Digital convergence is here and expanding rapidly, but what does it mean
for our contemporary social contract? How does it affect the unwritten
agreement among us that specifies our mutual responsibility to behave in
certain ways to each other? The answers can be explored within the
context of a simple moral principle: Every member of a community has an
inalienable right to be an interactive node in that community's
digitally converged network. Members are conferred full citizenship
status if that principle is adopted. If the principle is not upheld,
then some people will not be able to participate effectively, if at all,
in their community. Thus we might call it a "democratic principle of
digital convergence." That democratic principle implies that all
community members have access to the basic equipment, can acquire the
basic information, and possess the basic capability to use the equipment
and information effectively. Thus, three conditions must be satisfied
for the principle to be fulfilled.
Technology
First, every member of the community should have access to a minimal
basic "kit" of information equipment. Conceivably, each person could
have his or her own unique configuration of components, but every basic
kit must perform at least five common functions.
* It must be able to be plugged into the community's network and
receive and interpret digital signals from that network.
* It must be able to process the incoming bit stream.
* It must have a memory available to store limited, but perhaps
considerable, amounts of data and application software.
* It must have at least one display unit (i.e., printer, screen, or
sound) to convey information to the member. (Alternatively, because many
people today have both a telephone and a television and/or a radio, the
requirement might be for two output units: audio and screen.)
* It must have the capacity to send digital messages back into the
network.
The basic kit is the minimum necessary for one to participate in
the emerging information society. In an information society, networks
are fundamental to the way people work, and they serve as a medium for
recreation and for engaging in political processes. Without access to
electronic networks, a person is essentially powerless, because as much
information of value flows through a borderless cyberspace today as is
found in the physical confines of the borders of cities and nation-
states. Crucial decisions are made there as well. For that reason, some
people, perhaps most, may exercise a privilege to have capacity beyond
that provided by the basic kit, but the basic kit should be available as
a right.
Information
Second, every member of the community must have access to the essential
facts, figures, and opinions necessary to be a good citizen in that
community. This is a more difficult issue to resolve. The issue of
providing every member of a community with adequate hardware--which is
akin to providing people with adequate tapping connections to water,
electricity, and sewerage--pales in comparison to the problem of
establishing the populace's minimal rights to information. That is,
people must not only have access to the pipeline; they must also receive
some of the flow. Our concept of democracy is built on access to
information and the ensuring of an informed public. That is the most
effective way for sharing power among the many rather than concentrating
it within the few. The principle has become increasingly true in the
information age--one in which, as Alvin Toffler argues, information and
knowledge outweigh wealth and violence as the fundamental source of
power.
John Stuart Mill argued that a society is obligated--indeed
compelled--to provide a certain standard of knowledge and education for
every human being. Other thinkers have expanded that concept. Such
diverse philosophers as Mortimer Adler, Immanuel Kant, Abraham Maslow,
and Edgar A. Singer, Jr., maintain that all members of society have a
right to realize their own potential by expanding their knowledge,
skills, and information; Maslow called it "self-actualization." Others,
harking back to Aristotle, would even argue that a community, if it is
to be a good society, has a duty to help its citizens to engage in this
vital educational process. At the very least, a community should not
inhibit anyone's ability to progress.
Thus, the second requirement of the democratic principle of digital
convergence is that each citizen should have unrestricted access to the
public information that is available on the networks. It is difficult to
specify, a priori, exactly what such information might consist of.
Fortunately, however, a grassroots phenomenon known as free-netting
provides several important clues. A community bulletin board system
known as the Cleveland Free-Net may serve as a prototype. In Cleveland,
as in most free-nets, the services available are limited by the
resources contributed to it by the local community. Typical services
include information about community events, entertainment, leisure,
government services and announcements, health, safety, news, weather,
transportation schedules and facilities, travel, tourism, places to
visit/things to see, education opportunities, employment, job
opportunities, legal services, and the library.
Because they make information available, local free-nets help the
citizens of local communities to exercise their rights of citizenry (and
autonomy) in the American democratic tradition. And such local
participation is necessary, but it is not sufficient. We are all members
of many communities, large and small. Most of those communities are
nested and founded, more or less, on the principle of subsidiary--that
all decisions should be made at the lowest appropriate level of
government. Thus, robust citizen activity is required at several levels.
