Netizenship, Online Organization

I'll run with this definition of a 'netizen' :

"one who is empowered by the Net
to have an impact on politics, journalism, culture and other aspects of
society"

First I'd like to note that 'Net' is capitalized. Maybe the Net will become
the next nation-state, a conglomerate of international ideas and policy-
making governed by those
with the most intimate knowledge of the processes and how-to-dos of the Net.

Doubtful.

In any case, the key point I extrapolated from the Netizens piece is
that internet
culture has empowered these South Koreans to make something of themselves,
has spurred them
into finding a role in society.

It's also cool to note that this new 'netizenship' can only exist because of
the forward-looking steps that the South Korean government took in creating
a high-speed backbone for internet use, a large expenditure that ultimately
ended up paying huge dividends.

Tying the 'flash-mobs' into the coordination involved in organizing such a
huge gatheringfor the 2002 world-cup, it seems clear that the internet has
become the main way to spread information to parties. Facebook is just the
most basic example of this, with our generation essentially dependent upon
the networking site to know when a party is, wherepeople are meeting, what
events people are attending, etc. It's simply the most convenient
and practical method for the organization of people, so naturally it has
been adoptedby a large percentage of the population.

These organized protests, proposals, events, whatever one wants to call them,
do completely rely upon the actual physical presence of the people. The internet
can only be used, in these cases, as an organization tool. Simply signing an
online petition to protest the death of the two South Korean schoolgirls,
for example, probably would have accomplished very little. So I think it's
important to note that while organization is much improved
through use of the Net, without a physical presence very little will be accomplished.


I really like the Government Online Forums. What a brilliant idea, and so
perfect fora democracy. These forums effectively allow anyone to say anything
they want wheneverthey want; ultimate freedom in discussing the functioning
of the government. Cool.

-Jacob

(For some reason the original post didn't format correctly)