[WikiEN-l] Access to the Internet (was: Articles like "Violence against Israelis")

Tue Aug 31 19:27:12 UTC 2004

Christiaan claimed:

> I don't know about lists, but what you mention is an interesting 
> problem, and not just for Wikipedia, but for all societies in 
> regard to 
> the internet. Our economic system, and the plight of people 
> such as the 
> Palestinians, means that access too and creation of 
> information on the 
> internet is an extremely unequal affair.

This is incorrect, as far as societies that don't censor Internet access
go. Now, maybe in Islamic countries it's hard to get online due to
national restrictions. But in every part of the English-speaking world
that is not a problem.

Also, the cost barrier is much lower than you may realize: 4 hours of
minimum wage labor will pay for one month of Internet service, in the
US, for example. If someone has 30 hours a week of free time, okay,
maybe if he's wealthy it only costs him 30 to 60 minutes of labor time
to pay for Internet, and he can spend the other 29 hours surfing or
(better yet) writing Wikipedia articles; while the other guy has only 26
hours. That's only a 12% advantage: admittedly unequal, but not
extremely so. More like moderately or slightly...

If people have plights, and you want to write about it for Wikipedia,
please do so. Not having a homeland is a plight, so you can write about
Kurds as well as Palestinians. Not having a safe place to live is a
plight, so you can write about any of 2 or 3 dozen insurgencies and/or
civil wars dragging in recent decades. Not having a country that's free
from the threat of foreign invasion is a plight, so you can write about
Taiwan and Israel, et al. Not having freedom of religion or the right to
emigrate is a plight, so you can write about Cuba, North Korea, et al. 

There are lots of plights, and Wikipedia has LOTS of disk space. Go to
it!

Ed Poor
Crotchety old middle-aged Wikipedian