Laura B Lengel

New Voices, New Media Technologies: 
Opportunity and Access to the Internet 
in East Central Europe 
 
 

KEYWORDS

Bulgaria
Computer viruses
Computer Mediated Communication
East Central Europe
Education and new media technologies
Gender and technology
Hungary
Internet
Post-socialist nations
Radio Free Europe
Soviet technological initiatives
Women’s issues
World Wide Web
 
 
 

Access to and negotiation with new media technologies in post-socialist nations, along with other global regions in economic struggle, is a critical area of research. While both scholars and practitioners are beginning to examine new media technologies in such regions, broad assumptions about opportunity and access are still posited, creating assumptions of an unproblematised ‘global village’ where all have equal opportunity to engage in an open dialogue.

In an earlier edition of Convergence, Nyaki Adeya notes that much debate into new media technologies, primarily the Internet, assumes that opportunity and access are very much taken for granted  and, under that assumption, scholarship tends to focus on the „’problems’ of being connected." [1]  Adeya argues for the importance of keeping „sight of the fact that for much of the world’s population there are also very real problems in simply connecting up to what already exists." [2] 

While scholars like Adeya have critically assessed opportunity and access to new media technologies in regions like Africa, Latin America, India and the Middle East, [3]  very little has been done to apply similar lines of inquiry to East Central European nations.  Work examining communication flow and media in the region [4]  does not address technology and the complexities of intercultural and international communication through new media.  Conversely, work specifically addressing new media technologies [5]  essentially ignores East Central Europe, South-Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc. Thus, the importance of this special edition of Convergence on new media technologies in the region, and this article in particular, is key to understand how post-socialist Europeans are struggling in their complex negotiation with new media technologies. This challenge runs parallel to their negotiation as post-socialist citizens, faced with vast socio-economic changes that are forcing citizens in the region to redefine their roles and identities. Emerging from the legacy of state socialism, Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europeans now have the opportunity to be active participants in the infancy of democratic practice in the region, active participants of the civic discourse previously oppressed under Soviet rule. This ability to participate in an open dialogue, however, is juxtaposed with the problematic socio-economic conditions of the region. [6] 

After the death of Soviet technological initiatives and relatively stable economic structures, post-socialist Europeans are now on the ‘outside,’ left behind the technological developments in the ‘West,’  unable to engage in dialogue with the East Central European diaspora and others in the so-called ‘global village.’  The opportunity for such dialogue, many argue, [7]  provides spaces for communicative power, to have ‘voice’ that would normally be silent in traditional communicative contexts. However, ‘empowerment’ through the Internet, a term often applied uncritically, needs to be questioned.  Certainly, getting ‘on-line’, in and of itself, provides no more ‘empowerment’ than picking up the telephone.  This „virtual empowerment" [8]  is only empowering if some pro-social benefit emerges from computer mediated communication.

Further questions about the possible ‘empowering’ capabilities of specific Internet services are also important. Just as getting ‘on-line’ is not empowering in and of itself, surfing the Web has little pro-social benefit.  However, unlike predominantly user-passive services of the Internet like the World Wide Web, e-mail and synchronous communication services such as Internet Relay Chat, Usenet and newsgroups can provide an active space for equal dialogue.  While  scholars discuss how computer mediated communication (CMC) is capable of creating a means for all persons to be equally heard in a global arena, the opportunity to be equally heard is, in fact, unequal. The opportunity to engage in ‘on-line’ ‘voice’ is granted to merely a select few, excluding both global regions and communities which have been traditionally marginalised socio-culturally and economically. While the Internet provides a forum for voices outside the dominant powers that typically control international mass communication, the minimum needs to access this technology require maximum expense including computers, modems, telephone lines and electricity.  In post-socialist East Central Europe where economic changes have been vast, [9]  computers and links exist only at a premium, and Internet service costs more than monthly rent, cybernetic ‘empowerment’ is not an option for most East Central Europeans.
 

