Internet: « Que sais-je ? » n° 3073 (French Edition)

Le relaxation by R. Histoire de la chirurgie by Claude d'Allaines. European Resistance, by Henri Michel. Le Rugby by Robert Poulain. Les manuscrits de la mer Morte by Ernest-Marie Laperrousaz. Histoire des fleurs by Lucien Guyot. Les langues internationales by Pierre Burney. La vigne et sa culture by Louis Levadoux. Les disques by P. La musicologie by Armand Machabey. La cellula vivente by Henri Firket.

Les attitudes politiques by Jean Meynaud. Les lieux saints by Bernardin Collin. L'Information by Fernand Terrou. La monarchie de juillet by Philippe Vigier.

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Geschiedenis van Cyprus by Alain Blondy. Les Guerres de religion: L'anthropologie physique by Pierre Morel. Cubism by Pierre Cabanne. Sociologie de la vieillesse by Paul Paillat. La Perspective by Albert Flocon. Le bridge by Versini Georges. Geographie de la consommation by George Pierre. Le Rhin by Ritter Jean. Les hypnotiques by Jean Delphaut. The Federal Republic of Germany: A Concise History by Alfred Grosser. Les fleuves by Michel Rochefort. Histoire de la France libre by Henri Michel. S by Pierre George. Les semiconducteurs by Robert Guillien.

La guerre de tente ans by Georges Livet. Les grandes dates du Moyen Age by Jean Delorme. La typographie by Victor Letouzey. La Kabbale by Roland Goetschel. Citadins et ruraux by Jean-Bernard Charrier. La Chine ancienne by Jacques Gernet. Histoire de Florence by Yves Renouard. L'harmonie by Olivier Alain. Les transistors by Jacques Dezoteux. Le internazionali operaie, by Annie Kriegel. Le snobisme by Philippe Du Puy de Clinchamps. Assyriology by Paul Garelli. Mussolini et le fascisme by Paul Guichonnet. Grammaire du grec by Charles Guiraud. Le calcul analogique by Jean-Jacques Gleitz.

Structuralism by Jean Piaget. Histoire de la langue russe by Charles Jacques Veyrenc. L'informatique [que sais-je ] by Pierre Mathelot. Grammaire du sanskrit by Jean Varenne. Le Sanskrit by Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat. Breve storia della fotografia by Jean A. Les Techniques documentaires by Jacques Chaumier.

Spinoza et le spinozisme by Pierre-Francois Moreau. Les grandes dates de l'histoire de l'art by Jean Rudel. Histoire de l'Ile Maurice by Auguste Toussaint. Le romantisme allemand by J. Signes, symboles et mythes by Luc Benoist. Le Roman policier by Boileau-Narcejac. L'ergonomie by Lancry Alain. La Formation continue by Pierre Besnard. Le Mexique by Alain Musset. Les Basques by Jacques Allieres. Le Marketing by Armand Dayan. Les Instruments de percussion by Jean-Paul Vanderichet. Histoire des corsaires by Auguste Toussaint. Le Gaullisme by Jean-Christian Petitfils.

L'explication de textes et la dissertation by Bernard Gicquel. Introduction au droit by Jean-Luc Aubert. La fugue by Marcel Bitsch. La Phonologie by Jean-Louis Duchet. Le Pape by Paul Poupard. Le parfum by Jean-Claude Ellena. Manichaeism by Michel Tardieu. Le zoroastrisme by Paul Du Breuil. Le roman d'espionnage by Gabriel Veraldi. L'apartheid by Odette Guitard. La foi catholique by Paul Poupard. L'organologie by Catherine Michaud-Pradeilles. La Marine nationale by Hubert Haenel. Le service public by Jacques Chevallier. Darwin et le darwinisme by Denis Buican. L'anarcho-capitalisme by Pierre Lemieux.

La Didactique des sciences by Jean-Pierre Astolfi. Heidegger by Alain Boutot. Les politiques publiques by Pierre Muller. Les personnes en situation de handicap by Claude Hamonet. Bergson by Jean-Louis Vieillard-Baron. La gestion des ressources humaines by Jean-Marc Le Gall. L'environnement by Jacques Vernier. La philosophie de Pascal by Jean Brun. La sociologie du langage by Pierre Achard. Instagram - Youtube - tumblr - Picarto - Facebook - Twitter. Ho my gosh, guys, long time no see, huh?

