Drazen Pantic on Tue, 3 Mar 1998 12:33:00 +0100 |
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Mongolia on line: from Genghis Khan to Bill Gates Ulan Bator, 15-21 February, 1998 The OSI, Budapest and Mongolia, organised a training course in electronic publishing in February in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. The purpose of the training was to impart the necessary skills to newcomers in the world of electronic publishing and electronic media. Mongolia has been on line for almost a year, taking a quantum leap into a new era. Years of living behind whatever kind of curtain had left their mark, so very few people in Mongolia were in a position to take advantage of the new possibilities of global self-expression. Because of this, the Mongolian government and the OSI felt that intensive training in the new media could bridge the gap and also identify new potential within the nation. The training team, from Britain, OSI Budapest and B92 Belgrade, were an interesting combination of personalities, skills and interests. The basic goal of the course was to teach electronic publishing skills to the Mongolian participants. These included CD preparation, Web and Internet techniques and an approach towards more advanced broadcast techniques on the Internet and electronic media in general. Each participant made an Internet project, designing a Web page and going through the steps of collecting material, preparation and selection and final assembly. A competition was held with a prize for the designers of the best pages. The participants were impressive, both in their sheer numbers and their determination to learn new facts and acquire new skills. From an initial enrolment of 25, the group jumped to 150, of all ages and occupations. A large number of young people were included, but there were more from older age groups actively participating. The reception of each new technique or area of knowledge was unique and touching. By way of example, after a lecture on copyright and privacy issues on the Internet, the whole group of more than 100 participants stood and applauded in an emotional outburst. Only in this place at this time could a lecture of this kind induce such an emotional reaction. And in the face of such a reaction, a lecturer is simply overcome by his own personal limitations. Almost all the time, contact with the group was an open, two-way street: the trainers would impart the facts and practice of the new media, while the participants would lead us towards really important matters. At present Mongolia has just one Internet service provider, Datacomm. The company is young and is owned and managed by a very intelligent and progressive group of people. Besides the obvious possibility of monopolistic behaviour, Datacomm still acts, to a large extent, as a missionary organisation. They are also providing daily training as far as the human limitations of the staff permit. The company has more than 1,000 users. There are two places for access by the general public: a classroom of the Technical University, with more than 50 computers (which is where the training took place), and a centre for Internet education. This provides the broader public with a venue for cyber-gathering. The overall bandwidth in and out of the country is 128 kbs, which is adequate, but Datacomm has announced a planned expansion. New providers are also about to set up. The price for Internet access is still high, even by international standards. This is the consequence of extremely expensive satellite time and international telephone lines. Internet and satellite technology are seen in Mongolia as tools for more than one purpose. On the international scale, the principle is to present the country to the world and forge closer links with people worldwide, as well as entering electronic commerce (whatever that is). On the domestic scene, the new technologies are a vehicle for internal cohesion. Mongolia is a huge country, with an area almost as great as Europe, but a population of only 2.5 million. The telecommunications infrastructure is very poor, and some regions have no connection at all except for poor quality lines to the capital, Ulan Bator. So e-mail exchange and satellite links are a must if the country is to function in a normal way. The media scene in Mongolia is particularly unclear, at least to the casual visitor. Both print and electronic media are very keen to keep the public informed with modern news programs, in what they see as a world standard package. State television is highly dominant over all other media. Domestic news preoccupations are more or less educational, ranging from advice to Mongolians to eat more vegetables, to discussion on whether prostitution is good for tourism or bad because of the danger of AIDS. All television channels, including the state broadcaster, carry regular soap operas which I suspect, judging by their quality and apparent budget, have their origins in Russian anti-copyright corporations. On the other hand, state television, which leases eight hours of satellite time per day, is willing to allow independent media to use four hours of that time which it has not programmed. Mongolian Television called on the private broadcasters to provide programming, preferably non-documentary, for the unused hours. There are four independent radio and television stations operating in Mongolia. They carry little information or political programming, offering a daily fare of MTV-like broadcasts, serials and films. So it is very difficult to talk about critical independent media in the sense we are used to. The reason for this situation is not necessarily suppression or any reluctance to indulge in critical discourse. The likely reason is that Mongolia is, to a large extent, a society very free from conflict. There is basic social consensus on the major questions of state legislation, economy and religion. There may well be more profound conflicts concealed by the belief that economic development without turbulence will achieve the most for the welfare of the nation. Buddhism and tradition are in public focus in these times. During the hardline communist period, Buddhism was not banned but, as recently as 1938, more than a million Mongols were killed in a Russian Bolshevik attack on "the opium of the people". Traditional arts and culture were also suppressed, along with all that is now important in the cultural life of Mongolia. In recent years many Buddhist monasteries have been rebuilt or renovated with government funds and supervision. Many beautiful artefacts have come to light. One of the most exciting moments we shared during our ten days there was a concert by a prominent traditional music group. The concert was in honour of Diane Weyermann, Arts & Culture OSI program. Together, we were the only audience in an otherwise empty hall. The orchestra was dressed traditionally carrying their traditional horse violins. The concert began and we were exposed to the incredibly tender and beautiful strains of a music we knew little about. The strange and beautiful voices and sounds were a divine revelation, carrying us back to the glorious time of Genghis Khan. Knowing what was achieved by this nation in the Genghis Khan era through discipline and determination, and feeling through the music surrounding us the beauty of their culture, the question in the minds of everybody in that hall was where the tools and arms of the new era will take this brave and determined people. Digital technology, the Net and new media could provide them with a framework in which their determination and will could work miracles. So with a little luck and foresight , we could just see some Bill Gates-like digital shamans emerging from Mongolia in the very near future. Drazen Pantic Belgrade, March 2nd 1998 --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de