Untitled - Convivencia

dimension in order to safeguard the personaland common good.AT THE SERVICE OF THERECONSTRUCTION OF THE CIVIL SOCIETYFABRICCivil society, in its very concept, is not onlymade up of the social fabric which is bastedby the civic networks. The opening ofindependent spaces and the creation ofpublic opinion are two indispensablecolumns of civil society structure. So it isn’tonly about learning how o organizeourselves to create groups or social networksbut also about learning how to open physicaland intangible spaces for the creation ofpublic opinion. Without these two pillars nocivil society will ever exist or develop itself.The new technologies have contributed andcan continue contributing an undying andcapillary dimension to the independentspaces and to the creation of opinions freefrom the censure of the big media or of thepre-civil or authoritarian states. A modernstate is the one whose institutions areparticipatory and totally at the service of itscitizens without exclusion.That modern State should be a sustainablestructure, open to the change and subsidiary,that is, a State that only takes on the thingsthat the citizenship and the civic and political,economic or cultural groups cannot beresponsible for by themselves. One of themain measures to evaluate the evolution anddevelopment of a modern State would be“how” this State puts the new technologies atthe service of citizens and how the access tothem is and also the “treatment” they aregiven in their legal framework and socialappraisal.We will mention only some decisivecontributions of the new communication andinformation technologies to the developmentand strengthening of civil society:1. They are an instrument of protection andsafety for the citizens and for theindependent groups because these personsand groups gain visibility and worldsolidarity. In the past they could berecognized and heard only when the bigmedia such as the press, television and radiogave them some attention.2. They significantly contribute to theinterrelation of persons, groups and civicprojects so that they can know each other,practice solidarity and cooperate among themwhen they have common purposes.3. They are an easy, immediate, economic,testimonial channel of information from below,they are efficient and globalized and they canbe consulted by millions of persons around theworld.4. They create public opinion in a participatoryand citizen way and they have a power of callwhen they are used the right way.5. They empower the citizens and independentgroups of civil society and make each person aprotagonist of his local history and a universalinformer of those small local projects which canbe connected to others and to the rest of theworld.6. They are a new tool to construct a capillarydemocracy and to the socialization oftraditional Media because they are open andinclusive.TOWARD A SOCIETY OF INFORMATION ANDCOMMUNICATION IN AN INTERDEPENDENTWORLDThere will be no democratic society or a State atthe service of its citizens or civic empowermentor personal sovereignty if the new technologiesare not put within reach of all or the majorities.UNESCO defines information society as “asociety in which information is intensively usedas an element of the economic, social, culturaland political life” (From the World Report oninformation of UNESCO, page 290).THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF THEINFORMATION SOCIETY:1. The use of information as an economicresource for the opening of markets, agreater efficiency and competitiveness,for the stimulation of innovation andimprovement of the quality of goodsand services.Ediciones ConvivenciaPinar del Río. 201294