Catching the next wave : the use of the Internet by justice and development voluntary organisations and people organisations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University

This thesis examines the extent to which third world organisations have participated in the shaping, control and benefits of development theory and practice. It concludes that development theory has been a creation of the first world acting upon the third world which is often perceived as powerless to help itself. Modernisation theory, development theory, alternative theories and neo-liberalism are all theories that developed out of the first world experience of development. Development theory has not been shaped by the third world rather it has been manipulated and controlled from within the first world. The very poor of the poorest countries have not benefited from development theory. Participation, also perceived as empowerment, has been lauded by development practitioners as the new panacea for development ills. Even though such participation is not so evident in reality, third world organisations are becoming more participatory, especially where first world organisations have changed their role from funder and provider to solidarity partners and advocators (within their own country). This thesis examined the potential of the Internet to increase the participation of third world organisations in voicing their justice and development issues to the first world. The Internet is only a participatory tool when used in a participatory environment. Its use will not necessarily ensure greater participation, of the third world, in development issues. As yet the Internet's potential is largely unrealised. This thesis conducted descriptive research into the extent that third world organisations use the Internet to further their justice and development objectives. The research found that third world use of the Internet was low compared to first world use of the Internet. This thesis recommends that the use of email subscription lists and World Wide Web sites by grassroots organisations from within third world countries is a unique opportunity to promote the third world perception of development issues to the first world

The Hypertext Internet Connection: E-mail, Online Search, Gopher

In this paper we show how to handle and organize the large amount of information accessible through the Internet or other public communication networks in a hypertext environment. The C(K)onstance-Hypertext-System (KHS) uses typed units to indicate the differences and the content and structure of information, comprising text, forms, images pointers to external information. We show how to imbed Internet services, which usual require rather different interaction styles, such as point-to-point communication (e-mail query formulation (online databases) or browsing (Gopher) into the uniform interaction model of the KHS. The integration of Internet services in an open hypertext environment produces value-adding effects which are also discussed. (DIPF/Orig.

Monkeys, typewriters and networks: the internet in the light of the theory of accidental excellence

Viewed in the light of the theory of accidental excellence, there is much to suggest that the success of the Internet and its various protocols derives from a communications technology accident, or better, a series of accidents. In the early 1990s, many experts still saw the Internet as an academic toy that would soon vanish into thin air again. The Internet probably gained its reputation as an academic toy largely because it violated the basic principles of traditional communications networks. The quarrel about paradigms that erupted in the 1970s between the telephony world and the newly emerging Internet community was not, however, only about transmission technology doctrines. It was also about the question – still unresolved today – as to who actually governs the flow of information: the operators or the users of the network? The paper first describes various network architectures in relation to the communication cultures expressed in their make-up. It then examines the creative environment found at the nodes of the network, whose coincidental importance for the Internet boom must not be forgotten. Finally, the example of Usenet is taken to look at the kind of regulatory practices that have emerged in the communications services provided within the framework of a decentralised network architecture. --

THE INTERNET AS PLAYGROUND AND FACTORY

Hochschule der Kunste, Zurich, Switzerlan

Submicron Systems Architecture Project : Semiannual Technical Report

The Mosaic C is an experimental fine-grain multicomputer based on single-chip nodes. The Mosaic C chip includes 64KB of fast dynamic RAM, processor, packet interface, ROM for bootstrap and self-test, and a two-dimensional selftimed router. The chip architecture provides low-overhead and low-latency handling of message packets, and high memory and network bandwidth. Sixty-four Mosaic chips are packaged by tape-automated bonding (TAB) in an 8 x 8 array on circuit boards that can, in turn, be arrayed in two dimensions to build arbitrarily large machines. These 8 x 8 boards are now in prototype production under a subcontract with Hewlett-Packard. We are planning to construct a 16K-node Mosaic C system from 256 of these boards. The suite of Mosaic C hardware also includes host-interface boards and high-speed communication cables. The hardware developments and activities of the past eight months are described in section 2.1. The programming system that we are developing for the Mosaic C is based on the same message-passing, reactive-process, computational model that we have used with earlier multicomputers, but the model is implemented for the Mosaic in a way that supports finegrain concurrency. A process executes only in response to receiving a message, and may in execution send messages, create new processes, and modify its persistent variables before it either exits or becomes dormant in preparation for receiving another message. These computations are expressed in an object-oriented programming notation, a derivative of C++ called C+-. The computational model and the C+- programming notation are described in section 2.2. The Mosaic C runtime system, which is written in C+-, provides automatic process placement and highly distributed management of system resources. The Mosaic C runtime system is described in section 2.3

Submicron Systems Architecture: Semiannual Technical Report

No abstract available

Submicron Systems Architecture Project: Semiannual Technial Report

No abstract available