November 9, 2015
Thus "digital citizenship" is a newer and evolved form of citizenship and moreover one which is necessary to and appropriate in the digital age/the Information Society. This new form of citizenship has multiple aspects but for our purposes the two most salient elements are that with this new form of citizenship goes certain rights – at a minimum to be able to have access to and to effectively exercise citizenship rights in a digital age; and on the part of the State the obligation to ensure that the citizen is in a position to exercise their digital citizenship in an appropriate and effective way.
September 14, 2015
In the following I want to lay out what hopefully may function as an initial program towards a “digital citizenship” -- a form of digitally enabled and enhanced citizenship for the Internet age; and one which takes as its basic assumption the Internet's transformational risks and opportunities. This is presented in the form of an election “platform” -- a set of principles and policies which gives citizens a choice as to directions they may wish to follow.
January 12, 2014
A Community Informatics Declaration This document was prepared by a group of Community Informatics activists and endorsed by consensus of the Community Informatics community 21.12.13. Effective use of the Internet will benefit everyone. Currently the benefits of the Internet are distributed unequally: some people gain power, wealth and influence from using the Internet while others […]
January 1, 2014
As the avalanche of Snowden revelations resumes after it’s brief organizational regrouping and holiday hiatus a few learnings and even more direct and pertinent questions are starting to emerge. Evgeny Morozov in an otherwise interesting piece in the Financial Times is surely incorrect in his bald statement that “Snowden now faces a growing wave of […]
November 16, 2013
As those, who have been in and around community-based ICT/Internet access (community informatics) initiatives well know, the primary dilemma for these activities (e.g. Telecentres) is how to ensure sufficient sustainability, organizational stability and programmatic flexibility to allow for survival once the immediate round of funding which helped them launch, runs out.
October 23, 2013
"Rough consensus and running code" as the operational element of MSism would not have allowed for the long term and deeply political, contentious and conflictual processes that overcame child labour, created the public health measures that conquered typhus, allowed for the long term political (and radical) confrontations that gave women the vote, or ended slavery. Whether MSism can ensure an open, transparent, equitable, rule of law based and human rights protecting Internet for all is to my mind a very very open question and certainly something to be discussed rather than assumed.
April 25, 2016
4