Citizen empowerment

Overview

Citizen empowerment takes place when ordinary citizens have access to new technology which make it possible for individuals, working alone or in groups, to accomplish things which previously required trained professionals using expensive equipment.

Empowering Technology

Citizen-empowering technology includes:

• camera-phones allow bystanders to capture recordings of significant events, rather than requiring media reporters or professional photographers
• cellphones
• personal GPS devices
• the Internet (a whole list unto itself)
  • wi-fi equipped portable computers (including laptops and PDAs)

Links

Articles

• 2007-01-21 "Designed to Let Us Down: our deliberately frail cell phone system" by David Brin