Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

Fellow EVOKE users. I converted a recent essay composed for my graduate studies into a post describing the realities, as best I can discern them, of the "digital divide," that is, the gap in access of Internet penetration between different parts of the world. It is a bit lengthy (~2,500 words...15 min read), but might be useful information to those actively engaged in the conversation regarding lack of African/South Asian/East Asian participation.


Native/Immigrant Complex: Notes on the Digital Divide



“We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.”


R. Buckminster Fuller




It is difficult to be engaged in contemporary design culture and avoid continuously bumping into any number of clumsy utopian projects. The outpouring of such effort is no doubt the result of a decade’s worth of doom and gloom predictions regarding the future of life on Earth (which are only complete, of course, when capped with the mantra: within crisis thy shall find opportunity). Many voices heard today recall the Bucky Fuller image of striding towards an ideal future and, indeed, uphold the model that the utopian vision is like a great merry-go-round that comes to the foreground only to recede again and again. With each pass, its spirit assumes a new host, usually of the technological persuasion.



Today’s champion is, of course, the Internet, with its feverishly evolving network culture. It is interesting to note that we use the verb open[1] when refereeing to activating a web browser. What we are doing, in fact, is opening the door to what could be thought of as an atopia, or a society without territorial boundaries. This does not seem altogether different from Fuller’s vision of the society of the future, which was characterized by a fluidity of communication that allowed individuals to live pretty much anywhere on the surface of the globe. (Picon) For an OECD audience (figure 1), it is easy to fall into the trap of believing global connectivity is here: the World Wide Web has made it possible for anyone, anywhere can access anything.


Figure 1: OEDC Members (Source: wikipedia)


In reality, however, that is not the case. While author Thomas Friedman has added much to the west’s perception of a flat world, he is also quick to point out that without a web connection you are not in the game [2]. In 2009 just over 25% of the world’s population were classified as Internet users, with conspicuously low percentages of Internet penetration in both Asia (19.4%) and Africa (6.8%). (figure 2) There are, however, steady signs of improvement. The growth of high-speed connectivity – practically mandatory for the contemporary web - has grown from just over four million subscribers ten years ago to some 400 million in 2009. (figures 3a-3c)
Even though much of the world still remains either disconnected or hobbling along on painfully slow dial-up networks, a significant milestone was achieved in 2009 when the first sub marine fiber optic cable reached the
Eastern shore of the African continent from its origin in Mumbai.


Figure 2 World Internet Usage and Population Statistics (Source: internetworldstats.com)


Figure 6.2a The Global Growth of Broadband - 1999 (Source: BBC)



Figure 4.2b The Global Growth of Broadband – 2004 (Source: BBC)

Figure 4.2c The Global Growth of Broadband - 2011 (Source:BBC)


It is important to take note that what regions like Africa and Asia lack in percentage of users, they make up easily in sheer number of users. Asia, for example, despite having less than 20% web penetration already represents over 40% of global Internet users. Contrast that with North America, who despite having a commanding 74% of their population online only have a 14% share in the total number of users. While it is only a matter of time until Asia, driven by broader penetration into India and China, significantly outweigh the US and Europe in volume of users, it remains to be seen how these parties will use their girth to steer the development of the web itself.



The decade-long head start that the west has in large-scale Internet mobilization is nonetheless extremely significant. One way of expressing the current disparity is what educator Marc Prensky has termed digital natives
and digital immigrants
- the difference being whether digital technologies such as personal computers,
Internet, and mobile phones were widely available in a society throughout a child’s development. Prensky asserts that natives are almost automatically accustomed the language, rites, and customs of the IT, whereas immigrants, who come to these tools after living a non-digital existence, operate with a thick accent
. The first generation of OECD natives are already emerging from college while the majority of their their international peers are still scrambling for connectivity.



On the other hand, this logic might become outmoded by the evolution of the Internet itself. Most observers recognize the decline of the preliminary methods of communication of information online, which involved users going to sites strictly to access content provided by the site’s administrator. Web 2.0 is the catchphrase for sites that shifted to more interactive platform, which not only allows users to access data but also relies on them to generate content themselves. As the interface between the user and the network become more engaging, we may witness a casting off of the immigrant complex that hampered the previous generation. Furthermore, the next Internet evolution, referred to as the semantic web, aims to understand the meaning of online content as pure information, thus providing ultimate accessibility to humans and machines alike, perhaps further easing the transition for fresh users and helping to alleviate language barriers.



