Internet Access on Vorovoro
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On-island and online, there are always discussions on how and when we will gain decent internet access from Vorovoro.
I feel certain we will achieve a useful intenet connection in the coming months and I think it is very important to consider NOW how we will use the internet when we do have better reception.
One of the things most of us net junkies (I am definitely one as evidenced by me typing this blog post on a blackberry) discover when we are on Vorovoro is that we really enjoy NOT constantly checking our email, facebook etc.
Most of us come to realize how something we think of as completely essential to day to day living actually isn’t necessary at all. We realize a week or 3 or 6 switched off from consistent net access actually enhances our lives rather than detracting from it.
Communication is indeed important – not all of us are able abandon our lives back where we come from for weeks at a time – but if we really have work, online banking, family stuff etc we need to be relatively on top of, a trip to Labasa once a week to use the internet is probably enough.
It may not seem so from where anyone reading this is sitting at the moment, but truly, are any of us really so “important” that we can’t be unreachable for 6 days?
I remember a conversation with Kimbo and Sara Jane last January on-island about net access here:
We talked about how a wireless router would mean folks could be lolling about in hammocks, lying on the beach, sitting in the Grand Bure and be online chatting with friends, working, using the TW site etc.
At one stage of the discussion, we all paused and surveyed our little island oasis. When our eyes returned to one another, we all sort of smiled and said varying versions of “that would suck/ruin it/turn it into a desert island internet cafe etc etc.
That kind of experience – being fully wired while you’re on vacation – is available at most toruist resorts throughout the world. Do we want that here?
I personally think that having full net access here would really detract from half of what the Tribewanted Vorovoro experience is: interacting face to face.
Most of us do so little of this in our daily lives. We are generally at least one step removed from any person we are in conversation with, we have a lovely screen/phone to keep us a safe and manageable distance from emotion and “real interaction” with other people.
If there were wireless throughout the village, I fear we wouldn’t see nearly as much lolling about on mats chatting in the sun, we would have less people around the tanoa in the evenings, fewer people working together, less people interacting here with each other because we would be interacting with all our friends/contacts elsewhere in the world.
We would, I fear, be conveying our experience from here far more than we would be actually experiencing our experience while we are here.
Opportunities for cultural immmersion such as is available on Vorovoro are few and far between.
The island is a very unique environment where western idealism -environmental awareness, sustainability, perfect beaches and sunshine – and Fijian community style living – which is generally environmentally conscious due to necessity rather than luxury – merge.
For many people Vorovoro is the 1st, and maybe only, place many people will experience what is essentially the antithesis of commercial tourism.
On Vorovoro, we are forced to move out of our comfort zone of non-verbal, “from a distance” communication and I think that is a very very good thing. I generally feel the more genuine face to face human interaction we have, the better the world will be.
We have moved so far away from person to person interaction in our towns and cities that the idea of “community” stays an idea, it can’t, in most places, be felt or seen or participated in.
When I tell any of the locals here that, in the places most of us are from, we could live in an apartment or housing estate and never even learn the names of our neighbours, let alone talk with them, the reaction is always shock.
This is incomprehensible to most minds here because community is ingrained, embedded and celebrated daily here in Fiji.
I think, BEFORE we have better net access on the island, we really need to have firm (but malleable) guidelines in place regarding how we are going to utilize the internet here on Vorovoro.
Decently functional internet access has the potential to have a huge – mostly detrimental in my view – impact on Vorovoro village life.
There are also the cultural implications of widespread internet access on Vorovoro:
Rural Fijians have next to no media literacy or internet savvy.
If anyone has ever opened a computer here on Vorovoro, they’ll know that they suddenly find 3 or 5 or 10 adults and kids hovered around them to see what’s on the screen.
Encouraging interest and providing education around technology are an exceptionally important part of our cultural exchange here. We definitely want the kids (and adults who are interested – some simply are not) to be able to use technology and interact in the larger world, but opening up a laptop with access to pretty much anything and sharing the contents of the world wide web for people who have no media literacy is, in my mind, very dangerous and extremely irresponsible.
