computer and internet is common in almost all areas such as

mathematically generated ‘fractal’ displays, electronically generated music, computer

‘games’, interactive audio-visual presentations, academic enquiry, generation of

collaborative research teams, publication of new scientific discoveries and

technological innovations etc. The academic origins of the Internet and its growth in

the hands of well-intentioned private hobbyists has helped to generate an

individualistic and optimistic ‘net-culture’ (ibid, p.213).

Cyber Culture Studies

The study of cyber culture flourished throughout the last half of the 1990s. Cyber

culture studies can be characterized by its descriptive nature, binary dualism, and

frontier metaphors. Rheingold's The Virtual Community is the first pillar of

cyberculture studies, the second is Sherry Turkle's Life on the Screen: Identity in the

Age of the Internet (1995). Turkle addresses the idea of online identities by exploring

ethnographically a number of virtual environments, including Multi-User Domains, or

MUDs.15

By the mid 1990s, cyber culture studies were well underway, focused primarily on

virtual communities and online identities. Further, as a result of the enthusiasm found

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in the work of Rheingold and Turkle, cyber culture was often articulated as a site of

empowerment, an online space reserved for construction, creativity, and community.

Fortunately, however, this simplification was matched by the richness found in the

nascent field's welcoming of interdisciplinarity. With the growing popularity of user-

friendly internet service providers such as AOL and CompuServe and the widespread

adoption of Netscape, by the mid 1990s, the great internet rush was on. Significantly,

the introduction of the Web was not only a technological breakthrough but also a user

breakthrough. Coupled with these technological breakthroughs were academic

considerations. In addition to a concerted effort on the part of university

administrators to get faculty wired, scholarly conferences, papers, archives, and

discussions came online, leading all but the most techno phobic academics to the

net.15

Later, new scholars brought new methods and theories. For example, while some

sociologists approach virtual communities as "social networks" (Wellman 1997;

Wellman et al 1996), others employ the sociological traditions of interactionism and

collective action dilemma theory (Kollock & Smith 1996; Smith & Kollock 1999).

Within Anthropology, scholars began formulating a new subfield, Cyber

Anthropology, devoted to exploring the intersections between individuals, society,

and networked computers (Downey & Dumit 1998; Escobar 1996). Researchers from

a related field, ethnography, took their cue from Turkle and began to study what users

do within diverse online environments, ranging from online lesbian bars and Usenet

newsgroups to Web-based "tele-gardens" and online cities (ibid).

At the same time, linguists began to study the writing styles, Netiquettes, and

(inter)textual codes used within online environments (Danet et al 1997; Herring

1996a, 1996b, 1996c). Similarly, feminist and women's studies researchers have used

textual analysis and feminist theory to locate, construct, and deconstruct gender

within cyberspace (Cherny & Weise 1996; Consalvo 1997; Dietrich 1997; Ebben &

Kramarae 1993; Hall 1996). Further, a collection of community activists and scholars

began to explore the intersection of real and virtual communities in the form of

community networks, including the Public Electronic Network (PEN) in Santa

Monica, California, the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) in Blacksburg, Virginia,

and the Seattle Community Network (SCN) in Seattle, Washington (ibid).

17

In the second half of the 1990s, many academic and popular presses have published

dozens of monographs, edited volumes, and anthologies devoted to the growing field

of cyber culture. Reflecting this growth, recent scholars take a broader view of what

constitutes cyber culture. No longer limiting the field to merely virtual communities

and online identities, a third generation of scholarship or critical cyber culture studies

has emerged. As with all emerging fields of study, the landscape and contours of

critical cyber culture studies are, at best, chaotic and difficult to map (ibid).

