By Pavel P. Antonov We may take the Internet for granted now, but could anyone - outside of John Lennon and a few science fiction writers - have imagined back in 1980 that people all over the world would be free to communicate on such a massive scale? In a remarkably short time, the world wide web has revolutionised our ability to enhance democracy by sharing information. Use of the Internet has done a great deal to facilitate civil society development, and like elsewhere in the world, non-governmental organisations in this region have taken advantage of the opportunities the web offers. But a troubling trend by governments seeking to control the web may threaten the freedom that is so important to unfettered communication. The Internet seems perfectly tailored for use by civil society. Organisations around the world can quickly, easily and cheaply share information about best practices or about what is going on in their part of the globe - and government censors cannot stop the flow of information from civil society watchdogs.   Actvists catch on early As early as the late 1980s a number of activist groups from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil and elsewhere began independently exploring the uses of electronic communication for their mission-driven work. Movements aimed at fostering peace, protecting the environment and encouraging labour rights were among the first civil action areas to take advantage of the Internet. A worldwide network of activists, who wanted to make computer information technology available to NGOs everywhere created the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). In 1992, APC served as an interactive civil society gateway to the Earth Summit - conveying the messages from Rio to the NGOs across the world and bringing their immediate feedback and demands to the delegates. Initially, the APC networks exchanged information via direct telephone connection between their computers. The age of web sites began later - in 1994, after the first commercial web browsers opened up the Internet for commercial use. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) also joined the revolution. In the early 1990s, Za Mir, another pre-web computer platform, was the best means of communication across the frontlines in former Yugoslavia. And Glasnet arranged an e-mail connection from the White House in Moscow when Boris Yeltsin was under siege in an attempted coup. A decade later, the Czech Econnect - one of the pioneer networks in the region - electronically spread the word of the civil protesters around the World Bank summit in Prague. Most in Poland, Green Spider in Hungary, Strawberry Net in Romania - the networks appeared one after the other in the dynamically developing region. Initially the goal of these networks was to provide Internet access for environmental NGOs. They launched servers and started networks, offering dial-up access to NGO users.   A shift in focus As Internet use boomed, and the number of web pages grew at a mind-boggling rate, helping NGOs get connected was less urgent. Instead, there was a need for specific networks that could help members of environmental civil society find each other and find good information - a means of generating and grouping quality content. A new generation of networks emerged in the late 1990s: ChangeNet in Slovakia and BlueLink in Bulgaria were the children of the WWW age. These civil society electronic networks focused on content services and building the capacity of their NGO users to make proper use of the Internet themselves. More and more donors and international organisations could see the advantages of making relevant content available to the NGOs and encouraging their interaction and networking by electronic means. APC itself was a leader in the field once again, developing a revolutionary package of free software for easy-to-use publishing and organising information online for NGOs - the Action Applications Toolkit, which can be found online at http://www.apc.org/actionapps/index.htm. A distinct trend in the development of NGO networks in the region has been a shift away from their environmental focus. In most CEE countries, environmental NGOs were the first and most dynamic among groups creating online platforms. But soon the networks took on a life of their own and opened up for the rest of the civil sector. Some of the "old" networks, like Econnect, managed to shift to commercial operation, continuing to compete on the connectivity market, but most of them had to shift their scope and began offering hosting, web design and various content oriented services to NGOs. BlueLink and ChangeNet developed into information portals online, also offering a range of services, like mailing lists and campaigning online. At present, these networks are looking at regional civil society news exchange and other international networking activities. To meet the demands of the environmental NGO community in Bulgaria, BlueLink is preparing the region's first virtual area for interactive representation. The idea is to maintain an online system for democratic procedures within the environmental movement. The system would allow for elections and communication between NGO representatives and the government or other bodies. A last white spot in the environmental civil society networking map of the region has recently been covered - the Balkans. Bulgaria's BlueLink offered to share its successful experience of transparency, openness and neutrality with environmental NGOs in neighbouring countries. With the support and guidance of REC and Milieukontakt Oost-Europa networking initiatives of the environmental NGOs were seeded in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Yugoslavia and Kosovo. Strawberry Net and Za Mir also contributed their experience in using Internet to overcome borders between NGOs from different ethnic and national entities. Given the democratic nature of the Internet, electronic networking seems to be one of the few clearly positive developments for environmental NGOs and civil society in general throughout CEE. But the newest trends in Internet governance worldwide are alarming, according to the online activists. A significant attempt of governments to put the net under control was reinforced by the fear of terrorism resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the United States. The European Union, which generally sets the trend of of CEE policies, seems to be favouring restrictions of the freedom of Internet use. Spain, as a country currently holding the rotating presidency of the EU, has suggested using EU's intelligence network to share information about anti-EU and anti-trade activism on the web, APC's working group on Internet rights warned recently. CEE governments, which have traditionally been less open about sharing information with the public, may easily be tempted to adopt any restrictive policies recommended by the EU. This would be a step backwards in the freedom of the Internet, and could negatively impact NGOs' ability to communicate.

Photo: MTI CIVIL SOCIETY ONLINE: Environmental activists are using computers and the internet to allow for internal organisation and discussion of the environment in ways that were previously impossible.