The Hindu : Waging peace on the Web

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 24, 2003

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Waging peace on the Web

By Anand Parthasarathy

Bangalore March 23. Welcome to the world's first Internet-enabled war. As the missiles fly in West Asia, they are more than matched in number by the messages streaming back and forth from hundreds of Weblogs — or `blogs' as they are called: Internet message sites maintained by individuals who happen to be in the right place at the right time, which in this case means smack in the middle of the war zone. The last time around, 12 years ago, television — exemplified by CNN's daily video feeds from Baghdad — brought the war into millions of drawing rooms worldwide. Internet was still nascent and not a workable option for either individuals or agencies to exploit as a communication medium. Now it's a whole new technology game and millions of lay citizens are all scrambling to harness the new-found global reach of Internet and satellite-based links. The official electronic media operating in the war zone will inevitably have to work under the `censorship' of both sides to the conflict, while the informal `blogosphere' of the Web knows no such restraint. Already, within the first few days of the conflict, the Internet grapevine has identified one `blogger', who seems to be operating from the heart of Baghdad. The site called "Where is Raed?" (www.dear_raed.blogspot.com), has been providing vivid details of everyday hassles of life in the Iraqi capital as the Tomahawks come raining down. Another rare and unvarnished view from the war zone was provided by a blog run by Kevin Sites, CNN reporter (www.kevinsites.net) , who has posted some moving photos from northern Iraq. However, on Saturday he put up a notice temporarily suspending new instalments presumably because his employers did not approve. Mainstream journalists have cautioned that blogs by their very nature are personal statements and do not have to adhere to mainstream standards of news accuracy. But many of the millions who have been flocking to the Internet in the last few days (enough to cause a huge spike in global usage) are clearly sceptical of the hard line they are being fed by the official, particularly American, news channels; The Internet for the first time gives them a viable and alternative viewpoint. The web is also being harnessed by lay citizens who disagree with the official stance of their elected representatives.

The opposition of many lay British and American citizens to the policy of the Blair and Bush Governments has taken the form of a "Web war', with dozens of Internet sites springing up to mobilise public opinion against the U.S.-led attacks on Iraq. "The Washington Post" has listed some like www.moveon.org and www.winthoutwarus.org, which encouraged surfers to join in a `virtual march' on Washington D.C., inundating elected representatives and officials with over 1 million anti-war messages.

Others, including www.globalvigil.org are still hosting photos and videos of candlelight vigils held worldwide, including shots from Bangalore and London as well as emotive pictures children in Baghdad under attack.

A group at www.notinourname.net exhorted the U.S. Congressmen and senators not to endorse a war in the name of the people.

Another at www.endthewar.org offered posters, stickers and tee shirts flaunting a "No War" slogan. In a keynote delivered last week at the "Politics Online" Conference in the U.S. capital, Lance Bennett, professor of political science at the University of Washington, said the Internet may be helping to unleash the largest anti-war protest in human history. "We are seeing a mass mobilisation... a digital swarm."

The official media reporting from the war zone is also an exploiter of Internet Age technology this time.

The somewhat pixelated video clippings that Indian viewers are seeing on the main satellite news channels are the product of the hottest item in the media's arsenal: the "IPT Suitcase" a briefcase-sized satellite-telephone broadcast systems made by the Swedish company, Swe-Dish Satellite Systems.

It uses the Internet Protocol (IP) to transmit sound and picture at just under 2 megabits per second. (MBPS). A British company, TVZ, has also developed a Laptop News Gathering (LNG) systems whereby a standard satellite telephone working at 128 kilobits per second (KBPS) can be latched on to a laptop computer to create a portable broadcast system.

Since the last Gulf conflict, an Indian-origin Columbia University professor, Shree K. Nayar, has designed and patented a parabolic omni camera (produced by Sony) for newsgathering, which `sees' behind the operator with a 200 degree viewing angle.

And the university's Centre for New Media has developed a Mobile Journalist's workstation complete with head mounted satellite antenna and a backpack computer.

The second Gulf War is being seen as a technological advance on the first — but a lot of the advances are in the hands of thousands of the media — or of ordinary people, who want to wage peace rather than war.

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