In the widest sense, Cyber Anthropology means the branch of socio-cultural

Anthropology which aims to understand the culturally informed interrelationships

between human beings and those technological artifacts which can be imagined and

described as cybernetic systems. These interrelationships decidedly include the

attempts to fuse technological artifacts with human and other biological organisms,

with human society, and with the socio-ecologically shaped environment. But in the

wake of recent discourses growing around metaphors like globalization and

information age/information society especially Information and Communication

Technologies (ICTs) move into Cyber Anthropology's focus16.

Concept of Online Community

The history of online community has not necessarily been one of rational, linear

developments. Indeed, an interesting tension can be found continually at the core of

its growth. Its earliest manifestations vary from the accidental to the deliberate. Its

later manifestations can be placed almost anywhere on that spectrum but its roots,

nevertheless, are rather deep within the 1960s.

According to Jones (2002:370), the three goals of the notions of online community

are;

1. To facilitate communication among interesting people in the Bay area,

2. To provide sophisticated conferencing at a low price,

3. To bring email to the masses.

In general, girls inflict virtual abuse more than boys through instant messaging, online

conversations, and e-mails. A survey of girls ages 12 to 18 found that 74% of

18

adolescent girls spend the majority of their time online in chat rooms or sending

instant messages and e-mail (Migliore, 2003). Boys are more likely to make online

threats and build websites targeting others. It can be much more difficult to identify

bullies in cyberspace. Online screen names and e-mail addresses can hide a person's

true identity. It is easier to bully someone you don't have to face. With no boundaries

or tangible consequences, children are using technology to vent normal frustrations in

ways that can become very destructive. Traditionally, home was a place where a kid

could go to escape his bully. With advances in technology, home is no longer a haven.

In the past several years, parents have provided cell phones for their children in order

to keep track of them and to keep them safe. The same cell phones that make parents

feel more connected to their children have become tools of harassment. The newest

forms of cell phones include the ability to send text messages, pictures, and even live

video. In the hands of bored teenagers, these additions can become weapons for

bullies to spread rumors as well as pictures of unsuspecting kids in locker rooms.

Websites can provide places where children can gain knowledge and communicate

with others who share the same interests. This same benefit can also be used to do

harm (Keith & Michelle, 2005).

The role of rural Internet kiosks17

In its quest to bring Internet to the rural population along commercial lines, the

private firm relies on two dominant principles. The first is to sell rural Internet kiosks

to prospective rural entrepreneurs at a price that reflects the spectacular cost

reductions from the inclusion of corDECT in the kiosk package. The second guiding

principle, on which the enterprise is based, comes into play only when a kiosk

package has actually been purchased. For it is then assumed that the kiosk-owner will

use his or her knowledge of the local community to exploit the product as profitably

as possible (James, 2004:104). There is another important mode of bringing the

Internet to the rural population on the basis of low-cost local kiosks, rather than in the

form of telecentres with all their blatant flaws. It is also important to recognize that

the two commercial principles, on which n-Logue is based, are interdependent rather

than independent (James, 2004:104).

Computer Crimes

19

Computer Crime Manual defines computer crime as "any violations of criminal law

that involve knowledge of computer technology for their perpetration, investigation,

or prosecution"18. "The technological capacity to monitor what citizens read and write

online has led to dozens of arrests. In the last two years, human rights organizations

have documented more than 50 people who were held on subversion charges for

publishing or distributing information online" ( Qiang, 2003:70).

Experts have had difficulty calculating the damage caused by computer crimes due to:

(i) the difficulty in adequately defining what is a computer crime; (ii) victims'

reluctance to report incidents for fear of losing customer confidence; (iii) the dual

system of prosecution; and (iv) the lack of detection. Department of Justice divides

computer-related crimes into three categories according to the computer's role in the

particular crime. First, a computer may be the "object" of a crime. This category

primarily refers to theft of computer hardware or software. Second, a computer may

be the "subject" of a crime. This category encompasses all of the crimes that have

arisen out of the technology explosion of the last several decades, including the use of

often interrelated "viruses," "worms," "trojan horses," "logic bombs," "sniffers," and

"distributed denial of service attacks". Many offenders in this category are motivated

by malice or mischief rather than financial gain. This type of crime is particularly

popular among juveniles, disgruntled employees and professional hackers who want

to show off their skills. Third, a computer may be an "instrument" used to commit

traditional crimes in a more complex manner. These traditional crimes include

identity theft, child pornography, copyright infringement, and mail or wire fraud. In

addition to increased multinational governmental cooperation, international

organizations and private corporations are also working to combat international

computer crimes by contributing to the drive to harmonize national legislation

(Ditzion et al., 2003: 285).

