Networked Society Fast Broadband Access

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction:

Since the invention of the internet, today we have come a long way. The Internet has represented the most successful examples of consumer benefits by commitment and investment towards the research and development of the web. Consumer interest rests in the growing significance of broadband to deliver wide range of content (audio & visual) from the web, on increasingly high speeds. It is certain that the digital media interactive user experience is not the same as turning a page or flicking through channels; the consequences of interaction are fundamentally different in digital environments.

Citizens of a networked soceity, no longer expect to wait for their content to load, during interaction with the internet. They require a instant change within a ‘click’ of a button. Fast broadband provides the access to wide-range of videos, entertainment such as games, communication services i.e. Skype, social services (Facebook) and many more such facilities which enrich consumer lives’. Fast broadband offers the prospect of real consumer benefits. The need of networks delivering super-fast broadband services is constantly on a rise.

"In a democratic network society, fast broadband access to the Net for every citizen should be a right not a privilege"

There is no doubt, internet speeds have exceeded from mere KBps (Kilobytes per second) upto MBps (Megabytes per second). This increase in speed has enlighted the users’ experience of the web. Users can now access the vast knlowledge and entertainment, available to them online within no time. We live in a soceity where, internet plays a crucial part in everyone’s life. Internet can now be used in anything and everything possible. Anything one needs to research about or require additional information on, can access the data he or she is seeking for by typing the ‘keywords’ related to their point of interest on any search engines (Google, Bing). Instant results appear with relevant topics related to the ‘keywords’ entered by the user. It is highly essential for businesses, educational services and other infrastructural activities.

We still have not discarded traditional methods of communicating via letters, but have changed the method of communicating to make it faster and efficient to send/recieve via emails. The internet enhances the availbilty of information for example, users can securely access their bank statements, make transfers, cancel direct debits, open a savings account and do much more to change their ‘actual’ world from their ‘virtual’ world. "The limita-tions in old methods of communication, no longer stand in the way of expanded direct democracy," (Toffler, 1981). Our traditional methods include receiving a paper copy of the bank statement which is neither safe nor guaranteed to arrive and visiting the bank to manually make a transfer via a bank representative. These methods are still not rejected although these services have be integrated online to best suit consumer interests. Traditional mass communication knowledge is being challenged by the arrival of new generation of digital media, no longer based on the manual logic. In past years, many researchers strained to integrate theoretical reflections and realistic data about new media. Web Theory (Burnett, 2003), the Information Age (Castells, The Information Age: Economy, Soceity and Culture (Vols 1-3), 1996-98)and the Internet in Everday Life (Barry Wellman C. H., 2002) are merely few examples of the very varied scientific productions.

There is a relationship between education and conduct online, the more one is educated the greater the odds that he or she will be interested in using the internet for his or her particular needs. A person’s level of education strongly predicts the probability that they will use the Internet for financial, political, or government information. More-educated people also seem more confident about performing online financial transaction (Barry Wellman C. H., 2008). Most children at school are using emails and have been in search of information online.

This new generation of people connecting online, on a daily basis are citizens of a democratic network society and they require high internet speeds to complete their tasks. Not only do these people shop online, but also save time. Instead of going to a shopping centre, parking and spending time looking for what you want. It completely makes sense, for one to look for what they are after online, pay for it and receive in a couple of working days. These example set a online shopping trend, where millions of new online users are immerging from countries around the world.

Social Media:

Gavriel & Michael (2011), describe social network marketing has gained much interest in both applied and academic marketing. In an experiment, where applicants for IT bachelor studies were invited to join a Facebook group related to the subject of interest. Each Facebook group was assigned a person who was trained to answer applicant questions and to create activities on the social network site. The conversion rate for applicants who apply for a Facebook group was 88.8%, which is significant higher than for those who did not apply for a Facebook group (43.3%). Gavriel Salvendy and Michael J. Smith (2011), suggest that social network sites, such as Facebook, can be used as an arena for co-creation of value. Facebook is already using the ‘like’ function to categories individual from the masses. The social networking site also allows you to create a page for your business to promote products and/or services.

User interest in social media has exploded, where people create, share, bookmark at a extraodinary rate. Example include Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Instagram. Social media is increasingly changing the society, setting trends and agendas in topics ranging from enviroment to politics, to technology and the entertainment industry. This is simply due to the fact that social networking sites are quick and efficient in nature, incredibly easy to use and access availability at any time from anywhere.

An example would be the spring 2011 Egyptian revolutions where civilians captured images and distributed them via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even mainstream media for the whole world to see. These images were instantly uploaded and proof of what actually happened during the harsh times in the Middle-East. How new network configurations can lead to new political movements by allowing previous disconnected, undeveloped political identities to take shape and rise to a prominent position (Castells, 2003). This theory can be applied to the Egyptian example where religious and ethnic laws prevented networking.

These social medias are not only useful but also, highly attractive as individuals with little or no advanced computer skills can also be succesful in using them. Content can created/edited/accessed from as little as a smartphone. YouTube videos can be embedded in blogs on Facebook and Twitter. A post on Twitter can also appear on a Facebook page. Hence, people can be easily and efficiently be contacted via a variety of services.

