From the Community Informatics Research Network and ICTWorks
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 struggle for basic access. In our vision, people in their communities and everywhere – including the poor and marginalized in developing and developed countries, women and youth, indigenous peoples, older persons, those with disabilities — will use the Internet to develop and exercise their civic intelligence and work together to address collective challenges.
More than a technology or a marketplace, the Internet is a social environment, a community space for people to interact with the expectation that principles of equity, fairness and justice will prevail. Internet governance must ensure that this online social space functions effectively for the well-being of all.
A community informatics approach to Internet governance supports equal distribution of Internet benefits and addresses longstanding social, economic, cultural and political injustices in this environment. Questions of social justice and equity through the Internet are central to how the Internet and society will evolve. People in different communities must be empowered to develop and adapt the Internet infrastructure to reflect their core values and ways of knowing.
We support development of an Internet in which communities are the “first mile” and not the “last mile.” We believe the primary purpose of the Internet is not to mine data and make knowledge a commodity for purchase and sale but rather to advance community goals equally and fairly within these distributed infrastructures.
We aspire to an Internet effectively owned and controlled by the communities that use it and to Internet ownership that evolves through communities federated regionally, nationally and globally. The Internet’s role as a community asset, a public good and a local community utility is more important than its role as a site for profit-making or as a global artifact. The access layer and the higher layers of applications and content should be community owned and controlled in a way that supports a rich ecology of commercial enterprises subject to and serving community and public interests.
As citizens and community members in an Internet-enabled world we have a collective interest in how the Internet is governed. Our collective interests need to be expressed and affirmed in all fora discussing the future of the Internet. As a collective, and as members of civil society, we have developed a declaration for Internet governance based on principles of community informatics. We appreciate your interest and welcome your support.
A just and equitable Internet provides:
If you agree, please sign the declaration and tweet your support using the #InternetCommons hashtag.
Views: 60
Tags: separate by a comma and please (!) put multiple words between quotation marks, like this: "Vienna 2008"
© 2021 Created by Unite-IT Manager.
Powered by
This website reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Project N°: 580256-EPP-1-2016-1-BE-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN
Agreement N°: 2016-2790 / 001 - 001
Here you can read our privacy policy.
You need to be a member of Unite IT: The e-Inclusion Network in Europe to add comments!
Join Unite IT: The e-Inclusion Network in Europe