Infrastructural Considerations

Along with the costs of accessing the Internet, insufficient infrastructure creates further challenges. For instance, the Ukraine has only one telephone for every seven or eight citizens, which falls far below the telecommunications access of developed countries. [10]   More economically advantaged areas in the region, particularly major urban centres like Prague, Budapest, telephone lines reach far more citizens. However, the infrastructural problems in the Ukraine are similar elsewhere in East Central and South-Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc, where electricity is inconsistent, telephone lines are poor, and technology generally is primitive. At present, national governments may be too consumed with economic and political survival to address these problems.
Infrastructural problems and economic disadvantage are some of the roadblocks to the so-called Information Superhighway.  Despite its often-hyped democratic structure, this Superhighway, like traditional transportation systems, contains some ‘roads’ which are quicker and can carry more traffic. [11]  Other ‘roads’ are structured more like one-way alleys or dead-end lanes.  These ‘roads’ are improving with assistance from the IMF and World Bank. Similarly, the Open Society Foundation and NetSat Express, a supplier of Internet access via satellite, is providing new Internet technology throughout the East Central Europe. [12]   Despite assistance from these organisations and corporate leaders like the Director of the Open Society Foundation, Hungarian-American George Soros or Andrew Grove, a Hungarian refugee turned chairman and CEO of Intel, ‘roads’ on the so-called Superhighway are certainly not ‘super.’  In the land of IMF, Soros and Grove, which seems worlds away from East Central Europe, the roads are wider, faster and transport more information. To those on the outside, argues Walter Uncapher, „that far off world of massive data flows seems enwrapped in the mystery of complex network protocols and hardware, probably best left in the hands of the giant firms and governmental agencies." [13]   With Soros arguably positioned as one of these giant firms granting funds to struggling organisations, and the World Bank donating monies to put computers in universities in Hungary and elsewhere, [14]  East Central Europe is gaining opportunity and access to new media technologies and, at the same time, possibly solidifying a financial dependence on the industrialised world.

Despite infrastructural challenges, East Central Europe is represented on the Internet.  While it is difficult to measure the number of ‘wired’ nations as the numbers are changing constantly, [15]  the international connectivity table developed by the Internet Society [16]  reports that the entirety of East Central Europe, South-East Europe and the former Soviet bloc have some level of connection to the Internet, either through Internet Protocol (IP) links on the open Internet, or through Unix to Unix Copy Protocol (UUCP) with e-mail and Usenet newsgroups, or FidoNet, a store-and-forward e-mailing wide area network (WAN) with gateways to the Internet.
 

Seizing Opportunities:  Local Developments 

Based on the above connectivity assessment, post-socialist nations are connected and the few windows of opportunity that do exist appear promising.  World Wide Web sites from the Open Media Research Institute and from news services like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Peredatsja are emerging from the region, affording opportunities for new voices to be heard globally.  Within the region, conflicts may be resolved by the Internet. ACCESS, a non-governmental organization in Sofia, promotes national and ethnic relations through the Internet. [17]  Veran Matic, a leading Serbian journalist and editor-in-chief of B92, an independent Serbian radio station, announces that „the Internet is today’s key to bringing down totalitarian regimes and breaking the state’s monopoly on the media." [18]   With the breakdown of state monopolies and increase of privatization, [19]  the economy-building capacity of new media technologies can, as David Dyker argues, „provide one of the most valuable resources currently available to east European economies." [20]  Both the political and economic opportunities opened up by new technologies allow activists and entrepreneurs to enact change, a change perhaps only possible after the fall of the old regimes. 

Such regimes and unwieldy bureaucracies, coupled with economic need, have led some to seize their own windows of opportunity, including telephone line piracy, Internet account piracy and the subversive elements of non-institutional networks in the region.  With their entrepreneurial attitude [21]  and keen technological savvy, East Central European youth have resisted the sanctioned route through local telephone authorities and Internet service providers by pirating lines and accounts. Following the sanctioned route requires necessary resources, primarily capital, telecommunications equipment approved by the local authority, and the persistence and patience to navigate through sometimes unwieldy bureaucracies. Looking at these ‘checkpoints’ of the sanctioned system, this precludes the majority of potential users in East Central Europe and elsewhere in post-socialist nations.

