Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon [1], says citizens must hold corporations accountable in order for the internet to evolve in a “citizen-centric” manner. In a TED talk [2] on July 12, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland [3] she describes how the internet has become a primary communication channel between citizens and governments, but warns that there is a corporate layer of “internet sovereigns” between the two.
Just as corporations have not held back from polluting the environment or employing young children on their own, she says, they can not be trusted to develop or preserve an internet that is sufficiently open and protective of free expression. We've learned how to hold governments accountable (somewhat) but what does citizen and consumer advocacy related to the internet look like?
Rebecca explores these issues further in her forthcoming book Consent of the Networked [4].
Our second co-founder Ethan Zuckerman gave a TED Talk in July 2010 called “Listening to global voices” [5]. Both Ethan and Rebecca sit on the Board of Directors [6] that leads Global Voices.
TED [7] stands for “Technology Entertainment and Design” and the conferences are devoted to “ideas worth sharing”. Videos of the unique short-form presentations given by TED luminaries are shared online and viewed by millions of people worldwide. Volunteers add subtitles [8] in multiple languages.