Re: <nettime> Where did the Internet revolution go?

[ronda@umcc.ais.org (Ronda Hauben)]

Thomas Oesterlie  <toaster@pvv.ntnu.noa> wrote:

>Where did the Internet revolution go?

>I feel cheated!

>I was promised an Internet revolution, but where did it go?


It's hard to know what you are complaining about. Is it that the hyped
corporate media version of transforming the Internet into the online
shopping malls hasn't materialized? If that is your complaint, you
hopefully won't find much sympathy online though you can probably find
many media outlets willing to handsomely reward you for your lament. 

Or is it that some nirvana hasn't materialized? If that is the case then
you can probably find many in the religious world that will be glad to
welcome you into their enclaves. 

However, if your complaint is, as you mention briefly, that more democracy
hasn't materialized, then I'm afraid you and I disagree about what is
democracy. 

To me democracy is when the citizens or netizens are able to participate
in the deliberations that will affect their lives.  And even more, it is
when they can have some impact on those deliberations. 

And that kind of democracy is not given on some silver platter.  It is the
result of the hard efforts of many people to find how to challenge those
who are grabbing the power for some narrow interest so that the broader
social interests are instead served. 

And that kind of democracy is indeed what the Internet makes possible,
just as it makes it possible to be a netizen, or one who is taking on the
challenge to participate in these situations so that the Internet will be
something that will be available for all as a means of global
communication and so that it will make it possible for citizens to have
more say in the decisions that will influence their lives. 

Last month there was a conference in Finland taking on this issue. It as a
conference sponsored by the European Union.  I was invited to participate
in a seminar on how the Internet makes it possible for citizens and
netizens to find ways to make such greater means of participation
possible. 

The conference program is online at http://www.citizen2000.net/

My talk on "Is the Internet a Laboratory for Democracy? The Vision of the
Netizens vrs the E-commerce Agenda" was part of the E2 seminar. 

   - Why it is important for Netizens to participate in the contest being
   waged (as for instance: ICANN) over which strata of society will gain
   the benefit of the Internet and how the Internet provides the means
   for such participation.

Yes the Internet is a laboratory for democracy, but that means that there
is a means to take on the challenges presented by our times, *not* that
someone gives anyone a silver spoon and says the world belongs to you. 

In general the talks spoke to the promise and raised the question of the
obstacles. That is what "a laboratory for democracy"  represents, not the
solutions ready-made but the ability both to be working for something new
and important and to have a way to explore how it will be brought about. 

That there could be such a seminar and that there would be one is indeed a
sign of the promise of our times, but also of the challenge that is posed
for netizens, which is very different from those who ask why they don't
find some ideal world, but instead welcome the challenge they are
confronted with, of exploring how the Internet can make it possible to
create a world better than what we have now. This isn't for the
faint-hearted nor for those who ask why the hype hasn't produced the false
world it is promising. 

And it is for those willing to take on the challenge of Netizenship to
explore how the Internet and other aspects of these new scientific
developments make it possible to collaborate with and support and
encourage all those who are working to create the better world that so so
many know is needed. 

Ronda

ronda@panix.com

                  Netizens: On the History and Impact
                    of Usenet and the Internet
                http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook
                also in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net