Resourceful individuals and groups in this region, lacking economic means, have found ways around this system and have, through non-sanctioned means and methods, ‘appropriated’ Internet connectivity.  These range from smuggled modems, other telecommunications devices and computers,  to the pirating, or illegal connection, of telephone lines. A case of Bulgaria is worthy of discussion, particularly when considering the history of the nation as the designated ‘Silicon Valley’ of the Soviet regime.  Until the 1980s, the Politburo positioned Bulgaria as the center of  „socialism’s first and only centrally planned home-computer industry." [22]   Because of this designation, Bulgarian students and technology professionals had far more computer access than their counterparts elsewhere in the region. While the Soviet initiatives have ceased, Bulgarians have retained a level of technical brilliance known internationally, if only for their infamous computer viruses that swept the world in the early 1990s. Today, the viruses are no longer produced, however, the nation outputs other items, like 25 million pirate audio CDs and CD-ROMs, [23]  which are sold on the street in Sofia. Internet accounts are also pirated. In Bulgaria, where monthly service charges of ISPs like Bulnet and Eunet can cost more than monthly rent, the technologically astute connect phones into telecommunications networks illegally, pay a lower fee to black market ‘unlimited’ services providers and have affordable access. In other instances, e-mail accounts are created on servers through an ‘insider’ employee of the ISP doing so in what might be construed as ‘democratization’ of the means of communication. Other, more legal initiatives are also developing in Bulgaria. Those who were once the students of the Soviet computer initiatives, are now forming their own, in many cases more affordable ISPs. Such moves, as David Bennahum contends, are „sparking a small renaissance of entrepreneurial activity, showing, by example, that there are economic alternatives to emigration of collusion with criminal enterprises." [24]   The end result is that some users who would otherwise be denied access to the sphere of the Internet have equitable access.
 

Equitable Access/Equitable Discourse?

Equitable access, however, does not necessarily mean equitable discourse.  Stokes and Stokes argue that networked computers are „reproducing rather traditional disparities in opportunity" [25]  based on a lack of language, national and ethnic diversity.  Internet users in the US still comprise the majority of all activity on „the allegedly world wide Web." [26]   Further, 90% of content on this „allegedly world wide Web" is in English. [27]   Perhaps this majority base explains why East Central Europeans have been overlooked in research on opportunity and access to new media technologies.  Their new roles and identities in post-socialist societies and their ability to participate in civic discourse after years of Soviet-imposed silencing, are key to communication research.  Fortunately, albeit slowly, the predominance of the English language is changing.  The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Web site includes news scripts in Russian and RealAudio live radio broadcasts through in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Bosnian, Croatian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Russian, Serbian, Tajik, Tatar-Bashkir, Turkmen and Uzbek. [28]   Similarly, NGOs are developing non-English language Web material and, when resources are thin, ask members to volunteer to translate Web sites into Russian and other languages, widening readership and, where interactive Web sites are concerned, affording more opportunities for open dialogue.
 

Gender and the Technology Gap in East Central Europe

Opportunities for open dialogue have, even through traditional media, been a particular challenge for those on the margins of dominant discourses, such as women, both in East Central Europe and throughout the so-called ‘global village.’  In this ‘village,’ dominant discourses tend to render invisible or misrepresent women who have not enjoyed the discursive freedom and power as do their male counterparts.  Certainly, gender difference has become less problematic through the many advances women have made toward equality. Yet today, however, women’s voices are for the most part quieted by those in power in such areas as politics, education and professional development.