I believe we each need to have a really good think about what full internet access on Vorovoro would mean – and share our thoughts in discussion – before we cut the ribbon/drink the ceremonial kava to “open” the wireless router.
(Forum discussion here:http://www.tribewanted.com/forums/35/topics/1194?page=1#posts-23369
Comments
I always saw online access on Vorovoro for connecting with this community and researching project related issues.
It would be in a fixed position (power house) and members need to decide how it should be used.
1. Is access for everyone, all the time? Or is it just limited when demand is high?
2. Should there be introductions to online use for Fijian community (bearing in mind most of the younger Fijians use the internet already in Labasa)?
Like the rest of the project a responsible approach to the opportunity should provide the correct result
thanks for the post Carol
I fully agree that most everyone can go a week without being in touch with the outside world. And it should be a joy to do that.
Think of it as a generational thing. It really was only a few years ago that we somehow all managed
to get by with only land lines for phones and no internet. Part of my vacation fun is to get away
and that means breaking my news junkie habit
that I have at my desk, checking the Drudge report to see if the world is still here. My vacations
have proved that the world can and does go on without me. There is always someone back home
that knows how to get in touch with me if there was truly an emergency but other than that
my family continues to go on with life without daily contact from me
I agree too Carol that turning the internet lose
on the Fijians would not be kind to them.
I do agree with Carol, indeed, that Internet must not be the focus of the Island activities. Anytime I go abroad (not for work) I am happy if there is no Internet connection even there is no signal for my GSM…
Furthermore we should consider that TW is drived by an on-line community and because of this it is a must to have connection on-line. There are many things to discuss daily and many things to tell to on-line members – I am sure.
I think one of a gold middle-way would be to provide Internet access (even WiFi) for the Island, BUT it should be availabel for TW web pages only! In that case all on-island members can share they experiences, questions and so on, but in the meantime there will be only one reason to use the advantages of the WorldWideWeb: help for TW Project…
What do you think?
I also am in agreement with Carol. As someone addicted to a blackberry for business I hope that I can go cold turkey for two weeks.
I understand that a link to the outside and to members is important but think Gyula’s idea has some merit.
I think carol has perfectly summed up the potentially negative effect that introducing a solid internet connection to the island would have. I understand that the argument to have internet access is the fact that that is what the whole project is based on, ‘an internet tribe community’, and i appreciate Gyula’s valid point that it shouold be reserved specifically for TW pages only. Sadly i feel that this is a bit too idealistic, in the sense that restrictions and ‘laws’ as such go against the idea of the islands manifesto. It would be nice to think that people were told to use the internet for TW business only, and that would be that. But a cheeky peek at a facebook page or emails just after writing a TW blog is clearly possible, seemingly harmless, but will almost certaintly open the gates to miss use of the internet. And how to prevent people from ‘quickly’ checking there mail, punishment! I just cant comprehend any form of punishment on Vorovoro working effectively without having an adverse effect on the whole ethos of the island. Plus who sets the rules, and instigates any punishment/deterant – it could all get a bit Lord of the Flies!!
Having been away from the island for a few weeks now, and eagerly checking the TW site for updates, i can say that i am more than satisfied with the updates, the news, pictures and messages. Whether or not people are coinciding a trip to Labassa of sneaking in a blog when the internet is working, there is plenty for tribe members not on the island to get stuck into. In my opinion (for what its worth!) the internet side of things should be left for the on-line community, not the on-island. As far as i can make out, things seem to be working from both sides, blogs are getting out, as are pictures and relevant news. Any further internet capabilities would be very hard to police due to the power and potentially detrimental affect of continuous access.
But perhaps ive simplified it and there is far more to consider!!
I’m a bit surprised to see this posting, actually. Although I understand some of the points made, connecting Vorovoro to the world has been part of the overall plan from day one.