The grassroots approach begs an important question: From which plot
of grass should the roots emerge? We each inhabit a lot of different
plots. We have neighborhood, city, county, state, regional, continental,
national, and, of increasing significance, global plots. Widespread
network access is likely to exacerbate the fragmentation of communities
into collections of people with common interests that match and mate in
cyberspace. Effective participation in society, therefore, will require
membership in many communities. All plots consequently are relevant,
including the global plot. Every inhabitant of the globe today is
affected significantly by the global economy and polity. Therefore,
people should also have access to information of global relevance to
them, and they should be given an opportunity to contribute to the
dialogues through which global decisions are made. How might these
nested sets of citizenry be served?
The guiding principle would seem to be this: In each of the nested
social-political-economic systems in which a global citizen is a member,
that member should be able to both receive and transmit the information
necessary to exercise his or her legitimate rights and duties. As a
citizen of the United States of America, for example, one should be able
to access information about the executive, legislative, and judicial
process that might affect one and to be apprised of government services
that are available. This means that a node in the small desert town of
Ajo, Arizona, for example, would have access not only to local Ajo
information but also to such information sources as the patent office,
Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, Coast and Geodetic Survey,
Bureau of the Census, and Department of Agriculture as well as to
Congress, the Supreme Court, and even some sources within the Office of
the President. Much of this information, of course, would take the form
of current government publications made available electronically and
accessible by means of the electronic superhighway. Moreover, in order
to match that input with appropriate output, the capability to send e-
mail to one's congressperson and government officials should be
available.
Comparable access should be made available at the state level, and
it appears progress is being made on that score. California, for
example, has passed a law requiring the state legislature to convey its
information to citizens electronically.
Analogous capabilities should be made available at each community
level in which a citizen participates, ranging from the most local to
the global. This would result in a hierarchy of nested free-nets
available to each person. Obviously there are enormous practical issues
to be resolved before this ambitious requirement can be satisfied.
Nevertheless, an understanding of the mutual moral responsibilities
between communities and individuals at each level will serve to clarify
the task that each community must accomplish. Funding for the minimal
information service at each level would be determined by collective
choice, including, perhaps, the possibility that the collective might
decide not to provide any information or, alternatively, to leave it up
to voluntary action, as is the case in Cleveland.
Capability
Third, every citizen must have effective interfacing with the
information sources. It is not enough just to possess the basic kit of
equipment and have access to minimal information flow in each of the
nested communities of which one is a member. One must be able to use
them. "Effective interfacing" refers to a highly subjective and deeply
intellectual process that has two mutually interactive dimensions.
1. Every citizen of a community must be educated in order to be
able to interpret the information received and so to effectively use the
basic kit and information services. Many of our youth, for example, have
gained valuable knowledge about information technology through computer
games, but they may still lack the critical thinking skills necessary to
effectively use masses of information. Thus technological and critical
thinking skills are part of the educational requirements of a democratic
community. This need serves to redefine the concept of literacy in an
information-based democratic society.
2. The basic kits and the basic information services should be
designed so that they are simple, easy, and natural to use by all
ordinary citizens. Graphical user interfaces should be designed that are
intuitively easy for the common citizen to use. Interface designs must
be completed with empathy and understanding for the average citizen.
Donald Norman calls this "usable design" and believes that it is the
next competitive frontier for the industry. What Norman regards as an
economic opportunity can also be framed as a moral imperative. Respect
for the dignity of every citizen suggests that designers should reach
out to make more usable systems.
Simply put, effective interfacing requires that the intelligence
necessary to use the information effectively must be placed either in
the head of each citizen or in the information system.
Conclusion
Once these three conditions have been met--basic equipment, basic access
to information, and basic usability--then one can participate in the new
forms of community that digital convergence is creating. We must, as a
collection of communities, begin to work on these issues. Convergence
is happening quickly, and technology almost always outpaces the polity
in introducing change. In fact, the use of information technology may
already have leaped too far ahead for us to catch up. Consequently, a
sense of urgency attaches to this proposal: the train may leave the
station without us.
This paper was prepared for presentation at a workshop on ethical and
legal aspects computer and network use and abuse sponsored by the
National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, a joint body of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Bar
Association. For additional information contact the Directorate for
Science and Policy Programs, AAAS, 1333 H Street, NW, Washington, DC
20005.
Richard O. Mason is Carr P. Collins Distinguished Professor at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. He expresses his appreciation to Louella
Wetherbee for her comments and suggestions.