In East Central Europe, women have enjoyed increased power since the fall of communist rule, but there is much work yet to be done to achieve gender equity.  Barbara Einhorn argues that gender „has in practice operated as an exclusionary mechanism, hindering female entitlement to citizenship rights" in East Central Europe. [29]   Through field research in the region, I have heard women confirm Einhorn’s arguments. Women contend they are „outsiders," „isolated from the world" that hails both advances in technology and advances for women. [30] 

Access to and education about computers, widely granted to their male counterparts in environments like Bulgaria’s National Mathematics High School during socialist rule, [31]  have been generally off-limits to post-socialist women students in nations like Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.  Now that the changing economic situation in the region has all but closed down sites like the National Mathematics High School, neither young men nor women have access to the technology once enjoyed by the young hackers at Math H.S.  Despite the death of the Soviet technological initiatives, the hackers have grown up and mentored younger men to rebuild discarded computer hardware, develop their own software, and hack into systems, destroying them with deadly computer viruses.
Women and girls, by contrast, have been left on the margins of technology. Under Soviet rule, perhaps they were employed by Soviet owned-and-operated software and hardware firms in mundane factory line positions a situation consistent with women’s low-level production work in other Soviet industries. [32]   If not working to piece together computer chips, there were entirely discouraged from any contact with technology. Now, since the fall of communism, such factories are closed, standing still, awaiting a re-charge from the ever-growing privatization moves. [33]  Women, too, are standing still, with neither access nor educational opportunities to new communication technologies. 

After the legacy of state socialism, women in post-socialist nations now see the possibility of using the Internet to participate in civic discourse previously oppressed under Soviet rule. Such participation, however, is hindered by gender inequality inherent in the local cultures. Considering this ambiguous situation of women pre- and post-Soviet rule, Barbara Einhorn argues „despite clear improvements in the civil and political rights associated with democratic citizenship, in the short run at least" women in the region „stand to lose economic, social welfare, and reproductive rights." [34]   For instance, Czech and Slovak women have been ignored by new political parties. [35]  According to Minton Goldman, these parties, led by Czech and Slovak men, „distrusted women and had few incentives to address their concerns, much less share power with them." [36]   In Poland, Goldman writes, „the Catholic Church has been a big obstacle to gender equality, having literally gone on a offensive against the social and political advancement of women since 1989. [37]  The obstacles to gender equality are thus significant in post-socialist Europe and true civic discourse for women in the region has yet to be achieved. 
 

„Balkan Neighbors"

East Central European women realize that one way to gain citizenship rights is to participate in an open dialogue which critiques political silencing and loss of rights. While women in the region are beginning to find opportunities to express themselves through politics, commerce, education and the media, they acknowledge the liberating capacity of CMC as a way to have their voices heard to a wide, global audience.  Where access is available, women are acting to create proactive Internet discourse. One example is Mariana Lenkova, an editor of the Greek Helsinki Monitor, an on-line service from the Greek National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation which provides information about the Balkans both within the region and ‘outside’ to the world. As mentioned earlier, Lenkova has developed and continues to coordinate „Balkan Neighbors." She developed the project in October 1996 with ACCESS, a non-governmental organisation in Sofia, with funding from the George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, to promote national and ethnic relations through the Internet. One of the Balkan Neighbors reports, „Balkan Neighbors: Positive and Negative Stereotypes in the Media of Seven Balkan Countries," [38]  has been distributed through a listserv since late 1996. The project analyses the media representation of Balkan countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. Lenkova prepares monthly regional summaries of the media analysis, including possible misrepresentation of the Balkan nations by the media. It also addresses issues such as racial and ethnic prejudice against Roma communities, attitudes to what she terms „internal minorities" within Balkan nations, and media coverage of Bulgaria’s ‘mafia.’ [39]    The project also focuses on, relations between Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece and the diversity within East Central Europe, South-Eastern Europe and the diversity within these nations. This focus provides those outside the regions to have a deeper understanding that they are not monolithic entities, but are vastly differing culturally, economically and politically.

Lenkova is optimistic that computer mediated projects like Balkan Neighbors can enact social change, when users can gain awareness through access to information about the ethnic, racial and nationalistic tensions within the region. [40]  She considers herself fortunate to be a person with rare opportunity and access to the Internet in Bulgaria. Unlike her counterpart professionals in Sofia, her involvement with ACCESS and funding from Soros’ foundation has provided her with connectivity she desires, both to work on Balkan Neighbors, and for her own communication. She is a self-proclaimed „info-elite," but works to use that elite status only to enact socially-conscious activities on the Internet.  She says, „there is NO doubt that the Internet is one of the greatest achievements of humankind in the end of the 20th Century." [41]   While this comment perhaps reflects the uncritical stance of Soros and the Open Society Foundation’s ‘global village’ missions, Lenkova does realise that the Internet can provide opportunities for new voices to be heard to a wide global audience.
 

