Research may take on certain biases and we strivees in doing research to be an objective process. However, the research process is full with happenstance and circumstance. What counts for knowledge is often dependent upon one's perspective and chance encounters with particular information and sources, much lessand as well personal location. OneE encounters with data and various perspectives findings which lead to other information sometimes sometimes occurs in a less than linear process. This creates a process that while attempting to be "scientific" is actually immersed in the reality and limitation of human understanding and frailtyfrailty. As a historically located body immersed in various social structures, certain perspectives and vantage pointsvantagepoints are embedded within my viewpoint. Rather than argue for a total and clean objectivity I wish to recognize my standpoint as a historically situated body, and my belief that situated my objectivity is situated, and is affected by the result of my standpoint in this historical moment. This standpoint affects my life chances as well as my areas of research interest. As a child of the nuclear era born in a world filled with technology and scientific explanations I am immersed in techno-scientific cosmology and a conceptual framework informed by those methods of understanding. Sociology as a study of society is located as a social science from which my perspective can be expressed through scientific methodology and disciplinary discourse. As part of that perspective and in the interest of situated objectivity this preface serves to locate my position in historical space and time to talk about how location affects viewpoint. Situated objectivity is objectivity that recognizes location. My location as a graduate student at a smallsmall midwesternMidwestern university in the body of a white middle-class male of middle-age born in the Post-World War II era at the height of Industrialism and economic prosperity in the United States certainly affects my epistemology and perspective.

My father is an aerospace engineer who worked on the Apollo Space program throughout my childhood. This enabled me a close up view of the space program and a familiarity with Space Age technology. I recall as a child the belief in a sort of future world that resembled the Jetson cartoon show. I feared that by the time I would be legally able to drive a car they would be obsolete. It seemed to me that technology and science would be able to solve all the problems of our world. I realize now that perspective would be considered a utopian vision. The power of science and technology to create a utopian world seemed not only plausible but in the era of the Space Age from the perspective of a child, probable. I believed in technology as much as I believed in Peter Pan, Santa Claus and the Wizard of Oz.

In contrast to this perspective was the other reality, to which I was exposed by virtue of my mother. She was President of the League of Women Voters of Louisiana (LOWV) during the sixties. As a child I attended many political events and helped in LOWV activities. I recall going door-to-door with her helping to register voters in African-American communities. I became aware of utter poverty. As well, in Louisiana prior to the Civil Rights Act African-Americans were discouraged from voting by the requirement of aof a poll test. Many of them could not read or write which created barriers to their enfranchisement. I recall as a junior high student when bussing started that the African-American students in my classes could not read at the necessary level as a result of inferior education in publicin public schools. This was shocking to me. The sixties waswere a time of tremendous idealism not only politically butbut also technologically as reflected by the Apollo Space program. The civil rights movement along with the women’swomen's’ movement seemed to me representative of an era of confidence in social change through political action. This created another level of idealism embedded within my conceptual framework. That of Tthe ability to change the world through political activism. I believed in our democratic system and its’ noble ideals.

These two areas of my youthful idealism, that of a belief in technology and political activism are with me today. I still want to believe that democratic ideals combined with techno-scientific advances can foster plenitude, equality and freedom. However, today I am painfully aware of the still existing inequalities and poverty not only in the United States but globally. The results of our technological orientation and consumption oriented society have resulted in environmental problems on a grand scale that are only now, by some being fully realized. The majority remainmajority remains in denial. This paper which is about the Internet and globalization and by virtue of that technology and social change has sent me seeking for a hopeful way that the structure and function of the Internet can revive a grass roots global activism which can strengthen human agency against repressive and alienating systems. Through the use of technology, specifically the Internet, in the epoch of globalization, combined with human agency, perhaps the utopian dream world of my youth will be realized.

