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)