Women’s Networks

Other women like Mariana Lenkova have collaborated through the Internet for political action and change. Jean Brunet and Serge Proulx [42]  maintain that new communication technology supports a grass-roots model of civic discourse that women prefer over more formal communicative means.  Such grass-roots communication, many feminist scholars articulate, provides a strong ground for political activity.  Similarly, Lynda Birke and Marsha Henry argue despite challenges of gender marginalization, the Internet „allows women to communicate and spread information across the globe; among other things, this mode of communication is relatively cheap and can dramatically expedite political actions by putting women quickly into contact." [43]  This contact, through new media technologies, makes links between women’s communities possible. 

Organisations and individuals are attempting to narrow the gender and technology gap and the gaps between ‘East’ and ‘West’ through supporting dialogue, electronic information exchange and activism for women’s issues.  Women have developed a growing presence on the Internet, through such fora as Magyar Nõk Elektronikus Lapjai (Hungarian Women’s Pages), Free Feminists, Prague’s Gender Studies Centre, and the Gender Project for Bulgaria. [44]  Éva Thun, creator of the Magyar Nõk Elektronikus Lapjai site, in Hungarian and English, announces:

in Hungary discussing women’s issues and advocating the importance of public discourse on women’s lives and women’s experiences are still not considered to be popular modes of thinking and action. Yet, there is a growing number of women who are determined to foster changes and persistent and enthusiastic in their pursuit of making their voices heard and their demands met. By launching the HÍR-NÕK Homepage we would like to offer yet another (hopefully powerful) channel for discussion in order to be able to step out of invisibility. [45] 

Like Mariana Lenkova, Éva Thun’s opportunity to develop the Magyar Nõk Elektronikus Lapjai site may have been the result of World Bank funds to Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, where she is in the Teaching Training College. Whatever the source of funding, these women are using their Internet access for pro-social advances. Lenkova, Thun and others sense the impact of their voice in the international arena and the possibilities of enacting change.

The Network of East-West Women (NEWW) is another organisation that voices concerns of women in the region. The home page of the NEWW site highlights an announcement from Slavenka Drakulic, internationally known Croatian journalist and writer:  „Democracy without women is no democracy." [46]   The mission of the organisation follows Drakulic’s statement. Because  „post-communist countries have imposed a harsh life upon women in their societies," NEWW’s mission is to bring a wide global understanding to users „directly, not via the mass media,  the efforts of these women to abolish the injustices and inequalities they face in their homelands." [47]  Updated frequently, the site has included an on-line discussion space, „Sister Links," regional and global news relating to women’s issues and links to listservs such as the Majordomo Mailing List, which addresses gender in post-communist societies and offers an On-Line Legal Resource Service, about women’s legal and human rights issues in the region.

Opportunities to develop „East-East networking links between women, as well as East-West dialogue," Barbara Einhorn notes, ground the „search for new understandings of women’s situation" both within and outside the region." [48]  This collaborative spirit can foster both gender equity and, more broadly, the future growth of participatory democracy.  Through increases in access and opportunity, women can communicate as active, vital dialogic agents.  Women in post-socialist nations realise that there is much work to be done now to seize opportunities to participate in truly open dialogue in the future, and that future rests on this collaborative spirit.  With such spirit, Dimitrina Petrova announces, „we can only try to keep the flame burning -- the small flame of sympathy, of simple concern for the other. Sisterhood may play a powerful part in this commitment." [49] 
 

Future Voices

Though organisations like the Network of East-West Women, collaborative contacts through the Internet benefit those both within and outside East Central Europe. Collaboration, understanding and change are key to the empowerment promised by new media technologies. Participation in an open computer mediated dialogue affords both women and men, whether in economically advantaged or disadvantaged regions, a space to enact change, and enhance both global and local understanding of national, ethnic, race, gender and class difference. This dialogue, however, is only possible through widespread Internet access and opportunity. The future of Internet access is uncertain, considering the present state of constant economic fluctuation within the region. However, with the growing interest of those organisations and individuals who wish to voice their concerns to a wide global audience, the Internet creates a space for enacting social change, only if those that wish to enact this change have access and opportunity to be a ‘new voice’ through new media technologies.
 