Conjecture aside, what is the situation at the threshold of the digital divide in 2010? To answer this question, it is useful to examine in detail a recently launched MMO (massive multiplayer online game) that offers interesting insights from both sides of the chasm. The game, introduced at TED2010[3] by creator Jane McGonigal[4], focuses on getting online gamers to put their energy towards solving real world problems. The potential is enormous; in her presentation she cites data suggesting online gamers have spent a combined total of 5.9 million years playing the worlds largest MMO, World of Warcraft. McGonigal’s game is called EVOKE and its manifesto is a rallying cry for immediate action:


“EVOKE was also conceived as a crash-course in changing the world. It is a chance to showcase the kind of resourceful innovation and creative problem-solving that is happening today in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions, and to collectively imagine how the lessons from those scenarios can transfer, scale,
and ultimately benefit the entire planet.[5]



The goal of the game is to achieve an epic win, which McGonigal defines “as an outcome so extraordinarily positive you had no idea it was even possible until you achieved it.” The epic win that EVOKE is searching for is the salvation of planet Earth. The creators believe they can make strides towards achieving this by combining the incredible resourcefulness, dedication, and ingenuity of gamers with social networking tools akin to Facebook.


In its structure the game is a straightforward techno-utopia, who idea of winning is more dependant on the process than on specific outcome. The goal of the system is to create as much information sharing and relationship building as possible between gamers, especially between avant garde sustainability activists and those living in the developing world facing issues of food security, energy shortages, disease, water shortages, etc. Most players
drawn into the game tend to have a altruistic disposition and are motivated to continuously contribute at a high level in hopes of gaining one of twenty seed grants dedicated towards real-life funding of the best ideas put forth in the game[6]. The format of the game regularly emphasizes the importance the individual. For example, according to the ambiguous How To Play
link you will find the message, “Take the journey you want to take and chose the rewards you want to earn.[7]



Once you get past the utopian rhetoric, the goals of the game are rather modest: get people from all around the world to share information and hopefully start spin off efforts. However, early on it became apparent that there was a severe imbalance between percentages of players from OEDC nations versus their African counterparts. A survey sampling of 50 EVOKE gamers (from the 14,217 players at the time of the survey) chosen at random from the Agent database consisted of: 28 North Americas, 16 Europeans, 2 Asians, 2 South Americans, 1 Australian, 1 Latin American/Caribbean, 0 Middle Eastern, 0 African.[8] The data is not entirely surprising given the data regarding Internet penetration rates on Figure 2. It aslo not take into account language barrier issues (the site is only in English). This disparity does not go unacknowledged by African gamers themselves and there have been multiple posts discussing the subject. For example, in a blog within EVOKE a gamer from North America conducted the following interview with a fellow gamer from Uganda:


AGENT JAKE BAIRD: What is the worst crisis to you in the world currently that requires Evoke's attention?


AGENT SSOZI JAVIE: The Digital Divide! The GAP between the INFORMATION HAVES and HAVENOTS. The world is currently registering major political, social and economic developments and setbacks. The information age is demanding for creation of more information recourses. And sharing of more information. It’s a big shame
that in many communities this need has not been realized. And in some communities access remains a very big challenge. In my opinion, information access and networking is the climbing step to solving a wide range of crises in the world.[9]



The digital divide poses serious threats to the effectiveness of the game. It is interesting to observe the cybernetic cycle of how this threat was acknowledged and dealt with in the game. The characteristic targeted is the presence of African gamers. The game organizers realized there were disproportionately fewer African gamers. The decision of the comparators [10] was that more visibility of African gamers was necessary in order to ensure the success of the system. It is unclear from the perspective of the gamer the entire range of corrective measures the organizers implemented. One easily observable angle was to increase the number of friendships[11] by African gamers by putting them in a “Featured Agent” heading of the Agent directory (figure 4). Gamers themselves were acutely observant of both these issues and the activities of the organizers, as is reflected by this blog post by Agent Koshy [12]:


It's none of my business if Evoke wants to create an elite set of leaders for the world who will be from all the races but American and Eurocentric inside. Take the leader board. Look carefully at it. Look at the approved projects - the patterns are emerging clearly but it's not my business, I'm here to game, to help people and the world with its problems, to make friends and ultimately to learn, find out what's happening and also see if my vision for autistic peoples can fit into theirs and vice versa, since it is an international vision, in which case I'm ready to move with them. As for you, I know as little about you as I do about them. There are networks and networks and the future is about swarm theory, crowdsourcing, collaboration etc. Evokers are new, and trying to push the boundaries, so to that extent I'm with them. This is an experiment regarding the future and I want to be in it to see where it leads. The cracks in the system like the Bongomusa episode, the political implications of race and class involved which I won't go into now, the rapid rise of a radical like Panamericana, with Rahul as sidekick, and the presence of Reid Falconer at the top of the board are all only indications that the Evoke network has to look into things and change if they need to change what they are doing, if they really understand ground realities.


