Netizen

The term Netizen is a portmanteau of the words Internet and citizen as in "citizen of the net". It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general. The term commonly also implies an interest and active engagement in improving the Internet, making it an intellectual and a social resource, or its surrounding political structures, especially in regard to open access, net neutrality and free speech. Netizens are also commonly referred to as cybercitizens, which has similar connotations. The term was widely adopted in the mid-1990s as a way to describe those who inhabit the new geography of the Internet. Internet pioneer and author Michael F. Hauben is credited with coining and popularizing the term.

Quotations from Michael and Ronda Hauben
My initial research concerned the origins and development of the global discussion forum Usenet....I wanted to explore the larger Net and what it was and its significance. This is when my research uncovered the remaining details that helped me to recognize the emergence of Netizens. There are people online who actively contribute towards the development of the Net. These people understand the value of collective work and the communal aspects of public communications. These are the people who discuss and debate topics in a constructive manner, who e-mail answers to people and provide help to new-comers, who maintain FAQ files and other public information repositories, who maintain mailing lists, and so on. These are people who discuss the nature and role of this new communications medium. These are the people who as citizens of the Net I realized were netizens.

Welcome to the 21st Century. You are a Netizen (a Net Citizen), and you exist as a citizen of the world thanks to the global connectivity that the Net makes possible. You consider everyone as your compatriot. You physically live in one country but you are in contact with much of the world via the global computer network. Virtually, you live next door to every other single Netizen in the world. Geographical separation is replaced by existence in the same virtual space.

Hauben describes the distinction to Internet users in general by saying: Netizens are not just anyone who comes on-line, and they are especially not people who come on-line for isolated gain or profit. They are not people who come to the Net thinking it is a service. Rather they are people who understand it takes effort and action on each and everyone's part to make the Net a regenerative and vibrant community and resource. Netizens are people who decide to devote time and effort into making the Net, this new part of our world, a better place. Lurkers are not Netizens, and vanity home pages are not the work of Netizens. While lurking or trivial home pages do not harm the Net, they do not contribute either.

In China
In Chinese, the terms wǎngmín (网民, literally "net-people") and wǎngyǒu (网友, literally "net-friend") are commonly used terms meaning "Internet users", and the English word "Netizen" is used by mainland China-based English language media to translate both terms, resulting in the frequent appearance of that English word in media reporting about China, far more frequently than the use of the word in other contexts.

The net
In the view of netizens the net is a technological and social development in the vain of invention and spread of the printing press that should be an uncommercialized public common. It allows for participation and brings power to people's lives, being a public forum where real problems and concerns can be aired in the open and help toward solutions is provided, collaborative decision-making can take place, the development of ideas and knowledge is quickened and where those responsible are made accountable to the general public. Furthermore it allows people to come to gether to communicate about common interests and to come into contact with people with similar and differing ideas.

The Netizen Prize
The international nonprofit organization Reporters Without Borders awards an annual Netizen Prize in recognition to an Internet user, blogger, cyber-dissident, or group who has helped to promote freedom of expression on the Internet. The organization uses the term when describing the political repression of cyber-dissidents such as legal consequences of blogging in politically repressive environments.