Democratizing Knowledge on the Internet: From Utopia to Dystopia

Abstract

The idea to create a decentralized communications network was developed for the military’s needs, and soon four US universities were given the opportunity to further develop the APRAnet network, a precursor of today’s Internet. Over time, the Internet is increasingly infiltrating all spheres of social and private life, and so the number of users is increasing. This breakthrough of the Internet is due to, above all, its open and decentralized structure. As the Internet initially developed as a research project, it was not burdened with the controls and regulations of external actors. There is no central body on the Internet that controls its functioning. The authors call this the “open architecture of the Internet”, which has enabled rapid, cost-effective and efficient communication, which has been quickly embraced by the global community. Another feature that has contributed to the great popularity and massive use of the network is interactivity. Namely, while other traditional media offered us content prepared for us by editors, we are the ones who create content on the Internet. The aforementioned features of the Internet, with its development, have aroused the techno-utopian dreams of many activists, hoping that the Internet is a shared space of freedom that will overcome and eliminate the inequalities that existed in society, and which will lead to a change in the world. The emancipatory potential of the Internet was hoped for, it was expected to democratize knowledge and improve access to learning and education. However, time brings awakening, and hopes for the emancipatory potential of the Internet are fading. The principles and values of the offline world are copied to the promised web, and the ideal of freedom gets replaced by the ideal of profit. In order to examine the potential of the Internet to democratize access to knowledge and to enhance learning and education opportunities, we conducted a qualitative research. The question that guided the research is: has access to knowledge and learning been democratized with the development of the Internet? Internet experts participated in the research, and through the technique of in-depth semi-structured interview, we sought to find out their opinion on the defined research question. We used grounded theory to analyse the obtained data. The research results show that at the beginning of its development, the Internet democratized access to knowledge and learning, and had the potential for socialization and emancipation. However, this network gets privatized and commercialized over time, making it a means for acquiring capital. Such values are also reflected in access to knowledge and learning in the cyber world. Restricting and closing access to knowledge on the Internet places its users in the “information bubble”, which further distances us from our initial techno-utopian dreams.

Ideja za stvaranjem decentralizovane mreže za komunikaciju nastala je za potrebe vojske, a ubrzo su četiri američka univerziteta dobila mogućnost da dalje razvijaju APRAnet mrežu, preteču današnjeg Interneta. Internet vremenom sve više prodire u sve sfere društvenog i privatnog života, te se i broj korisnika omasovljuje. Za ovakav prodor Interneta zaslužna je, pre svega, njegova otvorena i decentralizovana struktura. Kako se Internet isprva razvijao kao istraživački projekat, nije bio opterećen kontrolom i regulacijama spoljnih aktera. Kod Interneta ne postoji centralno telo koje kontroliše njegovo funkcionisanje. Autori ovo nazivaju „otvorena aritektura Interneta“, koja je omogućila brzu, ekonomičnu i efikasnu komunikaciju, koju je globalna zajednica brzo prihvatila. Još jedna od karakteristika koja je doprinela velikoj popularnosti i masovnoj upotrebi mreže je interaktivnost. Naime, dok su nam drugi, tradicionalni mediji nudili sadržaj koji su za nas pripremali urednici, na Internetu sadržaj kreiramo svi. Prethodno navedene karakteristike Interneta su sa njegovim razvojem probudile tehno-utopijske snove kod mnogih aktivista, nade da je Internet zajednički prostor slobode koji će da prevaziđe i ukine nejednakosti koje su postojale u društvu, te koji će da dovede do promene sveta. U emancipatorski potencijal Interneta su se polagale nade, očekivalo se da će da demokratizuje znanje i poboljša pristup učenju i obrazovanju. Međutim, vreme donosi buđenje, te i nade u emancipatorski potencijal Interneta sve više blede. Principi i vrednosti offline sveta se preslikavaju na obećanu mrežu, te ideal slobode zamenjuje ideal profita. Sa ciljem da ispitamo potencijale Interneta da demmokratizuje pristup znanju, te da poboljša mogućnosti za učenje i obrazovanje, sproveli smo kvalitativno istraživanje. Pitanje koje je rukovodilo istraživanjem bilo je: da li se pristup znanju i učenju demokratizovao sa razvojem Interneta? U istraživanju su učestvovali stručnjaci koji se bave Internetom, a pomoću tehnike dubinskog polu-struktuiranog intervjua smo nastojali da o definisanom istraživačkom pitanju saznamo njihovo mišljenje. Za analizu dobijenih podataka smo se koristili utemeljenom teorijom. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da je Internet na početku svog razvoja demokratizovao pristup znanju i učenju, te imao potencijal za socijalizaciju i emancipaciju. Međutim, ova mreža se vremenom privatizuje i komercijalizuje, zbog čega postaje sredstvo za sticanje kapitala. Takve vrednosti se oslikavaju i na pristup znanju i učenju u sajber svetu. Ograničavanje i zatvaranje pristupa znanju na Internetu njegove korisnike smešta u „informacioni mehur“, što nas sve više udaljava od početnih tehno-utopijskih snova.