Tuesday, August 12, 2008

"Serbia And The Net"

I just reviewed a paper for someone I know, she is working on the communication situation in Serbia nowadays and during the 1990s bombing and Kosovo crisis. Back then, for the IT-literate elite, the internet was the only way to communicate and gain information from outside the country. The uncensored mailinglist "The Syndicate" was of major importance in that period of time. Still it was only a small minority who had access to this source of independent information. Nowadays, the mesh densitiy is still very low in this region. But according to the paper, there is hope for a change, especially with the young generation getting more and more educated in the use of new communications technologies. A positive development that needs to be triggered in my opinion, because it is necessary for any further democratic actions.

2 comments:

veloner said...

a very interesting topic. the internet is a means of and to power for the westernized world. the slavic countries are dramatically behind. just like in most parts of the world - like, lately i was doing some research on zimbabwe and hardly found anything. or try pakistan. or -

~SaS~ said...

true, it a matter of political development within those countries though - as far as that paper argued. most governments still fear widespread access to any kind of information which would change the status quo, therefore the developments of infrastructure are moving slowly, slowly, slowly. and of course, there are other, more urging needs calling for solutions, other basic human rights, peace and health care and so on. i think one development would catalyze the other though. keep on researching!