molly.com
Saturday 2 February 2008
Avoiding the Melting Pot while Embracing Global Differences
Earlier this month there came an interesting post on the “Top 15 Women Bloggers” courtesy xfep.com. The list is surely a good one, citing strong women bloggers from a variety of backgrounds, interests and talents.
This morning, I woke to find a link to a post by Hùynh Vĩnh Sơn, a Vietnamese blogger who has published the top 15 list in his native language. He then followed it up with a thought-provoking image questioning “Vietnam female blogger where are you?”
One of the most awesome things about the Web is surely how global we have become. Yet, our blogging and social networks, while becoming more international in readership and scope, still have gender, language and cultural boundaries that will likely remain for a long time to come. And, these distinctions are important. I for one want to see the values of culture preserved. I’m sure most will agree. I mean, who wants to have one language, one food, one way of life? Much of life’s experience is in fact in our diversity, and the fascinating things that happen when we are expanded as individuals and groups through different views of the world.
I think about translation tools and online social environments as well as global interaction guides to help us understand some of the etiquette and behaviors involved when dealing across cultural boundaries, and even divides. I see that these are good tools to use to begin with, but I’m interested in discussing how to create social software that can assist us in avoiding a melting pot and embracing our global differences.
The Web, which often progresses socially a lot faster than the actual world does, offers much to enhance, assist and aid both the opening of the world to its true global potential while maintaining a respect and awe for the individual cultures that makes our world so very rich.
Hùynh Vĩnh Sơn’s post, which I could not read but for the fact there were translations and a high-impact image, has brought these thoughts to the forefront. What are your thoughts about blogs, the social network and cross-cultural enrichment? I’m truly fascinated to know.
Filed under: blogging, community, molly asks you, society, software
Posted by: Molly | 18:49 | Comments (22)
Blogs are the great tools to communicate with other international people. We can learn a lot of things about culture, thoughts and especially knowledge.
But, in Vietnam, people is not always want to share their stuff, and they think blog is just for male who know much about IT, Internet, Web,…. That’s why I post that entry to motivate vietnamese female bloggers to be more open, more active in their blog.
Technology will always promote homogeneity. It will never encourage diversity. (Although it can work with the differences between cultures, language and so on.) For a technology to maintain differences in culture, it would have to be nonexistent. The gun revolutionized the West (well, the horse was first) but it did so for all the participants in that revolution. And that’s where the cultural issues usually begin and, way too often, end. How we fight wars so often indicates how we view life; it’s the one thing that seems to be constant throughout history.
The web is just a small part of the cultural picture; it’s almost minor – except it’s also the vehicle that enabled the rapid rise of globalization. Hollywood exports the American cultural idea far and wide; individuals get angry about it – but the various populations still go to see the movies. English, as a language, has cultural connotations that make little sense in other cultural references, but it’s rapidly becoming the lingua franca of the globe. Oil ensures that trade happens in either U.S. dollars or (increasingly) in Euros. Go to many western cities – and you’ll have a hard time figuring out which city you’re in.
Global homogeneity isn’t going to happen anytime soon – no matter what the various naysayers predict. But it will happen, and when it does – each area will adopt the bits of the encroaching culture they want, and reject the bits they don’t. I offer Mexico as an example – it’s so close to the US, you’d think it would be more like that nation. Except it isn’t: it’s taken some of the US culture, but when you’re in Mexico – you’re most assuredly in Mexico.
But adapting, and adopting, cultural references isn’t always a bad thing: it’s often said that Cricket freed India. And you know what? It did.
Carolyn Ann
Interesting post Molly. When we look at the diversity in our own cities now the globe really isn’t an “out there” experience anymore. Which is why I think especially govts need to be thinking along the lines of the local web audience is actually an international one rather than anglo-european… which happens here.
I recall from an Ozzie Census some time back that one in six Sydney homes speak a language other than english at home… chinese (if cantonese is included) is the 2nd most spoken language in Australia… about 4 million+ australians were born overseas…
K I’d better get back to work…
You’re absolutely right. It’s amazing that there are so much websites out there on the internet which are very popular in local communities or countries but which aren’t known at all in other countries. On the other hand one can only imagine how big international known websites like myspace or facebook really are…
Carolyn Ann> On the other hand, the web is also the best way for people of different cultures or different countries but having the same hobbies to share about them, even if the audience is a few hundred people in the world. Well, it’s another form of homogeneity but not the one you’re describing.
I don’t think technology brings homogeneity by itself. I can share with anybody through phone, mail, blog, newsgroup, etc even if media companies are broadcasting whatever they want to captive audiences. Well, not so captive anymore with web enabled mobiles, effective search, etc
For that you’ve to be rich enough to have access to a computer or mobile phone, in a place where there is connectivity and laws permitting relative free speech. The last condition is to be open minded.
I was actually thinking in more generic terms, but didn’t really make that very clear!
Cars are one example: once you get a car, you’re hooked into a world that depends on US Dollars. So many people want to get around – to market, from the market, to the doctor, to visit friends and relatives and so on, that they will buy cars when given the opportunity. Heck – in less than one hour you can go further than you can walk in a day. And that’s the factor that promotes homogeneity.
Now, there are some groups who won’t see the need for that sort of transport, and there are some who rebel against the need for it. And still more have their hobbies simply because modern transport allows the materials to be locally bought. (Whether “local” means an internet shopping site, or a store just down the street is irrelevant to my point.)