In short, spread of cyber culture has many advantages as well as disadvantages.

5. Information Technology: The Base of Newly Emerged Societies

The world is in the midst of an all-purpose technological revolution based on

Information Technology (IT), defined here as computers, computer software, and

telecommunications equipment. Defining "Information Technology" is subjective

20

because it involves different types of industries and firms. The U.S. Congressional

Office of Technology Assessment defines "high technology" firms as those engaged

in designing, developing, and introducing new products and processes (Hecker, 1999).

IT is defined broadly to include the people, equipment and technologies involved with

computing, telecommunications and management science (Whisler 1967 in Dutton &

Blumler 1989:63). In other word, "IT is a term that covers all forms of technology

used to create, store, transmit, interpret, and manipulate information in its various

formats"19.

Information itself has taken a greater importance in highly industrialized

contemporary societies. IT occupies a central role in all of the information societies.

Communication technologies combined with advanced information technologies are

keys to global information society. Information Technologies are assuming a more

central and important role in modern cyber society. “IT in general and internet in

particular are about freedom, creativity and dynamism” (Edwards, 2002:19), which

forms the base of previously explained contemporary societies.

Unlike radio and TV, the Internet allows a bi-directional way of communicating. This

might give a number of groups the potential for media self-determination, which they

have been denied so far. Obstacles to this, however, include of course the growing

concentrations in the media-market (Murdoch et al.) and the attempts to control the

access to, and use of, new media technologies such as the Internet. Obstructive

strategies are pursued by corporate as well as by governmental agencies. A view of

the worldwide distribution of modern communication technologies suggests that

current class differences and dependencies are to be maintained rather than

challenged.20

Information technology presents the attractive possibility of bypassing older

technologies ("leapfrogging"). To date, the IT revolution has largely followed the

pattern of past technological revolutions, including an initial phase characterized by a

boom and bust in the stock prices of innovating firms, as well as in spending on goods

embodying the new technology. The IT revolution is different from past technological

revolutions in the globalization of production, which has strengthened real and

financial linkages across countries. The rapid growth in the production of IT goods

implies that changes in global demand conditions, driven mainly by IT-using

21

advanced economies, have a significant impact on the exports of IT-producing

countries (World Economic Outlook, 2001:105).

In many ways, especially economically, the biggest impact of new information and

communication technologies has been in the entertainment industry. Conventional

cinema and broadcasting has gradually made increasing use of digital techniques in

the preparation of special effects, cartoon features, the processing of news and the

like. In many poorer countries it is possible that the use of IT could help to bridge the

educational gap between them and richer areas of the world; but such a project would

require an imaginative use of resources by the world community, which is perhaps

unlikely in current circumstances. Modern IT offers the possibility of a learner’s

paradise in which not only can exciting multi-media educational materials be created,

but they can be made to interact with the learner and be available just when and where

the learner requires them - anytime, anywhere in the world. The technical systems

already exist to implement such a vision. The quality and interest of CD-ROMs

already available, such as the Encarta Encyclopedia, is highly considerable. Materials

are already constructed linking text, pictures and video and presented on CD-ROM or

websites (Tansey, 2002: 206-8).

Any consumer of newspapers, television, even of government documentation would

know more about the potential for information technology in government. Policy

implementation depends upon information technology and computers. The 1950s

marked the pioneer stage, where computers were used for scientific calculations and

massive routine administrative tasks. The 1960s brought the development of large

mainframe computers, large centralised computer systems, with the main processors

held at regional computing centres usually communicated with by ‘dumb’ terminals

without processing power (Margetts, 1999:1-2).

