USES INTERNET IN diaspora networks
I Overview of diasporic uses
It was long thought that the global diffusion of information technology would restrict travel by promoting telecommuting. At the same time, it was thought that the Internet would liquefy the meeting of supply and demand in the labor market, while increasing mobility. Nearly 30 years after the creation of the network, it remains difficult to validate either of these assumptions. Today, some see Internet a vehicle for globalization. The same technology is present worldwide, and therefore they would play in favor of uniform practices. Indeed, the iconic actors of the web, like Google, Yahoo, Ebay and Facebook offer the same services in hundreds of countries and hundreds of languages. The problem with this idea of a globalization driven by Internet applications is that it relies exclusively on an attention to the offer. Even without mentioning censorship or filtering, are disparate national internets. If one is interested in the practice, the technological offer supplements, one perceives a more heterogeneity of practices and a proliferation of innovative activities. But perhaps there is finally only the meaning of globalization ?
We will not propose yet another definition of diaspora, but just remember that the origin of the term approaches the notion of a curse (Dufoix, 2003). Over the centuries, this traumatic dimension of the diaspora, have added other values such as mobility, fluidity, cross-ownership, mixed. We use Diaspora in a broad sense, that of "scattered people who maintain a community link with reference to a homeland" (Chivallon, 2006). Internet technology does not revolutionize the diaspora, and other remote communication technologies have already come in the past, diversification of relational terms. What interests us here is to observe in detail what is changing with the Internet and the Web. For this, the figure of "migrant connected" (Diminescu, 2010) offers an interesting introduction. This image illustrates the changes made with the technologies in the life of migrants. Technology supply and the general decline in communication costs involved to transform and enrich the way an expatriate exchange with his family, back home. Intermittent communication by letters and phone calls long distance, we move to a more continuous with the mail or voice over IP. With videoconferencing, it becomes even possible to be together, without necessarily talking, sharing intimate moments such as evenings or meals. Diminescu for the migrant leaves the connected double absence in favor of a double presence.
In a more macro-economic changes brought by electronic exchanges revealed the appeal of some expatriates to their country of origin. Thus the British, for example, saw expatriate researchers to take part, mainly through email exchanges, design and implementation of a reform of national science system. On this model of participation of highly skilled expatriates in the development of their countries of origin, many Diaspora Knowledge Networks have emerged on the web. In 2005, Turner (Turner, 2009) lists hundreds of Diaspora Knowledge Networks' assets for some forty countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. More than provision of expertise, these skilled expatriates represent true gateway to the resources, knowledge, customers, and more generally the opportunities in their host countries. Industrialized countries also adopt this type of solicitation to attract more foreign investment or to counteract the brain drain myth, already compensated by migration and multilateral polycentric. Generalization of these organizations also involved in changing the perception of the diaspora, and migrants more generally. A distinction is now the bearers of skills and project promoters, which are the basis for international trade.
After this very general introduction, we propose to observe the particular case of the Breton diaspora.
II Diaspora Breton
Brittany is a French region with four official departments have three million people. During the twentieth e century and before, this area has experienced major waves of emigration. Graduates and the agricultural workforce in this mainly rural society, left for other regions and other countries in search of a job. From the 1960s, policies of spatial planning have proposed answers to this exile. Although the French statistics do not accurately assess the extent of the graduates continue Breton to have a strong attraction for Paris and for international calls. To better understand the collective web the Breton diaspora, we observed three in detail, between 2006 and 2009. These three collectives take place within a much broader set of associations and projects that mobilize the diaspora Breton in different ways.
II-1 the Britons in New York
North America was a common destination for many migrants from Brittany. Besides the mines and quarries, restaurants also offered job opportunities. Thus the Breton Association of New York, which included hundreds of expatriates, emerged during the 1960s. But in 2005 this association is more than a relic and it is disappointing especially Olivier, a thirty who moved to New York with his family. Indeed, he has traveled the world over the past decade, and in each country, he could count on the help of a local network Breton. Given this gap, he decided to put up a new group in New York. Within a few months, with the help of Skype, social networking platforms, from the traditional web forums and its messaging, Olivier managed to collect about fifty Britons. The status of "non-profit organization" was introduced in mid-2006, just after this young collective has hosted a traditional music group, called for a week of festivities including a concert at Carnegie Hall and a parade on the famous V e Avenue for St. Patrick . Internet and Web have fluidized exchanges and promoted, sometimes at random, some games. But technology has also allowed many people to follow the progress of the project and invest it at their level (sponsorship, promotion, hosting artists, etc..). Without the participation of many volunteers involved in various ways, the event would certainly not taken place, and would not have been replicated in other cities. Nevertheless, technologies are not implemented the project themselves. This is a partner to the professionalism and dynamism of the young core group of New York, they have magnified the event.