You have no idea I had no idea! I feel like I was in a washing machine, unable to put a feet on the ground. Things happened really fast during the last 3 weeks of October. It would be too long and too boring to talk about eveything but let's just say that I was on auto-pilote mode, running as fast as necessary while traveling long distance in a car almost everyday.

I was sleeping hours a night, I wasn't eating more than a piece of bread and salad a day and I still hadn't enough time! I have searched a new home for one year non stop. I did not have a stable lifestyle nor a stable job and I was constantly traveling. I prepared as best as I could and took care of myself but it was not enough when everything came at the same time.

I stopped eating and sleeping. I stopped liking simple things that gave me joy the previous month. I had zero time to relax and my todolist was an arm long - and nothing on it could get canceled. People asked too much from me. I asked to much from myself. I had to do things that triggered phobias and didn't have time to process it or practice self care. To be really honest with you I developped psychosis and some days I would drink heavily first time doing that to numb my constent state of panic anxiety is so lovely, compared to this and get through the day.

I lost so much weight. I had no internet connexion and was always on the move, so I couldn't get to my friend and get support I knew I needed to get to the hospital, to receive treatment I have not been on any medication for the last 2 years and be monitored but I was never at the same place more than 3 days and things needed to be done right then if I wanted to have a roof under my head, financial stability, have medical assurance and stay in a situation that was beneficial for my mental health.

People were counting on me for life changing matters.

I knew - knowing myself a little bit - that being in this situation for too long would trigger a depression but My situation is stable, so I'm reaching to you guys, wanting to chat. The depression is still going strong but I am fighting it, as always. It forced me to have a massive existential crisis the 30's do that too? I thought it was the 40's, not before I realised a lot about myself. Somehow it is freeing but at the same time, it's really scary to see a new, big mountain revealed to me on the road ahead. So don't worry about me guys. I just need your support, as always, but otherwise, I'm okay.

And I know what I need to do for my future. I survived "the October of the Apocalypse". Truly a horror show, as far as I'm concerned, at least I was in the theme for Halloween! So, as you saw, I did not finished Inktober. Not because of the depression, really, but because of all the things that happened at the same time. I'm pretty sad because I was really motivated and excited about it. But I have to be compassionate with myself and accept that a lot of things I could not have foreseen happened and I had no choice but to make them a priority.

I still have a brunch of drawings I did for Inktober, so I'll post them in the future, on instagram. It was still a worthwhile experience and I learned a ton! Well, a lot of things happened; life changing events But here are the plan so far: I just moved to a new location a few days back and I need to get comfortable and make new friends. I brought a house! Ho my Gosh, guys, I have a house! Less cash would flow out of the country, because fewer international experts would be needed. The Internet may certainly require a large investment and may incur many upfront costs, but in time, it is thought, the value-added benefits would more than repay the initial investment.

Consider the benefits to SME development. In other words, it is believed that Internet development would have no unrecoverable costs. It is a tool that supports other sectors. All informants believed that access to this technology should be facilitated through policies aimed at reducing the cost of computer equipment, telephone communication, and Internet access. To promote the Internet, some suggested the establishment of public exhibitions. The state should make Internet access free and reduce the cost of the hardware associated with this technology computer, printer, telephone, and so forth.

The current cost of a permanent connection is between 30 and 40 XOF a month, not including telephone charges. Informants suggested that the state should also solicit international aid for infrastructure expansion including electricity, telephone lines, and computers and make these resources available to its citizens. In addition, the state should create an Internet development fund to finance, among other things, training of local engineers to manufacture computers and create Web sites with national content.

This proposal would meet a few of the conditions for a successful implementation of Internet technology, particularly in the following categories:. We found that Faced with these figures, one gets the impression that the Internet is the tool of the intelligentsia. A Francophonie project at the University of Abidjan resulted in a generous supply of computer equipment for that school.

This focused initiative had little in common with the more generalized craze for computers we encountered in other places, such as Dakar. The second statement above was considered valid by Many televisions were imported to equip the schools; later, it was determined that this operation served more to camouflage a certain commercial interest than to respond to the need for technology transfer. A stalemate ensued, and ultimately the project was abandoned. The Internet remains a tool of the elite and is thus used primarily by state and university institutions and by the largest private companies.

