Humanitarian issues cover a wide range of interdiciplinary topics, like (development) economics, law and politics <>, but are not directly concerned with such technological issues as information technology <>.
In practise, however, changes in informations technology, especially the introduction of the new communication tools the Internet provides, are affecting the field of Humanitarian issues in many ways. This paper aims at providing an overview from this perspective.
In the following two different aspects will be separated:
1. the role of information and communication tools in humanitarian work
* widespread up-to-date
information gathering
* emergency reports from
people on the spot
2. communication infrastructure and humanitarian development
* ("Internet as a form of
humanitarian aid")
The first view discusses the work of the professionals who work on humanitarian issues. An important part of their work is information gathering for decision making and, perhaps more than before, immediate action. Many lately reported happenings also include some local hackers who play an essential role in preventing [ihmisoikeuksien loukkauksia]. These cases, success stories even, are mostly about real time reporting and fast reactions in order to deliver fast relief. To my mind that kind of activities seem, unfortunately, traditionally quite un-UN-like. (one visiting lecturer, the guy from the High Comissioneer's office, told us that their unit is effective 'cause it's small and also that "you internet people could revolutionize things")
(In for example Mexico and Bosnia some net-capable people have helped the group, that has been offended by the country's own or foreign army/government forces, to get their message out to the world, where it has gotten redistributed and ultimately broadcasted by media giants in the west - thus drawing global attention on the spot and preventing the gov/army forces from violent actions <the mex case in the news> <nettime:ivo skoric about RadioB92 in Bosnia>)
The later approach focuses on the possibilities of delivering information technology, particularly Internet access, as a form of humanitarian aid. Many NGOs and alike are active in this sector, for example the Internet Society and MIT's 2b1 project to name a few. This part of the paper will take a look at the Human Development Index (HDI) and put the potential the Internet services provide in that context. The three key elements of the HDI are 1. income 2. education 3. something of which .(... the net has potential in many of those but the way it works / would work is really hard to tell and far from trivial, for example it can easily emphasize the negative effects of multinational capitalism and globally homogenized culture .. even though I'd believe also the opposite, that it'd give us the opportunity to listen to the others..)
(There has also been lot of discussion about the so called third world potentionally leaping past the industrial society straight to the supposed information society, where the developed countries are said to have arrived, so that we would end up in a more equal world. When Central Europe is lagging behind in the global developments and the tiger countries in South-East Asia invest extremely from their rapid economic growth to modern information technology infrastructure some are even afraid that areas in Central Europe will be the least developed parts soon.)
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how is informati