The Internet, as a new communication medium that has been associated with conflicting claims about the rise of new patterns of social interaction. Castells (2003) describes, on one hand the formation of virtual communities, primarily based on on-line communication, was interpreted as the culmination of an historical process of separation between locality and socialbility in the formation of community: new, selective patterns of social relations substitute for territorially bound forms of human interaction.On the other hand, media reports and internet critics, relying on studies by academic researchers, argue that the spread of the Internet is leading to social isolation, to a breakdown of social communication and family life, as faceless individuals practice random socialbility, while abondaning face-to-face interaction in real settings. Moreover,a great deal of attention has been focused on social exchanges based upon fake identities and role-playing. Thus, the Internet has been accused of gradually enticing people to live their own fantasies on-line, escaping the real world, in a culture increasingly dominated by virtual reality. (Castells, 2003)

Surveillance:

"To be sure of apprehending criminals, it is necessary that everyone be supervised," by Jacques Ellul (1964). As described by David Lyon (2003), ‘surveillance’ means ‘to watch over’. Sociologically, it makes sense to think in terms of paying very close attention to personal details – often in the form of digital data – for the purpose of influencing, managing, or controliing those under scrutiny (Lyon D. , 2003)

Published in an article on Cyber-Society-Live [CSL] ‘jiscmail’ website about surveillance. The games played on PC’s, Netbooks, Tablets and Gaming consoles store data on who we are, how we play etc and send it back to the game or virtual world publisher i.e. Sony and Microsoft. Two events in 2011 have exemplify the need to study surveillance in games. Sony’s Playstation Network has been hacked and over 77 million user accounts with their personal data such as credit card numbers etc were threathened. Whereas, iPhone users acknowledged a hidden code within their devices, tracking their movements and anonymously sending this data back to Apple (Simon, 2013). Surveillance although creates a sense of insecurity among consumer of their activities being tracked and monitored at all times. This primarily reveals negative implications of surveillance, i.e. effecting civil liberties and rights.

There are although some positive and caring aspects of surveillance too. David Lyon (2001) has enlighted the protective and enabling powers of surveillance. Surveillance could be considered not just as positively protective, but even as a comical, playful, amusing, enjoyable practice (Marx, 1996). By monitoring consumer behaviour, game companies can match strangers with similar skills sets and play-styles together, an essential component of many games and virtual worlds. It enables family and friends to play online together, who live thousands of miles away challenging one another on a game of Scrabble over Facebook.

In 1996, Gary Marx discussed various issues regarding surveillance coming up in cartoons, comics and jokes, movies, pop songs and art (Marx, 1996). His analysis created interest of Surveillance Studies in cultural manifestations and experiencing surveillance by highlighting the threats and controlling aspects (Lyon, 2001: 51-68). Surveillance makes the virtual world a safe place for children and young adults by restricting foul languange and content. There is no doubt that the understanding of surveillance is still underdeveloped and thus, a challenge for future philosophers.

eDemocracy:

In the book ‘eDemocracy & eGovernment’, Andreas Meier defines eDemocracy as the support and enhancement of civil rights and duties in the information and knowledge society. He further illustrates ‘by means of eDemocracy and the possibilities of participation that come along with it, the information society is to develop into a knowledge society’ (Meier, 2012).

The intension is not to create new rights and duties for citizens, but extend information policies. Communities require easy to use ways of accessing and sharing information and ideas, responding to consultations and participating in policy formulation. The rapid expansion of public access to the internet and the increasing popularity of weblogs offer opportunities for both the government and the communities to discuss issues together for policy changes.

Previous efforts to engage people in government initiated consultations and public debate using modern technology has been based on discussion boards. E.g. Macintosh and Smith (2002) describe an online participation study consulting citizens on issues regarding environmental policies. Luhrs, et al (2003) describes an exercise consisting of a large scale participation in the City of Hamburg – both using specially developed discussion boards. Therefore, it is now a well established fact that social, technical and political factors need to be considered during a development process of any technology, to support eDemocracy and using IT to enhance democracy is a challenge (Mambrey, 2004).

Technology is an enabler not the solution: integration with traditional, "offline" tools for access to information, consultation and public participation in policy-making is needed to make the most of ICTs (OECD, 2004). While new information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer significant opportunities for greater citizen engagement in policy-making, OECD raises some questions for the government. How are citizens’ rights of access to information to be ensured in the online era? What is the status of civil servants’ online responses to citizens’ queries or their submissions to an electronic discussion forum? (OECD, 2004)

Social Computing:

Subhasish Dasgupta (2009) describes ‘Social Computing’ is the use of technology in networked communication systems by communities of people for one or more goals. Social computing takes many forms including social networks, RSS, blogs, search engines, podcasts, wikis and social bookmarking (or tagging). There are also terms such as online communities, Web 2.0, virtual communities and social networking loosely referring to social computing (Dasgupta, 2009).

Web 2.0 consists of free tools such as blogs, wikis, photo and video sharing. These tools are changing how people interact with the world. During this rapid change in environment, people are required to be adaptable and analytical, and acquire skills to best use these tools.

Online Communities are groups of people who meet, interact, are connected by a specific interest, brought together by means of technical platform and can establish social relationship or a sense of belonging to the group (Leimeister, 2008).

According to Preece (2000), a virtual community refers to people with a common or shared purpose, whose interactions are goverened by policies in the form of tacit assumptions, rituals, protocols, rules, laws and whose use of computer systems to supprt and mediate social interaction and to facilitate a sense of togtherness. Hence social computing allows individuals to cross barriers of space, time and social category to share expertise, opinions and ideas with each other.

Conclusion:

By switching from a collective of computers to a community of people, the Web has become symbolic means of contribution, participation, and collaboration. The consumer concerns of credibility and the extent to which they are addressed will remain a contributing factor towards the success of the net. Despite many advances in the past decades towards enabling the technological infrastructure, there is much more to be done i.e. social challenges including user perceptions and expectation. The changing nature of information and new ways citizens understand and make sense of the world signal that we need new strategies and tools for teaching and learning. The proposition presented in this article break the paradigms in the relationship between the government and Citizen, when suggesting that the society should organize itself to gain access to public services with efficient speed limits and policies. Hence, the right of fast broadband is a must for every citizen, in a democratic society. This shall not only enhance our knowledge on what we already know, but create more innovations application in recent years.