In contrast to present day perceptions and realities about computerization in the last year of the Second Millennium the following remarks seem particularly illuminative of the social change that has occurred around the perceptions and realities of computer technology.: Mr Mr. Thomas Watson Chairman of IBM said in 1943, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers" (Funny Times, Nov. 98). Or fromT the editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall in 1957 said, " I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year" (Funny Times, Nov. 98). An engineer at a Division of IBM said in 1968, "But what...is it good for" (Funny Times, Nov. 98)? Ken Olson the president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation said in 1977, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home" (Funny Times, Nov. 98). These remarks seem strange indeed to some citizens of the mainstream of Western society in 1999. The extent to which the usage of computer technologies have changed in regards to computer technology and its offspring the Internet is borne out by these facts. In an article in the November 14, 1998 edition of USA Today as reported by the International Data Group, globally there are 100 million users of the Internet today. Estimates are that over 320 million people will be on the Net by the year 2002. Commerce on the Internet will exceed $400 billion, per year by 2002, a compounded growth rate of 103% per year (USA Today, 98). In the United States 40 million households have a personal computer and there are 53.5 million adults or 27% of the adult population in the United States who use the Internet. Access to the Internet is enjoyed by 72 million adults in the United StatesSeventy-two million adults in the United States enjoy access to the Internet be it at home, school or work (MediaMark Research, Fall 98). According to Network Wizards as of July 1998 there were over 36 million Internet domains on the World Wide Web. A domain is a specific address on the Internet such as pittstate.edu, ford.com, or, or whitehouse.gov. The growth rate around Internet usage has occurred in a very short period of time with the creation of the World Wide Web in 1991, released by CERN, European Particle Physics Laboratory (Hobbes, p. 8). Although the Internet existed prior to 1991 its public proliferation by virtue of the World Wide Web which was made possible by the creation of Hyper-TextHyperText Markup LanquageLanguage and Hyper-TextHyperText Transfer Protocol computer languages (Hobbes, p. 6). This technological advance along with the proliferation of computer technology allowed the average citizen to access the Internet and also add to its' content.

The large number of users, both individual, business and governmental, of the Internet warrants the sociological study of the Internet as a site, carrier and facilitator of social change as a factor in globalization. The global nature of the Internet is rendering nation/state borders permeable via electronic/digital transmissions and hence relations between citizens across the globe become more possible and probable. The economic usage of the Internet by businesses, citizens and consumers is restructuring economic relations and as well the social relations of production. The Internet’s proliferation and impact on social forms and social action as a structure of society is likely to change the nature/structure of social relations. Understanding these changes and their impact on social relations is a site of rich sociological research. Understanding the social nature of the Internet could enable sociologists and activists to advocate for uses of and accessibility to the Internet which may create a more free and democratic world.

The theory behind the development of the Internet was to make possible communication by the military in the event of nuclear attack (Castells, V. I, p.7; Haraway, p. 4). The structure and function of the Internet enablesenable system redundancy in which communication can occur even when large parts of the communication system are rendered inoperable. This is possible because the Internet redirects data when faced with blockage. For example when data encounters traffic congestion this data is rerouted automatically in a cybernetic system of seeking the path of least resistance. A signal originating from Air Force One headed for NORAD could be bounced between various ground basedground-based networks through satellites ultimately finding its destination in Colorado. This feature of the Internet originally designed for military survival and hence the survival of the nation-state has interesting contradictions implicating nation-state powers which are weakened as a result of this technology and will be discussed later in this essay. As well, this structural and functional design of the Internet creates new power distributions in the age of information. The ability of groups to access the Internet both to distribute information and as a communication tool outside of historically existing information/media systems restructures the dynamics by which information and the ability to affect power structures was previously done.

The Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA)) , an agency, within the Department of Defense (DOD) was created in 1957 in response to the launch of Sputnik by the USSR. The purpose was to establish leadership by the United States in science and technology as it applied to military usage. In 1962 Paul Baran of RAND wrote a paper entitled "On Distributed Communication Networks" theorizing packet-switching networks. In 1965 ARPA sponsored a study on cooperative networks of time-sharing computers at which time computers at MIT Lincoln Lab and System Development Corporation in Santa Monica, California were linked. The proposal to create ARPANET, a linkage of various computers was presented in a design paper by Lawrence Roberts in 1967. In that same year the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England developed the NPL Data Network. The Packet-Switching network was proposal was presented to ARPA in 1968 followed by the commissioning of ARPANET by the DOD in 1969. The first node in the ARPANET was at UCLA’s Network Measurements Center whichCenter, which later linked with Stanford Research Institute, UCSB, University of Utah. That same year the University of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State University establishedUniversity established the X.25-based Merit Network for students, faculty and alumni.

The 1970’s were a period of rapid development in computer based information transfer technologies. Electronic mail came into fruition as well as the development of ALOHAnet at the University of Hawaii in 1970. In ‘72 the ALOHAnet was connected to ARPANET. By ‘71 there were 15 nodes and 23 host computers interconnected. E-mail was invented by Ray Tomlinson of the British Broadcasting NetworkRay Tomlinson of the British Broadcasting Network invented E-mail in 1971. Today there are over one billion E-mail message sent daily (NPR’s Morning Edition, 11/12/98).

