About

T

his site is not for the faint of heart. It’s for people willing to ask impertinent questions about “this cyberspace thing.”  That means occasionally thinking outside the box, thinking about space, about technology, and about the body in unusual ways.

What does it mean when people say they met online? What sorts of personalities do we project online and are they qualitatively different from our “real-life” (RL) personalities? And what political impact might all of this virtual interactivity have? Do we have to meet face-to-face to have a truly authentic and democratic exchange, or can democracy be electronically mediated?

I wrote a book about cyberspace and democracy nearly a decade ago. In it, I argued that cyberspace really is a kind of space, even if we can’t walk through it in the same way we walk down a street. I also argued that it’s sometimes a space where people can have meaningful conversations about power, rights, equality, laws, resistance and other things that matter for how we not only define democracy, but for how we actually live among other people in democratic ways. And these people aren’t just the ones who are like-minded, whom we like and don’t mind sharing a community with. They also include people who are different from us, who disagree with us and whom we may even hate. That’s part of the challenge.

I thought I had said all I really wanted to say about Cybering Democracy. But over the years, the Internet has grown and mutated in ways that sometimes resonate with and sometimes contradict the things I theorized about, and I find myself wanting to reflect on that and to hear from others what they think about these developments.

Please feel free to comment and add to the conversations. Conversations, after all, are what this cyberspace thing is all about.

Diana Saco

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About the Author

Diana Saco is an independent scholar based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is a partner in Saco Media LLC, a managed IT and digital media services company in South Florida. She continues to do research, write stories and blog about the Internet and other interests including Net Neutrality.

About the Guest Blogger

Nikki Saco is a partner in Saco Media LLC. She is a writer, web developer, and also an English and Spanish voiceover talent for such companies as LexisNexis, Johnson & Johnson and Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Like Diana, Nikki is an avid support of Net Neutrality.

Copyright 2017 - CyberingDemocracy.com, Diana Saco and Saco Media LLC. All rights reserved.
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