Among the reasons put forward by some to either support or reject the argument were aspects of the Internet generally deemed positive: However, others claimed that African countries are ill prepared to use the Internet and pointed out the drawbacks of subcontracting the marketing of Internet-related products.

In this area, the developing countries are essentially consumers. Obviously, the issues raised are indeed of some concern. When the discussion turned to their ability to act to help meet the conditions for Internet integration, The Internet is very useful. Accordingly, people insisted that the state disseminate information to raise the level of public awareness, highlighting the benefits and profits that the Internet could produce.

Businesses also have an important civic role to play in this matter as disseminators of state. In brief, more training must be made available at all levels. However, this must be done in stages. For example, it would be utopian to believe that the entire Ivorian population could be connected to the Internet an Internet connection in every village. The first step should be to concentrate on white-collar workers, university students, and the most affluent town populations.

Other voices proposed that the state establish programs to ensure that schoolchildren have access to computers and are introduced to Internet use. Many informants did not respond to the question. Significantly, the Internet reflects African society in one regard: This comment served to remind us of the inevitable societal imbalance between the powerful few and the fairly powerless masses. The state would thus encounter many difficulties if it tried to use the Internet to monitor its people. Experiences with other means of communication are indicative of the difficulty of censoring: However, before the arrival of the Internet, people never had such rapid and voluminous access to so many different points of view.

All sorts of opinions circulate on the Internet because everyone can express themselves, wherever they are. Of course, Internet content includes a good dose of propaganda in all areas: The same experience also teaches us that the Internet promotes democracy, as the first newspapers disseminated over the network by Ivorians were issued by the opposition press. Informants who paid particular attention to the use that the government could make of the Internet considered this issue fairly frequently — every time a political event occurred.

Some people thought that the state does not use the Internet in the best interests of the people as much as it could. For example, the Internet. The Internet could be a marvelous tool to decentralize information and localize administrative decision-making. In fact, a first attempt is being made to use the Internet in this way: Decisions would reach the provinces more quickly, and the Internet would be part of an ongoing effort to educate the public on the challenges involved in governing a country.

Among the recommendations put forward to ensure that the Internet is not used as a surveillance device by the government is regulation. From the previous responses, we infer that the majority of Ivorians oppose any form of control. However, they favour legislation to protect individual freedom and freedom of communication, even if these are already guaranteed by the constitution. The latter has been reinterpreted at times to allow such abuses as telephone wiretapping.

In response to these statements, However, no justification was given to support this negative response. The latter claimed that it was the government and multinationals that first adopted Internet technology, as their productivity was more sensitive to potential gains. Internet development has so far eluded SMES , 6. We noted that a full spectrum of SMES are ready to invest in this resource. At the level of market share, the Internet favours the multinationals. But an SME connected to the Internet can increase its efficiency and profitability.

A significant proportion, This reflects either a lack of interest or difficulty in providing an answer. Many people felt that it would be a good idea to launch an advertising campaign directed at SMES , to educate them about the benefits of the Internet. Tax-reduction policies were also recommended. Another idea was to have groups of SMES collectively invest in Internet equipment; this would reduce acquisition and implementation costs.

It was also suggested that Internet access be facilitated by government, so that Ivorians could use it to promote their agricultural products. Perhaps for that reason, our Ivorian informants were least enthusiastic and most critical of the Internet. They emphasized the fact that it could create other gaps in addition to those of rich and poor, literate and illiterate. They also saw the potential for a generation gap. This is the bait that has helped spread, first computers, then the Internet.

No intervention in this process was felt tolerable, even within. Indeed, the informants themselves, those with a private-sector background, proved to be much more dynamic than public workers. In the opinion of our informants, this wait-and-see attitude of the government is somewhat characteristic of African countries, whereas an extra effort is really needed to achieve results: The negative must be accepted, if people are to enjoy the positive. According to our informants, the same phenomenon observed in the case of other ICTS will be true of the Internet: We did, however, note real worries regarding the potential for harmful effects on the African cultural identity.

