Netizenship%20and%20Internet%20Rights

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Netizenship and Internet Rights
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Netizenship

• The Internet has increasingly become an important
  area for civil society.
• 200 million users worldwide
• By 2005 it is estimated that more than 1 billion
  people may be online.

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Internet standards

• were initially set by small groups of people or
  often by single individuals
• neither commerce nor governments paid too much
  attention to the Internet, the people setting the
  standards worked within a prevailing Internet
  culture in favour of openness.

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Internet standards

• Early standard setters saw themselves as much
  more than technicians
• Jon Postel, who set many of the underlying IP
  standards and created the Domain Name System
  (DNS),
• Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web
• Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux

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Internet Standards

• They shared a vision of creating open standards
  that could play an important political role of
  helping to create an open and democratic society.

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What is Netizenship
"Netizens are Net Citizens who utilize the Net
from their home, workplace, school, library, etc.
These people are among those who populate the
Net, and make it a resource of human beings.
These netizens participate to help make the Net
both an intellectual and a social resource."
Michael F Hauben
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Netizens contribute to the development of the Net

• Netizens are not just anyone who comes on-line,
  and they are especially not people who come
  on-line for isolated gain or profit.
• Rather they are people who understand it takes
  effort and action on each and everyones part to
  make the Net a regenerative and vibrant community
  and resource

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Communicative and community aspects of computer
networking

• Communication is defined as an interactive
  creative process.
• Response times need to be short to make the
  "conversation" free and easy.
• Larger networks would form out of smaller
  regional networks.
• Communities would form out of affinity and common
  interests.
• J.C.R. Licklider

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Universal access

• For the society, the impact will be good or bad
  depending mainly on the question Will to be on
  line' be a privilege or a right?
• The Internet's value depends on high connectivity
• The enhancement of people's lives provides the
  incentive needed for providing access to all in
  society.

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Netizenship

• Internet provides a unique public sphere where
  decisions that shape peoples lives can still be
  freely debated and considered.
• The space is also being used to build global
  communities that are able to challenge the power
  of corporations, bureaucracies and governments in
  this era of globalisation

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Netizenship

• Threats
• commercialisation
• security/privacy
• government regulation

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Global Movement for People's Voices in Media and
Communication

• to unite civil society organisations that use
  media and communication networks in their work
  for social change.
• All people are entitled to participate in
  communication and in making decisions about
  communication within and between societies.

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Civil Society and Internet Rights

• What regulates the Internet?
• social norms (by expectation, encouragement, or
  embarrassment)
• architecture (what the technology permits,
  favours, dissuades, or prohibits)
• markets (by price and availability)
• laws (by government sanction and force)
• Lawrence Lessig , Code and other laws of
  cyberspace How Will the Architecture of
  Cyberspace Change the Constitution

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• APCs Civil Society Internet Rights Initiative
• promoting and defending civil society access and
  use of the Internet for critical information
  exchange

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• strengthening cross-border networking
• bypass traditional media that often severely
  restrict the right of ordinary citizens and
  organisations lacking strong financial resources
  to be heard.
• particularly true of "socially excluded" groups
  within society, with the voices of more powerful
  political and economic interests tending to
  dominate.

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Provide the resources and tools necessary to
  defend and expand the space and opportunities for
  social campaigning work on the Internet against
  the emerging threats to it.

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Right to Communicate
• inclusiveness, gender equity, affordability,
  developmental impact, integration with media
  rights, acess to public information, rights in
  the workplace

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Freedom of expression and information exchange
• freedom of expression
• freedom from censorship
• freeedom to engage in public protest

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Diversity
• of content
• linguisic accessibility
• user rights
• evaluation of social impact (critical analysis of
  assumptions, negative and positive)

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Licensing and Control of Intellectual Property
• discourage the use of proprietary software and
  systems and calls for use of open source and free
  software solution
• Technological standards standards should not
  prejudice or exclude sections of society

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Privacy
• data protection
• freedom from surveillance
• right to use encryption
• accessible recourse to public protest

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Internet Governance
• setting and implementing technical standards
  (undue weight to market influence)

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Internet Governance
• Transparency and accessibility All
  decision-making processes related to the
  governance and development of the Internet, for
  example assigning of domain names and numbers,
  should be open and accessible, at global,
  regional and national levels.

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter
• Rights awareness and realisation of rights
• rights awareness and education
• recourse when rights are violated

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Who Controls the Mouse?

• Internet Rights Charter A Living Document -
  comments, feedback, discourse welcome