The 1970s was an era of applications development with more variations in function.

Programmers, systems designers and developers played an important role. Terminals

spread across departments in the 1970s. When prices of computers decreased

dramatically in the 1980s, these were replaced by personal computers with their own

processing power and storage capabilities. Database technologies were also

developed, providing a structured store of data, eliminating duplication and reflecting

the nature of the data, rather than the needs of particular applications that processed

22

them. By the mid-1980s automation in manufacturing and service sectors was still

largely composed of discrete applications of information technology, but the

technological trend was very strong towards integration. In the 1990s the capacity of

personal computers increased dramatically and networks to link them together became

available to most organisations. These changes mean that the possibilities that

information technology offers in the 1990s are considerably greater than merely

providing a faster, larger, automated filing system. Organisations of all kinds have

taken on new functions that would not be possible without such technology (Margetts,

1999:2).

The 1980s brought a dramatic increase in use of the Internet, a global research

network, consisting of a loose confederation of inter-connected networks providing

services such as file transfer and electronic mail. Finally, virtual reality is an

interactive, computer-generated, three-dimensional, immersive display. At the time of

writing most applications are in the early stages of use (Schroeder, 1995). Within

government there are very few applications and virtual reality is most often used as a

romantic analogy to describe the effects of existing types of information technology

on public organisations (see Frissen, 1994a, 1994b, 1996b; Sabbagh, 1994). But

research and development efforts have spread widely and the potential for specific,

discrete applications especially within health and education is likely to be dramatic in

the future (ibid).

One of the most important findings of the microeconomic studies is that information

technology is particularly effective in new companies that are unencumbered by

traditional productive relations. This means that countries that facilitate the launching

of new ventures and companies will have an advantage in attracting IT investment

and making an effective use of it. Information technology can itself help catalyze

cultural and institutional change. Information technology can help increase

transparency and reduce corruption for instance, in countries where government

procurement has gone online. Also, by reducing the costs of communications,

information technology can reduce "economic distance" across countries. Closeness,

in turn, increases international trade and helps blur cultural differences. This is likely

to reduce transaction costs and will make economic relations more effective and

productive. It also helps to improve the quality of education through the use of

23

computers in the classroom and the implementation of international TIMSS-type

standardized tests (Edwards, 2002:1).

The complexity and variety of skill sets required within IT, contributes to career

issues that are unique to employees in this industry. Department of Labor, the IT

industry includes all scientists, engineers, and technicians who create and apply new

technologies regardless of their industry. Other occupations within IT include

engineers, scientists, mathematical and computer specialists, technicians, managers of

these positions, as well as those involved in delivering products or services within

technology (Kaminsky & Anne H. Reilly, 2004:20).

IT will inevitably change how people all over the world understand reality and create

opportunities to change that reality. The more individuals and organizations grasp the

nature of the technology and its possibilities, the greater the probability they can

influence the direction of change. A modest hope is that increased communication and

a greater pooling of information should in the long run make it easier for people,

organizations and states to reach, if not a consensus on what should be done, at least

informed compromises on how to live together (Tansey, 2002:214). Similarly, the

application of Information Technology and internet is inevitable in Anthropological

research. "Current information technologies now influence theology and religious

expression, and ways that such influence might move in the future. Communication

technologies have wide-ranging interactions with the cultures that foster them"

(Buckley et al, 2001:366) which is an important cultural anthropological concern.

Information technology and its application can be noticed in any sector of

contemporary societies. Today’s industries, education, government, everything is

based on computers and information technology. This spread of IT is the cause of the

societal concepts like information society, global information society and cyber

society. Each concept is interconnected and IT is the base of each one.

