Internet helps developing countries' news balance
Internet helps developing countries' news balance
JAKARTA (JP): The Internet can help balance the flow of information in developing countries, where western media currently dominates information sources, a United Nations officer said yesterday.
Many media in developing countries have joined the Internet, enabling people around the world to get information straight from local sources, said Madanmohan Rao, communication director at the New York-based UN Inter Press Service.
He made the statement during an interview with The Jakarta Post during a break at the first World Wide Web Internet Conference, Workshops and Trade Show at Grand Hyatt Hotel, which runs until Friday.
"Now that many newspapers in developing countries have joined the Internet, people in the North can get a better picture about the countries in the South," said Rao, an Indian citizen.
In Indonesia, two publications already have homepages on the World Wide Web. Kompas can be reached at http://www.vic.com/kompas and Republika at http://republika.co.id.
Rao said that the use of the Internet in developing countries is more strategic and more important than its function in developed countries.
In the West, the Internet is a mass market tool used for personal needs, individual conferences, casual communication as well as for buying movie tickets and ordering meals. In developing countries, he said, the Internet is mainly used for academic, business, organization and government purposes.
"The Internet has become a good tool for business and education," he said, adding that 12 universities in India are connected to the Internet.
The commercial use of the Internet in Indonesia was introduced in September 1994. Today there are six companies providing access to the Internet: Indonet, Radnet, Idola, IBM, Cybernet and Vissionnet.
Dikdik Hasan, director of PT Sistelindo Mitralintas, a joint venture of USI IBM, Sisindosat of Indosat and Kopegtel of Telkom, said that since beginning operations in mid-1995, IBM has registered some 2,000 users.
Another big provider, PT Rahajasa Media Internet, or Radnet, has 3,000 users, according to Eko Priyono, the company's managing director.
Idola, said the company's senior engineer Cristophorus Tambunan, has around 1,000 users.
Despite mounting interest in the Internet, the Internet Conference, the first of its kind in the country, attracted only several dozen people on its opening day.
"Too bad it's not attracting more people," Tambunan sighed, adding that the public may not be aware of the trade show outside the Hyatt auditorium, which is featuring a number of companies, including three Internet providers.
Today's keynote speakers will be Les Goldschlager, a computer science professor at Monash University in Melbourne, who will talk about cybermalls and commercial webs; and Richard Frawley, the manager of strategic opportunities at Cisco Systems, Australia, who is scheduled to discuss the convergence of technology. (sim)