Apparently you don't need to fight for independence anymore...just build a website

[brooklynite]

The Conversation:

What is the quickest route to international recognition? Aspiring states may try to ally themselves with a great power, lobby national governments, or even try to enlist the support of celebrities, which worked very well in the case of South Sudan. But whatever strategy they choose, the internet has become one of the key arenas in their struggle for recognition.

Separatist movements would historically gain recognition as states if they had managed to gain effective control over the territory to which they laid claim. But this is not how the current international system works.

Web presence
The creation of new states is very rare indeed but self-proclaimed states are more common. Abkhazia (Georgia), [link:Nagorno Karabakh|http://www.karabakh.net/engl/gov?id=1] (Azerbaijan), Northern Cyprus (Cyprus), Somaliland (Somalia) and Transnistria (Moldova) have all managed to gain control over territory, often through warfare, and have established governments, parliaments, courts, health and education systems, and other characteristics we usually associate with states. Yet in spite of these successes, most have failed to gain widespread international recognition. Recognition is fundamentally a political decision and these territories therefore try to convince the international public, and their leaders, that they deserve it, and that recognition would serve strategic interests.

Much of this struggle is now being played out online. A big trend is for the de facto governments to create websites from which they espouse the virtue of their territories. On these sites, they tend to claim two things: that they already function as stable, effective entities and that they are democratic.

[randome]

1. The Internet of Things, the Internet of States.

And since the Internet IS freedom -except in limited circumstances- I see this trend continuing.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game. -Existenz[/center][/font][hr]

[PowerToThePeople]

2. Hoprfully that "freedom" continues

Corps do not want it to continue to be free...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2087820/court-strikes-down-net-neutrality-whats-next.html

Federal appeals court strikes down net neutrality: What's next?

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission and its allies have several options, with most of them difficult, after a U.S. appeals court struck down most of the agency’s 2010 net-neutrality rules.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday that the FCC did not have the authority to prohibit broadband and mobile-service providers from selectively blocking or slowing Web traffic and applications.

With FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler already promising to “consider all available options,” it’s clear that the net-neutrality fight in Washington, D.C., is far from over. Wheeler and Michael Weinberg, acting co-president of the digital rights group Public Knowledge, both talked about possibly appealing Tuesday’s decision.

[randome]

3. We have price controls on utilities, why not the Internet?

You could even argue that the Internet is MORE essential to everyday life. Hopefully this Circuit Court appeal does not stand. It would help if Democrats could regain the House in 2014.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]