A Web of Concern.

Speicher, Sara

Modern Communication Technology in the Service of Peace-Making

Almost daily, four hundred million people -- in both developed and developing countries -- turn on a computer to read e-mail messages from colleagues a few offices down the hall, friends in other countries, or business associates in other cities. Many then "click" to the World Wide Web looking for everything from recent United Nations resolutions to the latest news from the BBC, from a book they can't find to pictures of newborn family members.

Millions of people take for granted on-line access to virtually any piece of information or product. But millions more -- billions in fact -- have never seen a Web page, let alone sent an e-mail. Technological advancements over the past twenty years, for some sectors of the world's population, have revolutionized the way information is acquired and shared. That revolution is spreading -- fast ...

Those of us working in the church, with human-rights networks, on conflict resolution and social-justice issues, have caught on to the opportunities this modern technology affords. It offers tremendous potential to expand the churches' witness for peace and justice even as it continues to test the churches' role in demanding fair and just access to information and advances in technology.

This article examines four recent peace-building initiatives that make use of the Internet, highlighting the Internet's great potential while noting some of its limitations. Before turning to a series of case studies, it may be helpful to look briefly at the origins of the Internet, the World Wide Web and how they are used today.

In the name of scientific research and military defence: the Internet's ironic origins

What is now known as the Internet was first conceived in the early 1960s as a way of allowing computers to share information on scientific and military research. Developed under the auspices of the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA), one purpose was to provide a "communications network that would work even if some of the sites were destroyed by nuclear attack".(1) In 1969, four universities in the south-western United States were "on-line", connected through what was called ARPANET.

Electronic mail, or e-mail as we now know it, made its debut in the early 1970s and quickly became the most popular feature of the ARPANET. Network connections beyond the United States were made in 1973, bringing the University College in London and the Royal Radar Establishment in Norway on-line. The number of ARPANET users was estimated at 2000.(2)

As technology improved, the ARPANET started to move from its original purpose and in 1982 the term "Internet, began to be used.(3) Newsgroups, discussion forums, list-servers were developed, though still primarily for an academic and scientific elite.

The growth of the Internet proceeded at a rapid pace. In 1984 there were 1000 computers "hosting" the Internet, over 10,000 in 1987 and over 300,000 in 1990. By 1990 connections, particularly among universities, had been made between the United States, Canada, many European countries, China, the USSR, Australia, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Chile, India, Korea, Brazil and Argentina.

The beginning of www.accessanything.com

In 1991 Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher working at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, developed the first "pages" for what he called the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee dreamed of a "common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished."(4)

The concept was quickly grasped by programmers and the public alike. The technology became easier to use, leading to an explosion of Internet and Web activity. By the mid-1990s, governmental funding that restricted the use of the Internet to research, education and government use came to an end and commercial use quickly came to the forefront.

By 1996 there were approximately 40 million users in 150 countries using 10 million computer hosts and doing more than US$1 billion per year in business.(5) The success was so phenomenal that a number of Internet Service Providers in the US had trouble keeping up, calling into question their ability to support the rapidly expanding technology.(6)

Ironically, a system designed to function during a time of war was almost overcome by the extent of its use during a time of relative peace.

Use today -- and trends for the future

Statistics point to a radical transformation of the Internet. In 1969 there were four computer hosts; by 2000 there were over 93 million. In June 1993 there were 130 Websites, by October 2000 there were over 22.3 million sites with over one billion indexable pages.(7)

The Computer Industry Almanac, Inc. calculates that at the end of 2000 over 400 million people used the Internet regularly for business or at home.(8) (This still amounts, however, to just over six percent of the global population of 6.1 billion.) Thirty-three percent of the users were in the United States -- a percentage of global use that is dropping as more people in other countries gain access to the Internet. After the US, the following countries currently have the highest number of regular users: Japan, Germany, Canada, UK, South Korea, China, Italy, France, Australia, Taiwan, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Russia.

The Almanac predicts that by the end of 2002 there will be 673 million Internet users, and one billion by the end of 2005. Much of the Internet user growth is in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Wireless Internet use via cell phones will be especially important in these regions.

