apc.au blog

I’ve been wanting to get more involved with the direction the Internet’s going – I feel that we finally have a tool that could be used to bring out the “peoples’ voice” but governments and media corporations are trying to shackle it into the controlled, guided and restricted world of “traditional” media (eg: newspapers, television and radio). We stand at the beginning of a massive Information Serengeti, a vast plain where anyone can travel to any information sources they want, produce their own information and engage in two way communication with other entities (be they people, businesses, NGOs or governments).

Instead, thanks to the general apathy of many, lack of honest information about the risks we face and, of course, greed & fear, the digital serengeti is being converted into a spigot, where controlled, filtered and sanitised information is fed down the tube to the passive masses. Any information we consume is tracked and any movements we are able to make are monitored and limited to spaces within walled gardens. Our privacy, our access to knowledge and our freedom are in danger of being limited.

To me, this would be a great tragedy that cannot be allowed to occur.

So, to this end, I’m considering getting more involved with the Australian Internet Society, the Internet Governance Forum and ICANN. I see this as being a great lever for our ICT Rights work and to help us get more involved with the big issues facing the Internet. It’s very early days at the moment but you can track what’s happening over on our Wiki with the Net Activism page I’ve set up.