[governance] Interent community, internet users, and the people

[Avri Doria]

Hi,

On 23 apr 2007, at 04.50, Parminder wrote:

>
>> My understanding of the
>> Internet community is simply the community of Internet users.
>
> Good we got into this discussion, because too often you and I agree  
> on many
> things on the IGC list :) but this shows how we disagree at more basic
> levels. To illustrate by personal example, I myself have great  
> interest in
> IG as you can see. I almost entirely speak for the interests for  
> the present
> non-users (and some indirect users). So, if non-users aren’t an  
> equally
> legitimate constituency in IG, by your reckoning I just shouldn’t  
> be here.
> At the very least, this proves we have strong difference about what  
> we all
> are doing in IG fora.


i don't understand this.  and disagree with both of you, i think.

i think there are many communities of interest and trying to abstract  
them all into one Internet Community is not necessarily helpful.   
there are several levels of affinity:

- those professionals and amateurs who are involved in the  
development, care and feeding of the Internet - this is, I believe,  
the original referent of Internet Community

- those who currently use the Internet - i think of these as the  
Internet User Community

- those whom the Internet does not serve yet.  i am not sure what the  
right name for these people is, but they are perhaps the Future  
Internet Users community or as you say the non, or indirect, user  
community.

Depending on the subject at hand, for example internet resources, we  
may have other groupings, e.g. the registrants who have name and  
address assignments.

Each of these grouping has a different perspective on the network.  I  
do not mnimize the view of one versus the other and believe they are  
all stakeholders in the IG process, each from their own perspective  
and in their own role - one cannot expect someone who uses the  
Internet daily to have the same perspective as someone who has never  
even heard of the Internet.

I think everyone on this list belongs, at least to the Internet User  
Community and some belong to the Internet Community.  I don't think  
any of us qualify for the third group, and while we may try to  
represent their interests from our privileged position (personally, i  
certainly try to for nomadic peoples who live in remote  
communications challenged areas) but we do not have their perspective  
and can not be said to be in the same affinity group except at such a  
level of abstraction - i.e. we are all people talking about the  
Internet - that it provides little information.

a.

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