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

[Jacqueline Morris]

>From all the discussion, seems to me that the term netizen is being
used to refer to activists in the Internet space. i.e. people with a
common mindset and goal, "a community or social purpose and  that they
would be active to support that purpose" .
Which is an exclusive club. Most citizens around the world are not
activist, and do not share a common mindet and/or goal, nor do they
often have a community or social purpose.  So the netizen, like the
citizen activist, is a special breed.

So basically, I agree with Jeanette and Avri that the term is not
inclusive of all the people who are online and use the resources of
the Internet, and certainly is not inclusive of the ones who are not
yet online. Suppose they come online and decide not to be activist?
Would they not be netizens and have the rights afforded to such (if
the language goes into the WSIS?)

Also, in the citizen space, there are many who do not actively
advocate, but support by economic means (don't shop at Walmart and pay
a bit more to support local small business for example). These may
equate to those who in the push for open source software, would pay to
support open source projects (e.g. Linux) rather than Microsoft (as
long as it's easy enough to do so). So, commercial interests can be a
form of activism.

In general, I've found that self-interest is the most sure motivator
for most people. Very few are totally (or even partially) altruistic
(when you really analyse their motives). So I also disagree with the
negative color with which  this discussion has painted such
self-interest. Seems a bit idealistic and exclusionary to me.

Idealism is wonderful, but commercialism to an extent, as well as
self-interest, has driven the recent massive growth of internet use.
Coming from a developing country, use of ICTs is pushed by economic
factors  - in Trinidad, we use VOIP to save $$ when calling abroad -
if the phone rates were lower, a lot of people wonldn't go to the
trouble of using VOIP. A big Government push in community/household
computer ownership was lobbied for by the computer salespeople.  So
the commercial interests did assist to an extent. If Google makes the
net easier to use so that activists can get information easier and
faster, is it a bad thing that they primarily do so to make money for
themselves?

My $0.02

Jacqueline
______________________
Jacqueline Morris
www.carnivalondenet.com
T&T Music and videos online

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