Difference in the development of Internet in Trinidad
In the early history of both radio and telephone, the business and military use of the technology overshadowed the general public’s use. It was the Navy and a few big companies that first employed the new technologies and heavily influenced the early development of the technologies. They seemed to have a good understanding of the benefits the new technologies could bring them. The general public adopted the new technologies much later.
However, in Trinidad, according to Miller and Slater’s description, the general public welcomed the Internet more quickly and with more enthusiasm. The majority of the households in Trinidad have at least one family member who gets online. Email and online chatting are nothing novel to the Trinidadians. Many people even created their own websites and take the responsibility to introduce Trinidad to the world.
Compared to all this, the Trinidadian business world is far left behind. Most companies seem have no idea what the Internet can do for them. They know it is a cool thing, and they are supposed to use it, but they don’t know how to use it. Therefore, many of them just use it for their online “flyer.” They have no suggestions on what to put on their website or how to design it, let alone how to use it for ecommerce, like integrating the front and the back sides. The whole advertising industry was virtually taking no part in the development of the Internet in Trinidad, and few of them have their own website (p.153)
There are at least two reasons for this difference. The first reason is about the development stage of the technology. In the books on radio and telephone, we read about the “birth” of the technology: at that time and in that place, that technology, though as a combination of many previously existing technologies, occurred and was adopted for the first time. However, the Trinidad story is different. When the Internet was introduced into Trinidad, it has been widely adopted both by the business and the general public in US and other developed countries. The telecommunication and ISP companies and the general public all know how the Internet can serve the general public and what a big market it is. Thus, the market for the general public was not ignored or left behind.
The Trinidadian characteristics are another reason. The big-scaled overseas migration of the Trinidadian population makes the general public whole-heartedly appreciate the function of the Internet in connecting geographically dispersed family members. However, reluctance of the business world is also rooted in the Trinidadian characteristics. Their inadequate infrastructure and small local market make the business world believe that any reasonable level of expenditure is not justified (p.154). Therefore, for the Internet in Trinidad, it is the general public’s use surpassing the business’s use.