The International Conference on Computer Communications was held in ‘72 with a demonstration of ARPANET linking 40 machines. InterNetworking Working Group (INWG) was created in that same year to address the need for establishing agreed upon system-wide protocols. In ‘73 the first international connections to ARPANET were established with the University College of London in England and the Royal Radar Establishment in Norway. That same year Bob Kahn started research program at Advanced Research Projects Administration whichAdministration, which was contained within the DOD and related to developmental problems with the Internet. Vint Cerf and Kahn published a paper, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" which specified in detail the design of Transmission Control Program (TCP). TCP is the backbone in part of the Internet today.

The British Broadcasting Network opened Telnet in ‘74 a commercial version of ARPANET in ‘74. Telnet was the first public data transfer service in the world. The year of the BI-Centennial in the United States saw the sending of an E-Maile-mail by Elizabethby Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom which is the earliest E-mail archived and found in print today. AT&T Bell Labs developed Unix-to-Unix CoPy (UUCP) in ‘76 and distributed it with UNIX, (a computer language) one year later. THEORYNET was created by Larry LandweberLarry Landweber created THEORYNET at the University of Wisconsin in1977 whichin1977, which provided electronic mail to over 100 researchers in the computer sciences. Also in 1977 Tymshare a computerized tax processing preparation company launched Tymnet.

The first demonstration of ARPANET/Packet Radio Net/SATNET using Internet protocols with BBN gateways was conducted in that same year and the ARPA established the Internet Configuration Board (ICB). The USENET was established in ‘79 using UUCP (computer language) between DUKE and the University of North Carolina. Packet Radio Network (PRNET) experimentation was started with the Defense Administration Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in that same year.

"Because It’s Time Network", (BITNET) was established in 1981 as a cooperative between City University of New York and was originally networked with Yale University. This network provided electronic mail and listservlistservs servers to distribute information as well as file transfers. That same year the Computer Science Network (CSNET) was created through collaboration of computer scientists and the University of Delaware, Purdue, University of Wisconsin, RAND Corporation, and BBN through seed money provided by the National Science Foundation. This network was created to provide E-mail to university scientists who didn’t have access to ARPANET. Minitel (TELETEL) a) a universal public access network was deployed across France by France Telecom in 1981 as well.

In ‘82 the'82 the Defense Communication Agency of the DOD and ARPA established the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) as the protocol suite which is used today and known as TCP/IP which led to one of the first definitions of the Internet as it is known today as a connected set of networks. That same year the DOD declared TCP/IP as the standard for the Department of Defense communication applications. EUnet (European UNIX Network) was created to provided E-mail and USENET services and originally was interconnected between the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and the UK. In ‘83 the name server protocol was developed at the University of Wisconsin which allowed users to access servers without knowing the exact pathway.

In ‘84 the Domain Name Server (DNS) which is still in use today was introduced. That same year the number of host computers connected to the Internet exceeded one-thousandone thousand. Japan Unix Network (JUNET) was established using UUCP in the Japanese government. Moderated newsgroups on USENET of which now in 1998 there are over 25,000, were established. In 1985 the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link (WELL) was started in the San Francisco Bay Area. The WELL is today a thriving highly-populatedhighly populated network. In Canada the last Canadian universityUniversity is connected to BITNET in a drive to have coast to coast connectivity 100 years to the day after the cross Canadian railroad was completed.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the NSFNET with a speed of 56K bpsBPS in ‘86. The NSF in 1986 also established 5 super-computing centers to provide high computing power for all research institutions and univeristiesuniversities. This created an explosion of connections especially from universities. The first Freenet located in Cleveland, Ohio came on-line on July 16th under the auspices of the Society for Public Access Computing (SoPAC). Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) was designed to enhance Usenet news performance over TCP/IP.

Bay Area Regional Research Network (BARRNET) was established using high speedhigh-speed links and became operational in 1987. In ‘87 as well the NSF entered into a cooperative agreement to manage the NSFNET with Merit Network, Inc. which involved IBM and MCI who later formed American Network Services (ANS). UUNET was founded with USENIX funds to provide commercial UUCP and Usenet access. This project was beganbegun as an experiment by Rick Adams and Mike O’Dell the founder of Dell computer companyComputer Company. Fido NET was connected to the Netnet allowing for the exchange of E-mail and news. The number of hosts connected to the Net broke 10,000 that year and BITNET had over 1,000 hosts as well.