The Internet causes gaps between various categories of people in both the North and the South. This phenomenon is by no means specific to Africa. Nonetheless, to avoid being held responsible for those gaps, the South should take special precautions against these inequities. It would be all the more perverse for the South to fall into these traps, as it has had ample opportunity to see the consequences elsewhere.

Le Livre 010101, Tome 1 (1993-1998) by Marie Lebert

When establishing the Internet, African countries must take all measures to reduce these risks. But though the correlation between wealth and culture is anything but strong, the one between poverty and illiteracy is blatant. Information is also causally related to culture. In the North, there exists an entire middle class that, although perhaps not rich, is capable of using the new technologies. This is true of a good number of adolescent and student users, for example.

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The poor of South and North have little in common, and the rich of the South are likely to travel frequently and lead lives of leisure, rather than work with a computer. In general, the rich have staff to take care of everything related to computers, communications, and telecommunications. Comments included the following: A great number of students leave school well before the age of 17 years. Attendance at kindergarten is climbing, especially in towns and cities.

But few classes of any sort boast computer equipment. It is considered a tool available to civil servants, and to some of the most affluent by virtue of personal wealth. Nonetheless, Internet use is still uncommon in The Gambia, including in its capital, Banjul. All of our informants stated that they often or very often considered the fact that the Internet might exacerbate societal gaps and inequities. This occurred mainly in the workplace when they could not use traditional means to locate information they knew they could find on the Internet.

People have few local sources of information, and archives tend to be poorly maintained, if at all. Few conditions required for adequate conservation of records are met. Much information has disappeared without a trace. This situation is regrettable, because the more information one has, the better the potential for handling conflicting points of view: Rarely could they provide sources other than those they were personally aware of and had to direct clients to obsolete, sparse reference materials with already well-known contents. Researchers were particularly affected by this problem, especially when writing articles or submitting dossiers.

As elsewhere, some professions in The Gambia offer more opportunity than others for Internet promotion. This is the extent to which The Gambia Press Union feels able to influence the government and media regarding Internet use. As well, the national commission responsible for media has adopted a general information and communications policy emphasizing Internet promotion. Other private businesses may also have a significant impact on Internet expansion: Even if the very poorest people are not likely to be clients, at least the average Gambian could use the Internet, provided that prices are kept quite low.

It is possible to imagine what this means to people whose mean monthly income is 27 USD. These costs may seem fairly low, given that in comparable countries the same service costs 50 USD. Clients have to pay only for the Internet connection; e-mail addresses are free. Most of our informants made suggestions in support of Internet access. They proposed that the first steps must be made at the national level, by reducing customs tariffs; and internationally, by negotiating the best prices with equipment producers.

An incentive for equipment producers could be the fact that Africa, starting from scratch, may well become a highly lucrative market. International organizations might also be called on for additional assistance. A senior civil servant indicated that joint projects are already under way with the United Nations Development Program to establish Internet access in educational institutions. These projects are to have the assistance of the national telecommunications enterprise, acting on behalf of the government. The Gambia should shortly have one network terminal per village.

If the general population has access and adequate technical support, people would quickly acquire sufficient Internet know-how. Some government departments may propose these steps, without waiting for the creation of private fee-for-service telecentres. In any case, becoming aware of Web-related issues is a positive first step. Of course, much work remains to be done to meet other needs, especially those of people living in the interior and in the countryside. According to our informants, most Gambian government departments have access to the Internet.

This should be extended to cover primary and secondary schools, universities, libraries, and information and documentation centres across the region. All informants were convinced that if their wishes were somehow granted and their proposals led to decisions and concrete action, the measures applied would have a significant effect on both Internet development and the reduction of inequities. At the moment, there are about people connected. This is also true in the countries of the North: Luxembourg, Monaco, and Switzerland are all much smaller and far richer per capita than many much larger countries.

Gambians admire that country a great deal because it has managed to become self-sufficient in everything. Progress can been seen in all areas; for example, one can count an elephant for every four human beings. Nature is protected, and many people have access to the Internet. Attempts to reduce these gaps may unfortunately contribute to the formation of others, such as between the young and the old and between those who have and those who have not received computer training. But of two evils, one must choose the lesser. The general impact of the Internet on business could only be positive, particularly for certain professions.

