> do you think that the old guard which has not yet retired and is
> still active in the net tends to seclude in circles of persons of
> same age and level of knowledge?

Almost certainly.


---------


The Olde Internet Inn may have been a neat
meeting place with friendly techie atmosphere
as they used to say. But is was restricted to
certain members. A sometimes arrogant
insiderism kept people with less technical
competence out of their cosy pub. Poor users
had to rely on their cranky sysop's kindliness.
The RFC-discussions and meetings which
excluded those unable to follow the techie's
technical discussions on Internet technology
and its development. 

Yes, the old internet _was_ participatory and
democratic. - But democratic in an exclusive
way rather like ancient Greek democracy. The
traditional Internet community of netizens was
similar to the Greek community system which
included only their citizens, the "Politai", and
excluded all foreigners and slaves from civil
rights. 

Any future information society should be
participatory and democratic. Perhaps we could
try to transform the former Greek community of
the old Internet into a more open organization
which does not operate with labels like "slave"
and "foreigner" or "luser", "newbie" and "real
world people". In this respect, the present call
for regulation offers a chance for more
democratic participation for _all_ netizens -
techies as well as non-techies.