A common education

In 2006, Time magazine's Person of the Year wasn't a person at all, but a collective persona that so powerfully characterises the information era. The 'person' was you - the global community of individuals collaborating on an unprecedented scale to create repositories of knowledge, vast collections of content and massive social networks. A few years later, as companies born out of these developments gain influence and announce IPOs, it helps to be reminded of the core role of this collective, especially as it comes under increasing threat.

The answer doesn't lie in creating an elite force of computer boffins, but a broader society capable of engaging critically.

Lezette Engelbrecht, online features editor, ITWeb

Last week, Google chairman Eric Schmidt delivered a speech at London's Science Museum, highlighting the risks facing the Internet, including nations trying to restrict, control, and harm Internet freedom. He said government filtering could lead to a 'Balkanised' Web, where different individuals saw different information based on their identity and location (which sounds rather similar to something a certain search company does) and data is routinely censored.

He also voiced concerns around the permanence of online information, with society facing a situation where nothing remains secret and past activities or mistakes can forever be called up from digital archives. According to Schmidt, training increased numbers of (UK) learners in computer science will help society cope with these challenges, and he called for more people to take up science and engineering to drive industry.

But he missed an important point about the present Web environment. Having more computer science graduates is not necessarily going to solve the above problems. While you'll have more people who understand the nuts and bolts of IT, it's going to take more than a few extra programmers to ensure a free and open Internet. Many of these graduates will simply join the stream of recruits being swallowed up by the world's corporates, rather than go into public policy or security work. And that was never the problem in the first place.

The vast majority of people making up the Internet, its so-called 'lifeblood', are the everyday citizens of the world - teachers and sales reps and dentists and bankers - who use it for work, play and relationships. The focus needs to be on building society as a whole in terms of online safety, and teaching children the basics around thinking critically and behaving responsibly. I'm all for encouraging computer science skills, but realistically, only a small portion of the world's Web-using public will become IT professionals. Creating a freer, safer Internet requires far more than simply forcing programming skills on a generation of incoming youths.

Half the time, young people are changing the rules as they go anyway. They tweak and modify and innovate on the fly, and a solid grounding in how to process, share and protect information will serve them far better than specialised coding skills.

It's a bit like safeguarding children from physical risks; few will train their children to be karate champs so they can take down a burglar with a well-timed roundhouse kick. But they will teach them to be aware of their surroundings, to avoid walking alone in certain areas, and to be wary of strangers. It's a broader framework of guidance tools that cover a variety of scenarios, so children are able to respond dynamically to unpredictable life events, instead of having by-the-book solutions for textbook problems.

There's also a glaring and growing need to provide the majority of the world with Internet access, rather than simply equipping a select few with technical skills. Not to undermine their involvement, but it wasn't an elite team of computer hackers that brought down governments in the Middle East and North Africa. It was thousands of citizens correlating and amplifying their voices through technology to stand up to autocratic regimes. If anything is going to secure the freedom of the Internet, it will be ensuring millions more can access, use and build the Web in a way that no one body emerges as more powerful than the collective.

As the Time article pointed out, the Internet has allowed the many to wrest power from the few and help one another for nothing; it has not only changed the world, but also the way the world changes. Technology has long since ceased to be a purely technical field managed by programmers and engineers in invisible pockets of society. It has become part of the fabric of life for so many people - from rich to poor to urban to rural - that far more innovation and progress depends on the actions of ordinary users.

Schmidt argues that technology breakthroughs can't happen without the scientists and engineers to make them. That the challenge society faces is to “equip enough people, with the right skills and mindset, and to get them to work on the most important problems”. He believes great scientists are a rare breed, and so the more who study science, the greater the chance of finding those for whom it becomes a vocation.

No doubt the Apples and Amazons and Googles of this world have pushed us to new heights in terms of capability, but the Web's most powerful asset has always been its democratic nature. While the Internet may be the product of several revolutionary technological developments, it is also a living, dynamic entity that is characterised and defined by its users. The ways people interact and engage, share information, and ritualise behaviour are as much a driving force of Web development as software and coding. In the same way a house needs people to turn the bricks and mortar into a home, so those 'residing' in the Web add an indispensable layer to its functioning.

This isn't meant to discount the great minds that helped create the underlying architecture of the Web. But challenges of the future cannot fall to techies alone. The answer doesn't lie in creating an elite force of computer boffins, but a broader society capable of engaging critically in online activities. Teaching students from all backgrounds and aptitudes to think logically and independently, to respect others' and their own privacy, and to temper freedom of expression with common sense will produce generations equipped to cope with all kinds of circumstances - whether online or off. It's not about deploying more policemen; it's about cultivating greater numbers of law-abiding citizens, so to speak.

Investing in a free, open and informed society will help ensure the same is true of the network connecting it. You can have the best architects and builders in the world, but it's the everyday activities of a home's inhabitants that will ultimately determine its stability.