Even publishing businesses do. The Internet supports other media in two ways. First, as an information service, it allows the user to obtain data unavailable in The Gambia or anywhere else in Africa. Moreover, the Internet is an information dissemination service, complementing those already in existence. There is a kind of tacit agreement between the North and the South regarding program dissemination, both by traditional means newspaper, radio, television and by the Internet. If the North and South are unequal, the South has only itself to blame, we were told, as it is quite capable of producing the content it requires.

The Gambia itself knows best about its life conditions and its specific realities. Although it is a small country, it has every ability to design content that draws the interest of the entire world. Radio and television provide good examples: Thanks to the Internet, the sole information and communications medium of its type, the South has access to everything produced in the North. If the South does not produce enough of its own programing, that is its own responsibility; it could play a more active role.

Other informants were more radical: They already see the cultural pitfalls. This is why the idea of integrating the Internet into school curricula, including coverage of Internet-related ethical issues, is becoming increasingly popular. Students will grow up using this tool, while taking care not to misuse it. The Gambia has no reason to become dependent on products from the North, as nobody is forced to consume them.

All issues should be considered globally, because the nature of the Internet is such that all its problems are worldwide, not merely national.

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In any case, Northern culture has already overwhelmed the rest of the planet: The North must now recognize the cultural biases inherent in systems design and implementation. Our informants said they thought about the issue of Northern dominance every time they were online. In this regard, our Anglophone informants were unquestionably at an advantage over French speakers. Clearly, the Gambians we surveyed much appreciated the fact that they had access to a great deal of content without linguistic barriers.

Almost all of our informants also stated they frequently considered the issue of inadequate Southern programing, but they were confident that the situation will improve. In 5 or 6 years, The Gambia will produce the content it needs to complement what is already available on the Web. In any case, the material currently available satisfies their needs, in terms of both content and language. Consequently, they expressed no strong desire to promote content-filtering in The Gambia.

The heads of publishing enterprises and Gambian radio—television programing seem to be able to find what they need to fulfill their mandates: Because Gambians are on the whole quite interested in foreign programing, we asked them how they could promote the Internet without doing harm to their cultural identity. Some felt that the South, including The Gambia, should organize to create its own spheres of influence as they exist at the political and business levels in West Africa.

For our informants, the proximity of Anglophone and Francophone countries was not problematic but enriching. Other media have begun doing this, so the government should follow suit. Their sites could be accessed free of charge from The Gambia or anywhere else in the world. Furthermore, providing this free access did not lead to a drop in revenues, because this service did not have many users and it is often difficult to establish a fee-for-service payment system.

This solution seemed satisfactory to all players: Before the arrival of the Internet, Gambians often bought newspapers and sent them off by mail to friends or family abroad. Under the best possible circumstances, these newspapers would arrive one or two weeks later; in the worst case scenario, they would never arrive. Control of the Internet is a complex issue, because it is also necessary to respect freedom of information, and in particular, of expression. The decision to filter information can only come from higher authorities created specifically for that purpose; this role is not appropriate for the state.

Parents who are particularly sensitive to this issue may purchase easy-to-use software allowing them to sort the Web sites visited and automatically filter undesired content. Most of our informants appeared to feel that any link between the content provided by the North and their use of the Web in professional and private life was only positive. This was particularly true of certain professional categories such as owners of computer businesses, political decision-makers, radio and television programing executives, teachers, trainers, and association executives.

In short, few of our informants failed to point out the great benefits of Northern content for The Gambia. Many went so far as to regard this phenomenon as a unifying force: Our informants considered the Internet as being based on a good number of these values. Like sport, the development of the Internet in The Gambia constitutes an essential element of global mobilization that surpasses ideological divisions. Instead, they felt, the Internet is a tool that complements other investment priorities. It is a training and teaching tool that should have a high priority, as it represents an investment in resources.

For example, most teaching establishments used to order manuals from London, England; now, they can use the Internet to find the resources they need. This is also true of telemedicine, which can be facilitated over the Web. The Internet is an essential tool, itself an institution of learning and a global library at the service of the whole world. The current priorities of the government are health, education, and food safety.