With the growth of the Internet have come restrictions on its use in some countries -- measures requiring users to register with police, limiting access to newsgroups, limiting use to universities and hospitals, and classifying information for censorship or seizure.

As the Internet grows, the variety of languages used increases. English remains the predominant language of Internet users (47.6% -- down from 51% about one year ago), with Japanese (9.6%), Chinese (7.6%), German (5.5%) and Spanish (5.2%) following.(9)

Parts of our global society have been transformed by the revolution in communication technology. Other parts of the globe remain untouched -- so far.

 Within 30 years, the Internet has grown from a cold-war concept for
 controlling the tattered remains of a post-nuclear society to the
 Information Superhighway. Just as the railroads of the 19th century enabled
 the Machine Age, and revolutionized the society of the time, the Internet
 takes us into the Information Age, and profoundly affects the world in
 which we live ... Today some people telecommute over the Internet, allowing
 them to choose where to live based on quality of life, not proximity to
 work. Many cities view the Internet as a solution to their clogged highways
 and fouled air. Schools use the Internet as a vast electronic library, with
 untold possibilities. Doctors use the Internet to consult with colleagues
 half a world away. And even as the Internet offers a single Global Village,
 it threatens to create a second-class citizenship among those without
 access. As a new generation grows up as accustomed to communicating through
 a keyboard as in person, life on the Internet will become an increasingly
 important part of life on Earth.(10)

Digital divider -- or digital equalizer?

A typical history of the development of the Internet characterizes the technology as another dividing line between North and South, between developed and developing countries. This is, however, not an entirely accurate portrayal.

Charles Harper, former director of the WCC Human Rights Resource Office for Latin America, argues, "It is not a North-South divide, it is a class divide -- elites in both the North and the South had access while the lower classes did not." He remembers how human-rights networks particularly in Latin America were early users of the Internet because they immediately grasped its potential for sharing information with an international advocacy base. "Lots of groups in Latin America were far ahead because they leap-frogged old ways of communicating and moved right into computers and satellite communication. It builds up the power of small, grassroots movements to run large campaigns."(11)

This is one of the challenging paradoxes for modern communication technology. In an age of information, information is power. The Web helps to make information available to all, not merely an elite class of people. And yet the Web remains primarily a tool of the elite, available to those with access, those with education, those speaking English.

Cyber-ecumenism and peace

It was in part pressures from partners in the South who were already using e-mail and shared databases that pushed the WCC to the forefront of global technology -- at least for a few moments.(12)

The potential offered by the Internet in connecting existing networks of people and increasing the breadth of participation was clear to many, says David Pozzi-Johnson, former director of WCC Computer and Information Services.(13) However, it was not easy for an organization like the WCC to change its ways of working, its ways of building community, to accept new ways of "being the church".

On 14 February 1994, the World Council of Churches went on-line with its own Website. According to Pozzi-Johnson, the WCC was the first official church institution on the Web. The Presbyterian Church (USA) came on-line a few days later and it was not until the next year that the Vatican went on-line.(14)

The "fellowship of churches" went electronic at http://www.wcc-coe.org, sharing information and connecting churches around the world rapidly. In just a few years the site has grown to include links to thousands of church Websites.

Looking for the latest news from Anglican churches? Try the Anglican Communion at http://www.anglicancommunion.org/site.html or the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia at http://www.anglican.org.nz/or the independent Anglicans On-line at http://anglicansonline.org/.

Following the Ecumenical Prayer Calendar (http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/news/99-00-01.html) and wanting more information on the countries and churches you are praying for? Visit the Church of Christ in the Democratic Republic of Congo at http://ecc.faithweb.com/, the Orthodox Autocephalus Church of Albania at http://www.orthodoxalbania.org/ or the Communion of Churches in Indonesia at http://www.pgi.or.id/.(15)

As more people and more churches go on-line we must ask ourselves: How do we move beyond sharing information -- as vitally important and transformative as that already is -- to building and strengthening communities centred on common beliefs, committed to common issues and joined together in common action? Will we let the Internet develop merely according to the trends of dominant use (e.g. business) or will we help to shape this new technology as an expression of Christian faith?

