The Internet today mostly treats us as consumers, not as citizens. To make things worse, we are often represented as users conforming to the same standards. As citizens we have rights to clean water, clean air, and healthy food. As digital citizens, we should have the right to represent ourselves accurately, and to know where and how our information is being used. However, we are often without agency, funneled into revenue-maximizing streams. But we are not the same, we come from different cultures, our languages are unique, and our needs are different. So how do we change the internet in such a way that we enable digital societies to flourish? How do we make it local and adaptive to our diverse needs?
About the programme
Join this live podcast-recording of Townmaking, a podcast by Townmaking Institute. The recording will be followed by a public dialogue with the audience.
In this episode of Townmaking, Servaz van Berkum will talk with Indranil Bhattacharya and Tessa Cramer. Indranil is one of the initiators of Townmaking Institute. Tessa is a futurist and lector on designing the future at the Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
The physical needs of people have grown to cover virtual needs. Nourishment through knowledge, information security, virtual relationships, virtual social reputations, and digital self-expression are some of these virtual needs. The most virtuous and respectful way to treat individuals is as citizens. And the most disrespectful and condescending way of treating people is as consumers.
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