 
Notes

[1] Adeya, Nyaki, ‘Beyond Borders: The Internet for Africa’, Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Autumn 1996. 2, no. 2, p. 23 [author’s emphasis].

[2] Ibid, p. 23.

[3] Daniel Fedak, ‘Africa in the Third Millennium:  Organizing New Communication Technologies for the Future.’ Paper under review the International Communication Association/National Communication Association Conference, Rome, Italy, July 1998; Raul Gonzalez-Pinto and Marco Roman, ‘Digital Citizens Down the Border: How they See the World Now and in the Future.’ Paper under review for the National Communication Association Convention, New York, November 1998; Priya Kapoor, The Future of the Internet in the Indian and South Asian Women’s Movement. Paper under review for the International Communication Association/National Communication Association Conference, Rome, Italy, July 1998; Laura Lengel and Daniel Fedak, ‘The Politicization of Cybernetic Discourse: Discourse Conflict and the Internet in North Africa’, paper under review for publication in Civic Discourse & Discourse Conflict in Africa, ed. Michael Prosser (Norwood, NJ:  Ablex, forthcoming); Marwan Kraidy, ‘Glo/calization, New Technologies and Lebanon’, Paper presented at the Speech Communication Association Convention, November 23, 1996, San Diego, California. 1996; Ananda Mitra, ‘Nations and the Internet: The Case of a National Newsgroup, ‘soc.cult.indian’,’ Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Spring 1996, Volume 2, Number 1.

[4] Fred Casmir, Communication in Eastern Europe: The Role of History, Culture and Media in Contemporary Conflicts (New Jersey: Lawrence Elbaum, 1995); Nicholas Hopkinson, Strengthening the Media in the Developing World and Eastern Europe, Wilton Park Paper 115 (London: HMSO, 1996); and David L. Paletz, Karol Jakubowicz and Pavao Novosel (eds.), Glasnost and After: Media and Change in Central and Eastern Europe (Creeskill, NJ: Hampton, 1995).

[5] American Political Science Association, A New Way of Talking Politics:  Democracy on the Internet. Washington, DC: APSA,  September, 1994; Anderson, R. E., et al. ‘Equity in Computing’, Social Issues in Computing:  Putting Computing in its Place, eds. C. Huff and T. Finholt (New York:  McGraw-Hill, 1995), pp. 352-385; Brian D. Loader, ‘The governance of cyberspace: Politics, technology and global restructuring’, in The governance of cyberspace: Politics, technology and global restructuring, ed. Brian D. Loader (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 1-19; Z. Sardar, ‘Alt.civilizations.faq:  Cyberspace as the Darker Side of the West’, in  Cyberfutures: Culture and Politics on the Information Superhighway, eds. Ziauddin Sardar and Jerome R. Ravetz (London:  Pluto, 1996), pp. 14-41.

[6] For discussions on the socio-economic conditions of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, please see Barbara Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market: Citizenship, Gender and Women's Movements in East Central Europe (London: Verso. 1993); David S. Bennahum, ‘Heart of Darkness’, Wired, November 1997, pp. 226-277; Minton F. Goldman, Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe:  Political, Economic, and Social Changes (London: M.E. Sharpe, 1997);  A. Heitlinger, ‘The Impact of the Transition from Communism on the Status of Women in the Czech and Slovak Republics’, in Gender Politics and Post-Communism, eds. N. Funk and M. Mueller  (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 95-108; Ekaterina Ognianova and Brian Scott, ‘Milton’s Paradox: The Market-place of Ideas in Post-Communist Bulgaria’, European Journal of Communication, vol. 12, no. 3, 1997. pp. 369-390; David L. Paletz, Karol Jakubowicz and Pavao Novosel (eds.), Glasnost and After;  J. Perlez, ‘Central Europe’s new generation: driven and smart’, New York Times, 1 January 1998;  Field research in Bulgaria also provided the author’s understanding of changing economic conditions.