At a time when the "fellowship of churches" has made a decade-long commitment to overcoming violence, and seeking peace with reconciliation, we must ask: Can the Internet, and particularly the Web, offer new opportunities for global advocacy? How can the ability to offer faster access to a wider and more diverse group of people be used in efforts to promote peace and reconciliation? Some of the answers -- and more questions -- are found in examples of how the Internet has already been used in the service of peace-making.

A case study: the Peace to the City campaign of the World Council of Churches(16)

In 1994, the WCC central committee established a Programme to Overcome Violence (POV) "with the purpose of challenging and transforming the global culture of violence in the direction of a culture of just peace". Through consultation with WCC member churches and grassroots peace-makers, POV chose as its focus for the period leading up to the 1998 Harare assembly a global campaign called Peace to the City.

Peace to the City was designed to lift up creative models of peace-making and reconciliation with the hope that these stories, methods and results could teach and inspire others to do more in their own contexts. It focused on seven cities: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Boston (USA), Belfast (Northern Ireland), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban (South Africa), Kingston (Jamaica) and Suva (Fiji). The campaign aimed to create a global network for peace -- and it had a new tool to hold the network together.

When the campaign began, the World Wide Web was chosen as one of the main communication tools. At first, WCC staff had serious questions about using the Web -- asking, who had access and who did not? It was the Peace to the City partner in Rio de Janeiro that settled the matter, taking WCC staff to the favelas of Rio and pointing to the computer labs they had set up there for youth. "These kids", they said, "cannot physically move into the next neighbourhood but, through the Web, they have access to the world."

The campaign enabled partners in each of the cities to get access to the Web and post information about their city and region, including monthly updates on their peacemaking efforts. In some areas this was the first time local organizers had seen the Web.

The campaign also used e-mail to send information to interested individuals and organizations. The strategy was to expand the campaign "beyond the geographical boundaries of the cities" -- and beyond the "control" of a Geneva-based organization. Salpy Eskidjian, WCC staff and coordinator of the campaign, noted:

 We emphasized breaking the barriers that block communication, allowing an
 open and free space for individuals, groups and movements to find their own
 space and express their concern in their own particular way. The Internet
 can be a very powerful tool to do this. There is a total breakdown of
 hierarchy and control. In this case it is a positive consequence of
 globalization.

During an evaluation of the campaign, it became clear that using the Web brought mixed reactions. While information was there for sharing, relatively few people accessed it due to all the other sites and "competition" for attention on the Web. Some of the more interactive attempts to bring the Peace to the City Web-presence alive, such as on-line "chats" and bulletin boards, were not used or not used effectively. Most of all came the realization that, due to the rapid development of the Web, any useful and engaging Website needs dedicated time and resources to design it, maintain it, advertise it, develop it and respond to the inquiries it generates. Most organizations, particularly churches and NGOs, have been slow to devote the resources necessary for making full use of the Web.

But for others the Web has opened a whole new community of solidarity. The Colombo site, put together by the National Peace Council working from an Internet cafe, was able to offer a renewed perspective on the need for a peaceful resolution to the conflict which was tearing the country apart. The Ten Point Coalition in Boston began looking at international models of community-building and connected to other cities concerned with inner-city violence. Other cities, such as Tuzla in Boznia and Bethlehem in the West Bank, became connected and the network began to expand.

Within the ecumenical community it can take a long time for activities and opportunities to become known. For many attending the 1998 Harare assembly, the Peace to the City campaign was a new idea. Assembly delegates' enthusiastic reception of the campaign and continued commitment to peace-making contributed to the call for the Decade to Overcome Violence which is now underway.

Case study: Braunschweig, Germany, and Durban, South Africa(17)

Can communities in different parts of the world develop a meaningful relationship through the Internet? The Braunschweig model offers a fascinating possibility.

Klans Burckhardt first encountered the Peace to the City network at a workshop during the Second European Ecumenical Conference of Churches in Graz, Austria, in 1997. Back home in Braunschweig, he went to the Peace to the City Website and found alink to partners in Durban (South Africa), a city he had worked in for ten years (1983-93). Burckhardt began e-mailing Bradley Adriaanse, a young peace worker with the Vuleka Trust in Newlands, East Durban. The two decided to set up a Web "chat" -- a space where people can go to the Web, type messages and have a "conversation" with young people in Durban and Braunschweig. This chat, held in 1997, connected over fifty young people and, Burckhardt notes, was "widely recognized as a huge success".