On November 1st of ‘88 an Internet worm (virus) invaded the Net affecting 6,000 of the 60,000 host computers. As a result of this incident the DARPA formed the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to respond to emergencies affecting the Net. CERT is still in existence today. Los Nettos network was created with no federal funding and instead was supported by regional members: Caltech, TIS, UCLA and ISI. The California Education and Research Federation network (CERFnet) was founded by Susan Estrada in ‘88. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was developed by Jarkko Oikarinen and is used by millions today. The Canadian regional networks connected to the NSFNET along with the countries of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. In 1989 the number of host computers connected to the Net went over the 100,000 mark. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IEFT) was created in ‘89 along with the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) and werewas under the auspices of the Internet Advisory Board (IAB). The Australian Academic Research Network (AARNET) was) was created and the nations of Australia, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the UK connected to the NSFNET.

Af of 1990 ARPANET ceased to exist and became incorporated into NSFNET. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was founded by Net activist Mitch KaporNet activist Mitch Kapor founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Archie, a search engine was released by Peter Deutsch, Alan Emtage, and Bill Heelan at McGill University. The World came on-line (world.std.com) as the first commercial provider of Internet dial-up access. Canet was formed by the ten regional networks in Canada as a national backbonedbackbone with direct connections to NSFNET. The first remotely operated machine to be connected to the Net,; the Internet Toaster made its successful debut at Interop. The nations of Argentina, Austria, Belguim, Brazil, Chile, Greece, India, Ireland, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland connected to the NSFNET.

In ‘91 the commercial restrictions on the Net were removed by the NSF and the Commercial Internet eXchange was created by General Atomics along with PSInet by PerfomancePerformance Systems International, Inc. and UUNET Technologies, Inc. created AlterNet. The Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) were invented by Brewster Kahle and was relaeasedreleased by Thinking Machines Corporation. Gopher a text based browser/search engine was created and released by Paul Lindner and Mark McCahill at the University of Minnesota. The World-Wide-Web (WWW) was released by the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) which allowed the Net to support graphic images and hypertext links. The US High Performance Computing Act (Gore I) established theestablished the National Research Education Network (NREN) by the federal government. The nations of Croatia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan and Tunisia connected to the NSFNET.

The Internet Society(Society (ISOC) was chartered in ‘92 and the number of computer hosts connected to the Net exceeded one million.The. The first audio multicast and video multicast occuredoccurred in November of ‘92. Veronica a Gopherspace search tool was created and released by the UniveristyUniversity of Nevada. The World Bank came on-line. The nations of Cameroon, Cyprus, Ecuador, Estonia, Kuwait, Latvia, LuxemborgLuxembourg, Malaysia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand and Venezuela connected to the NSFNET. InterNIC was created by the NSF in ‘93 to provide special Internet services such as domain name registration servicesservices, which its still does today. AT&T created an Net based directory and database service and Network Solutions, Inc. created a registration service along with General Atomics who created an Internet Information Service. The US White House came on-line at www.whitehouse.gov. Internet Talk Radio and Internet based radio station came on-line. In ‘93 as well the United Nations (UN) went on-line and the US National Information Infrastructure Act was passed into law. The media and businesses began to take notice of the Internet technology. Mosaic a web browser was released to the Net and the WWW grew at an annual growth rate of 341,634% and Gopher service grew 997%. The nations of Bulgariaof Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Egypt,; Fiji, Ghana, Guam, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Peru, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, and the Virgin Islands connected to the NSFNET.

The ARPANET/Internet celebrated its 25th anniversary and communities began to wire up directly to the Net in1994. The US House and Senate created public accessible information servers. The commodification of the Net began with the arrival of Internet shopping malls. The first Cyberstation, RT-FM began broadcasting from Interop in Las Vegas. The National Institutes for Standards and Technology (NIST) established TCP/IP as the preferred protocol for the Net. The traffic of data transmission on NSFNET surpassed 10 trillion bytes per month and Pizza can now be ordered on-line from Pizza Hut on-line. The WWW became the dominant mode by which the Net was utilized in ‘94 and the Japanese Prime Minister went on-line at www.kantei.go.jp/. The first cyberbank was opened called First Virtual. Radio stations began broadcasting on-line around the clock. They were WXYC of the University of North Carolina, WJHK at the University of Kansas and KUGS at Western WAU. The Trans-European Research Education Network Association (TERENA) was formed to, "promote and participate in the development of high quality international information and telecommunications infrastructure for the benefit of education and research" (Hobbes, p. 10). The nations of Algeria, Armenia, Bermuda, Burkina Faso, China, Colombia, French Polynesia, Jamaica, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macao, Morocco, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Philippines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Uruguay and Uzbekistan connected to the NSFNET.

