Honey, IT just shrunk the globe

JAKARTA (JP): In just a matter of decades, the technology has virtually shrunk the globe. Everything seems to be within reach nowadays.

Put a tiny house-for-sale advertisement on the web, and soon enough offers will come flooding in.

Reporters no longer need to lug around bulky suitcases to carry their laptops and heavy satellite discs in to transmit news stories from remote places, dense jungles or mountain tops. With a palm-sized PDA and a pocket-sized cell phone, news can be transmitted to their offices in seconds.

Parents need not fly to Singapore, the Netherlands or the States to consult with experts regarding their child's autism. They can now simply log on to websites which provide information and advice of specialists regarding this behavioral abnormality.

"After a series of discussions on autism at a discussion room in the Internet, a noted American doctor has agreed to come to Jakarta soon. We will jointly pay for his airfare and accommodation here," Johansyah, a member of the discussion group, said recently.

Some university lecturers here have even created their own websites to keep students posted of his or her schedules, or to leave questions or notes. Others give out their e-mail address for the same purpose.

"I find e-mails very helpful, particularly with students preparing their thesis under my supervision, and I can check them at any place and at anytime." said a sociology lecturer from the University of Indonesia.

Housewives even run their own businesses from home while caring for their children.

Other working women "watch over" their children from a distance, again thanks to the technology revolution.

All they need to do is balance their work and family life.

A mother of five, Eileen O'Connor, who is a CNN anchor and reporter, admitted that she and her husband have limited time for their three older children who are always asking for help with their homework, but fortunately they are "saved" by the World Wide Web.

In a story written on CNN's website, the former White House correspondent said:

"I know that to do homework, one has to listen to the teacher's instruction, write down the assignment in the notebook and remember which books to take home.

"My fourth grader keeps forgetting one book or the other and so she now writes down what books she needs beneath the assignment.

"Just as the process of looking things up in books is part of learning, so is the process of using the WWW.

"When I look up things on the Internet, I find other information, so I end up exploring and learning even more. Technology is a learning and living tool that children must also learn to navigate.

"Just as I see the potential of using online resources, I am also concerned that it could become too easy.

"I do not want my children to rely too heavily on whatever pops up on a screen, believing it all too readily. They need to look at it with a critical eye and -- yes, my husband is right -- find a number of sources to compare it with," O'Connor said.

Unlike O'Connor, who utilizes the advanced IT for time efficiency, many IT-savvy people have turned their hobbies and skills into money-making businesses, without having to rent a costly, cozy and well-equipped office.

They run their companies from home, with their spouse and children around them.

They are usually suppliers and distributors and all promotions and transactions are done with a click of the mouse.

In a bid to lure more buyers, some have opened "traditional" showrooms, meaning real ones.

"We now have to rent a space at Ratu Plaza (shopping center in South Jakarta) for our sales office and showroom to display the products we have," said Mizrina Kairawati Lubis of Arzabuana, an authorized dealer for Intel and Hewlett Packard products.

"But it doesn't mean that we have to stop our digital business activities at home, which is our head office and workshop," she said.

Dr. John V. Pavlik, executive director and a professor of the Center for New Media at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in the United States of America, acknowledged that advanced technology really helps him in his hectic schedule.

"When my students want to meet with me, they look up my schedule posted at Visto.com/guests," said the author of Journalism and New Media.

"After entering a password, they check my guest calendar to see when I am free and then e-mail me to book an appointment. This reduces time spent 'playing tag' by voice mail and e-mail," he said.

Pavlik said he could access his Visto.com account with a Web browser from anywhere in the world.

"My students would prefer to talk to my assistant, and there might be advantages to this, such as prioritizing certain appointments.

The only problem is, I do not have a human assistant. My staff budget does not quite have room for one, so having a digital alternative is a win for both my students and me," he said.

"I am a mobile, sometimes seemingly nomadic, person, constantly traveling from coast-to-coast and abroad. But accessing my documents on the road is no longer a problem.

"In fact, it has never been easier. When I create a document, whether text or multimedia, I not only save it on the hard drive of my PC, floppy or Jaz disk, but also back it up on my password- protected, free online hard drive at driveway.com, DocSpace.com or freedrive.com.

"These sites provide me with many megabytes of free storage. I can keep files on them of any size, as long as they do not exceed the entire online hard drive capacity. Then I can access those files from anywhere by using a browser.

"I can also create 'public' folders in which I put files I like to share with others. People can log on and access files such as photos and papers.

"So when I travel I do not have to bring every document or disk that I might conceivably need. I just need a PC with Web access to get to my stored material. Moreover, should my PC crash, or should I misplace a floppy or Jaz disk, or if the building's network crashes or my office catches fire, I still have the files backed up somewhere," Pavlik said.

Receiving faxes online, he said, means he does not have to wade through the dozens that pile up in the mail room in the journalism school's shared fax machine.

"When someone wants to send me a fax, I give him or her my number at www.efax.com, as it automatically sends the document as an attachment to my Yahoo e-mail account. I can print the e-fax or keep it in digital format, accessible globally via the Web," Pavlik explained.

A similar service can be found at www.fax4free.com.

Pavlik also often send faxes via the Internet to just about anywhere via TPC Fax at www.tpc.int/sendfax.html.

"Same advantages; no wading, little waiting," he said.

It is now a common phenomenon, being "hyperconnected".

But perhaps the biggest practical problems with building a digital personal information space are security and privacy.

All these businesses are of course not giving out free faxing, online hard drives and digital guest calendars just to make our lives easier.

They are building a business out of e-commerce -- and they are delivering targeted advertisements and tracking your online activity each time you log on.

Before registering at any site, be wise to review the privacy policies closely.

"Once your details are out there in cyberspace, even protected by a password, clever computer hackers may be able to unlock your file and look at -- or even steal -- your personal information," Pavlik reminded.

"They can, conceivably, see what time I have logged on, where I am working from, and read what I am working on," he added.

Well, we have just been discussing the current information technology and how it can shrink distance and time.

Can you imagine how small the globe would seem in the coming decades?

-- K. Basrie