As early as 1998 Burckhardt started discussing joining the Peace to the City Campaign with partners in Braunschweig, especially the Forum on Violence Prevention which connects forty institutions and organizations working for peace in the region. They saw that the following needs could be met by joining:

* enhancing options to respond to racial conflict and violence as network partners and facilitators;

* enabling and empowering young people to question and overcome racial prejudices by chatting with partners of the same age group on-line, and meeting them face-to-face in international youth encounters;

* energizing city officials by confronting them with models of peace-making in other cities around the world.

The continued contact with South Africa inspired other actions, such as a solidarity march on Soweto Day during which 300 children marched for safe schools and against racist and xenophobic propaganda targeted at children. In 1999, Braunschweig joined the Peace to the City network and developed its own Website. Currently, their site has an average of 4000, visitors per month.

In 2000 Braunschweig further developed the "Peace Train" youth exchange programme between Durban and Braunschweig aimed at connecting young people, schools and churches. E-mail and Web chats have been essential tools for organizing events and exchanging ideas.

E-mail contact with other Peace to the City network partners continues. With Rio de Janeiro and new network members in Oslo, the Braunschweig group is discussing the possibility of a youth sports exchange. With the partner in Bethlehem, "we have exchanged views on the terrible bloodshed and terror against Palestinian civilians, especially since some congregations and organizations in our church have close connections to the Talita Kumi School in Bethlehem".

Burckhardt believes that "e-mailing between partner cities keeps us on our toes with news that requires urgent action on our behalf ... It gives us direct and up-to-date insight on different situations and helps us to respond very quickly."

Case study: Viva Rio and the Brazilian campaign against small arms(18)

Viva Rio, a social action and human rights organization in Rio de Janeiro, launched a signature campaign in 1999 to support a ban on the trade of small arms in Brazil. This was certainly not Viva Rio's first national signature campaign, but it was the first time they had used the Web.

The goal of the campaign was to gather one million signatures. Within five months they had collected over 1.3 million. The person-to-person approach was still the most effective method for collecting signatures; but even though the Web generated only 50,000 of the total number of signatures, it increased the level of national participation. Rubem Cesar Fernandes, executive director of Viva Rio, noted that people living outside Rio who saw the campaign in the news were able to add their signature via the Web. The Web campaign also generated international support through promotion by the WCC and the International Action Network against Small Arms (IANSA).

One thing Fernandes learned was that it is not only the human rights and peace activists who are using the Web. "Every day we got lots of messages from the gun-lobby people -- they are very good Web users. We had to clean our page every day because they wrote in offensive messages and complaints. I learned that the gun-lobby is much more aware and militant in letter writing and e-mailing than we are -- the peace people."

Building on their first experience, Viva Rio made use of the Web in their "Enough! I Want Peace" campaign designed to give expression to people's desire to stop violence and crime and to ban the use and sale of small arms. The campaign was partly in response to a kidnapping that ended in tragic violence and was covered on live television. There was very little time to organize -- one month to prepare a national demonstration. By phone, Viva Rio contacted people and organizations in other cities to help. Because people outside Rio did not have the money or time to travel, most of the organizational work was done on-line. According to Fernandes, the Web became a fundamental tool in coordinating and communicating. "The Web was very useful. We had pictures, calendars, live discussions -- many things we could do through the Web at very little cost and very fast, very effective."

Not only is Viva Rio aware of the campaiging potential of the Internet, but of the development potentional as well. They have set up 55 computer clubs in the favelas where they provide training and access. Viva Rio is developing a "favela.com" to provide news, services, and e-commerce from and for the favela communities. Fernandes considers this a way of "bridging the `apartheid' of the favelas" which are basically closed-off and isolated communities.

The Internet in conflict and crisis: providing alternative news and views

E-mail and the Web are also changing the way people follow and react to national and international crises and giving new opportunities and challenges to peace and human-rights activists. Two recent and ongoing conflicts illustrate this.

