The Web Takes Hold In Jamaica

Dave Tingling checks his digital directory daily. The systems analyst at Levy Industries uses the directory as a remote desk. Clients file problems there, colleagues pass on work, and it becomes a loading and retrieval dock.

UWI lecturer Damien King writes E-mail voraciously, abandoning friends who don't have digital addresses. At other times he surfs the World Wide Web, perusing magazines with web sites or researching. Jamaicans are getting high on techno entertainment , surfing and E-mailing in the digital heaven above the Global Village called the Internet. A Net connection is now as necessary as an ICAS number in middle and upscale income homes. Suddenly, it seems that gizmo freaks have found that the computer by itself isn't all that sexy.

At the end of last year over 40 million people were using the Internet's E-mail service. That figure should be much larger by now because the Net has been growing by 100 percent annually since 1988. One of its byproducts is the World Wide Web, the electronic equivalent of a book that everyone can read and write to as graphically as they want. Thirty thousand web pages now bring information and resources to one pulsating spot in cyberspace that has turned on millions of users.

Jamaicans are seduced like everyone else. Hundreds are getting connected monthly to this entertaining and enlightening center of the computer universe. When TOJ first offered Internet connection last December it anticipated 400 users in the first four months. Instead, 3,500 users eagerly plunked down $US50 to sign up. And that figure has grown tremendously since. TOJ's product marketing executive Owen Burthwright says the company was fortunate that it already had a tentative plan to increase the capacity of its overseas links. Infochannel was the first commercial Net link when it began in May, 1995. But Dr. Robert Lancashire put up Jamaica's first link to the web in September 1994 from UWI's Chemistry Department, a week before UWI's web server went online. The links that UWI had before that only utilised basic Net services such as E-mail and file transfers. The Chemistry Department s server was also the first in the Caribbean. Since then it has won Internet awards, and the site has clocked over 200,000 visitors.

Pat Terrelonge of Infochannel believes that Net use by Jamaicans mimics world trends. Those trends show that most Net users are upscale, well-educated achievers. The gender usage breakdown is 63 percent male and 37 percent female worldwide, although indications are that those figures are lower for women in Jamaica. People in organisations connected to the Internet are more likely to use it.

A whopping 70 percent of those connected to the Net use E-mail. Terrelonge believes that high communications costs in Jamaica will push E-mail use even higher than elsewhere. Most people will agree. E-mail in a country with poor postal delivery helps to put us in the middle of global communication. Businesses around the world now use E-mail for product inquiries. They are able to quickly and effectively get information from suppliers and manufacturers.

But the most immediate impact of E-mail is the difference it has made in some people's social communications. Damali Trottman, a Hydrogeologist at the National Water Commission, enjoys the speed of E-mail and likes its ease of use. "It's a fun way to stay in touch with friends abroad," she says. Trottman even lets her friends use her connection for research or entertainment.

Marketing consultant Deborah De Beauville finds E-mail ideal for "liming." "That's how I get updated on what is happening with my friends who are scattered all over the globe," she says. "We use it for girl talk, gossip and such." When De Beauville was moving here from London, she used the Net to find things Jamaican. A few weeks ago she had problems finding a book, and was able to locate its publisher on the Net.

Some people see the Net purely as a research tool, utlising its vast resources to further their own goals. The Net actually began as a sort of research library, and many people still find that that's its best purpose. Brigitte Levy, who runs a survey company called Business Profiles, goes on the Net primarily to find surveys and other research at universities. She logs on only on an as needed basis.

Her husband Andrew, General Manager at Jamaica International Insurance Company, sometimes "lives" on the Net. At work he logs on for a few hours each day to E-mail business associates (cheaper than a fax) or to get up-to-date information on hurricanes (insurance related), new office technology, and as a general magazine. "It's like browsing through an encyclopedia," says Levy.