Figure 4: Screenshot of Featured Agents


The reality instantiated by EVOKE is an provocative and sobering counter to views regarding the degree to which the web has managed to connect all peoples on the globe. It is apparent that those on the front lines, who seek out and, in the case of the organizers, depend on this connectivity to exist, that the digital divide is indeed a significant barrier. The prospects for change are already in motion and, while all indications are that the gap is steadily closing, we are clearly still a ways off.



If the present utopia appears to be another apparition, what about the world after the divide closes? What might we expect to see from a game like EVOKE in five or ten years? On one hand there is clearly a desire to facilitate the proliferation of knowledge. EVOKE gamers on each side of the gap have met the challenges of the system with great alacrity and are clearly probing the limits of the system. But EVOKE is only one instance. Even if the existing Web 2.0 platform maintains only its current level of sophistication, knowledge sharing sites such as Wikipedia, Youtube, and Flickr will experience an explosion of new content. If, as some predict, institutions of higher education become disaggregated and given universal access, it is reasonable to imagine a spike in learning that would dwarf the Renaissance. Significantly, the majority of the above activity is going to be generated and consumed by the population epicenters of China, India, and Africa, which promise to shake up the American and Eurocentric dominance of current web content. Indeed, in the future of examples like EVOKE, it is not entirely unbelievable to think you may have trouble finding the OEDC players amongst the incredibly numerous Asian and African counterparts.



But, as Bucky Fuller reminds us, we are the architects of the future, not it’s victims. This was the very same frame of mind with which Sir Thomas Moore framed the original Utopia (at least the first such named). Moore sketched out his vision for an ideal society at the critical juncture when Europe was colonizing the New World. Like Fuller and his other ideological descendants, Moore understood the promise that with a proper course of action something better could take place in the future. (Picon) Was Moore a cultural empiricist? In one sense perhaps, but a more constructive view might look at him as anticipating where development was inevitable and trying to have a positive impact on its trajectory. Where are the current leaders of the utopian project leading the society? It would seem that create > rip> mix > burn[14] is still the operative catchphrase. Projects such as EVOKE or TED are hungry for a balance between finding the creative minds, connecting them to other creative minds, sparking a synthesis of ideas, and providing channels to the necessary resources to realize the best ideas. A concrete example of this is an EVOKE post from Agent Heyming (the underlined portions represent hyperlinks):


This idea has been inspired by several other Agents, from Agent McLellan's Hyperlocavore movement to Agent Buentrostro's Community Urban Farms , Garden Earth Project, and even Agent Falconer's connection with the local ecovillage and his heritage as a South African.


I think all of these agents are on the right track, so I created the Gratitude Garden Movement as a way of making this work something anyone can contribute to and create a global resource for sustainable gardening practices.


Agent Heyming goes on to explain his concept for the Gratitude Gardens Movement, which, as he alluded to, is a synthesis between his own ideas and new ideas he discovered in the game. The post generates a significant amount of chatter and support from other gamers and inspired some to take the first steps to creating Gratitude Gardens in their own communities. The idea stands an excellent chance of receiving future funding from the game organizers,
especially if it continues to attract more supporters both within and outside the game.



The digital divide exists, but it is closing and by the time it vanishes completely the demographics of the parties currently separated will be very different. The utopian vision that is observable from the examples cited here represent a desire to forge a future society that uses Internet technology, specifically social networking, to harness the enormous amount of resources available online and focus that energy towards solving tangible problems in the real-world. Perhaps an unspoken promise is that by focusing intensely on the individual and their unique position to fuse knowledge shared by others with local insight, they can illicit change in their own environment that will
be both empowering and incredibly unique. Globalization, in this view, may not represent a soul-crushing blandness but an incredibly fascinating kaleidoscope of hybridized ideas.