The NATO military operation during the Kosovo crisis is one example. Through the Web one could access ecumenical actions through the WCC, reports from the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, reports from congregations and monasteries in Kosovo, reports on relief efforts from the United Nations, details of military operations from NATO, reports from Human Rights Watch, news from an independent news service -- banned from the radio but live on the Web -- personal stories, photos, extensive information from all sides, and background information from a wide range of perspectives. The information was abundant, comprehensive, in-depth and overwhelming.

The recent upsurge in violence between Palestinians and Israelis has generated the same potential for range, quantity and eye-witness access to information. One can get immediate information from both official Israeli and Palestinian sites, the Jerusalem Post and the Independent Palestinian Information Network. Human-rights groups such as B'Tselem and church-related groups such as Christian Peacemaker Teams use e-mail and the Web to send reports documenting violence and relaying eye-witness-accounts. Graphic photos and even video posted on the Web and distributed by e-mail increase individual involvement and international media attention. This was the case with the videotaped images of Mohammad Al-Durra, the young Palestinian boy who was shot and killed while his father tried to shield him from the battle raging around them.

In cases such as these, the Internet provides to peace and justice activists immediate and even eye-witness sources of information, the opportunity to corraborate information with a wide variety of sources, and the ability to transmit news to a global network of activists for fast and coordinated action. In many cases, it offers a better ability to communicate with individuals and organizations in the midst of the conflict than through standard phone services or mail.

But with this vast increase in news and information comes the need to assess, compare and filter the wide range of data and stories -- often contradictory -- that come particularly from areas in conflict and crisis. There is now a far greater need to examine sources, corraborate accounts, and keep individual events in a wider historical and political perspective for better understanding and a more effective response.

As peace-and-justice activists, we must also be careful not to concentrate our actions on those conflicts and issues where wide coverage, and access to information via the Internet and other media, are easily available. Existing regional and economic "gaps" in media coverage, Internet access, and advocacy response are in danger of being further widened if priority is given to situations where information is provided most quickly and in a most graphically compelling manner. A quick search of the Web using country names pulls up "Israel" on 4,730,000 sites, "Palestine" on 487,000. Rwanda is mentioned on 578,000 sites. Fiji -- and in relation to general information and news related to last year's coup attempt, as opposed to tourist packages -- 33,900. Kosovo is mentioned in 1,350,000 sites, Sierre Leone in 2,660. Who decides what is most "important"? Who decides who decides?

The churches, and particularly international ecumenical organizations like the World Council of Churches, have historically taken on the role of lifting up for international attention "forgotten emergencies". Such a role becomes even more important in the era of modern communication where work for peace and justice must address both the issue involved, and the means by which the issue is shared.

Future possibilities, future concerns in communicating overcoming violence

 The world is a world of human beings, as it was before, but the power of
 our actions is again increased. The Web already increases the power of our
 writings, making them accessible to huge numbers of people and allowing us
 to draw on any part of the global information base by a simple hypertext
 link.(19)

As conflict and crises continue to erupt and spread, or become tense traces, many people have immediate access to vast quantities of information and sharing from virtually any part of the global political and economic map.

We have the same potential during times of peace -- to make connections, to inform one another and to build a global sense of a peace-based community.

The Internet, particularly e-mail and the Web, can be used to exchange information and resources, provide alternative news, connect people and provide almost limitless opportunities for learning. As Berners-Lee dreamed, "Anything on the Web can be quickly learned by a person and any knowledge you see as being missing from the Web can be quickly added." Can it be possible that this global and growing availability of information could truly change the course of conflicts, our sense of culture and identity, our knowledge of the past and present -- and our possibilities for the future?

Thus the Internet has seen incredible growth, and presents fascinating paradoxes:

* Born from a vision of scientific research and military defence, it is now a vast library of information, a powerful tool for communication and a hub for business of every kind.

* Widely available, to an educated and wealthy world elite, it has also been readily grasped by entrepreneurial and committed individuals and grassroots groups to access information and to network on causes often directly aimed against such elitism.