Only one person stated that they often thought about the competition for investment resources between the Internet and other priorities and the potential for increased debt load represented by Internet investment. Two people claimed to think about this occasionally. The others did not provide answers to this question. Some thought that by requesting assistance from international. Some informants considered making a few recommendations to the government to increase the visibility of the Internet in their programs.

Significantly, the individuals who took this position were state media managers. The same people expressed the sentiment that these proposals could have a significant impact on the resolution of budget allocation problems. The private publishing executives insisted that the government would never take any of their proposals or recommendations into consideration.

The small size of the market, the limited purchasing power of the general public, and its low literacy rate constitute objective constraints on development in this area. A fair number of our informants spent considerable time reflecting on this problem, as they were aware that the level of computer knowledge regionally is quite low. Here, too, people believed that they could make a difference, whether by writing articles to increase the visibility of the Internet or by providing training in their professional areas newspapers, companies, or services.

For the purposes of proper Internet integration, emphasis should be put on training users to use the Internet effectively; on facilitating access to, if not. Some of our informants proposed advertising campaigns to run on television and in newspapers and introductory courses on the Internet for the public to convince people of the need for this teaching tool.

Service providers and equipment retailers were equally ready to reduce their profit margins to convince as many people as possible to get connected to the Internet. All informants believed that the above proposals would have a significant effect on the process of Internet integration in The Gambia. Furthermore, most informants saw a connection between the unmet conditions for Internet integration and the operation and management of their businesses or institutions.

In contrast to their Ghanaian counterparts, the majority of our Gambian informants did answer the question of whether they considered the Web an essential tool in the political life of the nation. Again, optimism was the order of the day. The first Internet connections were developed by the state at an erratic pace. The private sector, arriving later on the scene, was faster to develop both domestic and international networks. The government uses the Internet with the sole intent of computerizing its various departments and improving communications between them. This fact was viewed positively by both resident and nonresident Gambians, who also identified certain benefits.

A significant number of Gambians live as expatriates in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where they are working at unskilled jobs without clear hope of ever returning to The Gambia. Thanks to government and private Web sites, they are able to maintain some connection with their native land. In this tranquil and optimistic environment, only the publishing businesses have a fairly realistic view of the circumstances.

Moreover, the religious would be even more drastic than the political censorship. Despite all this, it is also true that locally the Internet may have little impact, as many publishers and journalists are already experienced at practicing self-censorship: Plenty of surveillance was carried out before the arrival of the Web: Private publishing is freer because it is the domain of the wealthy, who gravitate to power, and who are needed by those in power.

The majority of journalists working in the private sector have studied overseas in universities or private schools: For all the reasons given above, journalists and government publishers were practically the only ones who ever considered the issue of government. Obviously, no one hopes that the state will use the Internet to put pressure on its citizens, critics, and media. The possibility that the government would set up databases did not seem to worry anybody; on the contrary, such a move was expected to yield highly positive results.

All areas could benefit, certainly the health sector, where records could hold information on all primary health problems, all infected households, all means of combating disease, and so on. Data would be available not only to the medical profession but also to the general public, for preventive and therapeutic purposes. Local agricultural production would be tracked and managed more efficiently. Gambian business would be in a better position to negotiate favourable foreign-trade deals and overcome the present situation, which is one of mostly Northern countries setting the terms and the South being left in the dark about Northern motives and unable to put forward arguments to support their own interests.

Once again, community access was the preferred model. One means of achieving this would be to make an Internet terminal available to the head of each agency, group, union, and so on. On this basis, the government should be able to obtain foreign aid and inject funding right away, which would have an immediate good effect and be cost-effective in the short term. All Gambian informants were highly optimistic about the prospects for the Internet in their country. The Internet is seen as a teaching and research tool that allows economic players and researchers to find information anywhere in the world and as a means to providing the world with information about The Gambia.

To promote this tool, an effort is. Additional effort is required to reduce the costs of equipment, software, access, and communications. During interviews, we noted that the Internet held no special interest for the civil service or researchers. We also noticed that no organization had been established by the state to promote Internet development throughout the nation. These propositions did not receive the full attention of our informants.

