iMalls Global: globally networking local communities?
Via Franz Nahrada, who reports that Klaus Stoll, founder of iMalls and based in Ecuador, is considering moving these projects to a Global Village oriented infrastructure.
Klaus Stoll:
“The previous concept of “Telecenters” or whatever you want to call PIAP’s (Public Internet Access Points), was based on connectivity and did not in a sufficient way address the question of “For What?”. The answer to this questions is simply: “To improve the lives of of individuals and the communities they live in!”.
How?. Here we have to get back to the basic needs and these are: Health, Communication, Culture, Education, Ecological sustainability and Economy, (=meaning food on the table).
The question is” How can we use the new technologies to address the basic needs?”. I think we will find that there are many very useful tools and resources already existing on-line, so why is their impact so limited.
The answer here is because whilst the tools and resources exist they are not implemented because they are not based on the existing social structures and support systems. (the are literally hanging in Cyberspace and are not rooted in something real like a community). Here is where the communities come in.
The communities need to look at what is out there and take, implement and use in a sustainable way that what is relevant and sustainable for them.
For example: They can use IMalls as an experience and example for using the internet to manage trade inside a community and between communities local regional and global. The hope is that they adapt existing tools and experiences to their reality and reject everything that is not relevant, sustainable or even hurtful. The Internet is a new kind of hammer and communities need to discover how to use it to drive the new nails into the walls of a new cyber world. But their hammer, their nails, their cyber world, not anybody else’s.
All this means simply instead of creating tools and resources we should help to create communities that are able to use and develop the new tools for them, based on their community needs and desires. We are talking Global Villages here and at the same time a new generation of Telecenters, Telecenters that are based not on a Community having access to the ICT’s but Communities that are using ICT’s for their development. Here is where the Global Villages Network and GTA become one.”