* While only a tiny percentage of the global population is connected to the Internet, yet it significantly broadens fellowships like the WCC, and enables a larger and far wider network of people and groups to connect for dialogue and action.

The technology supporting the Internet will continue to advance in its use of text, sound and video. For the ecumenical movement to use the Internet to its full potential some consideration and action in the following areas will be required:

1. Churches should be at the forefront of the call for unrestricted and universal access. As the church moves into the 21st century we need to examine our communication technology to take full advantage of the power it offers to all sectors of society, and to the WCC and other networks as active and real fellowships of churches. We also must continue to challenge the political and economic sectors of society in regard to a just and fair sharing of resources and technology. This is an issue not only of resource management and technological access, but also in relation to monitoring national and international regulations on the use of the Internet and the freedom of information, particularly in the political and economic spheres. The information on the Internet must be as complete and as accessible as possible. "The Web was designed to be a universal space of information ... The universality is essential to the Web: it loses its power if there are certain types of things to which you can't link."(20)

2. Churches should actively pursue their unique contribution in the use of the Internet. The growing trend in Internet use is in business, advertising and e-commerce, as well as its use as a vast, international documentation centre. Churches certainly have documents to contribute and books to sell, for which the Internet provides a ready platform. But churches also have community and committed networks, and an interest in solidarity and action for human rights, peace and justice. The churches can lead in promoting uses of the Internet for meaningful exchange and dialogue.

3. Churches must commit the human and financial resources necessary to make the technology work for the purposes we have in mind. To use the Internet, particularly the Web, effectively means dedicating appropriate time and financial resources. A Website opens an organization to the vast general public for scrutiny 24 hours a day. It is as useful, and credible, as it is accurate and up-to-date for the organization, or issue, it portrays. Inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date information also carries a message -- a negative one -- to the public and the media.

4. Churches, particularly international ecumenical organizations like the WCC, must help individuals and organizations to select, assess, and compile the vast information they find through the Internet. The Internet provides a space, Virtually unregulated, for any type of information. It can be used by anyone for any purpose. As we use it to further peace, we must also acknowledge that it is used to incite violence and promote hate. Because one of the main strengths of the Internet is the unfettered ability to access any information, it will become increasingly necessary to analyze sources of information, compare reports, and help determine the veracity of claims and the necessity of action. Churches and ecumenical organizations can assist their members in this. While advocating for open and universal access in information sharing, churches should also take a strong role in identifying needs for advocacy, providing guidelines for assessing the vast amounts of disparate information -- increasingly available through the Internet and through other sources(21) -- and suggesting appropriate responses to their constituency.

5. We must recognize that modern technology is a means, but not the end of peace-building. Clearly the Internet is a powerful tool in the service of peace-building. However it can never be the sole sum of our advocacy. E-mail and the Web expand the work, broaden participation geographically and societally. Potentially, they provide information to everyone and anyone. But information must be provided in other formats, and many methods should be used to communicate. In the Viva Rio campaign, the Web, though a critical element in communication, was only one part of a strategy that also used demonstrations, symbolic action, art, media events and person-to-person contact. Information must be provided equally to those who do not yet have access to e-mail and Web. And as Christians, for whom innovation and embodiment are central themes, we must continue to emphasize the importance of direct and personal contact to deepen our understanding and commitment to one another.

Modern technology offers us the opportunity to expand our power to reach what we are already working for. The technology itself, and the rapid pace of change, may be daunting to some, but at its very basic level it offers us the same ethical challenges and opportunities that churches and the ecumenical movement have been facing for decades and centuries.

 One thing is certain. The Web will have a profound effect on the markets
 and the cultures around the world: intelligent agents will either stabilize
 or destabilize markets; the demise of distance will either homogenize or
 polarize cultures; the ability to access the Web will be either a great
 divider or a great equalizer; the path will either lead to jealousy and
 hatred or peace and understanding. The technology we are creating may
 influence some of these choices, but mostly it will leave them to us. It
 may expose the questions in a starker form than before and force us to
 state clearly were we stand.(22)

The Internet is a tool that has the power to change the speed and process by which we share information and act. But it does not change the causes for which we act -- our goals of peace and justice, our common expressions of our faith, our challenges against injustice and our search for hope. This is our witness. For an example, see the WCC's own Website at http://www.wcc-coe.org, and the Websites for the Decade to Overcome Violence:

