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An Internet for the Common Good: Engagement, Empowerment and Justice for All

This declaration - in which the First Nations Innovation research project participated - was prepared by a group of Community Informatics activists and endorsed by consensus of the Community Informatics online environment - see the Journal of Community Informatics at http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/index

A just and equitable Internet provides:

1. Fair and equitable means to access and use the Internet: affordable by all and designed and deployed so that all may realize the benefits of effective use. The poor and marginalized, women, youth, indigenous peoples, older persons, those with disabilities, Internet users and non-users alike; no one, from any community globally, should be without Internet access.
2. Equitable access within communities to the benefits of the Internet, including information, opportunities to communicate, increased effectiveness of communications and information management, and opportunities to participate in system development and content creation. Everyone, within all communities, should have the right, the means and the opportunity to use the Internet to share the full intellectual heritage of humankind without undue cost or hindrance.
3. Respect for privacy - people must be able to conveniently use the Internet in a way that is credibly protected against large-scale surveillance or interference by government authorities or corporate interests.
4. Infrastructure that ensures the maximum level of personal security and reliability.
5. Opportunities for all within all communities to build, manage, and own Internet infrastructure as and when it is needed.
6. Internet governance by democratic principles and processes - including privileging input from communities affected by decisions and ensuring inclusion of the widest possible perspectives supporting the development of our digital environments.
7. A peer-to-peer architecture with equal power and privilege for each node or end point and complete neutrality of the architecture and medium for all users and all applications.
8. Recognition that the local is a fundamental building block of all information and communications and the "global" is a "federation of locals."
9. Equal opportunity for all to connect and communicate in a language and culture of their choice.
10. Recognition and equal privileging of many types of knowledge and ways of knowing, building from the capacities of each individual, community and knowledge society.
11. The means for information freely provided on and through the Internet to be freely available for the use and benefit of all.
12. Support for collaboration, engagement, education, solidarity, and problem-solving as the stepping stones to civic intelligence and the capacity of communities, civil society, and all people to equitably and effectively engage in informed self-governance.

Click here for the full declaration. EVERYONE is invited to endorse the declaration (scroll to the bottom of the declaration to sign it).