Bibliography:



Blenford, Adam “New Africa broadband 'ready'” BBC World News. September 16,
2009, a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8257038.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8257038.stm>, March 25, 2010



Picon, Antoine. “The Digital and the Utopian.” Harvard Design Magazine 29 (Fall/Winter 2008-2009) 134-139



Prensky, Marc. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” In On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5,
October 2001)



Virilio, Paul. “The Overexposed City.” L’espace critique (Paris: Christian Bourgeois,
1984); translated in Zone 1|2,
ed.
Michel Feher & Sanford Kwinter (New York: Urzone, 1986), trans. Astrid
Hustvect
Blenford







[1] Paul Virilio also made this point in regards to the television in his essay “The Overexposed City” from L’espace critique (Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1984); translated in Zone
1|2
(New York: Urzone, 1986), trans.
Astrid Hustvect



[2] Friedman, Thomas. “World is Flat 2.0.” MIT Open Courseware.



[3] TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is a technology conference that was originally held annually in California, but now held
periodically at additional locations around the globe. The format typically consists of
ingenious professionals giving short lectures, which are then widely
disseminated on the Internet.



[4] Jane McGonigal: “Gaming Can Make a Better World.” TED2010



[5] a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/">http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/> March 25, 2010



[6] Personal observations based on the author’s participation in EVOKE.



[7] a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/how-to-play">http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/how-to-play> March 25, 2010



[8] Survey conducted by author March 25, 2010 with data from the EVOKE website.



[9] a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/background-2">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/background-2> March 25, 2010



[10] In the cybernetic cycle, the comparator is the agent who takes data from the sensors, makes judgments about how effectively the system is functioning, and issues
directives to the activator
who
carries out adjustments to the system.



[11] Creating invitational friendships is a feature of the game used by players to create a interior network of peers whom you
theoretically support and are supported by.



[12] Agent Koshy identifies himself as being from Trivandrum, Kerala State, India – a county with low penetration of Internet users but high volume of
users.



[14] A modified version of the slogan Rip. Mix. Burn. popularized by Apple Computers, Inc. at the outset of the 21st century.



Views: 988

Comment by Rebecca W. High on March 30, 2010 at 2:26pm
Great article...thanks for sharing. While this should motivate those of us who are Internet/computer HAVES to work even harder toward diminishing the number of HAVENOTS by providing Web access, this should also be motivating us HAVES to use our privileges to their greatest advantages (such as learning from EVOKE and then taking out to practicality in the real global community!)
Comment by Shakwei Mbindyo on March 30, 2010 at 3:03pm
+1KS. The assumption off course is that the reason why many from the South are not participating in this game is the digital divide. This assumes that those in the South who do have some access to the internet are aware of the game - is this the case? Evidence indicates that most internet users in the South are not accessing the intenret via their mobile phones. A vast majority of these mobile phones are not smart phones. My attempt to to access UE via mobile proved unsuccessful despite the fact that Kenya has 3G. Could be that the .mobi version of UE was not designed for "African" phones? With all its graphics, the UE website was definately not designed with "African" bandwidth in mind. The digital divide is a factor. Is it the only one?
Comment by David Dewane on March 30, 2010 at 3:40pm
@ Koshy. Thanks for the grade. I'll head over the metacognitionally post. The main your second comment hits on the main criticism this piece has received, which is addressing the "divide" between virtual communication and real-world action. In a sense, we are all writing that chapter right now.

@ Shakwei. There are undoubtably awareness issues that transcend physically connection (language being paramount). I tried to stick with what I could find quantifiable data for.

Your point about the raising awareness through phones is enormously important. I am sure in the next generation of Evoke will address that (perhaps even a winning Evokation). Currently, I don't have a smart phone so have no idea what the quality of UE mobile is.
Comment by Gene Becker on March 30, 2010 at 5:05pm
David, very interesting and balanced analysis. In my view, EVOKE's organizers and sponsors took a big risk in creating the game, with the ambitious (perhaps utopian?) goal of making a platform that enables players to make positive results happen in the world, but with the very real knowledge that it could fail for many reasons including the cultural, demographic and access issues that you raise. Will it be successful? That remains to be seen, but already I can observe that many people from the privileged side of the divide are being exposed to a different way of thinking about the world, its people, its problems, and how to "make a difference" in an authentic, reality-based way. Seems like a good start.

Although your post is pretty meta rather than in the game per se, I'm powervoting you +20 Vision for your thoughts about what a post-divide world might look like. Would love to see you expand on that vision.

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