English: http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/dov/index-e.html

French: http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/dov/index-f.html

German: http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/dov/index-g.html

Spanish: http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/dov/index-s.html

NOTES

(1) Walt Howe, Delphi FAQs: A Brief History of the Internet, updated 16 Nov. 2000. http://www0.delphi.com/navnet/history.html

(2) In addition to the science and research networking development, university libraries also were computerizing and networking their catalogs in the late 1960s independent from ARPA. There are a number of Internet histories and timelines available; one of the most detailed, and one of the main references for this article, is the Hobbes Internet Timeline v5.2, by Robert H. Zakon c1993-2000, http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/

(3) In colloquial language, many use "Internet" to refer to the World Wide Web but in fact the term refers to the entire computer communication network, of which e-mail and the World Wide Web are the most popular products. The US Federal Networking Council developed a definition of the term Internet in 1995 in consultation with members of the Internet and intellectual property rights communities: Resolution: The Federal Networking Council (FNC) agrees that the following language reflects our definition of the term "Internet". "Internet" refers to the global information system that -- (i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, (ii) is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.

(4) Tim Berners-Lee, A Short History of Web Development, http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ ShortHistory.html

(5) PBS Life on the Internet: Net Timeline. http://www.pbs.org/internet/timeline/timeline-txt.html.

(6) Hobbes.

(7) Hobbes.

(8) The statistics jump an average of 28% if occasional Internet users are included. Computer Industry Almanac, Inc. http://www.c-i-a.com

(9) Statistics from Global Reach (marketing communications consultancy): http://www.glreach.com/globstates/index.php3 and nic.at Internet Verwaltungs- und Betriebsgesellschaft m.b.H. http://www.nic.at/ english/geschichte.html

(10) PBS.

(11) Interview with Charles Harper, 13 March 2001.

(12) The WCC library also played a vital role in WCC "electronic history" by enabling people with phone/modem to consult its catalogue electronically as early as 1988. As Pierre Beffa, director of the Ecumenical Centre Library, noted, the vision was that the "WCC library should serve the whole constituency, not only the people coming to Geneva".

(13) David Pozzi-Johnson, 10 March 2001.

(14) According to Hobbes, the Holy See came on-line in 1995: http://www.vatican.va.

(15) A long list of church and ecumenical links is found from the WCC Web site at http://wcccoe.org/wcc/links/church.html.

(16) Sources: internal WCC documents including Programme to Overcome Violence: Peace to the City Campaign: Summary of Activities Jan. 1994-Oct. 1998 and "The WCC Programme to Overcome Violence: Challenges to the Ecumenical Movement from the `Peace to the City' Campaign" (Speicher). The Peace to the City network can be found at http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/pcn/index-e.html

(17) Source: Klaus Burckhardt, March 2001. The Braunschweig initiatives can be found at http://bos.cyty.com/elmbs/pbs.htm.

(18) Sources: Interview with Rubem Cesar Fernandes, 12 March 2001, and WCC Feature: "Efforts to overcome armed violence and control small arms possession and sales gather momentum", 7 August 2000, by Miriam Reidy-Prost. Viva Rio: http://www.vivario.org.br/

(19) Tim Berners-Lee, "Realising the Full Potential of the Web", based on a talk presented at the W3C meeting, London, 3 Dec. 1997. http://www.w3.org/1998/02/Potential.html.

(20) Berners-Lee.

(21) Such guidelines can be standard research practice such as verifying sources, confirming facts and accounts through several sources -- including known and reputable research and news organizations -- assessing other efforts by a previously -- unknown source, checking with known experts, etc. It will also be increasingly useful for church and ecumenical Web sites to provide a range and recommendation of links under specific topics or issues.

(22) Berners-Lee.

Sara Speicher (Church of the Brethren), worked with the WCC Programme to Overcome Violence and Peace to the City campaign from 1997 to 1998 and now serves as communication officer for the WCC. This article was developed in collaboration with the WCC Web editors, Douglas Chial and Miriam Reidy-Prost.