Since then, the association has been strengthened with regular events of lesser magnitude that facilitate the integration of newcomers and allow older to share friendly moments. While the association's website was designed as a promotional tool, Today it forms a medium of collective memory by mixing a diary with photo albums. The result is similar when a family album online, accessed by both participants and their families in Britain, and more generally by the Breton diaspora. Beyond the family or cultural aspects, they are also the beginnings of an economic network that are taking place. Indeed, the sponsors of the Association distribute their products through this and work, among other objectives, to promote tourism in Britain. Other companies interested in opportunities in this geographical area, begin by contacting these individuals already well established locally.
II-2 Bretonne Diaspora Economic
The economic collaboration is precisely the activity to Economic Bretonne Diaspora since the early 2000s. This group is the work of an association of entrepreneurs Breton, who was inspired by the official Scottish GlobalScot organization to facilitate the linking of business leaders and professionals with their counterparts expatriates. To facilitate the development of international economic projects, Economic Bretonne Diaspora offers a database of qualified contacts (400 contacts in 50 countries). The website of the organization based platforms marketplaces but there blogs Assistant to propose a business intelligence. The functioning of the collective is centralized within a steering committee that maintains the database, publishes newsletters and provides the service of connecting as requested. In 2006, the technical format of the group expands to invest a group on the social networking platform LinkedIn. Virality inherent to the platform significantly increases the number of group members. The linked and business exchanges are more centralized on the marketplace but to exploit new distribution channels more Direct.
Economic Bretonne Diaspora is an interesting initiative that departs from the values usually associated friendly cultural and ethnic collectives. You can see a source of inspiration for this group in large entrepreneurial families who, before the United Nations, were truly multinational. These Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks (McCabe, 2005) played their independence and their presence in the heart of the various empires to organize exchanges of goods. Today, Internet technologies can revisit old ways of working to reconfigure them.
II-3 BZH NETWORK
Bzh Network is the third group watched the Breton diaspora. This group is more innovative than the previous two as deeply associated with the web by its fluidity and the way he is guided and transformed according to colonize platforms. It is on Viadeo, a professional social network platform, a Breton expatriate living in Japan opens in December 2005, a hub, hybridization of a discussion forum and a blog he entitled "Britain > Bzh Network. His idea is to create "an intelligence Brittany collective network. For several months, a growing membership and will produce a joint press review. Later, while a thousand members joined the group, trade is diversifying with job announcements, discussions on current events, requests for services or the physical encounter of some. If trade on the platform of social networks are dynamic, we must not overlook the intense discussions between members of the core, exchanges that take place by mail and Skype.
Over time, Bzh Network expands its activities. Thus, a local SME offered a collaborative platform dedicated particularly to enable it to overcome the restrictions of the hub Viadéo. This dedicated platform welcomes new document types, and especially different groups exchange pictures Brittany around the world. There are also interviews, and a system for sharing RSS feeds. The group continues to grow in settling on Facebook. In doing so, the group attracts new members, and the practices they are to emerge on the platform are different from previous practices. On Facebook, we exchanged contacts in different countries, we create other groups with names Breton standard, etc..
With nearly 5000 members spread across different platforms in late 2009, Bzh Network includes half residents and half Breton expatriates. Together they are involved in the regional political agenda, for example through surveys taken in the press on topical issues such as land reform of 2009 or the proposed carbon tax. Bzh Network brings together people irrespective of origin, activity, or location, and it produces a true emulation for a heterogeneous group itself.
III Conclusion
Bretons New York or Bretonne Diaspora Economic inspired diasporic existing formats for renewal and hybridized using information technology. As a collective Bzh Network is swept away by fluids technologies that turn and bend. These groups comprise distinct, however, several thousand people and only half a dozen technologies. Offer Internet service can therefore be seen as a set of micro-services that everyone is able to combine them to compose a response that takes place in very specific cognitive processes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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