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Big Dreamers Aim to Harness Internet- Global Policy Forum- NGOs Big Dreamers Aim to Harness Internet,
Tackle Global Poverty SubversivelyBy David Ignatius
St. Paul Pioneer Press
August 13, 1999
A rock concert taking place simultaneously in New York, London and Geneva is planned to lure fans to a huge Web site that will act as a `cyberspace assembly' -- an open, uncensored extension of the United Nations devoted to economic development issues.
We all know the dark side of the Internet revolution. I experienced it myself not long ago when I briefly considered creating a Web site that would be devoted entirely to bad news about famous people -- folks like Donald Trump or Leona Helmsley whom the world loves to hate. I wanted to call it "schadenfreude.com," after the German word that means "glee at another's misfortune." But I discovered, to my chagrin, that this domain name was already taken. So I tried "envy.com." It was taken, too. So were "odious.com," "greed.com," "loathsome.com," "vile.com," "villainy.com," "sloth.com." You get the idea. All the words describing mankind's most disgusting traits had already been reserved by other people for their own Internet projects. The best I could do was "wish-you-ill.com." My wife suggested it, in desperation, to get me to go to sleep. We dropped the misconceived scheme the next morning.
My point is that the Internet has become home to some of the basest emotions known to mankind. There's pornography, obviously -- an endless gallery of demeaning, soul-destroying photographs. But there's also covetousness of our neighbors, unbounded avarice, racist hate speech and vile rantings on every imaginable topic.
I mention this nastiness only because, over the next two months, we will witness a truly noble application of the Internet. Its goal is to use this amazing, wealth-creating technology to reduce the suffering of the world's poorest people. Hard to think of a better marriage of means and ends than that. The ambitious new project is called NetAid and is a partnership between the United Nations Development Programme and Cisco Systems, the company that manufactures most of the routers and switches that power the Internet. The plan is for Cisco to create a huge Web site devoted to the U.N. agenda of economic development issues. The site will be launched Sept. 8, but the real test will come Oct. 9, when NetAid plans a three-city rock concert to take place simultaneously at Giant Stadium in New York, Wembley Stadium in London and the Palace of Nations in Geneva. Among the producers of this extravaganza will be Don Mischer, who organizes other mega-events such as the Emmy Awards. He hopes the concerts will be carried live on broadcast television, cable TV, radio and the Internet.
The rock music is intended as a lure, to hook millions of affluent viewers on the idea of doing something to help the wretched of the earth. As the rockers blast out tunes, the Web site will explain how rock fans can help fight global poverty. At the netaid.org site, they'll find categories such as "Ending Hunger," "Helping Refugees," "Relieving Debt," "Cleaning the Environment" and "Securing Human Rights."
Within a few days after the concert, visitors to netaid.org will find chat rooms where they can share ideas, streaming videos and other information about poverty projects around the world; an online foundation where they can contribute money or services; and links to dozens of U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Mischer explains: "At various points, we're going to say: `Turn your TV down! Go to the Web site! Do something! Take action!' "
To handle the millions of expected visitors, Cisco and its partners are creating a site that's designed to have 10 times the peak capacity of any existing Web site. By using more than 1,800 big computers, known as "servers," the site will be able to handle 60 million hits an hour, according to Cisco Executive Vice President Don Listwin.
For Mark Malloch Brown, the new administrator of the Development Programme, the site will be a "cyberspace assembly" -- an open, uncensored extension of the United Nations. Much like an e-business site, netaid.org will allow more than 40 nongovernmental organizations to connect along the supply and distribution chain -- matching donors with projects, matching people in need with people who can help. "It's thoroughly subversive," says Malloch Brown, "in that old-line dictators will have a hard time getting a handle on it. They know how to keep the U.N. out of their affairs, but they don't know what to do about cyberspace."
Malloch Brown recognizes that NetAid is just a beginning. He notes Africa has 9 percent of the world's population -- but 0.1 percent of the world's Internet connections. He sees a hint of what technology could offer the poor in the West African nation of Mali, where villagers are using their World Bank Internet accounts to check global commodity prices before they sell to middlemen.
The NetAid project proposes to connect us not just with cyberspace but with the values of idealism and generosity that are the bedrock of our culture. David Ignatius is an associate editor of the Washington Post. Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service.
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