I have worked hard to try and explore numerous ways of getting that island connected. I believe that the Fijians on Vorovoro will gain tremendously by having full, unrestricted net access, as well. I can tell you from my own experiences here that once the initial awe of what’s available online has worn off, any local person immediately understands the culturally-enriching and positive educational elements that the Internet can offer.
If TW members feel that this somehow threatens their ability to “escape” from a blackberry-dependent life, then that may be a different problem (no offense, Rogelio..my blackberry is always in my pocket as well). No one would be forced to use the Internet on Vorovoro after all, would they?
Perhaps more importantly, it’s not up to TW to decide when and how access to the Internet should be given to Vorovoro. I would certainly like to see introductory “lessons” on how to use the Internet and there should always be some supervision when children are using it but anything beyond that strikes me as inappropriate.
Unless I’m misunderstanding what is being discussed, I just don’t agree.
Since the primary goal of TW was to be an online community connected to the island community, it would seem to me to be the antithesis of this program to make it not happen because we don’t want to contaminate our Shangri-La with internet….However, I completely understand and am sympathetic to the fear that we could see people interacting less and enjoying being in the moment less, if they are constantly connected. At least some suggestions could be made to new arrivals, if not guidelines given.
I agree with Jonatoni concerning the use of the internet by the Mali people present on the island, it would be wrong to say, we have it, but you can’t use it. Who are we to decide? Shouldn’t we be asking TuiMali what his opinion is? He can also discuss it with the Mali people who are on the island.
I don’t want to see them exposed to all the junk, filth and plethora of useless “information” that is there either, possibly this is inevitable, I have seen the effects creeping in to other faraway places as the internet takes hold, in the worst ways, just as TV has over the past 50 years.
Each of us has to learn to manage our time online, be it Tribe online matters or otherwise; whatever privileges and limitations are for us as tribe members, the same should go for our Mali people. Hopefully after the newness wears off, as Jonatoni says, things will “go back to normal”. Limiting access to the internet to the ecotricity hut might help web junkies to limit their time online. There is not that much space in there, nor is there power for hours of use. Possibly by limiting power consumption, of laptops and gadgets, we could automatically limit online time. A time limit could be imposed for recharging, (this was already beginning to be a problem in February) which would limit how long you can use your laptop to be online, etc.
If a tribe laptop is coming into use there will obviously have to be time limits, a sign up or such.
The points made about having unfettered internet access on Vorovoro are very_valid.
Unfourtantly though I think references to use of WiFi have been taken completely out of context.
What is lacking at present on Vorovoro is a reliable connection to enable the island team to do their work without the requirement to visit mainland for this purpose. “Reliable” in this context does_not mean fast.
What counts is to ensure data can be passed whenever required without interruption.
To do this, in the environment that we are in, requires a suitable [GPRS] aerial on highish ground. Using a GPRS router with WiFi on LAN side gives one a perfect opportunity to achieve this.
It is true that such a connection would be useless for Facebook et al but that matters not in the slightest because we do not want the connection for such purpose.
Once we have a reliable, if slow, connection pics & video can be uploaded whenever – so what if a 2 min clip takes several hrs upload to YouTube, but better by far to ftp it to TW site.
No one has to stand & watch it upload, so does it really matter what our uplink speed is so long as it does not keep dropping out (which is inevitable with out a proper antenna for the transciver)
So far as TW site access is concerned how about a (members only) text only portal. This would permit blogging from the island (and forum posts) with no pain / hassle at all.
Members blogs direct from Vorovoro I (and others) believe is what will light this project up further for those most of us at any one time are not on the island.
The graphio rich web world of today tends to blind everyone from what one really needs.
I come from using what we now call “the internet” from over 30 years in the past. All this (and every other blog / forum post) is is 7 bit ASCII text.
Get the transmission medium working correctly (avoiding the loss of possibly more then 8 out of 10 [data] packets sent) 110 bits/sec would be more then adequate – and is the speed of connection I used to work with back in 1970’s
As always Jaydub sound and sensible reasoning. As Neil says on the forum HOW can he move forward with his offer.
That surely now must be the question.
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