Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The true value of the internet is being revealed in the public response to the coronavirus pandemic. In bringing people together and keeping them informed, the internet and digital culture in general are doing things few or probably none of their detractors could do.
The lack of internet access is especially problematic because it is a key driver of inequality, which is a principal threat to not just democracy, but all human rights; hence, the barriers listed above only serve to exacerbate inequality. As the authors of a paper that examined sustainability and participation in the digital commons (Franquesa & Navarro, 2017) emphasized: “it is well established that there is an access gap between citizens who can afford a digital device and an internet connection and those who cannot.
There was, as it happened, a small problem with the 2707, a problem it shared with all the other SST projects; it made no economic sense at all.
"Screenism" — it is pervasive except among the very, very young, the very old, and the nature-dwelling primitive. It began with television over one half century ago, for those who had time for hours of passive entertainment. It was also for the electronically babysat, and still is. Except, now hand-held mobile telephones, "tablets," laptop and desktop computers are "essential," and billions of the most active people on the planet depend on them as well as upon digital technology in general.
If you stick your head out of the door and sniff the zeitgeist, it definitely seems there is a resurgence of creative design for social change.
The Internet represents a different way of ‘organizing’ (though that word doesn’t quite fit) a huge system. Instead of a hierarchy, it is what Jon Husband has coined a “wirearchy” — a vast network of egalitarian networks.
