[governance] Netizens and citizens Was Re: new TLDs?

[Ronda Hauben]

The concept of citizen does indeed have a variety of meanings.

And I agree that if one wants to include all users that the term
'user' is appropriate.

The Greek polis and the French Revolution both gave birth to a
more 'exclusive' you might say, but actually more active and
socially concerned notion of 'citizen'

And the Internet helped to give birth to a similar form of 'citizen'
named 'netizen'.

It would be good for any governance structure to encourage and provide
for participation by 'users', but especially by 'netizens'. The 'netizen'
in the sense of the concept that I am referring to is a special product of 
the Internet and its development, and any governance structure would 
benefit from including 'netizens' as an important part of its structure.

In the Greek polis, citizens were trained by being welcomed as part of
the governance structures. Similarly in the French Revolutionary 
situation. A similar situation has been true in the development of the 
Internet and it would be useful to understand this process and support
its further development.

Also, understanding and learning from the participatory social 
contributions of netizens in the Internet's development can help to 
determine how to create a management structure for the Internet's 
infrastructure that is based on the models pioneered in the Internet's
own development.

Cheers

Ronda

  On Mon, 29 Aug 2005, Jeanette Hofmann wrote:

> The present concept of the citizen is very broad. It includes all people no 
> matter whether they care about their country, the people and the constitution 
> or not. The concept of the netizen sounds rather exlusive by comparison. It 
> refers only to those "who care about the net". Not that I mind those/us 
> people but I prefer the term "user" because it is more general and more 
> inclusive. When I use the term user, I emphasize the great variety of those 
> on the Internet.
>
> jeanette
>
> Ronda Hauben wrote:


  McTim>>> I always liked netizen, couldn't fathom opposition to such an
  McTim>>> innoucuous term, oh well.
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> netizen is the notion of an online citizen - those who care about the
>> net and do what they can to participate so that the public purpose
>> is represented, both online and off.
>> 
>> the person who recognized that there were users online acting as
>> netizens (as net.citizens) in 1992/1993 helped to bring a sense
>> of consciousness to the identity that was then developing.
>> 
>> this is still needed, and there are indeed still many netizens,
>> in the sense of the term that it was developed in 1992/1993.
>> 
>> anyone who is interested can look at the online edition of
>> of the book that helps to explain the concept and and the
>> relevance to the internet's developement. its online at
>> http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120
>> 
>> its also available in a print edition.
>> 
>> it would be good to see a broad ranging discussion about netizens and need 
>> for the public interest to be represented in any discussions or structures 
>> related to the management of the internet's infrastructure.
>> 
>> cheers
>> 
>> ronda
>> 
>> On Mon, 29 Aug 2005, McTim wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> On 8/29/05, Ronda Hauben <ronda at panix.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> So let the discussion open up, don't shut it off please.
>>> 
>>> Amen to all of the above.
>>> 
>>> I always liked netizen, couldn't fathom opposition to such an
>>> innoucuous term, oh well.
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> McTim
>>> nic-hdl:      TMCG
>>> 
>> 
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