THE NEXT COMMUNICATION CIVILIZATION

Communication is what gives an exterior dimension to human beings. It takes peoples ideas and feeiings out from their self contained units. Without it learning, feeding back LS arid teamwork would be impossible. But what is communication exactly? The data transfer from A to B or one of the other many definitions that different disciplines have given to it?

What ever it is, it's strong enough to make us think that it could build up or shape a i. i i Kjf is it not? Anyhow, the mere word communication must have such meaning and interdisciplinary impact as for leading us to wonder about the next communication civilization.
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But then again, what is communication? What does it mean for the majority of people? usually when psychiatrists and psychologists want to find out the bare truth they pop out a word and demand to be answered with the first image that comes immediately to your mind. Something like for- a- word an-image kind of test.

So, what image behind the word communication? During centuries, it was a letter. A sheet of paper folded and wrapped in a stamped or wax-sealed envelope delivered to our hands after a journey with the pony express, in a i\v5a airmail. Then with the 19th century came the written press, the first media of open communication: journals were sold to whomever could read, and wanted to. At the and of the same century Marconi and Bell's scientific work allowed people to communicate

a long distance way other than written. Speech communication was now possible with someone that was not physically aside.

Replacing the letter, the telephone apparatus became our image of communication. Through its conductors, a bilateral, personal, immediate way of communication was
visible.

As with the courier, expressed ideas and feelings targeted precisely the person communicate with, and a response could be expected if the other person

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, j , .r:. later, radio, cinema and television filled our lives -whether we wanted it or notwith sounds and images that transformed the society we live in. The non-targeted broad diffusion or news and ideas jointly with the seducing capacity of publicity and marketing began to weave collective consciences in every country.

The impact of radio during Second World War converted this apparatus in the image of ation itself and the most important single piece of furniture in any home. Radio connected domestic lives with events and ideas from abroad while nourishing people's thoughts and actions. Charles de Gaulle's 18th of June 1940 call to resist Hitler's occupation, is a good example of massive communication and the effective impact of a . it led to the organization of the French resistance.

: u jht moving image to our lives until then just filled with sound waves from the telephone and the radio. Later, cinema fused sound and images for further on

s ... i \\ color. Probably because of dimensions as big as people's dreams, cinema . [ crated itself for entertainment purposes solely. The reduced size of the

,\ >wever, allowed people to fit the set into their houses, just like with the

nevertheless, until recently the beige box was only used as a word processor or for its calculating capacities. For communication purposes, the computer was useful for no more . i . multiple identical letters or labels for envelopes that were delivered by
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then in xxxx it merged with Internet to become the ultimate communication

tool.

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using a computer it is possible to make and receive calls, write letters, send ih Internet and receive their answer back, scan images and send them, receive

images and print them, listen to the radio, read newspapers, watch web TV, participate in videoconferences, chat with a group of friends, meet new people and of course, surf a . * ... web full of other peoples ideas. For communication purposes this means that , lay's computers have television, cinema, radio, telephone and courier capacities built .in chern. J use like the biggest Russian Matrouska doll carries her preceding five smaller dolls

^ computers have turned to be the pillar of all communication systems, almost any progress in computing science has a direct impact on communication applications. That is why scientific breakthroughs regarding computers are converted into technology and -....< n our daily lives in a relative short period of time.

Science In 1847, three physicists from Bell labs invented the first transistor. Later in 1958, Jack
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instrument engineer came up with the integrated circuit. He thought that

, filing together components in modules it would be better to spread out resistors, capacitors, transistors and diodes on a single slice of silicon. One year later Robert Noyce, from Fairchild Semiconductor, realized that better than linking components

^rephone or^ radio devices. Personal communication through courier and telephone : to exist with the press, radio and TV broadcasting, but the audiovisual impact of . K.fj of course, made it the vedette of the late twentieth century.

TV's effects over society have concentrated the efforts of sociologists and political analysts. They have tried to understand how passive we are face to broadcasting , , ,.v::; und how people and institutions metamorphose to get media coverage and public's appreciation. The current Research Minister of France Mr. Roger Gerard ichwartzenberg is the author of an interesting and widely known book, that with its mere
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title, L'Eiat Spectacle, is able to advance a very good idea of the effects of television in si.aping^state'and politics.

secret behind TV's stardom and power is simple: it is an audiovisual apparatus. Listening to the TV at the same time as we watch it, corresponds highly to our human way of communication, even if we cannot still talkback to it. The TV became the image of - nvimunication for the late last century and it will continue to be so, in many countries; just as much as radio is still the top hi-tech communication device in several technologically divided places around the world.

.. uiai have information technology and represent the toddlers of what the next . mmupication civilization will be, it's not difficult to imagine that their image of communication is a computer. Whether it is placed behind a monitor, a television screen or tit into a mobile telephone the computer is certainly placed in the commanding center of
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world.

r. ^sanitarian globalization, expanding e-commerce or cailing off the third . v .v.ornal debt, are some of the uses of the web. The only certain thing then about
pi applications is thai as a vast communication tool Internet offers the opportunity

. .... u ii3 world together. Two things could happen: the big could embrace or suffocate the little.

electricity and vaccines needs are not yet solved in third world countries , .. is already talking about the gap of the digital divide. Maybe it is not because
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are less important, but because the DD is an unexpected brand new gap that
add up to the former. What's more, it grows at the same fast pace of

iornss to
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breakthroughs.

.> economy is about the growing power of ideas, if e-commerce permits a small ; sell his handicrafts and if someone leaving in an isolated place can remain the world and besides continue learning, then internet is the via for a better distribution of opportunities. But for getting there, first, it is necessary to be connected.

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of the world's population still does not have a telephone line; 90 % of internet

... DECD countries, in Africa, for example there are 14 million phone lines for chiton people. Connectivity is then one of the priorities for the world and within every SuiTcry. Even with broadband and optical fibers it will take some years to reach total connectivity. Meanwhile, alphabetization, education and information technology training
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and speed up.

\ Ide yep is not only about branching computers; it is also about interest and . ...-<-,. Teaching for a communication's revolution, isn't only teaching how to connect a

omputer; read, write and surf the web, but to be independent and creative. Because even ...,:aiviiy barriers will be worked out, barriers of language, economics, politics and
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culture will continue to block a meaningful access. Teaching

independence

and

resourcefulness is not an easy task, but as much as state and corporations are perfect jents for boosting up connectivity, NGOs are perfect agents for teaching in a grassroot . I both in industrialized and developing countries. With integrated policies for bridging

; te Digital divided the less wealthy could get into the e-revoiution and grab an opportunity. ..: n.unicoaion era education is the masterpiece of the game, it transforms data into knowledge. Without it, even the web is cacophony.

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imwge behind the word communication?

nan nature. Teachers, parents, friends and society building knowledge and sharing it /ith those that don't have it. Telephone, radio, television and computers are nothing more ihan apparatus. Human nature is what will continue to prevent us from one day turning into . i-like beings transformed by the advances of science and technology.

v.. . communication can be much more than the information transfer between A and and looks more like a transfer between A and X
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, information transfer might convert

.,..: naring. Now that we have the tools, maybe if we use them in accordance with policies'inspired in human nature and resulting from interdisciplinary thinking we may . i pi ogress into civilization.

Written for the Sixth Olympiad of the iViind Adriana Ruiz-Restrepo Hania, September, 2000