They agreed that the state-associated corporations were most likely to be connected to the Internet. Recall that government workers have easy access to computers. The multinationals were connected as well, but many people emphasized that the government had passed legislation to regulate their activities in order to protect SMES. In any case, private enterprise would only become interested in the Internet when it becomes profitable. In The Gambia, the statements we collected revealed unbridled optimism. Although we do not share these viewpoints, we suspect the reasons for this optimism lie in the novelty of the phenomenon, lack of experience, and failure to examine the risks.

Just as in Ghana and the Francophone countries we visited, informants from rural areas and those from urban areas showed a great difference of opinion. But to a greater degree than in Ghana, we were told that the gap between the rich and the poor — and thus between the educated and the illiterate — was widening. Apart from giving the green light to computerization, which by itself is positive, the government is not employing all means at its disposal to gradually computerize itself.

None of the informants considered the nature of the relationship between the government and the citizens, either with or without the Internet. A vicious circle may have formed because the administration fails to put much information online, considering the costs too high in relation to the number of potential users. By contrast, the private sector appears much more dynamic in this area.

Publishers, teachers, and association leaders are in a position to promote the use of the Internet by introducing the Web and explaining how it works. Political leaders can influence the government to promote measures to support Internet development. Using the political content of their columns, the press can perform a similar function. On cultural pages and with in-depth articles, it can support the development of the Internet and its use by its readers. But the sheer scope of information issues far exceeds the ability of the press to serve as the primary, permanent educational tool on this subject.

It will be necessary to call on all those potentially able to contribute to the cause, including teachers and trainers. Brothers could talk to their sisters; sons, to their relatives especially their mothers. There would certainly be a domino effect. With more money in circulation in diverse sectors such as tourism — mentioned by many informants — the entire Gambian economy would prosper.

Most informants believed that the Internet exacerbates existing inequities between rich and poor or between literate and illiterate. The others were equally divided between those who disagreed and those whose opinion was more qualified. The latter would not answer the question with a yes or no , favouring a more balanced analysis.

According to one informant, the Internet is comparable to any other technology. You need time to become accustomed to it. It benefits some and excludes others. This drawback does not justify a refusal to pursue its development. The real challenge is to manage change: The drawbacks are the result of unresolved social problems and not of technology or the Internet per se. Technology-based economies derive greater benefits from Internet applications.

For developing economies not based on technology, the challenge is to establish to what extent they will benefit from Internet integration. It might then be possible to assess the needed improvements. In other words, if the costs of setting up the Internet can be kept down, it may be possible to obtain significant results. The adoption of the Internet requires a progressive approach, to encourage the best use of resources at all levels. At any rate, in the view of our informants, Internet promotion based on claims that the Internet reduces general inequity should not be trusted.

Even those who did not believe that the Internet would create a gap between rich and poor, between literate and illiterate, between cities and countryside, and so on, cautioned people to be aware that Internet advertising slogans are often false. In Accra, because a computer costs between and 1 million XOF , few people can afford one.

Furthermore, the sad state of infrastructure, especially telephone lines, is as much a hindrance here as in the other African countries we visited. Accra supposedly has at least 8 or Kumasi, Cape Coast, Takoradi, and Oboasi have them as well. Those who stated that the Internet is creating inequity considered this problem as frequently as those who believed the opposite.

One respondent, a professor in communications at Accra University, even wrote an article about this issue, which appeared in a recently published book. He had also created a number of private networks and intranets. Government measures to develop the Internet have been naturally quite different. In the Ministry of Communications, a comprehensive initiative identified requirements for a national communications program.

In , a telecommunications policy was developed, defining the strategies to be adopted to promote rapid improvement of infrastructure and services in the telecommunications sector. This policy paved the way for the commercialization of services. In the past, telecommunications management was a government monopoly.

Today, competition occurs in service marketing. The private sector is the principal player in the areas of information technology, telecommunications, and the Internet. The corporation is now managed like a private. Interestingly enough, an entirely private company has been authorized to compete with it. Services such as mobile telephony and the Internet are marketed by private enterprise alone.

The goal of current policy is to have the government withdraw entirely from the areas of infrastructure and telecommunications services so that the private sector can take over. An agency has been set up to deliver registration certificates and supervise the activities of private businesses. In mid, a decision was made to go even further. Policy was to be implemented for the 5-year period, — Before this period, these sectors had been part of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, but in , a Ministry of Communications was created.

At the end of , the communications policy was amended and submitted for government approval.