Today's Question: For this answer, try to highlight a conclusion that Miller & Slater make that differs from what we know about an older technology. That is, Miller & Slater cover themes that are very familiar from our earlier readings -- such as businesspeople and consumers trying to come to terms with a new communication technology -- but they occasionally come to strikingly different conclusions. Consider Chapter 6, "Doing Business Online," which chronicles several instances where Trinis try to employ new communication technologies (Web site design businesses, textiles catalogs, Miss Universe, etc.). Compare one of these instances and any conclusions that Miller & Slater draw from this material (e.g., about decommodification, virtual vs. real, the dynamics from ch. 1) to an analogous instance with an older technology covered by another author in this course (Douglas, Marvin, Fischer, Williams). How do you explain this difference in conclusions? e.g., Is the difference the result of technology (the Internet?), the method, the theoretical approach, assumptions, Trini culture, etc.?
Deregulation, the dynamics of normative freedom and “those pesky whiz kids”. (Or “All the young dudes, Carry the news.”- David Bowie)
Miller and Slater, in their work, The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach, establish fundamental frustrations that the citizen’s of Trinidad have with their local telephone monopoly of TTST, which is widely viewed has having “restrictive practices” that are preventing Trini’s from “properly capitalizing on the internet.” (p. 17) This “capitalization” rests with the notion that the internet provides wide and direct access to free markets and, in turn “as an opportunity to be grasped as new freedoms that increase people’s potential.” (p. 17)
From Miller and Slater’s work, it can be viewed that those that have benefited the most from this “increased potential” are young teenage Trinis that have some html coding, and web design experience. Miller and Slater note, “web design had very low entry costs… and was therefore … a major career opportunity for the web designers.” (p. 153) They chart out case after case of how young Trinis set up web pages for businesses that want to have a web page, but fail to grasp the inherently interactive nature of the medium itself. In turn, the author’s note that few businesses rapidly progressed from the notion of the web as a advertising medium, to a “catalogue” of their goods and services to a “node” of interactivity. This technological lag meant that these teenagers were subject to low pay and a lack of opportunity to develop their organizational and “back end” skills that were necessary for the emerging uses of the internet for inventory control an new applications of ecommerce.
What starts to be revealed is a frustration that the government of Trinidad, with it’s very opaque business relationship with TTST, has allowed if not readily encouraged technological foot-dragging by couching the arguments in distinctions between voice traffic vs information traffic and the expense of the “last mile” of service. What is noteworthy is that we have seen through the course readings a similar situation about the role of “whiz kids” and governmental regulation, although with very different outcomes.
In Susan J. Douglas’ work, Inventing American Broadcasting 1899-1922, she charts out the argument made by the Navy for strict regulation of the wireless medium using the threat of interference from “amateurs” to the possible risk of human life. Douglas carefully pulls testimony from congressional hearings on the regulation of wireless stating that, “Amateur wireless… may readily interfere with messages from a ship in distress with hundreds of lives aboard.” (p. 224) which ultimately led to government regulation that imposed harsh fines for any “wireless meddler” (p. 233) that interfered, or even occupied the “most desirable portion of the broadcast spectrum.” (p. 233) Douglas notes that the amateurs had effectively becomes scapegoats over what was a larger legal and technological struggle of competing wireless manufacturers and social institutions unable or unwilling to adapt to technological change. The Navy was particularly irritated at the presence of these amateurs as they were often faster and more talented in their wireless skills than were the navy’s own wireless operators.
Thus in Douglas’ account regulation was passed to limit the freedom of amateurs- effectively allowing them to “listen but not to speak” in a medium that they had direct access to through their own efforts of building their own wireless sets. Miller and Slater, however indicate the important role that the youth play in the formation of ecommerce for Trinidad, yet they are “limited” by the state granted monopoly of TTST. While the net effect across these to works are similar- the limitation of youth to a larger communication medium, they are formed through very different governmental means. It appears that the limitation of Trini youth to the “expansive freedom” of the internet is perhaps a mere growing pain of the state telephone company and may be a cultural artifact as other ISP’s gain a foothold into the marketplace.