Many Worlds, Many Nets, Many Visions

The Internet is a place of contrasts. Consider this: In 1996 John Perry Barlow wrote in his Declaration on the Independence of Cyberspace that “We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.” A world that all can enter on an equal footing? Can this be true? Has such a world emerged? A world where discrimination has no place, where freedom of expression reigns, where fear has no place? How can these beautiful words be made to fit the lived experience of so many all across the world?