The NSFNET reverted back to a research network and the Internet thusly became a free standing computer network open to the public and supported through interconnected network providers in 1995. That same year Hong Kong disconnected all but one of the connections to the Internet in search of a hacker. Real Audio, an audio streaming technology was introduced which allowed for the Net to hear in real-time. Radio HK the first 24hr Internet only radio station began broadcasting. The on-line dial up access services of America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe began to provide Internet access to the general public. Registration of domain names is no longer free as of September 14th a fee of $50 per year is required for registration. The NSF continues to subsidize educational institutionsinstitution registration as well as governmental domain registrations. The Vatican comecomes on-line at www.vatican.va along with the Canadian government at canada.gc.ca. In ‘95 a number of Net related companies went public with Netscape in the lead with the 3rd largest ever NASDAQ IPO share value. The first official Internet wiretap was successful in helping the Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Agency apprehend three persons illegally manufacturing and selling cell phone cloning equipment. Richard White becomes the first person in U. S. history to be declared a munitionsmunitions under the USA’s arms export act control laws because of an RSA file security encryption code tattooed on his arm.

The Internet 1996 World Exposition took place on the Internet, a sort of Net world’s fair. Internet phones are becoming distressful to US phone companies who ask the Congress to ban them. The U.S. Communications Decency Act became law and was quickly stopped by an injunction and later ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. American Online suffered a 19 hour outage and brought into question their ability to handle the ISP’s growing number of users.

The inception of the researchthe research that led to the development of the Internet was beganbegun in response to the launch by the Soviet Union of Sputnik, an earth orbiting satellite. This also likely prompted the drive to develop the United States space program. This research drive to gain technological superiority andsuperiority and hence military superiority was about power.about power. The drive to assimilate and hold power be it military or economic, through technological development is a component part of ideological beliefs in American society. The development of the Internet through military need quickly became a collaborative effort between research institutions, university scientists and the government. The applications which are now an integral part of the Internet such as the World Wide Web, Gopher, TCP/IP, Email or Internet Relay Chat were developed by individuals in the Computer Science field from around the world. The development and participation in the Internet rapidly became a global participatory event. This development primarily occuredoccurred in the context of the university environment. This environment seems to have had a major influence on the epistemology of the Net. The notion of universal access by universities, college students, governments worldwide seems to be embedded in the Internet from its inception. The Internet as a democratic form in which the free flow of ideas could occur helped speed up its own development by eliminating the space and time problem in the area of collaborative research and development. Communication between scientists and the ability to transfer data files created an evolutionary dynamic in the Net’s development by which widely dispersed individuals around the globe could contribute to its creation. Notice that in the development of technologies developing the Net technologies used today were given to the Net commons. This collaborative effort, although began by the United States government has created the Internet as entity which is not owned by anyone in particular and is part of the global technological system which by its collaborative developmental creation is by virtue of its birth a public good or a part of the commons, a cybercommons perhaps. This dynamic coupled with the interest in technology as it relates to and is seen as a component part of progress has resulted in the Internet as an entity which is highly democratic and created as a site of content as defined by its usage through the participation of its creators, users and doers. The Internet only exists as a process of its usage which is largely defined by its technological parameters and the users imagination and needs. The history and development of the Internet has occured in the span of my lifetime (40 yrsyrs.). The acceleration of technological developments is noted in the history of the Net as we see an increase in the events (technological improvements) in a shorter time span. The rate of change is likely continuing to accelerateaccelerate, as the computer sciences become more sophisticated by building upon past technologies and now fueled by the commodification of the Net in creation of the global political economy in search of the creation of wealth.

