Citizen Empowerment and Participation

Abstract

This chapter on citizen empowerment and public participation explores the following ideas and assumptions: • Internet collaboration and creation make possible global workforces and marketplaces that reach into every nation and community; • Community members fortunate enough to have broadband access and the skills to use them can form social and business partnerships that assure their needs are met faster and more effectively; • Democratizing production and distribution, and connecting supply and demand are the forté of the broadband Internet; • Even though a severe access gap keeps many citizens of the world from fully participating, user-generated traffic will continue to grow exponentially as two-way telecommunication networks become a basic utility at the community level; • Strategies are needed for benchmarking, measurement and evaluation of citizen empowerment and participation that demonstrate the extent to which communities benefit.