The problems of technology, specifically electronic communications, and wealth is fairly clear. Give a group of fishermen mobile phones (who haven’t, etc) – and their overall wealth goes up. Give a cell phone to every child in the world – and the changes will be incredible, and unforeseeable.
And once you can no longer control who someone speaks to, you end up not being able to control what they say to each other. It’s a slow process (don’t expect miracles!) but, after a fashion, it works.
One other thing drives homogeneity: children. Many parents want their kids to have a better life than they did. And in the process of achieving that – they buy products made in China, import cultural references from all over, look to western education, learn English, and so on. Not everyone is willing to do that, but the overall affect of some wanting this is a tidal wave that won’t be controlled. Or stopped – no matter how much some want it to stop!
There won’t be any homogeneity to this homogeneity (sorry – I couldn’t resist!), at least for some time. The current patchwork quilt of cultures will exist for many decades to come, but it will inexorably change.
But mostly, to preserve culture we have to be able to define it, properly. And I don’t mean a dictionary definition! Anthropologists study cultures – they might be better at telling us how to preserve a culture. I’m not sure they’re the ones to ask about whether we should preserve it, or not, though. Societies change as their members change – and that’s the biggest force to homogeneity of all.
Carolyn Ann
But I seem to have changed the subject!
To answer Molly’s specific question, blogs, wikis and the like won’t be the force for change. They might be the catalyst for women’s movements, as well as for other equal-rights efforts. But attitudes have to change, and that’s where the hard work comes in.
Words on an electronic page are all well and good, but unless they’re accompanied by active efforts to change attitudes – the disenfranchised will remain disanfranchised.
Sorry, Molly!
Carolyn Ann
Carolyn Ann : Not sure why you’re apologizing but I really am not saying blogs, wikis and the like are in and of themselves the FORCE for change, but they are significant TOOLS that CAN BE used for change. And that is the point.
By combining intelligent tools into social software, we can enhance the experience of any cultural exchange.
This is proven out right here on this blog. I found Hùynh Vĩnh Sơn’s post, and he subsequently found his way back here and explained some very interesting bits of information about his experience with Vietnam, bloggers, and women. I am now more aware of certain human differences than I was 24 hours ago. That’s information that can and clearly does create opportunity for change. But, I had to be willing to step through a few technical hoops, and have the resources to do it: Find the link, follow the link, follow other links to find the translation of his post and its meaning, have a visual cue, with text in English – the language with which I am most familiar, and above all, be able to use the technology well enough to reach out and provide a means of reaching back. All that happened because both Hùynh Vĩnh Sơn and I were interested in addressing a similar issue, and wow, we can all gain from the insight.
I’m asking how to make that process easier, how to enhance social networks so they cross those borders more effectively, and how we can then take that information to enhance global growth and understanding. Yeah, yeah, so I’m an idealist
I remember not very long ago, when, using similar threads, you and I were able to clarify a difference in our styles and senses of community. And what happened? It turns out what we thought was happening (me not responding to you, or worse, ignoring you!) wasn’t the case at all. And if you take a look, your point didn’t go to waste. I make more of an interactive effort here now.
We crossed over differences, maintained our unique ideologies, and both grew from the experience. That’s the kind of result I’d be after in the building of social software, bringing ease into that process. We are already seeing that, but it’s in nascent form.
I’ve always loved a melting pot environment, things begin in such settings that never take root anywhere else – why avoid that? Perhaps as much a part of life`s rich pattern as the defined differences.
You’re right, Molly! I was apologizing for changing the subject.
Lexical analysis can take translation so far – but idioms always get in the way! (I was just in a discussion about “step up to the plate”, as an American idiom…) To get to the point where “proper” communication could occur would need a concerted effort to resolve the grammatical rules of language, and provide a map for transposition. (But I’m sure you, and your readers know that!) (I’d ask for everyone to ignore Noam Chomsky, but he’s done some valuable work in this field… So I’m told. Some of his work is used in ESL courses, so he must have been on to something! Sorry, I just don’t like a lot of what the man says.)
To be successful, it shouldn’t be a government sponsored thing – that’s likely to take many, many centuries – and result in something that translates “camel” as “thing with four legs”. An open-source effort (maybe Antlr could provide the backbone of the “engine”?) would be more successful. It would certainly generate more trust! I think an open-source effort, sponsored by someone effective could yield results within a couple of years. It would have to involve language teachers as well as technologists. Of course, the beauty of the language would still need a human understanding and empathy, but a serviceable translation would go far in helping everyone be heard on equal terms.
The technology exists (SOAP, XML, etc) but it needs the sort of focus that only open-source efforts can provide. I’m not about to suggest an architecture for such an application! (At least, not without some seriously intelligent help!)
The rest would need to be aimed at individual cultures – an effort to say “women have a voice, too” would be useful. It would dangerous in Arabia (at least), and I have no solution to that! (Unfortunately.)
When we can sort-of-understand each other – then “we” (that generic and euphemistic “we”) can work to change governments. Repression works when the world is blind – automated translators could help open the eyes of many. If the world knew what was really happening in Kenya, the massacres wouldn’t be so easy to hide. And the Vietnamese women could find their voice is a louder than they originally thought.
But first, we have to be able to communicate. And for that – we need a sophisticated tool that goes well beyond those inane efforts that Google used to provide.
Carolyn Ann
PS I’d offer to lead the effort, but I have too many commitments on my time as it is! And in my free time, I grab a motorbike and ride for a few hours.
I can offer something limited, but I don’t have a really reputation for getting along with people…
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