Interestingly, the, the historical event which led to the development of the Internet i.eInternet i.e. the launch of Sputnik by the USSR in 1957 in part led to fall of the Soviet Union by virtue of the techno/scientific drive that resulted. The Information Age not a sole creation of the Internet but a historical period we are now in which is facilitated by new communication technologies such as the Internet inadvertently led to the demise of the Soviet Union. Manuel Castells writes, "I contend that the rampant crisis that shook the foundations of the Soviet economy and society from the mid-1970’s onwards was the expression of structural inability of statism and of the Soviet variant of industrialism to ensure the transition towards the information society" (Castells, V. III, p. 7). The lesson of the failure of the Soviet Union to enter the new age of Information Capitalism seems instructive as to the consequencesconsequence of any economy which does not embrace the ideology of or at least participateeconomy, which does not embrace the ideology of or at least participate, in the new global capitalism. The new information age and informational capitalism has restructured the economic and social relations. This new epoch based on technology and information distribution globally is restructuring the social relations of production. .

Industrial capitalism and the inherent forces of production manifest in the production facility were able tocould be accessed historically in terms of creating wealth only by and for the owners of the means of production. The machinery of production is inherently a capital intensivecapital-intensive entity. The creation of wealth and hence power is dependent upon producing products for the marketplace and concentrating surplus value into the pockets of the owners of capital. The new age of Informational Capitalism does not do away with the production facility necessary for the production of products but rather introduces a new level or strata into the means of production. The Internet and the associated technologies of computers, communication infrastructure and computer software are a component part of the means of production in Informational Capitalism. By virtue of its construction, design features and cost to access this technology, the Internet or the means of production based in Internet technologies releases itself to the availability of classes other than the owners of production. As previously mentioned in this essay over 100 million people worldwide access the Internet and by 2002 an estimated 320 million people will be participating in this global communication medium. The thesis of access to this new form of social relation is supportive of new power relations and social change movments which could occur. As Freeman suggests, social movements are dependent upon preexisting social networks in their formative stages. Jo Freeman in an article on the origins of the Women's Movement writes the following propositions: " The need for a preexisting communications network or infrastructure within the social base of a movement is a primary prerequisite for spontaneous activity….If a movement is to be spread rapidly, the communications network must already exist. Not just any communication network will do. It must be a network that is co-optable to the new ideas of the incipient movement.Freeman, p.291). The structure and function of the Internet lends itself well to this social movement theory. The Internet is preexisting, co-optable and widely accessible.

The capital of Informational Capitalism is thusly transformed in the Information Age to one of information and the ability to distribute that information globally. Toffler writes in Powershift, "...power took three distinct forms at different historical stages, shifting from violence at a first stage, to wealth at a second stage and to knowledge and intelligence in our day. The Information Revolution is a central factor in developing intelligence as a key to power and, consequently, to a privileged political status"(NPQ, p. 15). Clearly wealth and violence are still forms of power in use today, information technologies represents a new dynamic in the systems of power. This new dynamic creates new social relations of production and thusly restructures social relations. People and groups are able to use technologies and component parts of the means of production to enter into the forces of production by distributing and retrieving information based upon their hopes, dreams and desires. The alienation that occured in Industrial Capitalism from the means of production is fundamentally restructured in the new dynamic of the Internet and its by-product Informational Capitalism. In this dynamic a top down hiarchial structure of information flow is altered to a more communitarian approach which has the ability to foster new social relations and power alliances among affinity groups around the world. The notion of human agency and participation in the flow of information around the world could allow for a more equalized power structure in the competition of ideas and dissemination of information. Futurist Jim Dator, Director of Hawaii Research Center for Future Studies at the University of Hawaii says in writes in an article,regards to his theory about the "End of Authority.", "The person who makes the most persuasive argument-by manipulating powerful symbols on the Net and other media-will win the most followers"(Fast Company, Nov. 98). He contends that "more and more people are rejecting authority"(Fast Company, Nov. 98). The organizational ability of groups to adopt this development standstands to benefit from this creative anarchy. He goes on to say, "...information and ideas will be liberated from official channels and allowed to move in all directions" (Fast Company, Nov. 98). Manuel Castells writes in his book, The Network Society:

In this structure of the social relations of production opportunities present themselves to use the means of production against the oppressive forces that alienate us from each other. There are examples of historical events by groups which have utilized information technologies, the Internet specifically, to enact this new form and locale of power which represents human agency engaged in social change inchange in determination of their identity, place and assertion of power. "Power itself is being so endlessly redistributed and redefined that its changing nature is one of the principle destabilizing forces in the world today, and a source of strength for those who can adapt to it more quickly"(Rothkopf, p. 327). The dynamics of the Information Age are unable to be monopolized by the owners of production and hence, "The realpolitik of the new era is cyberpolitik, in which the actors are no longer just the states, and raw power can be countered or fortified by information power"(Rothkopf, p. 327).

