ABSTRACT
This volume’s title and tone promises analysis of positive application of network technologies to social development. In another contribution to a recent volume (Schuler and Day, 2003), my goal had been to set limits on such optimism. In effect, I argued, if one’s goal is social, political, and economic improvement, then network technologies do not really present a compelling starting point. That argument was made prior to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington DC, on September 11, 2001, which represented the beginning, symbolic and actual, of a new chapter – an extraordinarily tragic chapter – in global order. 9/11 and the events that it set in train endorse my cautions against over-emphasizing network technologies as a compelling starting point for significant change.These technologies buttress the agencies of centralized power in its bid for global domination, at the cost of significant retrenchment of civil liberties (in the name of “freedom”).And yet, network technologies also constitute a uniquely important forum for open and independent discussion, analysis, and protest, but for how long?
