Internet helps in development of education and democracy

Internet helps in development of educationand democracy Internet - theworld largest computer network. And the main goal is to show how Web s freedomwill help in development of education and democracy. Internet appeared in our country just afew years ago but it has become known to many people not only in the capital ofKyrgyzstan but also all over the republic.

And the same thing happens in manydeveloping countries third world countries. After third world countries gotaccess to the Internet they became wide represented on the net. Thy found out alot of useful information there and gave information about themselves there.But why do people want to be on the Internet ? As Bruce Sterlingfamous American Internet critic answers in his article

Internet One of the mail reasons is simple freedom. i Yes people can feel freedom on the Internet. In the countries of the thirdworld like Kyrgyzstan after going the Internet people will find out how to befree and the best example of the freedom nowadays is democracy. Alsopeople in autocratic countries would like to build democracy instead of theirsystem of government because they would know what does it mean to be free andindependent.

In other words people who has got into the way of living in thebetter virtual world will never want to live in bad conditions and they willmake their lives better for sure. But what does this freedom of the Internetincludes? Firstly it is equality. It does not matter what your race or age ornationality or wealth is you can post your message to the Internet and you willbe heard.

You will find a lot of people who will support you and who will notsupport you. You will find your allies and enemies there. And this is thefreedom to express your opinion, which is the fundamental principle of thedemocracy. But the newspaper Vecherny Bishkek says inits informational article Internetusers communicate only with the people on the Internet. They stop talking totheir relatives and friends because they have only virtual friends.

So Internetdestroys real human communication ii .Maybe someone s interpersonal communication wes destroyed but now technologycan give us an opportunity to communicate with our relatives and friends as ifwe are in a same room. People can be close to each other even being ondifferent continents. And if a person is mentally normal he she will neverprefer communication with relatives to a computer. Next is the freedom of choice. On theInternet you can choose the information to your own taste or need.

Nobody canmake you to look at something that you do not need or do not like. If you don tlike something you just type another address and in a seconds you are alreadythere where you wanted to be. But what can you choose from these differentresources? It may be pornography or silly games. But according to GlukhovKonstantin reporter on the Internet for Computerra magazine

Only5-7 of all the Internet users view pornography on net. iii So these people will not influence all the rest inhabitants . Andabout the games. There are tons of very useful games, which willhelp you to understand the economy of the city, improve your language skillsand vocabulary or at least you will get a better skills in using the mouse . There is also a freedom of movement.

Thereare no borders in the Internet and you can travel all over the Internet withoutany prohibitions. If you need some information about some foreign country youwill get it. You do not need any visas to explore web sites in foreigncountries. Also you can vote on the Internet. Thereare a lot of questionnaires where you can express your attitude towardssomething. So the main principles of the democracy are kept on theInternet.

So people in the third world countries at least will understand whatdoes it mean to be free. And according to Phil James This system is democratic.Anyone with computer can use its service. iv As I said before it does not matter who you are. Internet is so free that it even may seemlike anarchy but if it is an anarchy then, according to Bruce Sterling, it is a rare example of true, modern, functional anarchy v .

But what does this anarchy gives us? Firstly it is absence ofcensors. And as it said Harley Hahn, whose books printout is 2,5 millionissues and who is considered as an ace of the Internet The main rule ofthe Net is that there is no one-man management and no any censorship. And onlybecause of this freedom there is such a great variety of differentresources . vi And we can use all theseresources for our educational purposes.

And as I said previously anyonecan find information to his own choice. The Internet makes it easier to findbooks for example for your research paper or articles and now even listen andwatch famous people. Harley Hahn also mentioned that it has so much informationin the Internet that nobody can imagine it vii .That is why you can choose it to your own taste or need. Now teachers,students, professors, scientists, librarians, lawyers and priests use

Internetto search for the useful information because it is the fastest and the mostconvenient way to do it. The Internet is the most important scientificinstrument of the late twentieth century, viii says Bruce Sterling. We can get data for our research just in seconds afterpushing some buttons. This is no small deal, since entire books can betransferred through Internet in a matter of minutes. Today millions of suchfiles are available to anyone who asks for them.

We also can use these files inKyrgyzstan. For example Ed Krol writes third world countries now viewthe Internet as a way to rise their education level ix .For example Mongolia. During the Soviet era and later Mongolian education levelwas the lowest among communist countries and it was until the 1993 whenMongolia got the access to the Internet. Nowadays most of the

Mongolianuniversities have the access to the Net. Now most of the students can usethe Internet for their educational purposes x said in the RIPE report. Even if third world countries do it, this means thatwell developed countries began to do in the past. And where the Internet iswell developed educational level is also very high. Also Ed Krol saysthat communication allows the research and education process tospeed up xi , because

scientists canexchange data with each other very quickly, so they can solve their problemsvery fast. They can collaborate even being far from each other, being indifferent countries. That is how the educational level will rise up. Conclusion is that the Internet will helpto develop our educational level due to its democracy and freedom. And afterthe people will find out what is freedom they will develop democracy in theircountry.

After that the Internet willguide us to the one open society there will be no borders on the Earth anymore. And we will live in peace and will respect each other like in theInternet. i Sterling, Bruce, Internet, http www.lysator.liu.se etexts the internet.html ii Kabar s information, Vecherny Bishkek, February 12, 1999 8 iii Glukhov, Konstantin, Computerra magazine, Internet goeson,

October 1998 36 iv James, Phil, Official Netscape Communicator 4 book, Ventana,New York, 1998 29 v Sterling vi Hahn, Harley, Yellow Pages Internet amp Web, Osborne, NewYork, 1998 41 vii ibid 34 viii Sterling ix Krol, Ed, The Whole Internet. User s Guide amp Catalog 2ndedition,

O Riely amp Associates, Inc, 1994 18 x RIPE report 98, Paris, 1998 53 xi Krol 26