Globally, activists are using the Internet in the creation of virtual communities whichcommunities, which are international in scope. Burmese citizens have formed a networksa network of relations with affinity groups despite the illegality of doing so by the government whichgovernment of China, which prohibits ownership of new information technologies (Parade Magazine, p.12,1998.). Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have utilized theis medium of the Internet to to create alliancesalign with various causes and groups. For example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at www.aclu.org uses various technologies of the Internet. Utilizing listservs and web based faxes thousands of people connected to the ACLU by email are alerted to issues of concern instantaneously. With a couple of clicks of the mouse a fax and email can be sent to a citizens' representative in Washington. This letter is customized and appears faxed from the citizens' home.

The Chiapas revolution in Mexico in 1996 and their victory for political autonomy was largely attributed to the use of the Internet. The Mexican government was not able to engage in bloody reprisals because their oppressive operations could no longer be conducted under the cloak of secrecy(secrecy (Rothkopf, p. 353).

The Zapatista Liberation Army (EZLN) utilized the Internet aggressively to enlist support using pre-existing networks. News and television reports supplemented by instantaneous reports of the struggle for political autonomy were circulated worldwide using the Internet. Included in this information war were specialized listservs, virtual conferences and web pages dedicated specifically to the Chiapas uprising. The Zapatistas played no direct role in the aforementioned cyberwar,; rather this was done by a network of supporters of their cause. An intercontinental meeting was organized using the Internet and was held in the Springspring of ‘96. Over 3,000 activists from around the world attended. The Zapatistas were ultimately successful in their struggle for political autonomy. Their success was directly attributed to the use of the Internet. The previous media blackouts by the Mexican government were useless against the ability to disseminate information via the Internet(Internet (Cleaver, pp. 621-640).

An article in the April 18^th edition of the Kansas City Star titled, "Modems, motives give us Web War I" highlights the information dynamic created by the Internet in the ongoing war in Yugoslovia. University of California, Santa Cruz Professor Anthony Pratkanis said, "What you're seeing now is just the first round of what will become an important, highly sophisticated tool in the age-old tradition of wartime propaganda"(KC Star, p.1, '99). Utilizing the Internet sympathizers with the Serbians at www.abanian.com presents their argument while the Kosovo side is at www.kosovo.net. Pro-Serbian groups have used blank emails to bombard NATO's web site temporarily shutting it down. This was dubbed by the Wall Street Journal as Yugospam(KCStar, p.18,'99). The participants in the war are competing in cyberspace with information dissemination. While this is not new in times of war or other struggles the ability of all groups to distribute their story on a global scale is a new Internet development.

Groups and individuals of every conceivable type are utilizing the Internet worldwide. The ability of these groups to enter the flow of ideas and information circulated in the flow of symbols has radical potential for social change as has been demonstrated. The use of the Internet to proliferate information outside of the corporate/government controlled mass media systems introduces a new grass roots power dynamic and location of human agency. The militia movement, environmental movement, Christian and Islamic fundamentalists, women’s movement and a host of others utilize the Internet in "an old law of social evolution, resistance confronts domination, empowerment reacts against powerlessness, and alternative projects challenged the logic embedded in the new global order, increasingly sensed as disorder by people around the planet" (Castells, V. II, p. 69). New information technologies which enable the new global order and global political economy can be deployed in the time tested method of using the masters tools to tear down his house or at least build one for ourselves. Essential to this resistance or at least to strengthen this source of power is the notion of accessibility of these new technologies becoming universally accessible.

Conclusion

The Internet is in its holistic collectivity is the largest machine on the planet earth. Deployed in the military interests of the United States by carbon based units inhabiting the third rock from the sun, the, the Internet is a metaphor, a representation, aand a chimera. I recall the discovery several years ago of the largest organism on the planet earth. Larger than the greatest whales, this organism living beneath the ground of the old growth forests in the northwestern United States had existed for some hundreds of years. A fungiFungi, this organism estimated to weigh thousands of tons and dispersed over hundreds of acres, remained hidden from view, excepting the emergence of toadstool patches. What once was thought to be independent toadstools was now revealed to be the outshootsoutshoot of a giant interconnected fungal organism. The Internet, its structure and function is much the same as this giant fungi, it is largely hidden from view in relation to its real affect; structure and function. The public view of the Internet as represented in the mass media systems is one of a shopping mall, a place of recreation and a resource to satiate our narcissistic interests. The Internet as a mirror of the greatest collection of the socially constructed knowledge base of western culture is reflected to us through the connectivity of the Net. Dispersed globally, represented on our computer screens in the luminescent glow, we are transfixed by our Cyborg power to link up, tap in and connect. We are mesmerized by the vastness of the Net and are hypnotized by our impotent power and potential potency to summon up a diverse array of commodities with the click of the mouse.