[7] cf. Brian D. Loader, ed., The governance of cyberspace: Politics, technology and global restructuring (London: Routledge, 1997); D. Richardson, ‘Community Electronic Networks: Sharing Lessons Learned in Canada with Our African Colleagues’, Paper presented at the MacBride Roundtable on Communication: Africa and the Information Highway, Tunis, Tunisia, March 16, 1995; Carlton, Reeve, ‘Democracy through the Information Superhighway’, Paper presented at the „Shouts from the Street:  Popular Culture, Creativity and Change" Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England, 7 September 1995.Vivian Sobchack, ‘Democratic Franchise and the Electronic Frontier’, in Cyberfutures: Culture and Politics on the Information Superhighway, eds. Ziauddin Sardar and Jerome R. Ravetz (London:  Pluto, 1996), pp. 77-89; Bernard Woods, Communication, Technology and the Development of People (London:  Routledge, 1993).

[8] Brian D. Loader, ‘The governance of cyberspace’, p. 11.

[9] In-field interviews with a range of lecturers, professionals and students in Bulgaria, Hungary and Bratislava indicate how East Central Europeans are directly hit by vast economic instability of the region following the fall of Soviet rule.  Respondents include:  Michael Daley, Maagnum Resources. Personal Interview, London, 14 November 1997; Angi Malderez, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Leeds University and former Director of English Language Teaching, Eötvös Lorand Scientific University in Hungary. Personal Conversation. Leeds, England, 16 December 1997; Daniela Brevenikova, University of Economics, Bratislava, Slovakia. Personal Conversation, Leeds, England, 16 December 1997; Madeleine Danova, St. Kliment Ohridski University. Personal Interview, Sofia, Bulgaria. 25 April 1997; Kornelia Merdjanska, St. Kliment Orhidski University, Sofia, Bulgaria. Personal Interview, Sofia, Bulgaria, 24 April 1997;  Also interviewed were English language teachers in Bratislava, Slovakia, October 1993 and students at St. Kliment Orhidski University in Sofia 24 and 25 April 1997. 

[10] New Europe Group, ‘Ukraine to streamline telecoms sector in 1998’, New Europe On-Line, Daily Release, No. 24. 7, (980107:19). 7 January 1998. E-mail to Laura Lengel (7 January 1998).

[11] Walter Uncapher, ‘A Geodesic Information Infrastructure:  Lessons from Restructuring the Internet’, Paper presented at the International Communication Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 1995.

[12] Julie Moffett, ‘Eastern Europe:  Internet - Testing New Technology’,  Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. (14 August 1997). <http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1997/04/F.RU.970404192806.html> (14 December 1997).

[13] Walter Uncapher, ‘A Geodesic Information Infrastructure’, p. 1.

[14] Angi Malderez, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Leeds University and former Director of English Language Teaching, Eötvös Lorand Scientific University in Hungary. Discussion, Leeds, England, 16 December 1997.

[15] Daniel Fedak, ‘The Politicization of Cyber-Power: Government Control, Technological Advancements and the Internet in the Arab World. Paper presented at the „Communication, Technology and Cultural Values" Conference, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, 12 July 1997. p. 5.

[16] Larry Landweber, ‘International Connectivity, Version 16’, 15 June 1997. lhl@cs.wisc.edu (23 January 1998).

[17] Mariana Lenkova, ‘Balkan Neighbors: Positive and Negative Stereotypes in the Media of Seven Balkan Countries’, E-mail to Laura Lengel (24 October 1997).

[18] Natashia Borchanin and Julie Moffett, ‘Serbia: Internet Plays Key Role In Belgrade Politics’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 4 April 1997. <http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1997/04/F.RU.970404192806.html> (8 January 1998).

[19] New Europe Group, ‘Bulgaria seals 33 privatisation deals in two days’, New Europe On-Line, Daily Release No. 25 full version, (980108:25). E-mail to Laura Lengel (8 January 1998).