6. Conclusion:

Information is a term with many meanings depending on context. In the present

context, information is message received and understood. Information is a concept

bears a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally

speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint,

24

communication, knowledge, meaning etc. Many people speak about information age

as the advent of knowledge age or knowledge society, the information society and

Information Technologies.21

In an information society the creation, distribution and manipulation of information is

a significant economic and cultural activity. A global computer communications

network has now arisen benefiting the common good of humankind by loosing the

bonds of the marketplace and the strictures of government on the media of

communications and allowing that part of human endeavor known as global civil

society to communicate outside the barriers imposed by commercial or governmental

interests. Cyber society generally refers at least to the cultures of on-line

communities, but extends to a wide range of cultural issues relating to "cyber-topics".

It is a wide social and cultural movement closely linked to advanced Information and

Communication Technologies (ICTs).

Basically, it can be said that cyber culture encompasses the human-machine. Social

and cultural levels involved in what is popularly known as cyberspace. It is a wide

social and cultural movement closely linked to advanced Information and

Communication Technologies (ICTs), their emergence and development and their rise

to cultural prominence.

All these concepts depend on internet. Internet is the worldwide, publicly accessible

network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching

using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of

millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which

together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat,

file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide

Web.22

The examination of the three concepts reveals the fact that the basic idea of each one

is Information Communication Technologies. Today's increased demand of

information is the base of all the concepts and the contemporary societies highly

depend on Information Technologies.

Notes

25

1. See ‘Computer Networks and the Emergence of Global Civil Society: The

case of Association for Progressive Communications’ (APC) Paper

Presented at the Annual Conference of the Peace Studies

Association.Boulder, February 28, 1992. Workshop on "How to Utilize

Communications Networks for Peace Studies" Copyright 1992. by Howard

H. Frederick, Ph.D.To be published in Globalizing Networks: Computers

and International Communication, eds. Linda Harasim and Jan Walls

(Oxford, forthcoming).

2. See ‘Ethnicity and the Internet in a Global Society’ by Nils Zurawski,

University of Munster, Germany.

3. Available from: www.answers.com [accessed 6th May 2006]

4. See Wikepedia, Online Encyclopedia

5. Available from: www.answers.com [accessed 14th June 2006]

6. Available from: www.answers.com [accessed 16th June 2006].

7. See ‘Global Responsibility’ [online] by Hans Kung available from:

www.answers.com [accessed 25th April 2006[.

8. Previous reference Notes. 1

9. ibid.

10. Previous reference Notes. 2

11. See ‘Governance In A Global Society – The Social Democratic Approach

Equal Opportunities And Participation For Women And Men, Poor And

Rich, Developing, Transitional And Developed Countries’. Socialist

international. London.

12. ibid

13. Available from: www.answers.com [accessed 2nd July 2006]

14. See ‘a neologism invented by the cyberpunk’ author William Gibson

available from: wikipedia the encyclopedia

26

15. Looking backwards, Looking Forward: Cyber Culture Studies 1990-2000 by

David Silver, Department of Communication, University of Washington.

Originally published in Web.studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital

Age, edited by David Gauntlett (Oxford University Press, 2000): 19-30.

16. Available from: www.answers.com [accessed 22nd July 2006]

17. Rural Internet Kiosks open the doors to a new way of rural life. It has

opened new channels of communication among the rural people by

providing internet access. 

18. See Computer Crime: Criminal Just. Resource Manual 2 (1989) by National

Institute of Justice, U.S. Dep't of Justice. See Jo-Ann M. Adams, Comment,

Controlling Cyberspace: Applying the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to the

Internet, 12 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L.J. 403, 409 (1996)).

19. Available from: www.tecc.com.au/tecc/guide/glossary.asp [accessed 15th

May 2006].

20. See ‘Ethnicity and the Internet in a Global Society’ by Nils Zurawski,

University of Munster, Germany.

21. See Wikepedia, Online Encyclopedia

22. ibid

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