SEARCHING FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE

”The Internet was born for peace. It is open, democratic, interactive” - this is what Riccardo Luna, editor in Chief of Wired Italy said about Internet. He is, among others, ambassador of the Internet for Nobel Peace Prize. People behind this application have realised that the Net is more than a network of computers, it is a web of people. World-wide web. The best place to share ideas and knowledge. The flow of information is known to be a solid base for free, democratic societies. Not until the 21st century have we been able to make a significant change in the world. Now, being able to discuss issues and talk to literally everyone around the globe we create a border-less global village in the Net. Never has the history seen anything like this. Scientists collaborate through the Internet to conduct their researches more effectively, couch surfers invite people, usually almost complete strangers to their homes, Twitter was the only way for western journalists to know what the protesters were doing during the election in Iran – are not these perfect examples of an impact the global network has had on modern society? But, of course, this is not Utopia. Some governments still try to control the web as they control the press or TV. We will try to demonstrate that the Internet is a tool of spreading peace across the globe, a tool like no other.

It is well-known, that science makes the world and the other people better understood. Only a good understanding of the others can bring peace into the world.

The age of lonely scientists has ended. Rarely can we find them nowadays. Results of researches are much easier to work out in groups or teams than alone. An annual number of scientists' publications has grown to such a big level, that they cannot all be analysed by a single person. That is why scientists do most of researches in bigger or smaller teams. An important tool that helps scientists cooperate is the Internet. Furthermore, the Web accumulates in one location most of the data needed in a research, which is especially useful in vast works which belong to many fields of science. It gives a chance to share knowledge with the others. Results of an experiment can be seen by interested people after seconds. Among tools, that let everyone administrate his/her knowledge, data or literature better, one can find services and software that allow him/her to keep a laboratory diary. These applications can also help the scientists manage their researches better.1 2

We cannot forget about all kinds of blogs, wikis, micro blogs, forums or lifestreams, where scientists share information and comments about their researches. They are also very helpful in reporting conferences, meetings etc. In the virtual world of Second Life there are organised poster sessions. Second Life is useful in education also – visualisations of proteins and other chemical compounds are shown there. They make chemistry easier to understand. 3

Thanks to the Internet a lot of other possibilities of cooperation have appeared - games (Fold It), data annotation systems (Spectralgame, Annotathon) and many more projects, for example The Open Dinosaur Project, that tries to follow the evolution of dinosaurs basing on their skeletons. Everyone can come up with his own idea, own solution of the puzzle. 4 5 6 7 Such a cooperation can be very profitable, what is proved by The Polymath Project, where 27 people during 37 days successfully helped to solve mathematical problem

1 http :// openwetware . org / wiki / Main _ Page

2 http :// www . myexperiment . org / 3 http :// wyklady . org / news /525_ internet - bezcenny - dla - naukowcow . html – dr. Paweł Szczęsny's lecture

4 http :// fold . it / portal /

5 http :// spectralgame . com / 6 http :// annotathon . org /

7 http :// opendino . wordpress . com / about /

published by one of the winners of the Fields Medal. Now many other spontaneously created groups of mathematicians are working on other complex mathematical problems. 8 Another example is the laboratory diary brought by Jean-Claude Bradley, a chemist that is trying to find new remedies for malaria, which has been available in the Internet since 2006, where all the results achieved by Bradley's team have been published. Thanks to the diary, Bradley can cooperate with chemists and students of chemistry from the whole world whose experiments and advices make his work going faster. It might help him to find an effective medicine and to save many human lives. 9

Next project based on cooperation is Folding@home created by the Stanford University. Computers and game consoles connect to each other through the Internet. Connected, they have a greater computing power than five most powerful supercomputers combined. This enormous computing power is used for exploring folding proteins processes. If the process goes wrong, it can cause a serious decease (BSE, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease). The results may even lead to elimination of these diseases. Everyone who has an access to the Internet can join the project. So everyone can help to save people’s lives, to make the world a better place. It wouldn't be possible without the Internet. 10

It is evident that without the Internet science would develop slower. The Internet has become a symbol of the universality of science in the 21st century. With knowledge it brings the culture of peace for all the human society.

Our team connects peace with respect for the good of every single person in the world. Nowadays, the Internet is the catalyst of the revolution in totalitarian countries. Network contributes to the increase of knowledge about human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee justifies this year’s Liu Xiaobo choice for Nobel Peace Prize: there is a close connection between human rights and peace. In a country where the government has been above the law for a thousand years, a public supervision caused by network is a revolution which the authorities are afraid of. The Deng Yujiao incident was an example of justice’s win. The girl did not submit to the sexual service requests of the official and stabbed him in self-defence. She was charged with murder by the police which meant condemning her to death. Only due to the Internet users’ campaign, the court decided to give her a lenient sentence. Surfers all over the world could see the revolt of the Tibetan monks and opposed to the Chinese aggression against peaceable people. Because of the fear against the Internet power, Chinese authorities block politically inconvenient content with the Golden Shield Project. Great firewall of China censors web pages that include information about Tiananmen Square massacre. The Internet propagates the ideas that induce people to fight for freedom in their country. In one of his speeches, Liu Xiabo states that instead of aiming at overthrowing communist party, it would be more advisable to pressure society towards democracy. The Internet is one of the most powerful that influences Chinese society. Web users are united in the defence of peace and unrestrained nations’ culture progress.

„Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time“ says the header of www.couchsurfing.org, „a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit“.11 The idea started in 2000 with Casey Fenton’s trip to Reykjavík. This IT student from New Hampshire wanted to visit Iceland, see the capital, get to know the culture and spend the least amount of money possible. He managed to find a student from local university who showed him the city and let him a couch in his own house. He enjoyed it so much that he created a website to make it easier for people like them to travel this way. The site www . couchsurfing . org has been used by 1.000.000 travellers from 67 countries so far. Andrzej Grzesik, the very first participator in the project from Poland has already had 47 guests that used the site to contact him. He thinks, that friendships you can form all over the world are great,

8 http :// polymathprojects . org / about /

9 http :// usefulchem . blogspot . com /

10 http :// en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Folding @ home

11 http://www.couchsurfing.org

they make the world a much smaller place, they bring people together. The interesting fact is that sometimes you might get noticed that someone is going to your place just couple of hours before the arrival. Coach surfing fights against the prejudice. Vittorio Musca is a great example of this. Before his trip to a Jew from Krakow he had held bad feelings about Jews. It is a common truth that ignorance and not knowing something or someone leads straight to the war.

The easiness of visiting any place in the world you can imagine can change lives. Ido, a musician from Israel came to Poland to see the country of his ancestors. He stayed there and now he organises festivals of Israelis movies. It is a way to interchange of the cultures of different countries. While you sign up on the site you need to fill in couple of important things about yourself so that other users were able to know you. For example „ One amazing thing I’ve seen or done” or what type of couch you are able to make available for visitors. If you are not able to do so, you can always use the „coffee or drink” option which means just meeting the surfers and showing them your hometown. Couch surfing connects people from the whole planet, it builds trust and breaks barriers.

The Internet, as we have proved, can be the greatest tool for spreading respect and understanding for the others, for spreading ideas making the world a better place (as Michael Jackson wanted in his song), which is nothing else but the culture of peace. But behind the Web always stands a human. It is only a tool, moral choices will always belong to us. Let’s fight for peace!

Anna JaślarzJoanna Różańska

Cyryl KarpińskiWojciech Waśniewski