[20] David Dyker, ‘The computer and software industries in the East European economies: A bridgehead to the global economy?’ Europe-Asia Studies, 48, 915-930. 1996.

[21] J. Perlez, ‘Central Europe’s new generation: driven and smart’, New York Times, 1 January 1998.

[22] David S. Bennahum, ‘Heart of Darkness’, Wired. November 1997, p. 228.

[23] Ibid, p. 230.

[24] Ibid, p. 266.

[25] Peter Stokes and William Stokes, ‘Pedagogy, Power, Politics: Literate Practice Online’, Computers & Texts. No.13, December 1996, p. 5.

[26] Ibid, p. 5.

[27] Robin Frost, ‘Web’s Heavy U.S. Accent Grates on Overseas Ears’, Wall Street Journal. 26 September 1996.

[28] Please see the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Site, <http://www.rferl.org> (20 February 1998).

[29] Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market, p. 258.

[30] Laura Lengel, ‘Communicating „Like an Old Fashioned Grandmother": Gender and the Technology Gap in New Europe’, in Culture and Technology in the New Europe: Civic Discourse in Transformation in Post-Communist Nations, ed. Laura Lengel (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, forthcoming).

[31] David S. Bennahum, ‘Heart of Darkness’, Wired, p. 226.

[32] E. Malinowska, ‘Socio-Political Changes in Poland and the Problems of Sex Discrimination’, Women’s Studies International Forum, vol. 18., no. 1, 1995, pp. 35-43. p. 35.

[33] cf. New Europe Group, ‘Bulgaria seals 33 privatisation deals in two days.’

[34] Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market, p. 1

[35] Goldman, Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe; A. Heitlinger, ‘The Impact of the Transition from Communism on the Status of Women in the Czech and Slovak Republics’, in Gender Politics and Post-Communism, eds. N. Funk & M. Mueller (New York: Routledge, 1993); pp. 95-108; S. L. Wolchik, ‘Women in Transition in the Czech and Slovak Republics:  The First Three Years’, Journal of Women’s History, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 102-5.

[36] Goldman, Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe, p. 133.

[37] Goldman, Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe, p. 41.

[38] Mariana Lenkova, ‘Balkan Neighbors.’

[39] Ibid.

[40] Mariana Lenkova. Personal interview. Sofia, Bulgaria, 24 April 1997.

[41] Ibid.

[42] Jean Brunet and Serge Proulx, ‘Formal versus grass-roots training: women, work, and computers’, Journal of Communication, 39, 1989, pp. 77-84.

[43] Birke, Lynda and Marsha Henry, ‘The Black Hole: Women’s Studies, Science and Technology’,  Introducing Women’s Studies: Feminist Theory and Practice, eds. Victoria Robinson and Diane Richardson. 2nd Edition (London: MacMillan, 1996), pp. 230.  See also Rian Voet, ‘Women as citizens and the role of information technology’, Computers and Society, eds. Colin Beardon and Diane Whitehouse (Oxford: Intellect, 1993), pp. 15-26; and Sadie Plant, Zeros + ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture (London: Fourth Estate, 1997).

[44] Magyar Nõk Elektronikus Lapjai (Hungarian Women’s Pages) are available at <http://kazy.elte.hu/personal-home/eva/women/>; the Prague Gender Studies Centre at <http://www.ecn.cz/gender/> and the other organizations mentioned above are found at the Network for East-West Women site at <http://www.neww.org/>.

[45] Éva Thun, ‘Welcome’, Magyar Nõk Elektronikus Lapjai (Hungarian Women’s Pages). No date. <http://kazy.elte.hu/personal-home/eva/women/medium/english/index.html> (19 February 1998).

[46] Network of East-West Women. Home page. 21 February 1998. <http://www.neww.org> (23 February 1998).

[47] Ibid.

[48] Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market, p. 13.

[49] Dimitrina Petrova, ‘The Farewell Dance: Bulgarian Women in Transition’, Paper presented to the Conference on ‘Mary Wollstonecraft and 200 Years of Feminism’, Sussex University, Sussex, England, December 5-6, 1992.