Internet Communities - governments of the future
Governments around the world are struggling for a meaningful role in the
information age. Until recently it was clear-cut.
Individuals and companies paid taxes to the government, who used the money to
look after the country, its people and national resources. In democratic
countries decisions are mostly made by elected officials.
The internet undermines this role by allowing individuals access to large
amounts of information enabling them to make decisions previously reserved for
government bureaucrats.
The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" that swept through the former Czechoslovakia and
eastern Europe was driven by students with an ability to communicate. The
students used modems to establish electronic bulletin boards where messages
were posted to co-ordinate activities throughout the country.
This informal communication network was used to circulate manifestos,
declarations of solidarity, rumours, and riot news. Unrest grew steadily and
by mid-November, the communist regime was displaced from government by, among
others, an online community.
In a similar way the internet now makes it possible to create virtual
communities that have no particular geographic location but stand together as
a force to be reckoned with.
The Harvard Business Review is one of numerous publications that proposes the
online community as the route to commercial success on the internet. The
internet however, has much more going for it than commercial success.
Individuals around the globe are using the internet to group together and
improve aspects of their lives which their governments have been ineffective
in addressing.
Environmental activists on five continents work together in online communities
to combat industrialists flouting environmental laws. Teachers exchange lesson
plans with colleagues rather than waiting for new ideas to be fed down from
government education departments and parents debate the best way to raise
their children.
One of the best examples of an online community is the WELL. The pioneering
work of Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant resulted in the foundation of the
Whole Earth Lectronic Link or WELL in 1985. Initially the WELL started as a
dialogue between the fiercely creative and independent writers and readers of
the Whole Earth Review, but has in recent years grown into numerous
communities and interest groups.
Founded in San Francisco and now scattered around the world on internet
servers, the WELL, with in excess of 10 000 members from all parts of the
globe, is a valuable role model for internet communities.
On Monday, 26 June 1995, Time magazine published a cover story about the
proliferation of pornography on the internet. The story was based on the
unpublished research of Martin Rimm, a 30 year old electrical engineering
undergraduate at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Members of the WELL community heard about the story before it was published
and being concerned that the research had not been exposed to the necessary
amount of academic peer review, decided to do something about it.
The community conducted their own research which disputed Rimm's and
eventually led to Philip Elmer-DeWitt, senior editor at Time Magazine and
author of the story, admitting that he did not conduct sufficient
"journalistic due diligence" before publishing the article.
The online community at the WELL were instrumental in highlighting the
inaccuracies of the article. This in turn has affected the internet censorship
debate in the United States.
The internet allows us to create communities such as the WELL with relative
ease. Improved communications allow us to be in contact with like-minded
persons anywhere in the world.
As individuals grouped together in virtual communities, we have more power
over our destinies than ever before. It is up to us to exercise this power and
govern our own lives rather than wait for someone to do it for us.