At home, he may log on for an hour after dinner to chat with a group that discusses children with a disability that one of his children has. Levy says the kind of information he finds there is more specific and more personal than what he can get in a book. "It's more engaging," he says. And it's why many people like the chat feature on the Net. This allows you to be truly interactive on your computer. There are actually three ways to chat on the Net. You can go into a chat room, where you use a nick name, and shoot the breeze with others who may be in that room digitally. Introverted people especially like the anonymity of these interactions, although there are publicised cases of relationships starting from these connections. Others say the chat rooms allow true freedom of expression. Another way to chat is with someone you know. You and that person can talk to each other digitally at a prearranged time. It means basically that what you type at your keyboard is echoed on your screen and in a separate window you see what the other person types. At the moment only Jamaica Online, an access provider, offers that service. Dave Tingling, the systems analyst, says he uses it heavily to talk to old friends from the University of Florida and elsewhere.

There is also a new chat feature that allows you to literally speak to another party using a microphone and speakers connected to your computer, along with special software. Anyone with Internet service, the appropriate software and a multimedia computer can do this. But the Net service that TOJ provides makes it illegal. Some telecommunications companies in the United States have tried to get legislation to curb this sort of use, which cuts into their long distance charges.

Then there are some sites on the Net where a bunch of people enter to talk about a specific subject or issue. Consultant Andrew Diaz of Visionary Computing spends much of his Net time in technical rooms, picking up the latest news about software, networking, and hardware so that he stays current in his field. He also subscribes to a mailing list which enables him to get a digest of the mail of the day on certain subjects. Diaz says that his frequent Net use at home poses no domestic problems, but not everyone has an accommodating spouse or partner. Net addicts frequently find friction from partners who feel ignored. The sexes, of course, didn't need a new cause for arguments. Many women who used to complain about the absence from home, now fuss about their partner's computer time in the study. Garth Sang, an admitted information junkie and graphic designer, has a novel way of preventing such friction. He encourages his wife, Susan, a lawyer, to participate. He often calls her to the screen when he spots something she might find interesting. They recently spent two Sunday afternoons researching a good car rental deal for her father, who was heading to London for holidays.

Sang uses the Net for the same reason most users worldwide do: entertainment. It has become a substitute for what many see as an increasingly boring television. "It's even better than television," says Sang, "because when you step away you don't miss anything." (PATRICIA WOLDRING CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE).

SIDEBAR ONE
The good news is that Net connection here will quadruple in the next four years. The bad news is that only five to seven percent of the estimated 500,000 Jamaican households will be able to afford computers, the Net's basic tool.
Because some access providers won't reveal their figures, the number of Jamaicans now connected to the Net is a rough estimate. Most knowledgeable people say there are approximately 8,000 people with Net access.
Less than two percent of Jamaican homes now have computers, compared to over 50 percent in the United States and between 30 and 40 percent in European countries. Computer affordability will take those figures much higher in the next four years, leaving significant portion of our population behind in the information revolution.

SIDEBAR TWO
Internet use in Jamaica began when UWI offered connections to staff and students in September 1994. Initially, heaviest use was for E-mail and file transfers. Only text web browsing was possible. Today, there are nearly 1,800 students and 450 staff connected to the Net, according to Keith Manison, UWI's Director of Information Systems. They use E-mail heavily, says Manison, and many spend a great deal of time pulling down research material. Although UWI's connection is free, many complain about difficulties logging on during peak hours because of limited telephone lines.
There are also 400 non-UWI users connected, among those the Ministry of Finance, the National Library of Jamaica, West Indies College, and several high schools. UWI also hosts web pages for Jampro, the Jamaican national football team, and through Jamaica Online, CVM-TV and RJR Radio. Manison says the football page is currently the most used site, as is UWI's web chat.
The most interesting use of the Net that Manison has encountered, is the way parents who are home schooling their children have turned it into their personal library. The big advantage of a UWI connection is that it is free. But during peak hours it is difficult to get a connection because of the limited number of telephone lines.