Internet has multiple aspects and uses. One of its most relevant aspects, however, for nations of the South, as well as for those that were formerly part of the dissolved Soviet block, is that Internet, aside from the commercial access to products and services expanding at full speed from day to day, is that it is fundamentally a network for access to information and data bases at the main research centers on a world level. It offers a way to access, share and use that enormous virtual library, thus having the ability to get the required information allowing to shorten the gap separating the Southern countries and the former communist nations, more or less widely from the so called market economy industrialized countries.

The dilemma is to know if this road will allow them to take advantage of this mediumís enormous possibilities in the same manner and with the same easiness and intensity as those who now live in the North. (Figures compiled by NSFNET, in January 1995 show that the United Statesí predominance was so big that on the number of transferred octets it reached 87% in and 81% out). One must not forget that the leading Internet language is English, now turning by this means as the new cyberspace lingua franca or Esperanto. What is fascinating about Internet is not only the fact that it is a powerful vehicle to access information, it is also a new means to communicate with the other inhabitants of the planet. To a certain measure, this way of contacting other similar human beings, regardless of where they may be physically located, and of being able to exchange with them concerns, hopes, projects or even the mere pleasure of talking, brings to our mind the cybernetic rencounter of the Iberian citiesí Plaza Mayor [Main Square]. This possibility for dialog at any time any day, may become a powerful instrument to develop and strengthen the use of democracy.² The fact of having better information for a growing number of persons may imply a repudiation of authoritarian forms of government. This, of course, will have a greater impact in more closed societies, inasmuch as the use of this new medium becomes universal and access is not limited by simple economic reasons ³, and provided that the information highways do not require a toll.

Assuming that Internet will remain being fundamentally free and for free, what one must establish is whether this new communication medium may practically be useful to these countries in their quest to reduce the information and technological gap currently separating them from the industrialized countries. ⁴

This window to information may constitute an extraordinary opportunity for developing countries and particularly for those less favored ones in their search for pertinent information on the advance in technological and social knowledge taking place in the North.

According to the Internet Society⁵, the incremental user rate is much higher in the South and in the emerging countries than it is in the North. This should not surprise us because the computer networks have been operating in the developed countries since the seventies, while in the rest of the world, their expansion and diffusion is recent, early in the nineties.

Internetís development in the South, however, must first go through a greater diffusion in communications, be these by telephone, cellular satellite or wireless phones. This is still a limiting factors for important sectors of these societies that, in fact, do not have access to any modern kind of communication, but, this notwithstanding, a factor that could help public access at a first stage could be the hospitals, academic centers, schools and town councils.

An interesting example is found in the way how, as from December 1991, the Peruvian Scientific Web has developed. In Peru, some specialized networks have been established, such as the Cayetano Heredia University medical net, the Ministry of Educationís net and the librariesí net. No success, however, had been attained with the creation of communication networks on a national level. RCP faced the challenge of the double objective of incorporating the higher possible number of users all along Peru and of doing by means of the most decentralized way. The Netís success is a clear example of what may be obtained with a cooperation effort contributing to a countryís integration through communications.

Another interesting case of how the South may take advantage of the facilities offered by Internet is what is being done in Brazil to use electronic communication media to get an improvement in the level of education. As it is known, one of the most complex problems that almost all Southern countries are called to solve is the bad distribution of income having a direct impact on the knowledge and information levels of the less favored sectors of society. Today, less than 40% of the Brazilian school age population goes to high school and it is estimated that there are more than 28 million illiterates.⁶ However, with the access of sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardozo to the Presidency of Brazil an with a futurist vision of Brazilian business sectors, a revolution is taking place in the field of teaching and diffusion of knowledge in that country. Already 15 years ago, Brazilian television had initiated through the powerful El Globo TV network, the so called Telecourses, in which actors been known for their stellar roles in the famous TV novels, give ěcontextualisticî courses where education and training are given based on real life cases. There are current talks of placing receiving dishes in all schools and of using all multimedia possibilities offered, among other, by Internet.

The development gap between South and North can no longer be reviewed in a self pleasing manner where we find reasons and justifications for its origin and permanence. It must be assumed as a challenge and an opportunity. Efforts must be made, both at a government and private level, to incorporate greater segments of population to information and knowledge. If the people are not stimulated to play a more participant role, it will be hard to increase their productivity level.

The role of free enterprise, society and government must not be separated, they may not go through diverging roads, they must rather try to coincide, ate least in fundamental areas; one of these and surely one of the most important is the improvement of the diverse communication and information transmission systems. Nowadays, it is clearly recognized that telecommunication is a fundamental tool for a countryís economic development. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) sets a graph on the direct relationship existing between economic growth and density of telephone lines. On its part, the International Telecommunications Unit (ITU) is fostering a project to reduce the North-South gap and it has estimates than an investment of some 30 billion dollars a year will be required, producing an excellent return on investment of around 25% p.a.⁷

In Venezuela, with the privatization of CANTV and the granting of concession for cellular telephone networks, the systemsí expansion and modernization have been important. Now, with the expansion of the Reaccium net, the development of the Platinum net and the active presence in the sales of Internet connection by CANTV and Telcel, we may foresee, for the year 1997 an implosion in Internet connectivity. Conservative estimates predict that, at the end of next year, there will be in Venezuela, with one or the other service, more than 150,000 users. This figure represents a multiplication by 5 of those currently connected in the country. Is this a dream? Will it be the same case as with cellular phones, where the most optimist market studies were short by similar multiplying factors, if not greater?