The Internet is a metaphor, a representation of a historical moment in space and time, where space and time become altered, compressed; the flow of information circumnavigates the globe transmitting the collective whole of capitalisticof capitalistic power and greed at the speed of light. As a metaphor the Internet is representational of the new world order in which capitalism and the dispersion of the capitalist political economy and its attendant ideology has gone global. The old rules still apply, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, but the space time continuum is altered, as the interest of capital turn the planet earth into a sphere of exploitation and self-interest, moving at light speed.

The metaphorical Internet represents the ability of capitalism to adapt, flex, utilize and co-opt new systems of technology to serve its interests. How can capital be so lucky? Perhaps it is just dumb luck, the development of the Internet and its amalgamation by capital was surely not planned, but however the Internet serves well the explicit logic of capital, the accumulation of surplus value, beamed upwards in ever increasing hordes of accumulating concentrations of power. And who is to blame? The finger pointing, the infighting among the children of the New World Order Inc. cannot find a source for their misery and disenchantment. They retreat into a world of cultural warfare, fencing themselvesthemselves offin, fighting against the onslaught of capital and modernity, to create and preserve their identity. The circulation of capitalism as an ideological system, its affect on the lives of billions becomes more abstracted and surreal in the halls of cyberspace. Far flungFar-flung dispersed entities export alienation via cyberspace, they remain aloof, disparate, disconnected; but yet connected to the flow of their interests via the Net.

Surely a rising tide lifts all boats. The success of capitalism and its ability to adapt and change, using whatever means necessary to survive, has created wealth never before witnessed or probably imagined by our great-grandmothers, in the history of history. However, those who have benefited historically from capitalist ideology and power structures continue to reap the rewards as the dispersion of capital is embedded in all types and forms of connotations and denotations of social relations. This should not come as a surprise. The final frontier of global capitalist endeavor, the subordination of the planet earth, made possible by the technologies of the Internet was a system constructed by a specific type of social entity constructed from enlightenment notions. The cultural production of technology from which the Internet emerged was produced out of desire. This desire was based upon the belief that certain ways of living should be preserved and protected, their power and preeminence maintained. In so doing those human agents who constructed this system remain familiar and intimate with it. They have a leg up on the other, who continue to play catch up, or have simply given up. The demographics of the Internet user, the majority of whom are middle-class heterosexual white male Anglo-Saxon collegeCollege educated westerners make up a very small population from a global perspective. With projections that Internet users will reach over 320 million by 2002 globally this represents a little more than <5% of the world’s population. This elite group, the connected few, will continue to benefit economically by virtue of their social-historical location in world systems which allows them access to technology.

The emergence of new forms of social relations via the technology of the Internet and its embeddedness in the social relations of production creates a new dynamic. The access to the technology of the Internet which is a component part of the means of productionInternet, which is a component part of the means of production, is a historically significant development. This combined with a rising awareness of our global interconnectivity may represent a potentiality for a new form of consciousness to emerge. This global consciousness connected by the Internet could exert considerable power against repressive exploitative systems. The ability of this group to act in connected collective action is clearly available by virtue of the Internet. The potential, the means and the intelligence are in place.

However, will the consciousness emerge and the agency empoweragency empowers itself to act on behalf of the historically situated other? Past history does not make this potential seem likely. The Marxist revolution may never come. However, the means via the Internet represent a system which, as was coopted by capital, could be coopted by humane human agency to foster social equality on a global scale. The emergence of oppositionalopposition consciousness on the Net is clearly present. The Internet has been and is being utilized as a power tool to oppose repressive government and corporate policies. The communication medium of the Net allows for the potential of information flows whichflows, which are not emergaent from historically constructed power centers. This new power dynamic could be used to disrupt systems of repression and exploitation for a kinder gentler new worldNew World order.