Musings & Meanderings

A proposed Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web was posted this morning by Joseph Smarr on Open Social Web.

Joseph’s preamble states that it isn’t carved in stone (the phrase is chiseled in granite), but is intended to spur conversation and debate.

Do I have anything to contribute? On first reading, I’d say that the form and language tiptoe around rights which have already been abrogated by default, but at this moment I still have smoke coming out of my ears. This ‘document’ floored me.

Users, I presume, means all the constituents using the internet and web services? Or is this just for white American entrepreneurial tech insiders?

Why has this document been authored by four men? Four of the 10 men authoring the blog on which it’s posted?

You couldn’t find any women interested enough to participate? Any women prominent enough to consider inviting? Any women interested in the subject of their rights? Are there any powerful American female tech insiders? I’m a Canadian woman and I’m looking for them. I am also a ‘user’.

Women happen to be half of your constituents. Just like men, we aren’t all American. We aren’t all techies. We care about our rights.

—–
later…
Phil Wolff on Skype Journal says,
BORUS is a shallow attempt to codify broader, deeper rights in cyberspace. It’s like petitioning for the right to print an afternoon edition of the local newspaper on paper instead of fighting for Freedom of Speech with heart, guns, money and blood.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Rants, Internet Society, Freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.