My housemate, a wonderful woman with experience in social work and community service and learning, harbors a violent dislike for the Internet. She believes that the Internet is an isolating medium. "It's a really cold way of learning," she says. "You don't ever deal with real people, you don't have to respond to real people." Even here on Computers/Internet, columnist Sam Pratt suggested that interactive Net news, in particular, can lead us to a false sense of political participation. "[I]llusions of savviness, progress, and shared community evaporate the moment we select "Shut Down from the menubar," he said, reminding us that e-mail is not action. Or at least, not always.
Ed Schwartz, author of Net Activism: How Citizens Use the Internet, believes that e-mail and all that comes with it could change the face of our nation. He holds that the network of computers could be the most powerful tool that community organizers have to combat the three "I"s — Isolation, Ignorance, and Impotence — by connecting information, individuals, and community leaders. Ultimately, he holds that the Internet could revitalize our democracy by making our politicians more directly accountable to the people whom they represent. With more than 30 years experience as a grassroots organizer and political leader in Philadelphia, he has put his actions where his mouth is, successfully managing listservs and a Web site to connect and organize community groups in Philadelphia.
Although Schwartz's politics fall on the left, the book is written with a non-partisan succinctness. It's really a guide to the Internet for its target audience of community leaders, with how-tos for everything from getting online, to choosing an e-mail address, to managing a listserv. It draws examples from both sides of the spectrum to illustrate how activist groups have effectively used the Internet to organize and share information. One of his most powerful points: The Internet puts tools that used to be available only to big-money lobbyists in the hands of small, grassroots organizations. Targeted direct mailing lists, and its method of sending detailed information instantly to everyone on such lists, is now cheap and easy for everyone (after a one-time investment in a computer). The information superhighway is useful and important, but Schwartz's emphasis is on the Internet as a means of communication.
..all levels of government to make information available online..
I spoke to him briefly to see if he felt that his book had generated the kind of action that he had hoped for: At the end of his book, he called for all levels of government to make information available online, and finally, for activists and community organizations to get online. Now, five months after the book's publication, and over a year since he began writing, Schwartz says, "I guess what's still problematic for me, based on my work more than observation," is that the number of grassroots citizens' organizations online is still fairly limited, compared to the number that's out there." The successful examples that he points to in the book are largely national lobbyists. "The work that I'm doing is with groups that have no structural relationship, but that share common goals" he says. In order for them to share information in a broad-based, meaningful way, they all have to be online. And, according to Schwartz, "That hasn't happened yet... The returns aren't all in, by any means, but I haven't been able to make it happen."
Schwartz sees the mainstream discussion of politics and the Internet still shaped by a conventional, broadcast-oriented, conception of the medium. "It's how many hits have there been on Bob Dole's Web site, or are presidential candidates going to use them, as opposed to ways of keeping the government accountable."
Suddenly, Clinton's proposal to get the Internet into schools seems less ludicrous than before
Suddenly, Clinton's proposal to get the Internet into schools seems less ludicrous than before (my first reaction was, get them pencils first). Without it, not only do we risk creating a two-tiered class system based on access to information and technology, but according to Schwartz's ideas and experience, if we don't get a broad base of people online, we lose the opportunity to revitalize our democracy.
Ultimately, Schwartz's book is a step-by-step instruction manual for how a specific section of society can make Internet hype — the promise of a new politics and a new society — into reality. But in the line of professional community organizing, where "f2f" time would seem to be crucial, does the Net actually bring people together? Or does Schwartz now spend more time virtually now than he does in an actual community? "The Net does make it possible to communicate with people whom you don't have time to see, and it might then change the people whom you do end up meeting with," he says. "But it also certainly enhances meetings, and what happens in meetings. The question of if you weren't on the Internet, would you be talking to someone personally... well, the Internet has encouraged me to call meetings, and if I weren't on the Internet, I might not have the energy or motivation to call them."
What is most striking about Schwartz's arguments is their simplicity. His language is disarmingly concrete. Near the conclusion of Net Activism, he says:
"Using the Internet for political empowerment is not about watching television through a laptop or ordering groceries via e-mail... It's about building discussion lists of activists from all over the country who share the same goals and want to work together to achieve them. It's about being able to keep track of government programs and pending legislation even if they don't appear in the newspapers every day. It's about e-mailing a message to a Congress person on a Tuesday and getting a response by Wednesday afternoon... It's about creating networks among organizers in their own neighborhoods and communities who go online to maintain contact with each other even when they're not in a position to meet."
Schwartz makes it painfully clear that the Internet can offer us new horizons, if we learn to look in the right direction. The machines that we make, the tools that we use, all have unique properties. But ultimately, the way that we use them determines what shape they will take, what software and hardware will be developed, and ultimately the impact that they will have on our society.
As a camp counselor, I once had a camper who was too smart to be cool. Somehow, he one night got a group of the other kids to play Dungeons and Dragons (a popular role-playing game) with him. Suddenly, this usually awkward, alienated child was at ease, and in charge. The same game that had been his escape from the social structure was his ticket back in. The game itself didn't change at all. The people playing did. This thing called new media is probably going to be around for a while. We can only hope that more groups like Neighborhoods Online decide to play.
Michelle Chihara, former Computers/Internet's editor, takes the Web personally.
